Weird Americans (and how to stop being one) | Community Supper April 13, 2024

[@georgeedwards1330]

Good Lord. This is profound.

[@rachelglenn3663]

It would be great to have the recommending reading list posted here. Thanks.

[@BrynAthynChurch]

Great idea! They are now in the description, and I'll paste them here as well: The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous by Joseph Henrich (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020) A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream by Yuval Levin (Basic Books, 2020).

[@naomiloeb2736]

Arguably a non fear based challenge to membership in ANC Girls School Alumni would be learning Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote etc. LOL

[@SwirlScapeOnEtsy]

The idea that institutions exist to shape people, rather than because people are spending their resources and life energies building them to serve their various needs, is backwards, or at least fails to acknowledge that there are human beings at the core of every institution, making human decisions about how the institution functions and what impact it will attempt to have on people and in the world based on their own wants and needs. Institutions absolutely *do* need to work to improve themselves on an ongoing basis, if those who run them wish for them to exist into the future! The military has done its part these days to give their recruits sensitivity training against racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia so that diverse people can work together. Many traditional churches have not done what they need to, to step up in this area. Each generation chooses which institutions will carry forward into the future by what they put their participation and life energy into. People participate usually because the institutions they choose solve some need for them, whether that need be something spiritual/altruistic ("I want to feel like I am making a difference,") or something social ("I want to hang out with my friends and do a hobby") or something basic ("I need a job so I can earn money and support myself.") Telling people , "Get over yourself!" is unlikely to get anyone-- particularly WEIRD Americans--in the door. Having something that is a little (or a lot) better than the other available options to meet that specific need, will.