I don't know what the official stance on mental-maturity is, so I'm afraid I can't exactly tell you when people are fully mentally mature; different cultures and societies have different ideas about what it means to be mature. In Brazil, there is a tribe of people who believe that sticking your hand into a gauntlet full of bullet ants signifies maturity, and some cultures believe that one is only mature after they have absorbed all of the necessary cultural information one needs to be a functioning member of that society. Many cultures have rites-of-passage one needs to go through before they are considered adults. Think of Jewish mitzvahs.
I don't feel anything remotely close to being mentally-mature, whatever that means. Sometimes, I just feel like a kid in a young man's body; some people still think I am a kid, because I apparently even look somewhat neotenous. Of course, our culture's idea of childhood seems to have changed; we're not as comfortable ejecting 18 year-olds out into world as we once were, I think, even though they are legally considered adults. It has been said that the United States (sorry to those of you who aren't American and feel that I'm lumping your experiences in with mine) has become a culture that is fascinated with youth, almost to the point of trying to extend it indefinitely. I don't know if that's the case or not, but I'd say I'm definitely less mature than either of my grandfathers were when they were my age.
I don't think that anyone necessarily reaches mental maturity. We change as we grow older, and sometimes adults can act more unreasonably than children. We just grow and change, or get stagnant while the world keeps spinning around us.
What are the signs of maturity?
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I don't know what the official stance on mental-maturity is, so I'm afraid I can't exactly tell you when people are fully mentally mature; different cultures and societies have different ideas about what it means to be mature. In Brazil, there is a tribe of people who believe that sticking your hand into a gauntlet full of bullet ants signifies maturity, and some cultures believe that one is only mature after they have absorbed all of the necessary cultural information one needs to be a functioning member of that society. Many cultures have rites-of-passage one needs to go through before they are considered adults. Think of Jewish mitzvahs.
I don't feel anything remotely close to being mentally-mature, whatever that means. Sometimes, I just feel like a kid in a young man's body; some people still think I am a kid, because I apparently even look somewhat neotenous. Of course, our culture's idea of childhood seems to have changed; we're not as comfortable ejecting 18 year-olds out into world as we once were, I think, even though they are legally considered adults. It has been said that the United States (sorry to those of you who aren't American and feel that I'm lumping your experiences in with mine) has become a culture that is fascinated with youth, almost to the point of trying to extend it indefinitely. I don't know if that's the case or not, but I'd say I'm definitely less mature than either of my grandfathers were when they were my age.
I don't think that anyone necessarily reaches mental maturity. We change as we grow older, and sometimes adults can act more unreasonably than children. We just grow and change, or get stagnant while the world keeps spinning around us.
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heckleBucker
7 years ago
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Interesting viewpoint.