Jessica, What happened? - Human beings are social animals. We join together in groups to protect one another, assist one another and relate to one another.
Those groups, once they reach a certain number of members (studies suggest about 30) must agree on a common standard of behaviour - code / set of rules / morality - whatever you wish to call it.
In the beginning, this code was instituted by human wonder at what was then a mystery: not just life itself but the wind, the rain, the sun, the moon, the stars, tides, crops growing, animals, birds, rivers, trees, and etc.
That code, based on myths of 'gods' with anthropomorphic characteristics because humanity knew of no other, came to be formalised by smart cookies as religion. Religions all have chief honchos who are the only ones who can actually receive the divine word of the gods or god. Thus those chiefs became the powerful ones, attracted envy and risk and hence used their influence and, inevitably, wealth, to attract the loyalty of others to guard and protect them.
Of course, it wasn't long before these guards were used to erase others who either wouldn't submit or believed in different gods and different codes of conduct. Also, the really very smart honchos (and usually the strongest ones) realised that mythical or religious belief was a relative easy way to control and so the church and state combo came about. It exists still today, even in so-called secular societies.
The industrial revolution further complicated matters for, all of a sudden, it wasn't enough to tithe peasants or make war to become wealthy and have power. The peasants became even more necessary to provide the motive force for making things. The problem was that they needed a whole new level of literacy and skills and so wide schooling became a norm.
That schooling, over time, became confused with education for beyond functional skills, it is really more about socialisation. It teaches answers, not how to ask questions - it posits the questions to which it provides the answers and those that have the temerity to challenge those answers, let alone to actually posit their own questions, are chastised, punished, humiliated, labelled as deviant or trouble-causers, not to be trusted.
So, we have a population that considers itself educated. It is empowered to vote and elect representatives. Those in positions of authority or power, flatter the population with statements that "they know what they need and will make the right decisions" - at the very same time as they spend $ millions on simplistic and hypocritical advertising, media and celebrity statements that are designed to have most of that ‘capable’ population vote for them and, more often than not, against its own interests.
The particular persuasion of these power-brokers, representatives, ideologies and so on doesn't matter. They will all, with only minor differences, ensure that this system continues. They do so for it is in their interests. We no longer have 'representatives' in our governing institutions, instead we have career politicians by whatever name.
A dumbed down, uneducated public is further fed a diet of puerile entertainment and a million and one trinkets that they feel they must have to be recognised as in touch. Narrow and pernicious nationalism is fed to them and swallowed holus bolus - most, of course, never having witnessed the horrors of war as either soldiers or civilians.
Hedonism, materialism, consumerism, five minutes of fame and awe of celebrity and wealth are encouraged. Success in life becomes measured in such terms. True values are lost. Religious codes that gave some standards of moral behaviour and caring, have been perverted by fraudsters, pernicious self-serving officers of the church, and an all too common motivation in a range of institutions today - self preservation, as opposed to achieving the aim for which the institution was established.
So, society slowly disintegrates for the glue that held it together has been lost. Anyone can be president or prime minister (supposedly) so no-one knows their role any longer. Wealth propels idiots into positions of power and media paints a false paradise that comes with position, status, power and wealth.
That's what has happened. True values are lost. Pragmatism for gain trumps (no pun intended) calling for service. Anything goes for there is one law for them and one for you, so either way you can justify (excuse) what you do.
The majority (and I don’t claim that it is their fault) are incapable of rational thought, of questioning, of reasoning and therefore become the ready victims of populism but a populism that is no longer what people need, just an always just out of reach glittering prize that they are conditioned to believe they want.
No, adults have not become children but they do, as you so clearly illustrate, behave as though they've never fully developed, often even worse than a child would. The child however, knows no better - the adult ought.
