Brat Camp
This evening I saw a new show on ABC called "Brat Camp." It is about a wilderness camp in Oregon called Sage Walk (click here to see) that tries to help at-risk children who have ran out of options. As I watched the teens strip themselves from all their worldly pleasures, I realized we all need to go to Brat Camp. These teens are some of the most troubled, drug-addicted, boisterous Americans there are and they, upon their emergence into a natural life, find the meaning and purpose of living as a trusting unit.Our current society seems to stress individuality to a point that we lose ourselves. Kids yearn to be an adult quickly so they can move away and live freely on their own, but once you find your little apartment you realize that it is not a wild adult party when the bills begin rolling in. Our separation from our families and communities leads to this aggressive nature to fight for the scraps we find everyday. Going out into the world alone is like a lone piece of string, that with a little bit of tension, will break. A community is a collections of strings that become a sturdy rope that hold up to the tensions of life. We need to rethink our views of desolation as some form of liberty; it is more a distraction from the experiences of various perceptions of the world.
I then watched Morgan Spurlock's "30 Days" episode about two city dwellers moving into an ecovillage called Dancing Rabbit. The show seemed to gel with my brain's deconstruction of what I saw on "Brat Camp". Places like the Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage (click here to see) and Zendik (click here to see) seem to be a couple of examples where people are joining together in a communal sense to remove themselves from the machine of current American life and to live life based on their own choices. It is an addiction we have with this overstimulating world we live in, but to think about removing yourself from the glitz and glamour of society's media, clothing, and fast food reveals how tough it could be. Our society has us enslaved with interest rates and bills, that, to leave the machine we are caught up in, would be hard, but to escape it and find the true realities of life, love, and purpose seems so intoxicating and so inviting.I am jealous as I see those juveniles hike across the cold, Oregon terrain because they are on a path to finding themselves and I am on a path of monotony. But, when their time of introspection comes to a close, and they return to their suburban homes, I can't help but think that they will return to the competition and deflation of American life. It is almost like detoxing a drug addict, but then giving them the cocaine back when their detox is complete.
I flip through the hundreds of channels on my satellite dish watching these shows, critique my life as I sit in the comfort of my air conditioned home, and then type this blog and send it across the world on my DSL connection. I am so much a slave to these unnatural machines that beep and ding at me, but what do I do? How do I just severe myself away from this life? How can I free myself from a tyrannical system that dictates and limits any choices I may have?
3 Comments:
Well, I was unfortunate to catch the same show and I have to totally disagree with you as far as the teens being the most drug addicted boisterous youth there are. The impression I took from this show was of a bunch of upper middle class white parents that suddenly were very unhappy to find that their children weren't carbon copies of their original hopeful visions. The labels beneath these kids' names infuriated me. One girl was labeled a hostile outcast. What teenager with any type of insight or individuality that also happens to be a slightly overweight, insecure teenage girl is not a hostile outcast? Who decides to take such drastic measures because their kid is a hostile outcast or compulsive liar? And the repetitive, monotonous timed tasks and nature inspired pseudonyms of the camp counselors? The same reprogramming tactics are employed in our prison systems and military only to break the spirit of the confined into submission. I was appalled at this show, I had to turn it off halfway through. There is very little compelling about a group of spoiled middle class teenagers being forced to camp and "confront" their inner feelings, which is just a convenient way of drawing about conformity. What would happen if every one of our nation's rebellious or aggressive teenagers had been sent to brat camp? American punk contributions would be non-existent, maybe even Chuck Palahniuk's macabre humor could have been wiped out. I think this kind of generic "tough love" therapy is not really much different than over prescribing Ritalin or Prozac. This show is more indicative of America's inability or basic disinterest in raising our children than of how spoiled our youth has become.
On a happier note, I like the new pic. You aren't so hideous you need all that fuzzy discoloration to hide your features.
I agree with you about the parents, it is their fault for how the children behaved. Take the one kid with ADHD, he was wild and rude to his parents because they allowed him to be, but at the camp he lost the rudeness and loud-mouth sarcasm instantly. That is why I think they will revert back to themselves when they return home, maybe not immediately, but in time.
I do agree with the tactics of setting limits. I think we all need limits in our life. I think poems are better when they are confined by rules like the ones found in a sonnet or villanelle. When I play drums and limit my equipment my drumming becomes better. When I follow a vegan diet and eat within limits I feel better and find foods I would otherwise never try. I think any human, adult or child, that lives with complete abandon and without limits, whether it be disrespecting nature or just mistreating others without understanding, will find themselves in dire straights.
I looked on the Sage Walk site and the fees for this "therapy" are $13,000 and $22,000. We don't need Sage Walk. We can just leave it all behind and head out into the wild frontier ourselves, and, in time, I believe, we will find ourselves. That's what touched me about the show, I didn't care about why the kids were there or what the counselors did, I thought about the land and how we should all leave our plastic worlds and find soil again.
Do I think parents are calling Sage Walk now after seeing the show? Definitely, but they need to understand what contributed to their child's behavior or the behavior will return. All the parents I saw on the show were the stimuli that caused their children to be the way they were. That kind of hands off approach to parenting is a product of our over-mediated society and our beliefs that schools should be the parents. I think that is another reason that we should all run to the hills. We have to get back to who we are, because the futher we distance ourselves from nature, the futher our anger toward one another will advance.
I was a Zendik for a few years in the late 70s. They have something there but you can still create your own scene.
There's nothing wrong with you. Good luck.
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