Mending the Disconnect

Professor J,

It is quite a challenge, but I have one agent who makes it rather worth the trouble. lol

I was primarily referring to achievements of important things on a global scale like eradicating childhood diseases and other advancements in public health, communication, transportation, etc. But yes, many of things that we tout as achievements would indeed be of less importance (and perhaps no) in other cultures.

"We like to trumpet the value of relationships in this society, but they are mostly shallow, and even the ones that are not rarely compare with, say, the relationship-centric interactions of a typical African culture." Good point. We do say that we value a great many things and then behave in ways that betray our true values and allegiances. True friendship and all other meaningful relationships require something far too scarce in our over worked, endlessly entertained,  noisy culture...time. We often put the band aid of social networking and other un-fulfilling masks (all of which seem to be "products" of one kind or another) on to conceal the pain of remaining largely unknown.  But then it is convenient as well, saving us the soul baring and time consuming trouble of deeply getting to know anyone else. And all of this conceals the fact that people have fewer real friends who understand them, or to whom they can go with a problem. However the social networking sites help us compensate (often falsely) for this by allowing us to have hundreds or even thousands of "friends" (though according to Dunbar's law, 150 is the real limit for meaningful relationships within our personal "tribe"). Americans report fewer close friends  than in years past and our connections grow but our fulfillment from them shrinks proportionally. And though Dunbar has set the number at what is the average amount of FB friends for most people, many of us would agree, I think, that the number of people who genuinely have any idea who we really are (or care to) is quite a bit lower than that.

Those economists are a fine example of our listening too much to the "experts" on a great many things. When I hear people talk about what kind of recovery they'd like to see, the consensus is that most would rather let the pain drag on and lead to genuine solutions if it would mean leaving things in better shape for the next generation. But those "power elites" (to steal Ron Paul's phrase) are problematic aren't they?

I agree with everything you said about our trading some disposable junk for more disposable junk.  Our parents used to save and buy quality ("you get what you pay for",  my dad always said). We think nothing of buying the cheapest thing available knowing it will need to be replaced soon. This goes back to what you said about price being "the absolute bottom line for a product" (and all the reasons for that, including our desire for instant gratification and short sightedness).  And not just for major purchases like appliances but for other household items, furniture and even clothing. Few people keep anything until it actually wears out. I mended a sweater recently and blogged about it because it was something so foreign to me (and I suspect to many others). It took me less time to mend the garment and write the blog than it would have to search out a comparable one. American women could take a fashion lesson from our French sisters here. We admire their sense of style but they manage to achieve chicness with fewer well thought out purchases, and pay for quality they expect to last for several seasons.

Anger over dissenting views and disconnection from others: In our zeal to be ever increasingly connected we are, it seems, disconnecting ourselves from the kind of mutually nurturing and respectful relationships that make discussion and reasoned thinking possible. All the while failing to make the...connection.

Here's a good article from The Wall Street Journal about one family working through the real value of some of their past purchases:
Our Past Purchases: Was it Junk or Not?