The Manic Society
Decline in Meaning
A number of factors in today's society are resulting in individuals leading a less than truly fulfilling life. These emanate on the one hand from dealing with rapid globalization, changes brought by technology, increased competition and volatility of employment and financial markets and on the other from increase in false sense of individuality and break-down of family and social structures.
The resultant impact is the significant increase in stress related illnesses ("approximately 75-90% of all visits to the primary care doctors are for stress related problems, with job stress being by far the leading cause" - Time Magazine, 2004), the high divorce rates (about half of the marriages in most western cultures fail), and the growing extent of issues with the youth, related to drug-abuse, violence, depression, and teenage pregnancy.
Similarly, organizations and their employees are today challenged to an unprecedented level. While the emphasis on consistently meeting quarterly expectations has possibly benefited organizations enhance efficiency, it has perhaps also led to dilution of clarity of purpose and distraction from any mission, encompassing an effective social context, for the organizations. Similarly, employees may be pressured to achieve shorter-term goals and be tempted to pursue narrow personal gains.
Having said that, we believe its eminently possible for individuals and organizations to define and create the existence that they really want.