western societies - quotes and descriptions to inspire creative writing

The rules and pressures of our western society create a maze with ever moving walls, one with the perimeter ever decreasing. But like any animal or substance squeezed into a smaller space, eventually the internal energy will defeat the external pressure - and that my friend, is revolution, sharp and violent. That's why we're taking down the walls a piece at a time, randomly, quietly, letting pressure escape nice and slow. That's social evolution, gentle and peaceful.

It is an odd thing in western society that we cast out our teenagers into the big wide world so eagerly, instead of keeping them closer as is more common in Africa and other cultures. I see the anxiety in the young, the knowledge that at a certain age they are expected to leave those that raised them. It is a world where failure can mean starvation, homelessness and lack of health care. It is a world that measures their worth based on their income rather than the content of their character. The freedom to leave if they wish, the expectation to work and help out, are both good, but to openly desire the departure of one you have held as a baby is strange. Everyone matures at a unique rate, everyone has different tolerance levels for risk. Sure, sometimes a baby bird may need a loving shove to discover they can really fly, but that's different from them feeling unwelcome to return.

"We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace."

Your passport is your national family membership. It comes with a food card and a right to housing. As all successful tribes in history did, so we do too. When you are one of us we feed and house. That is what membership brings and it makes us a nation. Now we have a national health service that works and not simply hospitals to mop up the sickness caused by stress and inequity. The difference is night and day. Our nation really works. Our society really works. Other nations spend their money on police, prisons and bombs... what we do is actually cheaper. So, yeah, we feel pretty smug about it... one could say... exceptionally smug.