We don’t know much about ourselves, besides the story we have to tell. One thing in my life that stuck, and is not only remembered by me, is the idea that I thought, when I turned eighteen, that I would arrive in a world where finally rationality would rule. 35 years later, and I know by now that that was an illusion. I probably knew that already when I picked the candles of the cake, but now I am at a stage where I see rationality as a trade. It’s almost like something we do when it suits us. We can be rational, but we are not rational. The table underneath is a nice illustration of how we often feel as adults, but also how we often really are as adults. Look at the “leaders” who are in the news most often right now. They are not the strong figures we imagine they should be; they are little children who want what they cannot get, don’t care about the others, and feel themselves to be the centre of the world. I always had some sort of respect for people who enter the last quarter of their lives, but from what I see now, and maybe I will learn something new before I join that club that changes my mind, but till that happens, I will have no respect for age and so-called wisdom.

I predict that in 100,000 years, the historians will write about the period of the Sumerians til now only in a small note for the chapter about homo stupitites. I have to say that that idea gives me hope, that we all one day will be forgotten. I also wish I could have a sneak peek into that future society. I hope they’ve addressed the issue of the pressure we all feel to conform to “invisible” social norms, as most people are friendly and helpful when they’re not part of a group. Imagine if we ignored the world leaders we have today; they’d likely end up walking alone in a forest, shouting at squirrels.

Aspect	Children	Adults	Adults Under Social (Media) Influence
Brain Development	Prefrontal cortex still developing; decisions are emotion-driven and impulsive.	Fully developed prefrontal cortex; capable of reasoning, planning, and impulse control.	Emotional systems are reactivated by constant social or media stimuli; rational control is often overridden by rapid emotional cues.
Focus on Time	Seek immediate gratification; limited patience.	Can delay gratification; think about long-term outcomes.	Social and media environments reward immediacy (likes, praise, trends), pulling adults toward short-term thinking.
Experience & Knowledge	Limited life experience; rely on trial and error.	Use accumulated experience to anticipate consequences.	Overwhelming information and shifting narratives (media or gossip) can make experience feel less reliable, encouraging reactive decisions.
Emotional Regulation	Emotions easily dominate choices.	Better emotional balance and self-control.	Designed emotional triggers (fear, outrage, approval) in social settings bypass emotional regulation, leading to impulsive responses.
Social Influence	Highly suggestible; eager to imitate peers or authority figures.	More independent; able to resist social pressure.	Collective trends, social hierarchies, and (media) visibility mimic childhood peer pressure, promoting conformity and identity signaling.
Risk Perception	Often underestimate danger or overestimate ability.	Assess risk more realistically and plan accordingly.	Risks from reputation, misinformation, or manipulation (media-driven) are abstract, making adults overconfident or dismissive.
Decision Speed	Quick, emotion-first reactions.	Slower, deliberate analysis.	Fast-paced social cycles encourage instant reactions over reflection.
Motivation	Play, curiosity, and immediate rewards.	Responsibility, long-term goals, and self-direction.	Dopamine feedback loops (social validation, attention) recreate childlike reward-seeking patterns.
Social Awareness	Learning social rules and consequences.	Understand complex ethics and nuanced norms.	(Media) environments simplify morality into popularity metrics, reducing moral reflection to group approval or outrage.

Friedrich Nietzsche

The Gay Science

Book Three

116 Herd instinct.– Wherever we encounter a morality, we also encounter valuations and an order of rank of human impulses and actions. These valuations and orders of rank are always expressions of the needs of a community and herd: whatever benefits it most, and second most. and third most-that is also considered the first standard for the value of all individuals. Morality trains the individual to be a function of. the herd and to ascribe value to himself only as a function. The conditions for the preservation of different communities were very different; hence there were very different moralities. Considering essential changes in the forms of future herds and communities, states and societies, we can prophesy that there will yet be very divergent moralities. Morality is herd instinct in the individual.

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Untimely Meditations

Schopenhauer as educator

5…Haste is universal because everyone is in flight from himself; universal too is the shy concealment of this haste because everyone wants to seem content and would like to deceive more sharp-eyed observers as to the wretchedness he feels; and also universal is the need for new tinkling word-bells to hang upon life and so bestow upon it an air of noisy festivity. Everyone is familiar with the strange condition in which unpleasant memories suddenly assert themselves and we then make great efforts, through vehement noise and gestures, to banish them from our minds: but the noise and gestures which are going on everywhere reveal that we are all in such a condition all the time, that we live in fear of memory and of turning inward. But what is it that assails us so frequently, what is the gnat that will not let us sleep? There are spirits all around us, every moment of our life wants to say something to us, but we refuse to listen to these spirit-voices. We are afraid that when we are alone and quiet something will be whispered into our ear, and so we hate quietness and deafen ourselves with sociability.