Mean Boys and Greedy Girls: The New American Adult

by | Oct 11, 2012 | ARTICLES, Spirituality and Wellbeing

 

With Guests Carl Eeman & Dr. James Huysman

Misery loves company but that’s no excuse for the nation we’ve become. Too drunk on Haterade to chant love, peace and happiness, we seem to derive more glee from the misfortune of others, throw any and everyone under a bus if it benefits us, ignore our morals and values for the sake of reality television and post nasty gossip on blogs. Dr. Veronica examines this bad behavior and how it affects our mind, body and spirit in the latest installment of Wellness for the Real World with guests Carl Eeman, an expert on generational behavior, and therapist Dr. James (Dr. Jamie) Huysman.
We’re a country in a funk, thanks in part to this negative behavior, the ongoing wars and the economic downturn fueled by greedy lenders not caring enough about borrowers to deny them real estate loans they couldn’t afford. Stress levels are high as we worry about our jobs and making ends meet. None of this bodes well for our overall health.

“The body is affected by your mind and spirit and people get sick over things like stress,” Dr. Veronica says. “I think the mean girls and the greedy boys are having a major effect on our psychological as well as our physical health.”

She asks: What we can do to make us have a more civil society? “But in order to do that we have to understand where these kinds of attitudes came from and figure out then where we go to as a society and is there anything we can even do to control these type things.”

Eeman, a Lutheran pastor and author of Generations of Faith, breaks down the latest generations into the G.I. Generation (those born between 1901-24), Silent Generation (1925-42), Baby Boom (1943-60), Generation X (1961-82), Millennial (1983-2003) and the most recent (2004-current) which has yet to be named.

Dr. Veronica, a Gen Xer, points to the Baby Boomers as being the problem for not exhibiting the caring attitude of the Silent Generation, which produced leaders like civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. and feminist Gloria Steinem. Eeman offers a plausible excuse for the post World War II group: “They were raised right after the war ended and were raised to be independent thinkers, to be an individual and to speak up for themselves. And they did. They started by talking back to their parents about Vietnam and questioning authority. They were raised to kind of be in your face and questioning and they’ve taken that on for their whole life.”

Although Eeman uses the 3 Vs – vision, values and virtue — to classify the Baby Boomers, Dr. Veronica views that group as one that “gets down and dirty and personal” instead of having a constructive debate, especially when it comes to politicians’ behavior. But perhaps there’s hope with the Millennials, the children of the Baby Boomers and who have been taught by their parents, despite their parents’ faults, the new 3 Rs — rules, respect and responsibility.

Where has all of this left the Gen Xers? Apparently in a good position thanks to having worked hard to afford life’s pleasures.

“With the hard times we’re seeing right now in society, all of those survival skills, bartering skills (and) trading skills that the Xers learned just to survive all of a sudden are real popular,” says Eeman, giving the example of a Gen Xer offering to trade new kitchen cabinets in return for 20 hours of computer programming for a website.

While Gen Xers don’t carry the around the negative stereotype of being whiny, complaining narcissists like the Baby Boomers, the Millennial has been accused of being the most narcissistic yet. Perhaps because they’re expected to promote themselves on social networking sites. And then there are attention-seekers who clamor to be on reality, court and talk television shows and cross generations.

“I believe that cameras seduce people into a world of values and ethics that have nothing to do with really growing up with strong self-esteem,” says Dr. Jamie, a veteran TV guest, author and Psychology Todayblogger.

The popularity of shows like Bravo’s The Real Housewives series, where back-stabbing and bickering is de rigueur (one New Jerseyhousewife flipped a restaurant table while screaming at a cast mate for her constant lying and deviousness; two Atlanta housewives nearly came to blows), speaks volumes about the negativity that has become a way of life in this country. We take pleasure in watching team members routinely sell out one another on unscripted shows like Survivor and The Apprentice. Even supposedly harmless competition shows such as American Idol draw millions of viewers because of the venom that is liable to spew from the mouths of judges toward contestants.

“The popularity of these shows says that it’s always easier to look at somebody else’s problems than your own,” Dr. Jamie says. “For all of us today in this Boomer sort of narcissistic world, good television is watching somebody else’s hell instead of turning ourselves in and creating what I call our own consciousness, or our own mindfulness, of dealing with our own soap operas inside of our lives.”

Children watching adults behaving badly grow up thinking they can conduct themselves in the same manner. These performances may draw laughs but think about what it’s ultimately doing to our health.

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Dr. Veronica Anderson is an MD, Functional Medicine practitioner, Homeopath. and Medical Intuitive. As a national speaker and designer of the Functional Fix and Rejuvenation Journey programs, she helps people who feel like their doctors have failed them. She advocates science-based natural, holistic, and complementary treatments to address the root cause of disease. Dr. Veronica is a highly-sought guest on national television and syndicated radio and hosts her own radio show, Wellness for the REAL World, on FOX Sports 920 AM “the Jersey” on Mondays at 7:00 pm ET.

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