I think it's important to understand that there may not be a path through this without hardships that are environmentally imposed from outside. Telling GenZ that they should be tougher is probably the right thing to say but it may be impossible for them to be tougher without the stress of a reality that requires that toughness of them. And of course they may bring that reality about by their callous inability to apply a sense of measure to how they approach their problems.
The generations that went through war and famine and plague didn't do so because their elders prepared them for those crises. They did it because they had no choice as their circumstances forced them into fight or flight mode. And as a species we're incredibly good at dealing with that sort of hardship but we're incredibly bad at learning any lessons and preparing subsequent generations how to deal with (or better yet, avoid) them.
So - yes - the Western children of today are 2 generations removed from any real hardship and strife or existential danger. Their problems are real but they obviously don't require the same level of attention or focus or energy to tackle and subsequently they're struggling with a profound loss of meaning because we haven't evolved yet to just be comfortable with low level problems - we only know how to deal with catastrophe and we require that level of problem to feel like we're satisfying our true meaning (or whatnot).
Anyway - I applaud this piece and I agree with its general message but I'm worried that the people who are meant to benefit from it are simply not going to hear it. The culture we have is one of catastrophization (is that a word?) of every problem. The perfect has become the false idol at whose feet we worship and every slight deviation from the perfect is used as a pretext to tarnish the entire enterprise of civilization as fatally flawed - but of course if you parse what is implied there you get to a Christian analysis of original sin to which there is no solution other than the annihilation of the species. C'est la vie.
“The generations that went through war and famine and plague didn't do so because their elders prepared them for those crises. They did it because they had no choice as their circumstances forced them into fight or flight mode.”
True. I’m one of those maligned Boomers, but I had the blessing of two parents who grew up during depression and war. My mother’s parents were immigrants who nearly lost their home and my dad was barely 20 when he flew bombing missions over Europe. They were the most resilient people I ever knew.
What makes the Gen Z obsession with victimhood so noxious is the presence of social media. Gotta out-victim each other on TikTok. Public schools are another problem with its emphasis on DEI, gender, and feelings. Add to that the isolation from Covid and you have a perfect storm.
They like to blame us but I think I imbibed my Father and Mother’s philosophy that you just got on with hand you were dealt with and taught my children that.
Yeah - I've written quite a bit about the ills of Social Media (here's one example - https://www.thebulwark.com/p/social-media-is-the-problem ) but I am loath to just throw my hands up and say "... kids these days". My point, however, is that most of these genies aren't going back into any of their bottles and it may, indeed, be inevitable that the "kids these days" have no way to benefit from all their elder's struggles and will have to simply forge their way forward into whatever awaits them in the fog.
Keep in mind that behind all that emphasis on feelings and DEI and everything else that has turned into a caricature of a farce were very moral and genuinely kind and benevolent intentions of helping everyone live their best lives.
Cynically one may trot out the "road to hell" meme as a retort but everything we have that's good is the product of good intentions so I wouldn't be so callous as to just write all those intentions off as foolhardy.
I didn't mean to start a debate on what Christians believe (which is a very long list of things). I meant that at the heart of Christianity is the idea of all of us being born in sin as a side-effect of Eve and Adam's consumption of the fruit of knowledge. My point being that this is understood to be an immutable factor of what makes us who we are. We are "imperfect" by design so all those who dismiss imperfect solutions on account of said imperfection are, essentially, antithetical to the whole project of humanity.
I’m not sure what the statistics say on this, but I imagine a lot of these “conditions” are applied to people who are or have been to university. Having worked with a few members of Gen Z who haven’t been to university, they really don’t conform to the stereotype set out for them. They’re generally happy and just get on with things.
Amen. Three out of four of my offspring had and still have ADHD and learning g problem but whilst school they had to do their work, their homework and their remedial home and school pri grams. They were expected to behave well. Whenever one of them wanted to blame their conditions I would say- that’s an explanation not an excuse. They are all in productive jobs and except for one, in stable marriages. The one who does struggle, struggles with alcoholism and mental weakness- doing the ADHD thing of blaming others. He does however hold down a job. I totally agree with your thesis. These conditions are explanations not excuses.
This harkens back to Konstatin's great essay regarding constraint vs non-constraint, which is one of the primary differences between conservative and progressive thought. Progressives distain consequential knowledge and as Thomas Sowell have said the intellectual elites never mature beyond an adolescent mindset that reality is nothing more than a social construct. One of the pillars of Christianity, is there are rules set down by God, that may not only get you to heaven, but will in all likelihood will make your life better. The left distains this belief, that there are universal truths, and that unconstraint will eventually lead to a utopia of human understanding, much to the peril of those that end up suffering under such an oppressive belief system. The reality is humans are flawed and we live in a broken world where life is impossibly difficult, so we must constrain much of our natural tendencies in order to live a fulfilled life. IOW we have already been defined by God to be the creatures that we are. As Jordan Peterson says, we were created in the image of God and it's time we started acting that way.
Terrific article, really explains the experience of giving in to absolutely anything to deny yourself the chance to extricate yourself, by your own inner power, out of it. I'm sick of hearing even 40-yr olds blaming every failure, every misstep in their lives on a mental disability of one kind or another. I've had the whole gamut of hurdles, some of them harsh, but I'm lucky enough to have 'suffered' my way to good mental health. It's resilience, taught usually by parents.
I think it's important to understand that there may not be a path through this without hardships that are environmentally imposed from outside. Telling GenZ that they should be tougher is probably the right thing to say but it may be impossible for them to be tougher without the stress of a reality that requires that toughness of them. And of course they may bring that reality about by their callous inability to apply a sense of measure to how they approach their problems.
The generations that went through war and famine and plague didn't do so because their elders prepared them for those crises. They did it because they had no choice as their circumstances forced them into fight or flight mode. And as a species we're incredibly good at dealing with that sort of hardship but we're incredibly bad at learning any lessons and preparing subsequent generations how to deal with (or better yet, avoid) them.
So - yes - the Western children of today are 2 generations removed from any real hardship and strife or existential danger. Their problems are real but they obviously don't require the same level of attention or focus or energy to tackle and subsequently they're struggling with a profound loss of meaning because we haven't evolved yet to just be comfortable with low level problems - we only know how to deal with catastrophe and we require that level of problem to feel like we're satisfying our true meaning (or whatnot).
Anyway - I applaud this piece and I agree with its general message but I'm worried that the people who are meant to benefit from it are simply not going to hear it. The culture we have is one of catastrophization (is that a word?) of every problem. The perfect has become the false idol at whose feet we worship and every slight deviation from the perfect is used as a pretext to tarnish the entire enterprise of civilization as fatally flawed - but of course if you parse what is implied there you get to a Christian analysis of original sin to which there is no solution other than the annihilation of the species. C'est la vie.
“The generations that went through war and famine and plague didn't do so because their elders prepared them for those crises. They did it because they had no choice as their circumstances forced them into fight or flight mode.”
True. I’m one of those maligned Boomers, but I had the blessing of two parents who grew up during depression and war. My mother’s parents were immigrants who nearly lost their home and my dad was barely 20 when he flew bombing missions over Europe. They were the most resilient people I ever knew.
What makes the Gen Z obsession with victimhood so noxious is the presence of social media. Gotta out-victim each other on TikTok. Public schools are another problem with its emphasis on DEI, gender, and feelings. Add to that the isolation from Covid and you have a perfect storm.
They like to blame us but I think I imbibed my Father and Mother’s philosophy that you just got on with hand you were dealt with and taught my children that.
Yeah - I've written quite a bit about the ills of Social Media (here's one example - https://www.thebulwark.com/p/social-media-is-the-problem ) but I am loath to just throw my hands up and say "... kids these days". My point, however, is that most of these genies aren't going back into any of their bottles and it may, indeed, be inevitable that the "kids these days" have no way to benefit from all their elder's struggles and will have to simply forge their way forward into whatever awaits them in the fog.
Keep in mind that behind all that emphasis on feelings and DEI and everything else that has turned into a caricature of a farce were very moral and genuinely kind and benevolent intentions of helping everyone live their best lives.
Cynically one may trot out the "road to hell" meme as a retort but everything we have that's good is the product of good intentions so I wouldn't be so callous as to just write all those intentions off as foolhardy.
Christians believe in redemption and being the best first the Lord that you can be. Not wallowing in your sin.
I didn't mean to start a debate on what Christians believe (which is a very long list of things). I meant that at the heart of Christianity is the idea of all of us being born in sin as a side-effect of Eve and Adam's consumption of the fruit of knowledge. My point being that this is understood to be an immutable factor of what makes us who we are. We are "imperfect" by design so all those who dismiss imperfect solutions on account of said imperfection are, essentially, antithetical to the whole project of humanity.
Yes. Created in the image of God but born in sin.
I’m not sure what the statistics say on this, but I imagine a lot of these “conditions” are applied to people who are or have been to university. Having worked with a few members of Gen Z who haven’t been to university, they really don’t conform to the stereotype set out for them. They’re generally happy and just get on with things.
Folks gotta remember all this weakness cope don't mean shit when it hits the fan.
Buck up or else. That's how life is and it's a good thing.
Amen. Three out of four of my offspring had and still have ADHD and learning g problem but whilst school they had to do their work, their homework and their remedial home and school pri grams. They were expected to behave well. Whenever one of them wanted to blame their conditions I would say- that’s an explanation not an excuse. They are all in productive jobs and except for one, in stable marriages. The one who does struggle, struggles with alcoholism and mental weakness- doing the ADHD thing of blaming others. He does however hold down a job. I totally agree with your thesis. These conditions are explanations not excuses.
This harkens back to Konstatin's great essay regarding constraint vs non-constraint, which is one of the primary differences between conservative and progressive thought. Progressives distain consequential knowledge and as Thomas Sowell have said the intellectual elites never mature beyond an adolescent mindset that reality is nothing more than a social construct. One of the pillars of Christianity, is there are rules set down by God, that may not only get you to heaven, but will in all likelihood will make your life better. The left distains this belief, that there are universal truths, and that unconstraint will eventually lead to a utopia of human understanding, much to the peril of those that end up suffering under such an oppressive belief system. The reality is humans are flawed and we live in a broken world where life is impossibly difficult, so we must constrain much of our natural tendencies in order to live a fulfilled life. IOW we have already been defined by God to be the creatures that we are. As Jordan Peterson says, we were created in the image of God and it's time we started acting that way.
Hi Freya. Gen X'er here. Nice column, but I can boil it down to four letters for Gen Z; DBAP.
There must be a snug receptore in the brain because I see a lot of smug looking faces playing the grievance game
Smug
Participation trophy culture and mindset has got us to this level of fragility and weakness in society.
The language of choice is always useful too for parents.
I also tried to reach my offspring to lean on God and trust in the redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Terrific article, really explains the experience of giving in to absolutely anything to deny yourself the chance to extricate yourself, by your own inner power, out of it. I'm sick of hearing even 40-yr olds blaming every failure, every misstep in their lives on a mental disability of one kind or another. I've had the whole gamut of hurdles, some of them harsh, but I'm lucky enough to have 'suffered' my way to good mental health. It's resilience, taught usually by parents.