Next Frontier (Part 1)
“One doesn’t have to operate with great malice to do great harm. The absence of empathy and understanding are sufficient.” - Charles M. Blow
In this post, I want to revisit one of the ideas I mentioned in “The First One”; highlighting the irony of how advanced our species has become in certain areas, and how stagnant and devolved in others. I used science and math to exemplify our sound technical intelligence, as the most sophisticated forms of tech are now readily available to almost every single person living in the first world, yielding forms of medicine, connection, and safety that are unprecedented when compared to past generations. However, in becoming so technologically and economically prosperous, we seem to have left wellness behind, neglecting and trivializing it. One could reasonably argue that that couldn’t be further from the truth, as the development of modern medicine has provided significantly longer life expectancies (in the US, about a decade’s increase since the 60s), and the fact that there’s a rising prevalence of fitfluencers must be indicative of wellness’ growing popularity. Yes, many of the viruses that were effectively death sentences in previous decades are as trivial as a common cold today, and Gymshark has indeed made several dents in my budget. But, wellness goes far beyond the absence of illness. We are unwell, especially our children. And, I believe the mistreatment of our core values is at least partially responsible.
If it isn’t already evidenced all over social media for you, we can look at some of the data from the past 10-20 years.
A report from the CDC shows that from 2011-2021, 13% of high school girls had attempted suicide and thirty percent had seriously considered it. Thirty percent.
Research shows that nearly twice as many kids report elevated feelings of loneliness as compared to 2012.
Among all ages, overdoses involving opioids have increased almost 8-fold since 1999.
Among teens, overdose, suicide, homicide, heart disease, and diabetes are among the top ten leading causes of death.
Fortunately, as humans have always done, we adjust to our problems. We invent, innovate, and collaborate like no other species on earth. So, in line with the rise in health crises, there has been a nearly equal rise in wellness movements and companies that are truly helpful and amazing. See BetterHelp, Calm, Headspace, Wellable, Caroo, BetterYou, The Suicide Hotline, and countless others (plus the rising popularity of therapy). However, it’s time to take the next step; it’s time to socially innovate on a massive scale. We can’t wait until people graduate college and get an office job that offers a weekly wellness meeting to begin exploring this frontier, or hope that somehow people just figure it out on their own. We need an immediate and dramatic restructuring of our priorities. Starting in schools.
As mentioned before, wellness isn’t just the absence of illness. It covers a wide variety of disciplines and research, including physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual health, and all of their layers. The key point to remember is that these areas of study can be learned, and therefore, can be taught. This applies not only to the brilliant scientists and researchers at the Ivy Leagues but to students of all ages, from kindergarteners to college seniors.
Schools make lovely claims about their missions and values, and many of them are truly important and inspiring. However, if it isn’t impossible, it’s difficult to truly put those values into action when the majority of time in public schools has to be spent acting on values that were stamped into the foundation of our schools when they were standardized in the early 20th century. The pursuit of achievement and academic prestige, and ultimately becoming a “good employee” remain at the heart of the machine. I use the word machine because it’s an accurate representation of how the whole thing was intended to run. And though it may sound like it, I’m not being conspiratory or facetious; read the following statement about the ideal function of the US education system from Frederick Taylor Gates, a founding member of the General Education Board in 1902:
“We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning or of science, We are not to raise up from among them authors, orators, poets, or men of letters. We shall not search for embryo great artists, painters, musicians… nor lawyers, doctors, preachers, politicians, statesmen, of whom we have ample supply… The task that we set before ourselves is very simple as well as very beautiful… we will organize our children into a little community and teach them to do in a perfect way the things their fathers and mothers are doing in an imperfect way.”
When we look at the things that people actually value, it becomes increasingly apparent that the way we’ve structured our schools is at odds with those values. This is not the case for everyone, but it is for many.
Valuegraphics.com, a quite revolutionary company that’s reshaping the way we analyze human needs and values, has produced deeply profound and important results through their research, and I believe none more important than this one: The World’s Most Influential Values, in One Graphic. To spare me the space, and you the time, let’s focus on the top ten.
1. Family
2. Relationships
3. Financial Security
4. Belonging
5. Community
6. Personal Growth
7. Loyalty
8. Religion/Spirituality
9. Employment Security
10. Personal Responsibility
Conducted in 152 languages across the world, this all but proves that we’re looking at fundamental human values. I find nothing here surprising. The most interesting quality that all of these things share is their direct connection to wellness. In other words, the fulfillment of these values is a generally efficient path to a happy life, and happiness is tremendously indicative of health— How Happiness Impacts Health. (more on this in part 2).
But, look at that list of values again and ask yourself, how much time do we spend in school learning how to take care of these things? We instead find ourselves in near-constant pursuit of arbitrary values that have been placed upon us by… by who? Things like high test scores, degrees, high salaries, and confusing job titles (the more confusing, the better) define success, even though most individuals place them at the bottom of their value lists. We spend our days in the midst of this conflict between our actions and our nature, and of course, how we spend our days is how we spend our lives.
I don’t want to be too rah-rah and sound like I’m claiming that the system is corrupt and everything sucks and we’re doomed. As fun as that is at times, the fact remains that this system has provided me with many luxuries that I’d be crazy not to acknowledge. Modernity has had uniquely positive impacts on human evolution, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t simultaneously left its stains.
In the next part, I’ll highlight more clearly how this dissonance correlates with the leading causes of death among both adolescents and adults, as well as the fact that this isn’t just an issue of healthy vs unhealthy, it’s holding us back technologically, economically, and even environmentally.
