Weekly Top Five Articles: The Importance of Warmth, Structure, Belonging
Consciousness, friendship, and faith all turn out to be received rather than achieved
Here’s central theme running through these articles: life is not self-developed but received by a community, assembled out of warm relationships and structure that no one can provide for themselves alone.
1. The Self That Is Held by Other People
Terry Eagleton, “’Plastered Saint,’” Commonweal
Eagleton, a professor at Oxford, argues that no one’s life can generated from the inside of a person because identity is formed within relationship with others. This needs to happen without alcohol being the social lubricant. The sense of who we are is often assembled by others in terms of the relationships that give us feedback about who we are. Eagleton tells the story of his own alcohol use a social lubricant but it also limited his capacity authenticity during his time in college and early in his career. Unable to find genuine connection as an adult, he turned to his students: “Sharing my woes with a few sympathetic students placed an emotional demand on them to which they were inevitably unequal, leaving them both embarrassed and alarmed.” Once his embraced sobriety, his life and career improved. The piece matters because it shows what happens to a man who carries internal struggles to the wrong place that can offer no relief.
2. Consciousness Was Never the Same Thing as Cognition
Daniel Freeman, “The Tantalizing Possibility of Locating Consciousness in the Brain,” Noema Magazine
In the article, Freeman observes: “For decades, cognitive neuroscience was organized around a grand challenge: explaining how electrical activity flowing through networks of brain cells could produce the remarkable behaviors associated with our intelligence. Yet now we have computers that can achieve such cognitive feats, and still, we seem no closer to understanding how the brain produces our conscious awareness. Perhaps we have become too accustomed to thinking of consciousness as something inseparable from cognition. It may be that the computations occurring throughout the brain remain largely hidden from awareness, and what we actually experience consists of a highly processed, felt summary of their results. Feelings are not merely reports about the state of the organism; they are the mechanism through which motivation arbitration takes place. The big questions surrounding consciousness are moving from philosophy to the laboratory bench.'“
The piece matters because it dismantles the misguided belief that our ability to reason is how we determine the worth of a person, a notion that continues to shape everything from the academic to the how we hire people for jobs.
3. Friendship Is an Institutional Byproduct
Michael Toscano, Joseph E. Davis, and Ken Burchfiel, “America’s Demoralized Men, Part II: Lost Pathways, Greater Struggles,” Institute for Family Studies
Toscano, Davis, and Burchfiel find that a large share of young American men are demoralized rather than hostile, short on close friends, thin on institutional attachment, and heavily absorbed in gambling, gaming, and pornography. Here’s a summary of their data: “Slightly less than half of young men feel a steady emotional connection to others. The other half report feeling lonely or isolated at least some of the time. Four out of 10 young men have two or fewer close friends. Social, civic, and religious participation is low. About half agree that, ‘No matter how hard I work, people like me will never achieve the American Dream.’ Still, 84% say that having ambitious plans for the future describes them at least somewhat well. Electronic media use is very high. Gambling is rampant, gaming is very common, and pornography use is also extremely widespread. Online gambling and pornography have significant emotional repercussions.” The piece matters because it locates the trouble in structures rather then the weaknesses of men. The strongest predictor of thriving human connection in contexts like marriage, church, schools, or a team.
4. Hardship Compounds Before a Child Can Name It
Karina Petrova, “Parental mental illness is linked to lower cognitive scores in young men,” PsyPost
Petrova reports on a Danish study of more than 125,000 young men. “Petrova reports the following: Young men who grew up with a parent diagnosed with a mental disorder tend to score slightly lower on cognitive tests in late adolescence. But this link vanishes for children who experienced multiple other hardships, lived with a single parent, or were placed in foster care. Mental health conditions are common and can represent a major source of stress in a young child’s environment. The first six years of life are a time of rapid brain development. During this period, children rely heavily on their parents for care and stability. Disruptions in the home can sometimes affect how a child’s cognitive abilities develop over time.” The piece matters because it shows that hardship in small episodes rather than massive events and that the first six years of life need to be protected from adversity at all costs.
5. Faith Travels Through Warmth, Not Through Ideology
Karina Petrova, “Parental conservatism does not improve the transmission of religious beliefs, study shows,” PsyPost
Petrova reports on research led by Melanie Stearns finding that religious belief passes down most reliably from parents who join warmth to structure, while parental political conservatism does nothing to strengthen the transfer. Petrova reports the following: “Young adults are more likely to share their parents’ religious habits when they view their upbringing as warm but structured. A recent study reveals that regional geographic culture alters how different parenting strategies shape this intergenerational transmission of faith. Social scientists use the term emerging adulthood to describe the developmental period between ages 18 and 25. During this window, individuals typically leave their childhood homes and begin making independent decisions about their personal values and religious practices. Past research shows a reliable association between the religious habits of parents and those of their adult children.” The piece matters showing distinctions between: forming a child in faith and forming a child in a political posture. What matters is warmth!
What This Actually Means
What makes a life work human development is having people that love you and create a context for warmth and connection. This is what forms us into who we are.
BONUS—College Football
College football season is around the corner (YES!!). ESPN just posted the NIL salaries of Power 4 athletes. Quarterbacks are averaging $1M-$3M. This is insane money to me! Here are the rest.