Posted by Moishe Pipik on August 8, 2013, at 13:52:30
In reply to Re: Why Babble is in trouble..., posted by Moishe Pipik on August 8, 2013, at 13:17:13
I'm sure there are many like me who were ostracized for being "different", starting at a very early age. The "problem" really surfaces when starting school, where compliance, obedience, conformity, etc. are the currency of "success". So, from very early on, we took constant psychological battering by teachers, peers and parents as a result. If we didn't learn to be like "them", we were screwed. Adult life and the working world revealed little more tolerance of "non-compliers" than we experienced earlier in life. The implicit AND explicit message was, "Do it our way, or else!".
So, we come to a place like Babble, expecting maybe something a little different, where the participants might have a better understanding of what it's like to be treated poorly for no better reason than not being quite like the mainstream. Yet, the experience here is no different, and compliance to the likes of political-correctness is vigorously pursued by the administration, as well as many members. The same message as the one we've been endlessly beaten with prevails here: "Do it like the mainstream, or else!".
I made that mistake for much too much of my life - the mistake of believing that there was something terribly wrong with me that wouldn't be fixed unless I could become one of "them". A lifetime of that message exacts its toll, and one would think a purported mental-health support site would understand that. I honestly don't think that Babble supports anything other than the compliance model that has been so damaging in so many ways (remember that the compliant "successful" people are running our government and business and doing a fine job of effing everything up).
"One size fits all" is a horrible maxim for a society, and Babble is no different.
poster:Moishe Pipik
thread:1047564
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20130702/msgs/1048560.html