“I fought for many years [but]
she did not listen to her mother”
Vera Samsonova
a recent tragic story highlights the classic struggle between parents and children. parents- well intentioned and well reasoned- often cannot connect with their strong minded children.
inherently, human must revolt against their parents to become adults. conflict creates adulthood. each child makes a declaration of independence to pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. the revolution is one fought with screaming matches, the hanging up of calls, the failing to return text messages, and the slamming of doors.
technology has made rapidly armed this rebellion with computer programs, websites, application and social medical. children, by virtue of silicon valley and elsewhere declare their parents obsolete. they think they are smarter than their creators. presently, my cloud- based children must contend with a floppy drive father.
this latest parent-child conflict took a casualty. ms. samsonova’s her daughter passed. she appeared to be a promising and highly successful social media influencer presence. her schtick was pushing extreme dieting on raw fruits and vegetables. she may have been a victim of practicing what she was preaching; her diet was unsustainable for maintaining proper health. likewise, mental issues may have existed before her passing. ominously, she posted “life is meaningless, but worth living, provided you recognize it’s meaningless.”
this influencer was 39 years old and known as zhanna d’art had millions of social media followers. certainly, she was full of clout; perhaps full of ego.
technology has enabled new forms of employment and entrepreneurship. make a living is quite different than the past. artificial intelligence advances set to kill more jobs and create wholly mammoth extinctions across the globe. techies, armed with keyboards and plastic pocket protectors are hunting down jobs one-by-one. most recently, i am awaiting to sit shiva after a parking structure’s automation.
children do have an advantage of parents. currently, this generation’s vision is not clouded by a time when wi-fi did not exist. this edge allows them to strike and the mine the internet for gold. the new landscape created emerging ways of making money that are also ego satisfying. ms. samsonova’s daughter had a future in monetizing her followers to make an impressive living.
the social media jungle, however, is dangerous. like the birds which maintain brilliant colors to find mates, social media clout building and maintaining may push influencers to engage in risky behavior. one must wonder whether ms. zhanna d’art suffered from this. likewise, like concert performers in the past, it is often an emotional struggle to maintain a personality on stage.
in the end, the ancient applies to the old. ms. d’art’s career trajectory was worthy of a risk and reward analysis. this was perhaps the moment upon which mother and daughter could have found some common ground; success at what cost?
we are now living in an increasing bizarro-world. religion, family and community- aspects of life which provided meaning- are being replaced with pride, selfishness and drugs. author yuval harari in paraphrasing nietzche stated “a meaningful life can be extremely satisfying even in the midst of hardship, whereas a meaningless life is a terrible ordeal no matter how comfortable it is.”
parents, in order to address this generational problem must take a proactive approach. before the battle between parent and child goes nuclear, mother and fathers must impress upon their children values and morals. in this instance, even non-western values would have assisted. the tale of the buddha’s awakening and accepting rice would have been a meaningful vision for the daughter. likewise, judeo-christian values concerning the human body would have likewise been valuable.
be well!!
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