>>511092335I disagree on a fundamental level. Yes, it can be the case that organisms placed in their ideal growth environments will cause them to flourish, but at the same time, it would weaken their ability to defend against hardships, struggles and traumas. In the case of people, it can lead to misguided beliefs and feelings that they are invulnerable and that everything they say is correct and everybody is beneath them.
In an ironic way, a soft and safe upbringing like this can actually stunt them. It is struggle that really forces a person to acknowledge who they are, and not just wax poetic about how "misunderstood" they are, and if only the world would just listen to the sound of their farts. At the same time, people who go through incredible suffering can end up being stunted too, being lacked opportunities which would otherwise have benefited them, because the struggle brought it out, but circumstances permitted lack of opportunity.
So in a way, I think that tribal society had (and has) it best. Fuck soft parenting, but also fuck abuse and neglect too. We are two sides of the same coin of societal breakdown because of this. Basketcases on either side for opposing reasons.
I've met incredibly smart guys who lacked a sort of intelligence, because their upbringing in poverty or whatever forced them into it. Likewise, I've met incredibly intelligent guys who lacked any kind of 'smartness' about them (I would probably count myself among that class, tbf). But when the coming of the two minds do come together, incredible things can be done. But even better than that is, if everybody shared that struggling upbringing with the passing of wisdom and knowledge, like how our forefathers did.