The Act Tenet of the Theater Principle

Introduction

Up until the early 80s, it was common practice, not illegal, and socially acceptable to beat your wife and kids. There was little governance on domestic violence and no one batted an eye. Up until the 2010s, it wasn’t necessarily illegal to beat your kids, and by then it started becoming taboo and the majority of nations completely outlawed it. While other nations such as America severely limited it to the point absolutely no harm shall lawfully be inflicted. Generation Z has been the last generation to have it somewhat as a norm for many people. Individuals from other generations, especially Gen X and before grew up with such a barbaric and savage norm running rampant. Millennials included but not to the extent of Gen X.

We see it all the time, previous generations look at current ones and constantly make remarks about how they were abused in the name of “discipline.” And how we should bring it back, in schools, in homes as a norm, etc. Now that it is shunned, severely limited, and illegal we’ve moved on to the next act. And this is just one prominent example in human history.

The Act Tenet

Not long ago we covered the arc tenet, which emphasizes the importance of performing which refers to advancing the human species to counteract extinction-level natural phenomena. The act tenet personifies the progression of society and how it evolves the fundamental building blocks of a civilization. In theater, for example, an act is a new scene, as it would be an episode to a TV show. In theater, an act is another episode of said performance. Using the example above we can see that over time humans started to recognize how a bestial practice such as beating your wife, then offspring was redundant and toxic. Past generations look at it now and don’t see too much wrong with the practice unless they’ve done some serious re-evaluation because that’s how they’ve been brought up. If the subplot of an episode in a show has been changed, the characters will essentially be struck as confused and continue progressing throughout the overall plot as if the subplot hasn’t been changed. Eventually, they notice the change and adjust.

As a civilization progresses its subplots change, and characters from the previous episode have adjusted to that of the previous episode’s subplot. Therefore adjusting to change, to new subplots, is one of their challenges. These acts, episodes, are generations. An individual from Generation X will have a challenge adjusting to new technological innovations that are present initially. An individual who was born in the silent generation with different social norms and values that are vastly different from today will have a challenge adjusting to those in the 2020s initially. Creating a better, safer world for everyone is always a must for future Generations. The Act Tenet personifies the progression and evolution of a civilization’s norms, values, and safety from Generation to Generation. And the characters’ psychology on adjusting to said evolution.

This grand performance we call life, our irrational universe, is finally making sense.

Tis the theater

Thanks for reading

—

This post was previously published on medium.com.

***

From The Good Men Project on Medium

What Does Being in Love and Loving Someone Really Mean?

My 9-Year-Old Accidentally Explained Why His Mom Divorced Me

The One Thing Men Want More Than Sex

The Internal Struggle Men Battle in Silence

***

Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.

All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.

A $50 annual membership gives you an all access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class and community.
A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group and our online communities.
A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.