People need to learn self-control

Self-control on all levels. Control of your appetite for food, for sex, for experience, for "letting it all hang out," discipline, politeness, patience, longsuffering...you know the drill.

In the old days self-control was a central part of what was considered to be a good human. In the West you have the Christian morality and also the Roman/Greek philosophers like the Stoics who tried to work out a systematic understanding of how people could cultivate themselves to reach a higher and holier way of being. In the East this was mostly the provance of Confucianism and to a lesser extent Buddhism. I'm sure similar examples can be found in other cultures.

But now fast-forward to today. "Self-control" is seen as a kind of "repression" or at least "unnatural." If you practive self-control now, you are "uptight" ot "going against the flow." The idea seems to be that giving in to each and every desire is "natural," "authentic" and "healthy" and that you have to "let iit all out." If you don't you will become twisted and repressed.

But has this view given us better people? Better societies? More happiness? I think not. Lack of discipline leads to cruder, coarser and unpolished human experience, if not out-and-out evil.

WHY is self-control no longer prised? Probably multiple reasons. People who have no control over themselves are easier to manipulate and push around. Governments get control over things people used to do for themselves, or in family. Business profits by encouraging people to give in to their greed and lusts. When both big government and big business want something, you can be sure it will come to pass.

Self-control is difficult, the benefits are not apparent immediately, but over time the difference between a restrained, cultivated, dignified and centered human being versus a pig who follows every desire and whim is crystal-clear.

That is all, thanks for reading.