America’s Alleged Self-Esteem Problem By:Charlotte Firth

America is a land of the free and home of the people who always have another problem. This one came around in the 70’s and sweap this glorious nation into a tizzy about whether or not society was teaching our children how to have good self-esteem, which would lead them to being better adjusted through their adolecence into adulthood. Somewhere in the “experts” explaination the parents must have gotten confused because society began to raise their children in a way that lead them ultimately to believe they were special without ever having to accomplish anything. Parents, mentors, teachers, and coaches would coax children to believe that they were wonderful, brilliant, and special without ever having to try. This lead to a society who glamorizes reality television stars for doing and being famous for absolutely nothing at all. Does Jersey Shore ring a bell? But really, our society idolizes the rich and the famous who became rich and famous for not inventing something or having a supreme talent, but instead for laying by the shore and catching some cancer in the tanning salon. Oh I forgot laundry too…

Anyway back to those kids. The children also saw models and actresses on tv who were stick thin and beautiful and were taught by media that they needed to look like that to be sucessful. Well, meanwhile in the real world your average MIT professional or Harvard graduate isn’t going to look like that and in the long run they will be wildly more sucessful. We should be praising intellegence, not beauty because a sustainable career and life is based on your head not your looks which only last until your thirties or fortys. Then when these poor youths grew up they became victim to another wave of self-esteem issues. The diet pill was introduced in the fifties I think…I just tried to look it up but got bombarded with advertisements which I thought proved my point. I can’t even look up the origin because society wants me to buy one and have a heart-attack already. These advertisements told women that they had to look beautiful to get married and be taken care of by a sucessful man. Just take this pill and you will melt away your fat. Thus, the government found a way to sell speed and deliver heart-attacks to whoever wanted to look beautiful and thin.

Our society built an empire on your alleged self-esteem issues. The real story is that your whole life has been a pseudo event because the media tells you what to think, tells you what’s wrong with you, and don’t worry, the FDA did authorize that new drug so all your problems will go away.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-power-prime/201006/popular-culture-americas-self-esteem-problem

Leave a comment