neoteny – Lee Duigon

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Authoritarian governments like for their people to be like children–ignorant, helpless, incompetent, unable to live independently.

And so, a few years ago, UK scientists announced their discovery that the brain is “still developing” (!) at 25… At 25, they concluded, you’re still a child.

Postponing Adulthood… Forever?

After all, you wouldn’t want to “rush them into adulthood”! Someday, maybe, the brain does become an adult brain and you can finally be trusted with a credit card.

I wonder if we could have a contest to name things in our culture that make or encourage adults to remain in a state of perpetual childhood. I wonder how long a list that would be.

Would you believe it? As of April of this year, more than 17 million Americans were enrolled in college ( http://www.statisticbrain.com/college-enrollment-statistics/ ).

That’s way, way too many people in college. And you see what happens to them while they’re there. They turn into whining, tantrum-throwing, bed-wetting idiots.

Why?

Well, here’s some science to explain it.

Back in 2007, a British researcher, Bruce G. Charlton, published in Medical Hypotheses an article entitled, “Psychological neoteny and higher education: associations with delayed parenthood” ( http://www.hedweb.com/bgcharlton/psychological-neoteny.html ).

What’s neoteny? It’s that strange natural process by which certain animals–tiger salamanders, for instance–remain forever in their larval forms. So “psychological neoteny” in humans would describe how some people never grow up.

Here’s what Charlton concluded:

“In conclusion, it seems likely that psychological neoteny is increasing mainly as a consequences of the increasing percentage of school leavers going into higher education.”

In other words, college keeps many of its students from attaining psychological maturity.

Does that describe what we’re seeing in our colleges today, or what?