Monday, 15 December 2008

Out of Control

I enjoyed this article by social commentator Hugh Mackay in the Saturday paper. He argues that a lot of society's stresses are created by a sense of things being out of control:

"The current obsession with control looks to me like a symptom of a deep unease in our society. The yearning for control is a cry for help. The most useful response to that cry is not to say, "Here's how to get your life under control" but to explain that the deepest sense of wellbeing springs not from mastery of our circumstances - let alone mastery of others - but from mastery of ourselves."

1 comment:

Giraffe Pen said...

Yeah I think that's absolutely right. It also shows deep insecurity ... In Korea NOONE has control over their lives because they're literally pawns of the companies they work for, with no say over what happens to them. It's bad at times but most of life is outside one's own control (where you were born, skin colour, opportunities given to you, where you were raised, etc).