Several years ago a great discovery was announced. The largest known plant in the world had been found in Michigan. It was a single mushroom plant covering more than 100 acres.
Looking over its vast surface in full flower, one sees thousands upon thousands of mushroom caps looking like a multitudinous crowd of individual tiny people huddled together under little white umbrellas. But below ground every stem is connected to every other stem. This amazing plant seems a marvelous metaphor for us human beings – individuals on the surface, but one organism deep down.
Developmental psychologist Dan McAdams writes in Stories We Live By about two “fundamental modalities” that organize human needs, desires and goals: agency and communion. He describes agency as “the individual’s striving to separate from others, to master the environment, to assert, protect and expand the self. The aim is to become a powerful and autonomous ‘agent.’” He describes communion as “the individual’s striving to lose his or her self by merging with others, participating in something larger than self, and relating to others in warm, close and loving ways.”
Thinking about that giant mushroom, if each cap had a mind of its own, how much mental energy might each cap devote to asserting its self while losing sight of its connection to the whole? But on further thought I realize that in spite of each cap’s illusion of distinctiveness and autonomy, the will of the whole 100-acre plant works ceaselessly below the surface to help organize the needs, desires and goals of each individual cap.
Readers may recall my previous discussions of the “psychological center of gravity” hypothesis. People within five years of the adult median age make up the PCG and have a disproportionate influence on cultural themes and trends. With an adult median age of 45, today’s PCG is bracketed by the ages of 40 and 50, making it the oldest PCG in U.S. history.
Several years ago the Wall Street Journal carried an article that reflected today’s middle age PCG’s influence on teens. It told of an unprecedented flocking of teenagers to churches and synagogues in search of meaning in life – a quest traditionally more typical of people in midlife.
In many instances, teens are following a course that runs counter to parental atheism. The WSJ article viewed this as a form of rebellion, observing, “It doesn’t hurt, of course, that spiritualism and ritual permeate today’s popular culture.” The article noted Madonna’s study of Jewish mysticism, Alanis Morrisette and Puff Daddy’s references to spirituality in their music, teen clothing lines devoted to the dark, mystical-looking “Goth” fashion, and Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul’s long-running position on bestseller lists.
But is the unprecedented number of teenagers pouring into houses of worship merely an act of mass rebellion? Is growing teen attraction to ancient rites of mysticism simply another fad that will soon pass? The ROI of untold product promotional dollars rides on the answer.
If the PCG hypothesis is valid, increased adolescent interest in spirituality will not be short-lived. It will remain in force over the next decade as the PCG ages more. The subterranean workings of the collective whole, influenced by the PCG, will continue to help organize the values, needs and goals of teens.
Ironically for a nation that has long exalted the values of the young, marketers to teens can gain keen insights into the values and behavior of today’ teens by learning more about the values and behavior of the middle-aged consumers who make up the PCG.
None of this is to say that teens are developmentally entering midlife decades ahead of Nature’s schedule. They simply are tapping into midlife themes, although they experience those themes in the context of their untested adolescent worldviews.
Today’s middle-aged PCG presents marketers with an extraordinary challenge: weaving the themes of midlife values into messages for the young in ways that feel comfortable and cool to them.
The PCG’s influence on teens supports the idea that below the surface we are one, just like myriad white buttons that belong to the world’s largest plant. Much of who we are as well as what we need and desire flows from that oneness regardless of our age.
In these days of overly expressed agency, it seems to me that giving more attention to the communion that binds us together as one would help extend the feelings of togetherness that we feel so strongly at this time of year throughout the rest of the year.
Holiday joy to one and all!
Aloha David, you write so well, and so thoughtfully. It is good to discover you and your blog.
Perhaps it is the season, for I find I have given much thought to the notions of "connectivity" and "community" lately, and so your mushroom analogy truly captivated my attentions this afternoon.
By the way, I like your Dusty story too.
My mahalo to you, thank you.
Posted by: Rosa Say | December 30, 2004 at 07:59 PM
Rosa,
My mahalo for your generously kind comments. And for whatever its worth, I believe that in the next couple of decades we'll see an increased sense that we are subject to an underlying connectedness that binds us together as one. This will be one of the auspicious products of the Age of Transcendence that I wrote about in my July 2, 2004 post.
To see how we have come to the threshhold of the Age of Transcendence, we need to distinguish between the words "agency" and "community" as they pertain to one's worldview -- not what one believes so much as how one connects to the world (and beyond).
“Agency” – self focused values and behavior – is generally the primary property of one’s worldview in the first half of life.
“Community” – others-centered values and behavior generally the primary property of one’s worldview (how one connects to the world) in the second half of life.
Now that people in the second half of life constitute the majority of adults (by 130 million versus the 85 million adults aged 18-39), the characteristic values of people in midlife and beyond are defining the cultural ethos. The behavior of people of all ages is being influenced to a significant degree by “community” values.
The ascendance of community values in the second half of life diminishes materialistic (physical) aspirations in one’s behavior while promoting metaphysical aspirations. This dynamic is the primary generator of the Age of Transcendence.
While this is an optimistic view of the future, the path to the highest possible levels of humanness, as reflected by a broad sense of ubiquitous connectedness, will take us through many painfully challenging episodes. This is because when old orders are challenged, bitter conflict arises between the defenders of the old order and the protagonists of the new order.
Still, I see ahead a future that is as distinguished for its transcendent expression of humanness as the previous Age of Knowledge was for reaching the apex of materialistic human expression that enhanced the material quality of life for hundreds of millions of people around the globe.
Happy New Year! May the coming year be your best ever!
David
Posted by: David Wolfe | December 31, 2004 at 10:26 AM