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It is desperately hard these days for an average child to grow up to be a man, for our present organized system does not want men. They are not safe.
--
Growing Up Absurd (1956), p. 14

 

Paul Goodman

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In such an environment there operates an unfortunate natural selection. Since not only the rewards but also the means and opportunities of public activity belong to the organized system, a bright boy will try to get ahead in it. He will do well in school, keep out of trouble, and apply for the right jobs. It would follow from this that the organized system is sparked by a good proportion of the bright boys, and so it is. On the other hand, in sheer self-protection, smart boys who are sensitive, have strong animal spirits or great souls, cannot play that game. There are two alternative possibilities: (1) Either the advantages of the organized system cause them to inhibit their powers, and they turn into cynical pushers or obsessional specialists or timid hard workers that make up the middle status of the system. Or (2) their natural virtues and perhaps alternative training are too strong and they become independents; but as such they are hard put, not so much hard put for money as for means to act; and so they are likely to become bitter, eccentric, etc., and so much the less effective in changing the system they disapprove

 

Paul Goodman

 

I don't grow up. In me is the small child of my early days.

 

M. C. Escher

 

We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another, unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, of fix us in the present. We are made of layers, cells, constellations.

 

Anais Nin

 

Back in the old days, when I was a child, we sat around the family table at dinner time and exchanged our daily experiences.... It wasn't very organized, but everyone was recognized and all the news that had to be told was told by each family member. We listened to each other and the interest was not put on; it was real. ... A child needs to be listened to and talked to at 3 and 4 and 5 years of age ... Parents should not wait for the sophisticated conversation of a teenager.

 

Bob Keeshan

 

Even crushed against his brother in the Tube the average Englishman pretends desperately that he is alone.

 

Germaine Greer