When do we stop believing in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and God?
For most Americans, I think the answer is "never".
The Sandbox Theory of Life is that everything is ultimately good... people, life, history... everything will turn out well and it helps if we believe that everything will turn out well.
So tell me, how does
the Sandbox Theory of Life differ from the Hippie World-view (love is
all there is), Waldorf School World-view (children need to learn to
sing and dance and avoid modernity), Christianity (original sin is
washed away by belief in Jesus), Communism (the perfect world is
coming, from each according to his ability to each according to his
needs), Lefty Reformism (everyone and everything can be fixed by the
right government program)? It doesn't differ. Other obvious Sandbox models are New Age,
Romanticism, Sentimentality, and the belief that everything was good in
the "Good Old Days"....
Virtually every ideology is based on the Sandbox Theory of Life.
I could expand this model to include virtually every ideological perspective we encounter, every model of child raising and every model of education.
My question is "whether the Sandbox Theory of Life leaves us ill prepared for adulthood?"
I
think it leaves us ill prepared for adulthood.
I think competent, functional people have to escape from the Sandbox Theory, at least in major segments of their daily functioning, in order to carry out most important tasks.
*
Commerce is the set of skills that require one to respond to
measurable market forces, profit and loss, without moral judgement. Good or bad, do it!
* Politics is the set of skills that accept and accommodate the conflicting variety of powers, forces, social needs that the public generates. Forget your own ideology.
* Military is the set of skills to reduce troop deaths on one side while raising deaths on the other-side or sides. Kill the bastards.
* Policing is the set of skills and the use of force that keeps mean, aggressive and dangerous people from preying on other citizens.
*
Diplomacy and International relations are the set of skills and the
exercise of power to protect each nation from all other nations.
* Technology is the application of physical constants and experimental data to harness the physical resources of the world in support of the desires of the human societies that use technology.
The list goes on.
In summary: Most Americans grow up with the Sandbox Theory of Life, the world is Camelot, we live happily in the Garden of Eden, everyone is potentially loving and kind. This theory informs nearly every ideology. The Sandbox Theory of Life is wrong, inappropriate, misleading and dysfunctional.
How much Sandbox Theory of Life do you and I have?