We as individuals share the world with others we fear, hate, or envy. We inhabit the earth with individuals we respect, love, and admire. There are many individuals we can't quite figure out and this makes us disregard them. Why is it that we spend the most physical and mental energy on those individuals who fall into the negative categories of fear, hate, or envy? In this collection of essays, Leonard Clark explores the philosophical, psychological, political, and cultural manifestations of these negative emotional states. Why are we all so paranoid, irritated and agitated?

NEURONFLASHING THE POLEMIC

IRRITATED WITH HUMANITYBy LEONARD L. CLARK III

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2012 Leonard Lee Clark III, M.A. ED.
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4772-7729-4

Contents

Foreword.....................................................................xiIntroduction.................................................................xix1. Irritation with the Actions of Younger Generations........................12. The Irritated Citizen.....................................................133. Irritated With Technology: Arguments from the Luddite.....................354. The Irritated Teacher.....................................................455. Irritated With Those Not Like Us: Limbic Resonance........................616. Irritated with the Media..................................................677. Irritated With Having Something to Prove..................................778. Irritated with Every Driver on the Road...................................85Afterword....................................................................93Terms Defined................................................................95References...................................................................97

Chapter One

Irritation with the Actions of Younger Generations

"Young people are indifferent to the adult world and to the future, indifferent to about everything except the diversions of toys and violence. Rich or poor, school children who face the 21st century cannot concentrate on anything for very long, they have a poor sense of time past and time to come. They are mistrustful of intimacy because they have been divorced from parental attention, they hate solitude, are cruel, materialistic, dependent, passive, violent, timid in the face of the unexpected and are addicted to distraction" —John Gatto

Are you irritated because the people in your peer group no longer can relate to the thought patterns and behaviors of younger generations? Do you wish young people had more respect for older traditions, music, and institutions? Do you feel out of place because new music, television shows, and fashions are often offensive and defy your understanding? Are you irritated with young people who refuse to listen to your advice? Many of the causes of irritation with younger generations can be attributed to the traditional cycles of adolescence and the search for identity many young people engage in. But what of the young who don't see the value of any traditional notions of finding their place in the world or of community and society building? What of the young who don't see the value of formulating an identity that can benefit others in addition to just themselves? These are the people in our younger generations who cause great irritation.

Young people do not value opinions outside of their peer group

Young people value peer relationships. Peers exert powerful influences and pressures to conform on each other Rathus (2011). For those young people who have highly involved parents, elders, and/or caregivers in their lives, the experiences given to the young person by these individuals involve many insights into what it means to mature. Much of the irritation we experience with younger generations is due to the fact that as older persons, we offer advice and guidance, but many young people refuse to accept the advice and disregard the advice as useless. Many young people think that older people are "out of touch" and can't understand what they as younger people are going through. Young people are irritating because they attempt to educate older people on the dynamics of their current situation. Young people fail to understand that older persons have "been there and done that" and possess greater wisdom concerning outcomes and ways of handling different situations. The experiences and mind-set of younger people are just that, the mind-set of someone young and much less experienced.

Young people benefit from relating to peers because peers have interests and skills that reflect being part of their respective generation. This phenomenon is the cohort effect and it will be discussed later in the chapter. Because peers differ in personality and circumstances, young people who interact with their peers are able to broaden their understanding of the world (Rathus 2011), however, many older people become irritated because young people value the opinion of peers solely and reject the opinions of concerned adults.

The young brain as different from the adult brain

Research shows the some behaviors of the young mind are natural. Let's take a further look into the mind of the young person. Judith Newman 2010) in her essay Inside the Teenage Brain states:

In the past few years, research has shown that the brain of a teen really is different. Two technologies—PET scans (positron emission tomography) and fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging)—have enabled us to study how the brain changes over time. What researchers have shown is that the teenage brain is still very much a work in progress and functions quite differently from an adult's. True, there are areas (particularly those dealing with motor control and hand/eye coordination) that are as well-honed as they will ever be. (That is one reason why your teen can already whip you at computer games.) But there are other areas—not surprisingly, the ones responsible for things like planning ahead and weighing priorities

Research also states that dopamine levels are also not yet at optimal levels during adolescence. Dopamine is the chemical messenger that allows us to do constant triage in day-to-day life, so we can figure out what to pay attention to and what is background noise. Without adequate levels, life can be a disaster. Needless to say, much of the irritation many of us experience with younger people is a result of body chemistry and physiology.

Are we to blame for the behaviors of our young people?

Another point to recognize is the fact that much of the irritation we experience with younger generations is our own doing. On the surface, the irritation experienced by older members of society appears to be justified. Watching young people navigate through their world with what might be interpreted as reckless abandon can create a large amount of angst for the individuals who have walked that same path and want to prevent those same growing pains. Often referred to as the "lost generation", the reaction among many elders to the attitudes and dispositions they often display is that they want everything handed to them and have no appreciation for the struggle necessary to make it in life. While members of older generations are more than likely inclined to think that the condition of young people today is as a result of their own choices. Exploring and analyzing the environment that created such attitudes reveals that the source of the irritation might be of an internal origin. In an attempt to grant future generations the opportunities and experiences that they were denied or had to struggle for, members of an older generation inadvertently created a group of young people who have no appreciation or understanding of the struggle. Growing up in a time when individuals had to fight for basic civil rights, education for all wasn't a given and hard work was the only way to survive, many older individuals sought to spare their descendents the intimate details of living through such a tumultuous time. The nonchalance evident in members of younger...