Rite of Passage?
As I have continued on reading "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer I came across the following quote on page 182:
"It is hardly unusual for a young man to be drawn to a pursuit considered reckless by his elders; engaging in risky behavior is a rite of passage in our culture no less than in most others. Danger has always held a certain allure. That, in large part, is why so many teenagers drive too fast and drink too much and take too many drugs, why it has always been so easy for nations to recruit young men to go to war. It can be argued that youthful derringdo is in fact evolutionarily adaptive, a behavior encoded in our genes."
An interesting notion... daring, reckless behavior is a rite of passage. It does sort of make sense. How then do we harness such acts? How do we use this as a positive within our cultural context?
"It is hardly unusual for a young man to be drawn to a pursuit considered reckless by his elders; engaging in risky behavior is a rite of passage in our culture no less than in most others. Danger has always held a certain allure. That, in large part, is why so many teenagers drive too fast and drink too much and take too many drugs, why it has always been so easy for nations to recruit young men to go to war. It can be argued that youthful derringdo is in fact evolutionarily adaptive, a behavior encoded in our genes."
An interesting notion... daring, reckless behavior is a rite of passage. It does sort of make sense. How then do we harness such acts? How do we use this as a positive within our cultural context?
posted by pb @ 11:55 AM
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