The Pendulum of Generational Perception

In this post, I'm going to explain a process that I have observed at work throughout multiple generations. You might be wondering how I can do this since I've only lived during the course of one generation. The answer to that is that I have observed this pattern in history, and also in the lives of those older than myself. I refer to this pattern as "The Pendulum of Generational Perception." I'm specifically going to address the effect this process has on the way children are raised.

Here's how the process works.

During a person's lifetime, that person behaves a certain way, acting either wisely or unwisely in each area of life. Some of their actions produce positive consequences and other actions produce negative consequences. Based on the consequences that their actions produce in their life, people make changes to the way they live their life as they grow older. For example, if a person did not act with financial wisdom during college and accrued thousands of dollars in credit card dept, it is very likely that that person will be vehemently against credit cards when they grow older. It it also very likely that that person will raise their children with very strict rules regarding savings and credit, simply because of that person's past. If a person lived a promiscuous lifestyle during college and it caused all manner of unhealthy consequences in their life, that person is likely to raise their children with extremely strict rules regarding relationships between genders. People, when they experience a negative consequence of their actions, often swing in the opposite direction in an attempt to find truth. That is what "the Pendulum of Generational Perception" is: reacting to unwise decisions by swinging in the other direction, and raising your children in a different way than you were raised. Is the Pendulum of Generational Perception a bad thing? No! Absolutely not. Correcting and modifying your approach to life is what enables you to learn! However, this principle can cause issues if it is taken too far. 

For example. In the diagram on the left, the middle black ball represents truth. The Pendulum of Generational Perception becomes harmful when it is taken to an extreme. What do I mean by that? Oftentimes, people have a tendency to over-correct and swing too far in the opposite direction if their current approach to life isn't working. If a person started to the right of truth and experienced difficulty, they often swing past truth, into the far left side of truth in an attempt to balance themselves out. Then they raise their children on the far left side of truth, instead of the side that they grew up in, thinking that their children will avoid all the issues they went through. The problem is that their children will now be just as out-of-balance as they were; only in a different way. The natural tendency of humanity is over-correction. It's very difficult to swing from imbalance directly into perfect balance. Because of this, if you look back on history, different generations have experienced drastically different and exact opposite problems. One generation raised their children a certain way, the children found flaws in what they were taught, and then the children over-corrected and raised their children in the exact opposite way that they themselves were raised. And thus the reaction-cycle continues with generations vacillating between the right and left of truth, when in reality, truth lies somewhere in the middle.

When my Father was young, his Dad made him work outside a lot. That had lots of benefits for my Dad. He learned how to do many, many things that prepared him for his future. But because my Dad didn't have a good experience sometimes when he was working outside, he swung into the opposite side of truth when he raised me. Dad has not made me work outside with him at all and he only asks me work outside in areas that I enjoy, such as splitting wood. Because of this, I've avoided the struggles that he had growing up, but I've also experienced new struggles. I am not as prepared as my Dad was at my age when it comes to handy-man knowledge. Because of this, when I have children, it's very likely for me to be prone to force my children to work with me in order to prevent them from having a lack of handy-man knowledge. But then they may experience the same issues that my Dad did when he was young. The best solution is finding a balance somewhere in the middle.

The bottom line is that people, out of reaction to their negative experience, often imbalance themselves by trying to balance themselves. As humans, we are prone to over-correct in our attempt to find truth, and we often raise our children in our over-correction. How do we avoid this tendency? By learning to recognize the areas in which we have past baggage.