Younger Americans are more pessimistic about the country than any generation before them. Their disillusionment may stem less from politics than from a growing sense of invisibility.
Invisibility? Or entitlement? Life has ALWAYS been hard and unfair. This is nothing new. Unrealistic expectations created unreasonable demands. Just ask those who lived through the great depression, or world wars. And soon, because those remaining are not long for this world. However we are a society that celebrates youth, NOT wisdom. Just some thoughts from a Gen X latch key kid.
I think the younger generation is desperate to be seen....but that is not how you build hope. They should be building the world, adding to it, creating something. Whatever it might be for them. They already are all expert at marketing themselves...they are often seen a lot, and heard a lot (what do they like, want, hate, I hear it all the time).
I think the goal should be what are they going to create with their lives? Who are they going to try to truly see?
I really enjoyed this. As a therapist, working with many young people (Gen Z & millennials), I believe that young people are largely disconnected - from in-person relationships, their bodies, nature, a sense of purpose that comes from being of service to a greater cause, and from a spiritual anchor. They are in a vacuum, and since nature hates a vacuum, they develop a false sense of connection through the dopamine hits they get with social media, achievement, materialism, virtue signaling, hook-up culture... I don't blame them. I think of kids as the canary in the coal mine. We need to look at the toxic environment in which they are growing up. What values are taught and role modeled by their parents/caregivers? What is prioritized in their family? Does the family have centering rituals, eg family meals, activities, vacations? Do parents emphasize achievement culture, and engage in it themselves? I have been struck with how eating disorders and gender distress provide many aspects of religiosity to the person struggling in this way - rules, language, "solutions," social media accounts with "gurus," community, attention, "enemies," self-righteousness, a feeling of control.
This is, sadly, what happens when you have two generations who've been consistently told they're "special" and then discover they are not. The disconnect is of their own making, since they prefer being insulated from reality by keyboards and AI. Gen X was told from the very beginning that we were NOT special and then left to our own devices. The younger generations are only invisible to themselves because they are discovering very late in the game that they are not special and do not deserve any special consideration or attention just because they are breathing. Sorry...but that's how it is.
Wow! This wove together so many different threads of thought that I’ve been pondering lately. And it did it in a way that the conclusion resonated with me. The great irony is that I read it on social media. Thanks for sharing this.
"We might not deal with a high infant mortality rate or with wondering where our next meal is coming from, but we face existential problems of our own: a dearth of meaning, a lack of feeling of belonging, a culture that conflates our financial success with our worth as a human being"
I think people have always faced existential problems. The reason more people didn't 100 years ago was that they were struggling so hard to survive that they couldn't think about a lack of meaning.
My grandfather, born in 1899, was one of only 3 out of 11 children who survived to adulthood. His parents had no money. At age 18 he had just completed basic training when WWI ended and he got a job driving a mule train. A year later he decided he wanted to register at the University of Arizona, but he couldn't come up with the $2.35 registration fee. He prostrated himself before his rich uncle and got a loan of $2.35, hitchhiked to Tucson, registered, and attended university full time while sleeping in doorways and eating at most one meal a day. Eventually he got his degree and went on to law school, ultimately becoming a State Supreme Court Justice.
My Dad was born in 1936 and worked picking strawberries and other fruit from the age of eight until he was thirteen and started working in his father's machine shop. His father didn't pay him, but saved the money for my Dad's college. Dad got into MIT and paid his way with savings and by cleaning houses for four years. He eventually got his Ph.D. and became a physicist. When he and my Mom bought their first house, they were so house poor that he couldn't afford a tape deck to listen to music in his car on his hour long commute to work.
I could not agree more about the divine piece. I feel very strongly that religion (whichever one you choose) helps you through the rough patches because you have a sense that someone cares about you. It grounds you and helps you to overcome despair. Getting more young people to attach to a faith tradition would really help them in today's complicated world.
Nice post. Being seen not only benefits you, but it creates a virtuous spiral because Being Seen also solves the larger problem of community breakdown referenced in Bowling Alone.
Invisibility? Or entitlement? Life has ALWAYS been hard and unfair. This is nothing new. Unrealistic expectations created unreasonable demands. Just ask those who lived through the great depression, or world wars. And soon, because those remaining are not long for this world. However we are a society that celebrates youth, NOT wisdom. Just some thoughts from a Gen X latch key kid.
The necessary condition to being seen is to be able to see.
I think the younger generation is desperate to be seen....but that is not how you build hope. They should be building the world, adding to it, creating something. Whatever it might be for them. They already are all expert at marketing themselves...they are often seen a lot, and heard a lot (what do they like, want, hate, I hear it all the time).
I think the goal should be what are they going to create with their lives? Who are they going to try to truly see?
In the world?
I really enjoyed this. As a therapist, working with many young people (Gen Z & millennials), I believe that young people are largely disconnected - from in-person relationships, their bodies, nature, a sense of purpose that comes from being of service to a greater cause, and from a spiritual anchor. They are in a vacuum, and since nature hates a vacuum, they develop a false sense of connection through the dopamine hits they get with social media, achievement, materialism, virtue signaling, hook-up culture... I don't blame them. I think of kids as the canary in the coal mine. We need to look at the toxic environment in which they are growing up. What values are taught and role modeled by their parents/caregivers? What is prioritized in their family? Does the family have centering rituals, eg family meals, activities, vacations? Do parents emphasize achievement culture, and engage in it themselves? I have been struck with how eating disorders and gender distress provide many aspects of religiosity to the person struggling in this way - rules, language, "solutions," social media accounts with "gurus," community, attention, "enemies," self-righteousness, a feeling of control.
National Socialism will not just deliver the material changes in conditions that young Americans crave, but also give them comradeship and purpose.
This is, sadly, what happens when you have two generations who've been consistently told they're "special" and then discover they are not. The disconnect is of their own making, since they prefer being insulated from reality by keyboards and AI. Gen X was told from the very beginning that we were NOT special and then left to our own devices. The younger generations are only invisible to themselves because they are discovering very late in the game that they are not special and do not deserve any special consideration or attention just because they are breathing. Sorry...but that's how it is.
Wow! This wove together so many different threads of thought that I’ve been pondering lately. And it did it in a way that the conclusion resonated with me. The great irony is that I read it on social media. Thanks for sharing this.
"We might not deal with a high infant mortality rate or with wondering where our next meal is coming from, but we face existential problems of our own: a dearth of meaning, a lack of feeling of belonging, a culture that conflates our financial success with our worth as a human being"
I think people have always faced existential problems. The reason more people didn't 100 years ago was that they were struggling so hard to survive that they couldn't think about a lack of meaning.
My grandfather, born in 1899, was one of only 3 out of 11 children who survived to adulthood. His parents had no money. At age 18 he had just completed basic training when WWI ended and he got a job driving a mule train. A year later he decided he wanted to register at the University of Arizona, but he couldn't come up with the $2.35 registration fee. He prostrated himself before his rich uncle and got a loan of $2.35, hitchhiked to Tucson, registered, and attended university full time while sleeping in doorways and eating at most one meal a day. Eventually he got his degree and went on to law school, ultimately becoming a State Supreme Court Justice.
My Dad was born in 1936 and worked picking strawberries and other fruit from the age of eight until he was thirteen and started working in his father's machine shop. His father didn't pay him, but saved the money for my Dad's college. Dad got into MIT and paid his way with savings and by cleaning houses for four years. He eventually got his Ph.D. and became a physicist. When he and my Mom bought their first house, they were so house poor that he couldn't afford a tape deck to listen to music in his car on his hour long commute to work.
This is what happens when you've been indoctrinated into believing that you should eschew having children to "save the planet."
I could not agree more about the divine piece. I feel very strongly that religion (whichever one you choose) helps you through the rough patches because you have a sense that someone cares about you. It grounds you and helps you to overcome despair. Getting more young people to attach to a faith tradition would really help them in today's complicated world.
Nice post. Being seen not only benefits you, but it creates a virtuous spiral because Being Seen also solves the larger problem of community breakdown referenced in Bowling Alone.
They need to STOP emotional numbing our children and society!
Indeed, America needs radical change: National Socialism!