Thank you, Alex, for your insightful comment. Here are a few thoughts in response:

Considering the complexity of maturity, it's not a simple linear progression from youth to old age and eventually death. While age and experience do play a role, it's not always a direct cause and effect. In psychological traditions, such as Dabrowski's theory of positive disintegration, maturity is a desired state that not everyone reaches, regardless of age. This suggests that a harsh life alone is not the sole determining factor.

For Dabrowski, growth occurs through a series of psychological disintegrations and reintegrations, which result in dramatic changes in one's conceptions of self and the world. It's important to note that maturity is not a fixed, permanent state. Even individuals who have reached it in some aspects of their lives can experience moments of regression into immaturity. This oscillation is a natural part of life and allows us to enjoy playful moments, like playing peekaboo with toddlers, having water balloon fights with teens, or telling a joke at a party.

Negative imagination (or negative thinking) derives from 1950s research into cognitive distortion–the period during which science tried to fix negativity with a lobotomy. Han is a philosopher in the tradition of German philosophy–rarely quoted raw in uplifting TED talks. Optimism is a necessary coping mechanism for a mind in distress and has its merit. In philosophy, Socrates was considered one of the first optimists with his application of moral intellectualism towards personal enlightenment and self-improvement–and we know how well the Athenians received that at the time. Han is not romanticizing any age; he points out and describes drawing parallels between the past and present (e.g., cognition in a book-based knowledge age and a scroll-based information age), leaving us with our thoughts and reflections on 'what can be done.'

We all idealize the past. It is complete and can be dissected from various perspectives. Of course, very few people were enlightened during the Enlightenment–this has not changed much over the centuries. No matter how much information we have and knowledge we can derive from it, wisdom is rare and prefers quiet corners of existence to the limelight of the social media circus. Han accurately describes how the mechanisms of socio-economic control have shifted from the manipulation of physical materials and human bodies (land and serfs) to the manipulation of intangible information and human minds (digital platforms and personal opinions).

As for the reason vs. emotion and human vs. animal arguments, that is a rabbit hole I would rather not get into right now.