21 Jul Your Parents Lied To You

Time for another healthy dose of reality breakfast biscuits with a side of culture shock gravy. Look, your parents probably loved you. Like most likely. Hopefully. We know they meant well, but sometimes our parents just get it wrong. Today, I want to touch on my view of the number one thing that our parents lied to us about, and that is simply how the world works.

Life Doesn’t Give A F-k About You

Anyone who has lived for a few decades and has been through some sh-t knows that the world doesn’t give a flying monkey turd about you. Sounds messed up, but why should it? That’s some fairytale pixie hopes that is usually held when life has yet to smack you with the backhand of reality.

This world is and always has been about one thing, survival. Obtaining safety, shelter, food, and water. The simple basics that our ancestors lived with for hundreds of thousands of years. Only today, instead of having to build a mud or grass hut and go out hunting with bows everyday, we obtain an education and try to get the best job/career we can to buy what we need. A bunch of extra steps, but a reality none the less.

This also can be seen in people you run into on a daily basis. People are too caught up in their own lives and the problems they are dealing with that they couldn’t care less about what’s going on with you and your little world. Unfortunately, people are more selfish and egotistical than ever as this is the social standard that our modern culture has fostered. We can see this attitude from corporations working you to the bone for crumbs, to people fighting over the last roll of toilet paper with a perspective of “F you, got mine”. It’s the American way of course.

Where Mommy & Daddy Went Wrong

Your parents have one job, and it’s a big one. That job is to prepare you to be able to survive in the world. It is their responsibility to teach you how to provide a living for yourself, be a semi-functioning member of society, and then teach your children the same. And this is where a lot of parents of today have sh-t the bed.

Parents are so busy trying to make money and move up the corporate ladder so they can pay the bills or buy a bunch of sh-t they don’t need, that they have partially or completely neglected their children. Instead of spending most of their time raising a decent human being, they have pushed them off to other institutions and people such as schools, church, government, or nanny’s. Some just let their kids go rogue in the streets (my childhood) and browse social media or TV until their kids are nagging to be fed the 5th bowl of fruity pebbles in a row.

We’ve Lost Our Way

For most of our human history, the knowledge of how to survive in our environment was passed on from grandparents, to parents, to children with the help of all in the community to enforce these lessons. It was a community effort in raising children because they understood it takes a village (or tribe). Yet today, we think we can do it all on our own because, you know, I’m boss like that.

Instead of dividing up the community responsibilities so that children get the proper care they need to grow into mature adults ready for the world, we decided to try to do everything ourselves because the internet suggested that would be a good idea. How egotistical do you have to be to think you can take the role of an entire community and do it all yourself? Look at the world today and tell me if this new approach is working out well. Yeah, not so much.

Take A Bite Of Truth

The truth is, after you reach adulthood, no one is responsible for your survival other than you, even if your parents fumbled the ball on preparing you for this. The world functions based on who is fittest or most adaptable to their environment. This is a rule in nature that applies to all living things, and I’ll tell you a little secret, humans are not exempt from this rule. Your success in life depends on your ability to first understand and accept the reality of your environment, and second make use of that reality in the best way you can to provide success for yourself and subsequently, your children. This is the entire purpose of humans on this planet, despite what ever trendy blogger wants to say is the whole purpose of life.

This became extremely apparent to me when I got the opportunity to work with one of the biggest audio engineers in the world. He, being as famous as he was, was quite well off and he spent a good amount of time teaching me finance of the wealthy. It was during these impromptu lessons that I realized that my own family was screwed. We were raised with a completely different set of rules for how to survive in the world, and it instantly became clear that either we operated with this big picture reality, or stay in the same economic situation we’ve been in for generations.

My Bad Bro

So did your parents screw up? Probably, but taking the time to understand and accept the reality of the world you live in provides you the opportunity to change your situation and go from struggling to survive in this world to thriving. Remember, no one is responsible for your survival in this world except you, and it is then your responsibility to teach this to your children. You are their guide and the direction you provide is the direction they will go; whether that’s toward success or being a negative news headline. Don’t be those parents. Do better than yours did, and remember that productive action always starts with understanding and acceptance of reality. The reality of this world is harsh, but it always has been and it’s up to you to overcome it.

The purpose of this GI SAID IT blog is simple, to provide perspective. GI delivers this unique perspective in a style that is unapologetically honest, straight to the point, and at times a bit brutal. GI SAID IT: Brutally honest, no BS. Click for more GI SAID IT shows and articles.