Dumbing Down

“Dumbing down” is caused by multiple influences such as:

* the erosion of authority (in the text, in politicians, the church, parents, teachers, tradition, etc). The malign influence of cultural relativist propaganda.

* family instability, value shifts, changing beliefs about what life "should" offer and how much "effort" is required, an increasing sense of powerlessness over work in a global economy.

* changing values that give permission to the expression and release of certain personality and behavioral patterns that were previously less acceptable

* related to the above, populism, an apparent democratization of culture, and the downward trends in taste and discrimination seen in market-directed art and entertainment, produce a culture of consumption rather than a culture of intelligence.

* changes in social organization to smaller families that have less time for childcare, changing work patterns, and age-stratified social grouping that not only affect family structure but have emotional consequences in the next generation

* the influence and pervasiveness of media influences as discussed above

* the loss of the feeling of certainty, of being rooted in a real community with deep ties to others, together with constant change and a loss of the sense that things are getting better and the world is improving. “Why should I bother” and a hedonistic orientation may be the result.

* the move into a society that values economics above most other values

* changes in educational priorities and philosophies and changes in parenting practices and family dynamics

* a move into individualism and self-centeredness: a culture that promotes egotism informed by a sense of entitlement leading to an expectation that everything is permitted and that no limitations should be placed on actions or desires.

* all these have produced cultural change and an ethos in which narcissistic motives, drives, and behavior are both accepted and expected.

* these changes produce a cultural background that infiltrates the personality structure of the individual and particularly those who grow up within this culture so that it increasingly becomes the norm - the normal state of affairs which is “the way things should be”. This has led to the dramatic increase that mental health clinicians have charted in recent times in our chosen cultural psychopathology, narcissistic and borderline personality disorders (Increase in narcissistic personality links:

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