My biggest regret was not getting married and having children earlier in my life.
I look back, and see that I was brainwashed and hoodwinked.
Let me explain why…
My 20s were almost pointless. I had a few long term relationships, we moved in together, we played house, but these relationships never bore any fruit.
I was uninspired, overemotional, unmotivated and depressed for a large part of my 20s. As I look back, I realize that this was a perfectly normal reaction to my circumstances for any young man. Because, a man I was, full of energy and capable of working long hours and multiple jobs, without sweat. But I wasn’t a man in the way that millions of young men who came before me were.
They married young, had children young. They moved into careers or apprenticeships by the age of 22. They owned their own land by the age of 25. They were beset with responsibilities on all sides, but being young and in their physical and mental prime, they were up to the task.
Fact is, it is a weird cultural tradition we have today, that promotes marriage and child-raising to be put off into our early 30s and late 20s, when evolutionarily-speaking, we were biologically designed to rear children in our late teens through our 20s.
That said, I look at the large numbers of single, unmarried 26 year olds who are prescribed psychotropic drugs and antidepressants, and can’t help but wonder if it is direct result of the aforementioned cultural tradition. Perhaps they are like a fish out of water, outside of their biological directives, and hence–floundering, dejected, and confused.
I look back and think this was the case for me.
When I had children, I had no time for anxiety or depression. There was no time for naval-gazing. There was a life to build, and lives to protect.
And then, one day I realized, that I had been brainwashed, in a way. The question occurred to me–who benefits the most by my remaining single, and extending my childhood well into my adult years?
The businesses and companies that make most of their money off of teenagers and the young. The movie industry. Advertisers. Television networks. Sporting organizations and bars, nightclubs, casinos, and even 8 year universities.
Did they influence me subconsciously by consistently portraying TV shows, one after another, of groups of single 20-35 year olds having a great time with their friends night after night? Did that become my expectation of what being a 26 year old should look like and feel like?
I think that is closer to the truth.
I think that right now, there are a lot of 25-32 year olds alone at home looking back on the anxiety and depression that came from extending their childhood for ten years for no good reason.
Pointless, fruitless relationships. No children. No wife.
This is literally the perfect storm for a societal crash, because of the way they let hollywood and big business brainwash them into remaining a child consumer for another decade after they became men and women.
In the near future, the situation may come to a head in the worst way.