I am sixteen years of age. My generation is your future. How does this make you feel? Are you excited about the next generation? Do you look forward to seeing what stunning new contributions we will make to this, our brave new world?
You shouldn't.
It was in the late 80s and early 90s that the "cult of the child," as the late George Carlin referred to it, became a major nationwide force. It was born of the self-esteem movement, in which motivational speakers began to try to convince us that each of us was special in our own special way. Unfortunately, even the most ignorant among us could deduce from the level of stupidity and aggression in the world that not all of us were miraculous creations. But we liked the idea, so we brought the guns of the self-esteem movement to bear on our children. Kids are cute. Kids are innocent. Surely, all of them were special and wonderful, right?
Right or wrong, it suddenly and without warning became commonplace to pamper one's child. No, more than pamper them. Parents became convinced that nothing that little Timmy ever did was wrong and any shortcoming or mistake or shirking of responsibility was clearly the product of malevolent outside influences. If Timmy got a bad grade, then the teacher wasn't teaching him properly. If Timmy smoked pot or drank beer, then it was that nasty peer pressure that got to our precious, defenseless little child.
These conceits persist today. We are being raised on them. Newsflash: we are not brain-dead. Not everything that we do is determined by outside influences. Quite simply, it has become forgivable, in the rosy eyes of these cooing parents, for a child to cast away the very concept of seriousness. Because we live in a world devoid of true consequences, it has become okay in teenage culture to not give a crap.
I am not talking about the anti-establishment movement of the sixties and seventies. Not the personal liberties movements that young people have catalyzed for centuries. We are the polar opposite. Without responsibilities, we are deprived of consequences. Without consequences, we are deprived of motivation. Without motivation, we are deprived of caring. Without caring, we are deprived of values.
And I see it firsthand everyday. I know that this is true. The majority of teenagers do not harbor even a remote curiosity about anything that occurs outside their enclosed little social worlds. We have no values. We do not care what is going on in the world. If something does not affect us directly, then it is of total irrelevancy to us, and any that do care are ostracized for being "tight-asses" and getting caught up in things that aren't "important." It is backwards. There is no other word for it. And it is scary.
There are two foreseeable results. They boil down to being thrown in a lake and sinking or swimming. The optimist hopes that these shiftless kids, when forced out of the nest and into society, will adapt. It is the hope that we, when exposed to a broken health-care system and the necessity to pay taxes and maintain employment, the effort that goes into feeding and clothing and sheltering ourselves, will have a collective epiphany and manage to become functioning members of American society. Only then can we think about actually improving our brave new world.
The other option is scarier. I fear that we will sink. That we will have no idea what to do with ourselves. We'll spend recklessly and party ever harder for refuge from the torment of adult responsibility. We will still not care. The economy will free-fall yet again, and the same complacency that allowed the Iraq War to happen will reemerge, twofold. It will be a bad time for America. This too shall pass? How do you think we will raise our children?
You must fight this. Many of you are proud parents. Go. Teach us right from wrong. But more than that, teach us responsibility. Hold us accountable for our mistakes and misbehavior. Punish us when we are bad. Prepare us relentlessly for adult life. But most of all, teach us to stand for something. Give us values applicable to the whole world around us. Make us care.
You are our future as much as we are yours.