As our organised system perfects itself, there is less "open" environment. It is hard for a social animal to grow when there is not an open margin to grow in: some open space, some open economy, some open mores, some activity free from regulation and cartes d'identite. I am referring not to a war between the "individual" and society, or to a wild animal that has to be acculturated - for there is no such individual or animal - but to a deepening sociologiacl flaw in the modern system itself. A society cannot have decided all possibilities beforehand and have structured them. If society becomes too tightly integrated and pre-empts all the available space, materials and methods, then it is failing to provide for just the margin of formlessness, real risk, novelty, spontaneity, that makes growth possible. This almost formal cause importantly drives young people out of the oranised system altogether and makes creative adults loath to co-operate with it. When time, clothes, opinions, and goalsbecome so regulated that people feel they cannot be "themselves" or create something new, they bolt and look for fringes and margins, loopholes, holes in the wall, or they just run.Our society pre-empts literally too much of the space. For instance, it is impossible in the Eastern United Statesto pitch a tent and camp for the night without registering with the National Parks and its list of regulations. You cannot go off somewhere for a sexual bout without paying rent. Almost any stone that a kid picks up and any target that he throws it at, is property. People hygienically adopt a permissive attitude toward the boisterousness and hyperkinesis of children, and meantime we design efficient minimum housing. Under modern urban conditions, it is impossible for an old woman to be a harmless lunatic, as was commonplace in country palces; she would hurt herself, get lost among strangers, disrupt traffic, stop the subway. She must be institutionalized. If you roam the street late at night doing nothing, and looking for something to do, the cop who is protecting you and everybody else doesn't want you to be going nowhere and to have nothing to do; and you ask him, Does he have any suggestions?
from "Growing Up Absurd" by Paul Goodman
