The Professionalized Self

Welcome!
“The Professionalized Self” is a blog dedicated to promoting the evolution of a more “professionalized” society. Ours, that is American society, is the first fully middle class society in the history of the world. It is the first society in which the middle class sets the social agenda and exercises the most significant social powers.
As such, ours is becoming the first extensively professionalized society in the history of the world. It is a society that more and more depends upon individuals becoming “self-motivated experts” at what they do. Both on the job, and in our private lives, more of us are required to make knowledgeable decisions that affect our lives—and often the lives of many others.
A decentralized society, and of necessity, a mass techno-commercial society of the sort we inhabit, must delegate increased responsibilities to those best situated to make the appropriate selections. More often than ever, only those located at vital choice-points possess the information and motivation to make sensible decisions.
Nevertheless, this is frequently difficult to manage. A personalized expertise does not come automatically. It takes time and effort to develop the required knowledge and emotional maturity to be successfully self-directed. Wishing alone cannot make things turn out as we hope.
Worse still, because we are pioneers in developing a professionalized society, there are, as of yet, few well-developed strategies for doing so. Indeed, we are in the process of developing these for ourselves. In short, we are embarked on a learning curve that may itself prove arduous.
As a consequence, this blog will be dedicated to facilitating such learning. Both on a social and a private level, it will explore where we are going and how we can best get there. The goal is to make our individual and collective professionalization easier than it might otherwise be.
As regularly as may prove practicable, this space will be devoted to observations and analyses of the contemporary scene. It will comment on a host of political, social, and personal matters. The objective is to further our understanding of what is, in fact, happening to us and what we can individually do to further our personal and shared objectives.
If we succeed in our aspirations, this will not be an ideological exercise. The aim is to be sensible, practical, and useful. Common sense, scientific information, and logic will therefore be our polar stars. As much as is possible, partisan spin will be actively avoided. Indeed, if we accomplish our mission, this exercise will help alter the way we, as a society, perceive numerous social issues. Neither conventionally conservative nor liberal, this space intends to follow wherever the truth may lead.
Readers must consequently judge our efforts for themselves. In a world crowded with growing numbers of Internet submissions, only time will tell if a significant number of you will find these observations of interest. I certainly hope you do. Moreover, I also hope for feedback that improves our collective perspective.
Thank you.
Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.
mfein@kennesaw.edu