[DiscourseFan]

Well, most people in society are forced to repeat the same behaviors as every one else for a minimum of comfort: friends, family, etc. For the college-educated in the US that often means getting a professional job and joining a hobby club of some sort and getting married and having one or two kids. Most of them are happy with that, but most of them also remember the freedom they had in college and know that deep down they are settling for less than the most they could have, because they’re probably afraid of what that would mean. I can understand why someone who is freed from that world of the “normal” might not know what to do outside of it.

[jebarker]

> Most of them are happy with that, but most of them also remember the freedom they had in college

The freedom you have in college is a shallow, parasitic kind of freedom. College is the apex point of your being an uncontributing member of society. Up to that point all you've done is receive. Becoming an adult is taking on responsibility, contributing to society and earning the real freedom to live a life you value. If you maintained the supposed freedom you have at college you're just blind to the fact that you're totally dependent on other people. A more authentic version of the college freedom would be to go live in the woods and forage for sustenance.

[germinalphrase]

Another reason why a structured, public service year between high school and college would likely be beneficial for most young people in the US.

[david-gpu]

Well put. Becoming a parent made me rethink what it means to be an adult, much along the lines of what you're describing here.

[DiscourseFan]

With the amount of excess wealth in today's society we can afford to give everyone that same level of freedom that people experience in college; there is no need to have people "go out into the woods" if they don't want to, that's insane! I'd rather people go out into space or explore new territories than just try to survive on their own, starve to death meaninglessly. We do not live in wandering bands of hunter-gatherers, we live in an advanced capitalist society with the most marvelous technological capacities in history--your imagination is limited to survival alone?

Plus, you're ignoring that in college many students have the opportunity to spontaneously begin working on projects together that they would never be able to outside of a college campus. I remember reading on here even that a student team broke a world record for a rocket launch I believe, and all the commenters agreed, it could not have happened outside of college, it could not have happened with those exact "responsibilities" that you refer to. Elon Musk has eleven kids just because, you know, he can--many aspiring parents in this country today struggle to have just one.

Those responsibilities? They are the crushing of individual creative potential in society through the extraction of wealth via wage-labor. Oh, but it's "privileged" to be a creative, its privileged to build something on your own for your own sake, its privileged to go out and explore and discover new things, its privileged to have children; perhaps you might see why many believe their own society has it out for them, and why this whole logic of "building character" is just a horrific repetition of their daily lives filled with meaningless toil just to survive so some millionaire can have an existential crisis because they can't imagine a world outside of it.

"There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

[jebarker]

I don't believe that we should all be off in the woods on our own. Quite the opposite. I think human society is an incredible thing but it requires contribution from those involved in it.