As an observer of where concern arises about the future, I often see the finger pointed at the society that has produced the college-age or twenty-something generation. Misguided young adults have been sent on their way into life in such a state that they are bound to suffer a painful fall, but in the process of that psychic collapse all the signs are that they will make society as a whole suffer.
In a post on this site created a few days ago I wrote how "the snowflake generation" had not been brought up to comprehend that everyone has to face suffering in life, and that maturity is apparent through a person's acceptance of sacrifice, as well as the necessity of tolerance, as against arrogance and the belief that happiness equates with pleasure.
An American journalist and author, Rod Dreher, is one of those concerned at the poorly prepared younger generation, particularly because of their lack of insight into the human condition, especially our innate weakness. He recorded with agreement in his Daily Dreher blog on Substack these thoughts of a correspondent:
I think that they [young people] don't believe in human fallibility because they haven't experienced it. They think that if only "the right people" were put in charge of everything, those "right people" could fix all the world's problems quickly and easily. Young people in all places and times have considered themselves infallible, at least for a time, but I think this phenomenon is uniquely present in certain sectors of modern American society.
If you're an American student at an elite private university or flagship state university (e.g. in one of the wokest places on Earth), you probably had a pretty sheltered upbringing. (I would know because I am part of this group!) You think that prosperity, safety, and justice are easy, and that if only we ran the whole world like the suburb you grew up in, everything would be all right.
What will it take to get young people to recognize human fallibility? I think we need to get them to really experience what life is like outside of their sheltered environments. Get them to volunteer in daycares, nursing homes, homeless shelters, or prisons. Get them to join the military, the Peace Corps, or missionary organizations. They need to experience birth, death, sin, responsibility, deprivation, and futility. They need to learn that life is complicated and that you can't wave a magic wand that will fix everything. Ultimately, we need to get our most affluent, influential, and therefore sheltered young people reacquainted with reality.
Dreher concludes that post with this:
Parents who have shielded their children from every failure are creating monsters. I spoke recently to a teacher who had to endure a miserable ordeal at his school with the parent of a student who had made a D on a paper in his class. The student’s father phoned the teacher enraged over the grade. The dad said it would affect his daughter getting into college. According to this teacher, Dad genuinely believed that his daughter deserved an A for effort, and raised hell when the teacher refused to budge. [...] That poor girl. The day is coming when she’s not going to know what hit her.
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