Flex and Frooms.
Flex and Firms. This is the Flex and Frooms catch Up podcast. I We've spoken about this previously. FLEXI. I feel like we do see that everything has stopped feeling real at some point recently. Absolutely, and okay for me it was and I'm grew missed to even bring it up, but it is pertinent to this. When mister Donald Trump did become the president, that is when things really started
to enter a clown like territory. But in the words of Pink, this used to be a fun house, but now it's full of evil clowns.
Whoa she ate.
It's interesting what you can get away with saying in music because the lyrics kind of feel like a haze if the beat is good.
Now it's full of evil clowns.
Wow. So anyway, and no one took her out for that said, she wasn't talking about.
Me, And so yeah, when that all started happening, obviously, mister c mister Covid was occurring. It was all kind of like a weird fever dream. And in the time since, I mean, we have been speaking about the idea of America no longer being the superpower. That's probably been going on for the past twenty years. I'd say, like, since the new millennium is your idea of history the same as that after I say it.
Was sooner than that, I mean more recent than that. Oh.
Really, I feel like the America is the center of the world, and the peak of our existence would have been happening since like would have stopped happening maybe five years ago.
Really, yeah, okay, I just think.
Of what the Naughties were like, and we were like everyone's so cool. Pops us are so cool. In and Out is so cool. So four is so cool?
Su Cream Mate, chrispy Kreme, you know, I mean, Christy Creame is still here. But I digress. I've wondered as well about this idea of malaise and this kind of like feeling of everyone's fighting all the time and like everything's bad and the news is bad, and like everyone's popping off on each other on social media and the news is bad.
That's why neuroscientists don't watch it.
I love that little bit. I think about that recently because I'm thinking I'm doing a good thing every morning. Go on to citny wan in Heroldan Center, my insta. My brain's still running, but now just strength. There's no pretty pictures say. This's all to say, you guys. This article in the Atlantic surmises, or rather suggests that the reason there's so much hatred and sadness in America is it not because of technology, sociology, demography, or economy.
People care people today.
It is because of something so simple. Americans. I no longer talk kindness.
A hah.
I wasn't expecting that.
Where are Australians talk kindness?
I think of us as a connected culture just with our guns. Do you not see that? Slightly? I feel like we have taken so much of Americas.
Yeah, That's what I'm saying. It's like, how where where are we being?
I mean I can see that we're talk kindness in religion.
There might be a little link there.
Well, they get into it, right, Okay. The number one the technology story, which is that social media is driving us all crazy. The sociology story is that we stop participating in community organizations and are more isolated. The demographic story, America, long a white dominated nation, is becoming a much more diverse country, a change that has millions of white Americans
in a panic. The economy story, high levels of economic inequality and insecurity have left people afraid, alienated, and pessimistic.
So this is suggesting that these aren't the reasons why Americans are increasingly unkind.
Allegedly, No, allegedly, they're things that we are told are And he thinks that this. Heace thinks that the thing is much more simple, and that is that they've become sad and rude because we inhabit a society in which people are no longer trained in how to treat others with kindness and consider Our society has become one in which people feel licensed to give their selfishness free reign. The story I'm going to tell is about morals in
a healthy society. A web of institutions, family schools, religious groups, community organizations, and workplaces help people form interkinder and response more responsible citizens. The sort of people who shot for one another, and now we are currently terrible at moral formation.
I think is that the freelancer economy?
But like, that's really.
Confused you people.
That's what he meant though, right, And I wondered, like, Okay, this is one of them things where you say people killing people, dye and type of thing, right, Like it's very easy to just say this what's the solution, king, mm and kind of what he breaks down as this concept of morals two breaks. Oh sure, sure, let's get into this further because I think that he has a point here that I haven't heard before. And I will just reiterate the title of this piece was why are
Americans Mean? So I think his terminology of mean is quite interesting.
Here we have I said, unkind, and that's not the same thing.
Mean, nasty, and kind, They're all different. And what you said earlier, flex is this is kind of like isn't that kind of like what religion?
Yeah, the consequence of not having a religious society or some kind of moral institution that's really enforcing the behavior, not just teaching it to you, but enforcing it with a consequence.
With a consequence exactly. So moral formation, which sounds very stuffy, is what he is alluding to, and he breaks this up. He's going to break down the concept, and I'll read it to you. Moral formation, as I we use this stuffy sounding term here comprises of three things. First, helping people learn to restrain the selfishness. This is difficult in this social media landscape. I will say, how do we keep our evolutionary conferred egotism under control. That's a question
that we need to answer. Second, teaching basic social and ethical skills. How do you welcome a neighbor into your community, how do you disagree with someone constructively? And Third, helping people find a purpose in life Morally, form formative institutions hold up a set of ideals. They provide practical pathways towards a meaningful existence. Here's how you can dedicate your life to serving the poor, or protecting the nation, or
loving your neighbor. So beyond the classroom, which is kind of what he's suggesting, there's other groups like the YMCA, Sunday School, the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, the Settlement House movement which brought rich and poor people together and served the marginalized. Yeah yeah, yeah, worker protections. This just I think you should go for yourself and read this article because.
Definitely we can make a lot of parallels between American culture and Australian culture. I can understand why they didn't title the article why is the world getting meaner? Because the world is increasingly segregated, and how we deal with the nature of just being alive. But this idea of emotivism and how what feels good, is right in a lot of instances is the correct way to be. But having to scale in really micro and then out really
macro and oscillate between those two thoughts constantly. As the article says, it's a lot for one person to do, which is why people seek out these institutions to create this common way of behaving so I don't have to default to critically unpacking every single thing about being alive.
Someone else do it.
Give us a rule book, for damn sakes.
They did that. They've been doing that for a little while. You've been listening to The Flex and Froom's daily podcast.
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