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In an earlier era, when life was pretty basic, and one's main concern oftentimes was getting enough to eat on a regular basis, hoping MOST of one's children survived into adulthood, and hoping the next illness would not be fatal, many "psychological" maladies were just taken for granted as 'part of life'. If you COULD possibly 'contribute', you were expected to do so....if NOT, you were put out of view of the public. People didn't discuss and compare their 'worries' or problems or delusions, for fear of seeming 'wierd'...or because they knew nobody had time to sympathize.
Today, I believe we have names for 'conditions' that, 3 generations ago, simply were looked at as 'weak character'. We have 'programs' for combatting things that, years ago, would have been regarded as 'crazy', 'lazy', or just plain 'bad behavior', and never given a second thought; nor would these things be 'justified'.
People once hoped to "eat"; if you could go to bed with a full belly, you'd had a "good" day. Today, we demand that life be satisfying, fulfilling, rewarding, and happy. We want our marriages to be 'thrilling', our jobs to be 'exciting', and our children to be a 'joy to be around'. That's a tall order, and when our expectations aren't met, we genuinely feel 'slighted'.
One psychlogist some years ago described affluent, post-World War II America as "the first civilization in HISTORY, whose members had the OPTION of being depressed"....
Lots to think about in that short analysis. Was life always 'good'? Of course not...but people once understood this; today, many of is don't.
I think the lack of social conventions has hurt us. People just use each other, hence the "Friends with Benefits" thing that is so popular. Some think this is a new concept, but the idea of bed or sex buddies has always been around. No affection, no strings, just sex, then they can walk away at any time.
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