From: ailsa@ailanthus.com (Ailsa N.T. Murphy)
Newsgroups: alt.pagan
Subject: Re: Start again.
Date: 19 Dec 92 00:46:36 GMT
Reply-To: ailsa@ailanthus.com (Ailsa N.T. Murphy)
Organization: Ailanthus Project

ksm@abb-sc.abb-sc.com (Ashley) writes:

> Yes, there are a greater number of these types of people no than there
> in hte past. They are a burdon on our resourses as a society. So how d
> motivate these people? Can we make couseling available and change the
> to it to be non-stigmatizing for those who seek it? Is the concept of
> mental health workers viable?

really?  that seems like a rather classist statement to me.  it all
depends on how you define "underachiever."  i've had friends from low
socioeconomic strata who were quite bright and could have done very
well in college and perhaps gone quite far, but who are now
hairdressers and factory workers.  are they underachieving?  possibly.
by some definitions.  are they a drain on society?  no.  hairdressers,
factory workers, groundskeepers, janitors, maintenence people,
supermarkets tellers, deli clerks, et al., are all useful members of
society.

even the classic "underemployed" that you all seem to have been
addressing, i.e. Dave the Computer Science graduate who woudl rather
play D&D and hope some rock band will want him as a bass player than
hold down a steady job, so he works the early morning hours at the
seven eleven after his game/jam session gets out, is performingh a
useful role in society.  SOMEONE has to work at teh seven eleven,
after all.  might as well be Dave, or Diana who spends her days sewing
garb for her friends' SCA personae and her nights writing scripts for
MacGyver, as anybody.  what the hell, if they are happy, eh?

> IMHO, we are looking at the under-achiver generation.
> Years of TV and instant gratification have created a complacent group
> slackers with short attention spans, very little ambition and few expe
> As you mentioned Dawn, the society does not often reward real work and
> creativity, it often smothers it in conformist doctrines, subtly enfor
> we have more discouraged, frusterated people than ever before sitting
> doing little with the talents they have. There are the exceptions, jr
> and smiling happy people who never questioned the ideas that they wher
> with. I don't think there are many of those reading this group. And th
> who have drive and do things are there too, but their numbers are redu
> There are more slackers (no, not Sub-Genni) than ever before now.
>
oh bullshit.  most of EVERY generation has failed to "achieve" up to
its full potential, due to lack of access to education, jobs, or
promotions that their talents would have gotten them but their race,
socioeconomic status, sex, sexual preference, handicap, or a host of
other factors, held them back.  "slackers" become more obvious due to
the mass media and the fatc that we no longer just take class barriers
for granted, but stigmatizing everyone who does not hold a highly paid
intelllectual h=job as a slacker is unfair.

>    So how does one motivate someone like this? How do we convince them
> persue their dreams and make the future happen? After all, the coming
> generations are the future and they will be running things when you an
> retire.
>
you don't.  there are plenty of motivated intelligent people out
there.  develop THEIR potential.  help the smart kids in the inner
city or out in the outback, and leave Dave and Diana to their
dreaming...  if they wanted to "achieve," they would.  there are
plenty of people who WANT to achieve that need help that the ones that
don't can be left alone.

i wonder how much history people have studied when they start talking
about how this generation has gone to the dogs...

                                             -ailsa

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            ailsa@ailanthus.com   or   ailsa@wonky.uucp
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