The biggest challenges that people face appear to be in implementing what is most central to them. The World War II generation wanted peace, prosperity and national greatness, and it was challenged with a depression and a war. The baby boom generation wanted personal freedom, and it was challenged with a rigid social order. Gen-Xers wanted structure, stability and service, and they were challenged with social chaos and unchecked self-justified selfishness that told them that they needed to have a positive outlook and high self-esteem before they could do anything of merit even as it was stomping upon whatever positive things they did and put the world into a sorry shape in which positive outlook was not justified. And many in my generation wanted beauty and love, and we were challenged with toxic feminism and toxic psychology that wrongfully saw such things as narcissism or misogyny.
It appears that this is how things are intended to be. It appears that we must rise above such things or else live desperate lives. And it appears that, in order to do so, we need to rise above our own natures and do what is not in our natures.
For science, reason and democracy to come into existence during Enlightenment, they had to convince people that they would be done in an ethical manner. For a long time the reputation, as Luther stated, was that “reason is a whore.” Scientific intelligence was forbidden because it was seen as unethical and morally corrupt. So Enlightenment people had to practice strong ethical conduct in order to convice the world to allow science and discovery, as well as of course democracy.
For passion and the arts to come into existence during Romanticism, they had to convince people that they possessed an underlying logic. At the time the claim was that such things were irrational and were held in low esteem. Through the efforts of genius authors such as Rousseau, Thoreau, Wordsworth, Goether, Keats, Schiller, Mary Shelley and Blake, who knew how to reason while being passionate and creative, passion and creativity were rationally vindicated. This allowed such things to lay a claim on life. They were also seen as immoral; and it took Schiller with his concept of “beautiful soul” to show that there was in fact an ethic to them as well.
Religion, for its part, has also had to show that it is intellectually and scientifically valid. For a long time religion was seen as backward, stupid or ignorant, so it had to use scientific fact and philosophical reasoning in order to regain credibility. So there were Christian intellectuals using postmodernist arguments to validate Christianity and Christian scientists using scientific discoveries to make a credible case for creationism.
In all cases the process of bringing such things into the world improved them. The reasoning types were improved by having to act ethically. The creative and passionate types were improved by having to master reason. And the religious people were improved by having to learn science and philosophy and use both to re-empower their religion.
Similarly all of the generations listed above were improved by having to make happen what they valued in the conditions that they faced.
With such things as imagination and creativity, it took the scientific discoveries of Einstein to vindicate them. This great scientific mind said that “imagination is more important than knowledge.” We also see medical doctors and scientists such as Karl Jung and Deepak Chopra supporting things such as Eastern spirituality, that mainstream science holds in low regard, by appealing to quantum mechanics and higher mathematics. These people used science to validate what many consider unscientific and give such things greater credibility than they would have had if they did not have credible scientists speaking in their favor.
Similarly, for women to gain economic and political power, they had to convince men that they had rationality and ethics – things that many people thought that women lacked. They also had to cultivate courage and strength, which once again many people thought that women lacked. The more women were able to do this, the more they gained economically and politically. Then feminist women decided that feminine women were weak and stupid. This stereotype was overcome by Olympic champion skier Julia Mancuso, who won the competition while wearing a tiara. It continues being challenged by Russian women, who tend to be feminine without being either stupid or weak.
By themselves, most of the above can go wrong. But when they have to master the previous level in order to bring themselves into life, they improve. They then need to maintain this improvement in order to give themselves a positive reputation. Failure to do so harms others of similar propensities who follow them. Success in so doing makes their path easier.