How Millennials Were Setup To Fail
And why the concept of "autodidacticism" is the only way for them to succeed
Within this article, the reader will learn the following insights:
The origins of public education
An analysis of the body, mind, and soul connection
Why we should always be learning if we want success
The Failure of Public Education
In a previous article called "why millennials hate adulting," I discuss how, as children, our first introduction into society is through public education. I also make the argument that this is why we hate responsibility.
I discuss the origins of the education system and how education grooms us for society. It doesn't elevate the individual; it molds them into a section within civilization.
TedTalk speaker and best-selling author Seth Godin touches on this idea in a discussion when he states the following:
"I need to start by acknowledging that I am NOT a conspiracy theorist; I think most conspiracy theories are groundless …in this case, public education was a conspiracy between government and corporations.
Corporations were petrified that two things would happen when factories started getting efficient: one, that they would run out of factory workers because that would mean that have to pay people a lot, and two, that they would run out of people who wanted to buy stuff.
The typical person in 1880 had two pairs of pants and a pair of shoes, and that was it. The idea of consumer culture was not preordained, and it certainly didn't exist for the typical person prior to 1900.
So public school was built intentionally by Andrew Carnegie and, Woodrow Wilson, and other people to do two things: [1] train people to become compliant factory workers, sit in straight rows, do what they're told, follow instructions, and [2] to teach kids that the best way to fit in and feel good was to buy stuff and it's done a great job at both those things.
And we're still doing it."
From Godin’s TedTalk, we see that education was never for our benefit but part of a more extensive agenda. In this sense, it has failed us. But it's not just education.
Looking around, we can see other aspects of society that are not for our benefit. In actuality, these aspects of society prey on us.
For one, the consumer culture created by corporations provides us with products that appeal to certain aspects of our being; our minds and bodies.
Essentially corporations are here to make us value safety and comfort.
However, should we be cuddled up, shying away from the responsibility in times of turmoil, inflation, and recession? Or should we take the necessary steps to ensure we come out on top?
The Education of The Mind, Body, and Soul
To succeed, we'll have to realize that we have not been set up for success. Being aware of this serves as a revelation of reality.
With this revelation, we'll realize that we're going to have to take life into our own hands: we're going to have to autodidactic, better known as self-educate.
Autodidacticism or self-education (also self-learning and self-teaching) is education without the guidance of masters (such as teachers and professors) or institutions (such as schools).
Generally, autodidacts are individuals who choose the subject they will study, their studying material, and the studying rhythm and time.1
Autodidactism alone is taking on responsibility, which we've been taught to shy from, and it will require some thorough work.
But in the process of doing this work, we begin to know more about ourselves and who we sincerely are.
Autodidactism makes us more aware of our souls.
As podcaster Richard Grove states, “continued awakening requires continuous learning.”
With self-education, we become more familiar with who we are - our thoughts, feelings - and what we want to do with our lives.
We begin to participate in the ancient practice of "know thyself."
By educating ourselves, we can identify our likes and dislikes. We can connect with our souls and find out what we want to do here.
In a previous article, I talked about our soul and how it was meant to soar, and by taking on the work of self-education, we can understand when our soul soars or creeps and crawls.
With this process of self-education and knowing ourselves, once we become familiar with our souls, we become familiar with our minds and bodies.
Our minds are the aspect of us that capture and process information to navigate and experience reality. Our minds communicate to us via thoughts.
Our bodies are the aspect of us that physically experiences reality. It communicates to us through emotions.
Emotion is information that we use to experience reality.
So once we become intimately aware of who we are - our trustworthy and divine soul - we begin to use our resources, the body and the mind, to experience life as we want.
The analogy of the onion brain states that we - the soul - are the rider of the horse - our mind:
Your “horse” is intelligent-it moves on its own, can identify challenges, and will balk at things that appear dangerous or scary. “You,” the rider, are there to set a direction and reassure the “horse” that it’s safe to proceed.
We can expand upon that analogy deeper by saying we, the rider, have two horses: our mind and body.
And by autodidactism, we guide this chariot through reality.
Questions to Think On
Has education, or society, molded us into a specific role?
Do we have a true sense of our self, purpose and meaning?
Are we able to listen to our minds and bodies to what they’re telling us?
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autodidacticism
Every time I read one of your articles, I am amazed at good you are and how you find the time to write this stuff. If everyone was so astute as you, we would have one heck of a better world -for us, not them.You have made me realize that the way I have been looking at the world my whole life resonates with everything you say and I don't feel different anymore. I am very happy to have found you.
Very good article. I decided to forward it to my two daughters to share the mirror of what happened from my post-baby boomer generation to missing the post Classic Education forward to the dumb-down millennial to the general X and beyond. Where the the the “dumb down political education agenda”
“…Andrew Carnegie and, Woodrow Wilson, and other people to do two things: [1] train people to become compliant factory workers, sit in straight rows, do what they're told, follow instructions, and [2] to teach kids that the best way to fit in and feel good was to buy stuff and it's done a great job at both those things.”