assumptions and attitudes

[Adam Blatner]

Hi Bud, rich email!  Yes, what I'm poking at --- funny expression, actually pretty good metaphor for the mental effort--- playing with... 
         And the culture and environment is part of the story... 
            I liked your listing and wonder about what the true initiation needs to be. Do we have to kill an animal? 
     But in general, that kind of thinking is helpful.
          Mentoring is another whole topic. Different kinds... some with just the effort to do so is better than nothing
                  and another type/level of mentoring happens when tele emerges... 
             i.e., some kids click with certain adults but not with others and vice versa.. at this level, one cannot assign a mentor..

        Anyway, yes, one element in the story is the presence and willingness of adults to mentor,
              and in a larger sense, the overall progress of the culture as a whole
     our own being (as I like to joke with numbers) around 25%


        Re your second point about not over-idealizing Moreno. Yes. The challenge is to grant him his good points and the power of his contributions while not having to attribute any virtues not otherwise clearly evident, and also recognizing clear faults. 

       Warmly, Adam
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: BARNETT WEISS 
  To: Adam Blatner 
  Sent: Friday, January 04, 2008 9:34 PM
  Subject: Re: assumptions and attitudes


  Dear Adam:
  I'm not quite sure I get what you are poking at here. 

  Teenagers in this culture as in any culture are a reflection of the kind or lack of mentoring by the established adults who have reached that level of maturity which Erickson spoke of as his 6th stage of 7 Generativity vs. Stagnation.  We here have so little if any mentorship of that kind at all in anything but the business or highly specific product or service model mentorship and not life itself.  

  There is a beautiful process that many who are devotees of Martin Prechtel who do altenating years of initiation for about 20  boys and young men one year and then about 20  Girls and young women the next.  They have to accomplish 100 things over the course of their year of initiation culminating with a big celebration usually attended by a few hundred people who know the 20 or so young people who have gone through this over that particular year. They have to do things like learn to hunt, go out and kill a wild meat providing animal, skin it, dress it and utilize all of it's parts fully.design and make their own clothes, learn to repair them and clean them as needed including of course ironing etc.  Learn all the basics of maintaining any vehicle and bike and some aspects of repair.  Learn to plant a full garden for a family for a year, Help some older people,in an ongoing way, younger people too, tutor some children. Go on a vision quest for 4 days without food taking only water in the wilderness, Take care of the homeless for several days in some shelter or elsewhere; take up some form of meditation for the year and so on. I am making up the list just now as I don't have one handy and heard about this from a friend of mine who has been working with this community of people in the Northeast who support this type of thing. Mentors are provided for each of these activities.  The people who are mentors and attend the celebration each have a chance over the day of the celebration to go and visit with each of the initiates and have the initiates look into their eyes and tell them something about each person as it comes to them and give their slant on what may be needed for that person to remain on their purposes path. Everyone reports that their experience with these young people is heartening and very inspiring to say the least. The young people say that it totally changed their lives for the better beyond their wildest expectations. They end up feeling very clear about being able to be mentors to others in life and wanting to contribute to their community in supportive ways as they move toward their goals and service to their discovered purpose in life. 
  I think that in many ways, good teachers in a good school system can do something like that. Sudburry Valley in Framingham Mass is such a school and there is a network of schools like it.  I think that the one it was modeled on is in England, Summerhill which has been in existence for well over 50 years now as far as I know still going strong. 

  Perhaps, Ron Clark's school in Atlanta will be able to turn people out as independent and creative individuals as are graduating from these schools though despite the wonderful nature of Ron's School, I am not sure it is possible with the model he has to use ala an over all publicly funded school system as caring and high expectation based as his school is. 

  So back to your queerie. What is the purpose of getting more of these internal statements of our mentor deserted young people?
  Blessings as usual, Bud

  PS I am getting quite fed up with all this idealizing of Moreno. He contributed a great deal opening a lot of doors in the mind so to speak and providing some powerful organizing tools in the social sciences and opened some doors in my mind before my learning of his lack of personal integrity and moral fiber.  He was hardly this spiritual saint that some are attempting to paint him as nor was he driven by that sense of spirituality that is evident in others I continue to work with like Malidoma or Eliot Cowan ( plant spirit medicine and www.bluedeer.org  with the Huichol people and Martin Prechtel.  I can't get into anything too deeply publicly about this so I needed to say something to someone who knew more about and from that time. Aren't you lucky? LOL.  I would love to see what Don Miller has to say about all this. I'll see if I can reach him. Blessings, Bud

  Adam Blatner <adam at blatner.com> wrote:
    Dear Jenny and others,
    I've become intrigued with the baseline attitudes of people in our culture. This isn't 
    just personal cognitive distortions, but also has a sociodramatic--cultural 
    dimension---many of these attitudes are pandered to and echoed by media, celebrities, 
    general discourse.

    I wrote a paper on basic illusions of the "inner brat" and today have been thinking 
    about what are the most common illusions of teenagers. I'd love to do some brainstorming 
    on this.

    If any of you would like to help, let me know by sending along a few basic and 
    prevalent attitudes or inner sentences that people use as illusions in life.

    Warmly, Adam 
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