I observe that:
Few people:
- can look beyond what they see in order to imagine a different way.
- are in the general habit of investigating/analyzing things.
- are interested in being authentic representatives of the labels they wear–provided that authenticity is perceived to be costly or inconvenient.
- habitually seek to solve (or even to intellectually devise solutions for) societal problems.
- are really as good at these things as they think they are.
This makes it very hard, if not impossible, to initiate a viable reform movement in a society.
Further, I note that these natural traits and abilities (present and easily observed in well-raised children) tend generally to be squelched to some appreciable degree in adults in our society:
- Curiosity–the desire to know/understand the truth about things.
- Care/Concern/Compassion—about things, issues, people, principles.
- Personal involvement.
- Rational thinking.
I note that all four of these things are matters of engagement with the world around us—with people and ideas and nature and logic and words and paradigms and dreams and such.
I also note that in these ways, a great many people seem to have become disengaged—passive rather than active. It seems that some shutting down has occurred between childhood (if it was a cognitively-healthy one) and adulthood.
So while I am searching for statistical data to verify (or amend) these observations, I am also wondering “How can it all be turned back on? How can people be restored to a state of fully-functional cognitive abilities and the “awakening” that would accompany such a restoration?
I also wonder what percentage of the general society is not so far afield in such dysfunction that they could turn it back on themselves simply for being asked/inspired to do so. (Or what percentage would need apt counseling in order to recover these lost/squelched abilities.)
