Not that long ago, there used to be a worldview that most folks understood. One where there were relatively fixed concepts that people could live their life by and to guide them. Society didn’t function at 100%, but at a relatively high success rate…. But i don’t think that 100% is achievable in any culture or society. I believe that this worldview, to a large degree, grew out of Nature’s structure.
As the West has shifted away from that clear sense of worldview, there seems to be alot of aimlessness and a sense of being lost, in the way people see “the way things are.” Confusion…….
Unfortunately, a lot of that worldview was tied to, and grew up tangled with religious views. The current trend to shift away from those religions’ rules as a guideline for how to live life, seems to also have caused a lot of those natural concepts to be “tossed out along with the bathwater”…..
One example that comes to mind on the question of more structure being better, or less structure being better, is the experiment in the 60’s and 70’s where the educational psychology folks thought that a more open concept of classroom would lead to a more individually suited learning (higher level of success).
This fad in education was based on the idea that children should be left more to their “naturalness,” and that this less restrictive environment would bring out their creativity, and help them in the process of growing up.
But what they found was that while there were a FEW students who did okay in that type of open environment, the majority suffered from a lack of structure.
In my mind, the current malaise we see in our society, to a large extent, is adults suffering from the same problem. So, why thinking in psychology is still heading towards more and more open concepts is truly beyond me. We aren’t suited to that, although our development as individuals often calls for a “don’t tell me what to do” type of thinking.
Obviously there is a happy medium for not too much, not too little…. That is where common sense comes in…. finding a happy medium.
imho: No sense of structure = no sense of direction.
No sense of direction = wandering and a sense of being lost.
Wandering and a sense of being lost, sounds like an accurate description of what we are seeing today.
“Structure helps parents and their kids. Kids feel safe and secure because they know what to expect. Parents feel confident because they know how to respond, and they respond the same way each time. Routines and rules help structure the home and make life more predictable.” From : https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/03/27/520953343/open-schools-made-noise-in-the-70s-now-theyre-just-noisy
It is only logical that this need for structure in children follows through into adulthood. I hazard to say that adults function better with a sense of structure and sense of direction in the same way.
Structure isn’t some sort of chains forced upon us, rather it is building a sense of who we are contextually within our society.
That being said, the current concept that all rules and laws are some sort of chains or imprisonment put on us by a “patriarchal” society is surely wrong headed. The worldview i referred to in the beginning of this article gave a fairly good happy medium of a structured society, but somehow those who make the decisions seem to think that to toss the whole thing out and start again is the best solution…. i for one, do not swallow that thinking.
So…. what is a solution?
When a person develops their inner life, and finds what they are truly looking for, and they find that it is the inner life that truly satisfies, and not endlessly searching the world outside themselves — using acceptance and approval as their guiding need, — they will realize that, while they should do what they can to “fit into” in the society they find themselves in, fitting in to the world around them, DOES NOT inhibit the inner world of “who i really am.” This can play out in a complete development of all one’s creativity and energy.
Living in a structured contextual society DOES NOT preclude being ourselves…. In fact, it can protect our chance to truly be ourselves, and find inner satisfaction, and develop our creative abilities. Our society rules should give individual boundaries to protect us against other individuals, while at the same time, protecting other persons’ individual boundaries against us… a two edged sword. That is the way nature works. Always keeping reality at a balanced state.
When there is a confusion of the outer world and the inner world, clashes occur where both contextuality and inner creativity get beaten up.
In my limited understanding, this is what Dao teaches…. There is nature, and there is our inner life (although the inner and outer actually swirl much more than have clear dividing lines i have used to discuss the concept …..)
Takeaway: Nature has rules (structure) and as we physical beings live within that structure, live flows more smoothly. When our minds overheat due to “Default Mode Network” ruminating, we fall out of tune with Nature’s structure, and end up in endless vain imaginings and therefore aimlessness and suffering.
Reality is Dharma 