A Generation Detached?
Are Occupy Wall Street, the Penn State student uprisings in support of JoePa, and the delay of marriage among our young men and women part and parcel of one trend? Is there some social change underlying them all to which we can point and which can explain why they are happening contemporaneously?
Those are the questions that struck me this morning as I read Naomi Schaefer Riley’s book review over at First Things of a title that has gotten a bit of attention in our elite media in the past few months: Lost in Transition.
The book and Riley’s review call to our attention the dangerous effects of the seemingly interminable adolescence that modern, Western societies have called into being. Do you, Ricochet, see anything in the following three observations which may help us to put recent headlines and some apparent contradictions therein in context?
1) In addition to being detached from their romantic (or simply sexual) partners, most of these young adults are also detached from their churches, their local communities, and their country.
2) Six out of ten respondents, according to the authors, “said that morality is a personal choice, entirely a matter of individual decision.” To the extent that they can, the respondents “completely avoid making any strong moral claims themselves, as well as avoiding criticizing the moral views of others.”
3) More broadly, “few emerging adults,” they report, “expressed concerns about the potential limits or dilemmas involved in a lifestyle devoted to boundless material consumption. Most are either positive or neutral about mass consumer materialism.” Indeed, when they were asked separately about the most important things in life, material goods typically topped the list.
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May '10
Re: A Generation Detached?
Pope Benedict calls it "the dictatorship of relativism".
Edited on Nov 12, 2011 at 5:04amMay '10
Re: A Generation Detached?
In other words, I think the interminable adolescence issue is one of the symptoms, not the cause.
Jul '10
Re: A Generation Detached?
That entire article is quotable. Where to begin?
The "easier" the Women get, the longer it will take for boys to grow up.
Oct '10
Re: A Generation Detached?
Collectively, in the '60s, we decided that God was unnecessary in our lives. We actively campaigned to replace Him with moral relativism. The result is a foundationless generation.
Once you remove God, the only god you have left is yourself.
Aug '10
Re: A Generation Detached?
Jimmy Carter: That entire article is quotable. Where to begin?
The "easier" the Women get, the longer it will take for boys to grow up.
Ain't it the truth!
Sep '11
Re: A Generation Detached?
The underlying principle is freedom understood as individual autonomy. So any deep connections to people, places, institutions are seen as obstacles to personal fulfillment.
Mar '11
Re: A Generation Detached?
raycon: Collectively, in the '60s, we decided that God was unnecessary in our lives. We actively campaigned to replace Him with moral relativism. The result is a foundationless generation.
Once you remove God, the only god you have left is yourself. · Nov 12 at 5:43am
I chose to ignore the collective decision, so I guess I chose not to have a choice in moral matters.
Aw nuts. Another logic loop. I hate when this happens on a weekend.
Jan '11
Re: A Generation Detached?
Years ago, I was part of a group of young Jesuits who spent a summer in Central America. One night, we were at dinner with Jon Sobrino, who was (and still is) one of the most gifted and well-known theologians in the Catholic Church. We were in the presence of the master, and we aspiring theologians wanted his approval. At a certain point, the conversation turned ... well let's say ... overly academic.
At which point, Sobrino decided to sweep away the pretenses. He basically told us to stop theorizing about where you might find God. Instead, go look for Him! He said, "The first question in theology is not whether God exists. It's whether others matter. Because God is Other as well. If others don't matter, then neither does God. That's the first question of all life ... do others matter?"
Sobrino's words had a profound effect on me. I've been reflecting on them ever since.
And so, Crow's Nest, when I see your post ... I suspect that this culture has taught young people that others don't matter. For all its words about compassion, this culture has alienated individuals by its deeds.
May '10
Re: A Generation Detached?
Wait a minute! You just set off one of my personalist philosophy alarms.
Individual autonomy (properly understood) is not only good, it is the indispensable ground of all deep personal connection to others.
I'd rather say that freedom in the modern mind is all too often confused with license.
Aug '10
Re: A Generation Detached?
katievs
Wait a minute! You just set off one of my personalist philosophy alarms.
Individual autonomy (properly understood) is not only good, it is the indispensable ground of all deep personal connection to others.
I'd rather say that freedom in the modern mind is all too often confused with license. · Nov 12 at 10:30am
KatieVs, you're a really fascinating philosophical warrior! I thought you should know that, even if I don't always comment on it.
Oct '10
Re: A Generation Detached?
KC Mulville:
And so, Crow's Nest, when I see your post ... I suspect that this culture has taught young people that others don't matter. For all its words about compassion, this culture has alienated individuals by its deeds. · Nov 12 at 7:24am
My dog isn't aware of personhood. No animal is. She cannot know that others matter because to her, there are no others.
Basically, that is what the young generation is, unreflective animals. They have the biology of persons, but seem to have lost the soul that makes them human and understanding of others.
Sep '11
Re: A Generation Detached?
katievs
Wait a minute! You just set off one of my personalist philosophy alarms.
Individual autonomy (properly understood) is not only good, it is the indispensable ground of all deep personal connection to others.
I'd rather say that freedom in the modern mind is all too often confused with license. · Nov 12 at 10:30am
Katie,
No argument from me with your view of freedom and autonomy properly understood. I was just trying to elucidate the kind of freedom at work in those 3 observations. And it is an understanding of an autonomous individual in the literal sense--an unencumbered being neither participating in a natural order nor made in the image of a loving God. Independent, self-creators, that sort of thing. I suppose it's a kind of radical libertarianism. Probably as far as possible from Christian personalism.
Re: A Generation Detached?
Just to point out that I had the same alarmed response when I read that article, but then I asked myself--to what extent is what she's describing really true? How can we know on the basis of that review?
Has anyone read the book itself?
Jun '11
Re: A Generation Detached?
I'm skeptical of generation-wide indictments, especially of the young. Aren't such complaints perennial laments of the old? They also seem a bit hollow after the Penn State crimes and coverup.
Claire Berlinski, Ed.: Just to point out that I had the same alarmed response when I read that article, but then I asked myself--to what extent is what she's describing really true? How can we know on the basis of that review?
Has anyone read the book itself? · Nov 12 at 9:16pm
Mar '11
Re: A Generation Detached?
Ah! Claire, I wasn't aware that there had already been a somewhat extensive discussion of this on Ricochet!
That's what I get for having been away for a few weeks and then not reading through the old posts before writing. Should've known better.
As far as my overall reaction to the review, well, there's a reason that both my subject and my opening lines end with question marks. I too am dubious of generation-wide indictments.
A generation ago, Allan Bloom's Closing of the American Mind described some of the students he encountered as nihilists without the abyss. I think there is some truth to that, and to what some of our posters have pointed to: the death of God and individualism, in the Tocquevillean sense, are involved here.
Nonetheless, I am cautious when it comes to indicting whole generations. Montaigne's mockery of the old senators looking down their noses at the young, and his insistence that no one every grew old without bemoaning the young, still ring too loudly in my ears.
And, lest we forget, many of this "detached" generation joined the military in a time of war.
Nov '10
Re: A Generation Detached?
Flagg Taylor
[I]t is an understanding of an autonomous individual in the literal sense--an unencumbered being neither participating in a natural order nor made in the image of a loving God. Independent, self-creators, that sort of thing.
Which eventuates in, of course, the nihilist libertarianism of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who quite nicely captures the popular view of freedom today: "At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life."
Kennedy simply equates liberty with individuality and personal autonomy. If that's the case, then, we're confronted not just with Tocquevillian individuality (pace Crowe's Nest), but with something far more pernicious. As I've argued earlier, once individuality becomes the explicit grounds of our politics -- indeed, becomes reality itself -- then many moral norms we once thought private become public and vice versa.
What is common (and ultimately what is political, properly understood), is precisely what abject libertarianism does not want to talk about.
I should just hasten to say, anyone thinking me overly harsh in calling Kennedy nihilist hasn't read Harry Jaffa...
Edited on Nov 13, 2011 at 1:39amNov '10
Re: A Generation Detached?
Also: I fully agree that it would be misleading to make categorical claims about an entire generation. Crowe's Nest certainly is right to invoke the voluntary military enlistment of a good chunk (though still a great minority) of the "detached" generation. The nihilism at the root of an otherwise shameless, pervasive apathy cuts well across generations, indeed across many decades (well...centuries, when you get down to it) into the past, which my quoting a 75 year old Chief Justice bespeaks.
Bespeaking this as well is a hugely prestigious, analytically trained (read: "reality based") philosopher, Martha Nussbaum, proclaiming incest marriage to be okay. It's one thing if this were coming from some post-modernist, French-inspired fool. Indeed, it would be somehow acceptable. Hence my genuine shock and dismay that so very few people seem to find her utterances alarming -- even here at Ricochet.
But, then, my sense is that the kind of individuality of which I speak has insinuated itself into many conservatives.
Edited on Nov 13, 2011 at 3:03amJun '10
Re: A Generation Detached?
All morality is relative. Morality is whatever culture and society dictate, Think otherwise? Read a history book or travel overseas to a non-European country.
Young people see their elders and others in positions of power or authority saying "you have to follow the rules, but they don't apply to us." Sexual and financial scandal are what sells news and that is what young people see, So preaching about morality that is more than what they come up with through personal experience with people they respect is seen as hypocritical.
As far as a lifestyle of materialism and boundless consumption, that is hypocritical, too. It's seen as "I've got mine, to heck with you." They don't see the poor saying they must sacrifice, they must way, they must give up on thoughts of anything better. No, they see those better off than themselves saying "stop wishing for more and be happy with your lot in life."
Finally, the "younger generation are a degenerate, shiftless lot who are parading us all straight to hell" has apparently been a perennial complaint throughout history. Yet, near as I can figure, the world hasn't come to an end yet.
Re: A Generation Detached?
I think it appropriate to generalize about a generation. There is a statistical basis for talking about the delay of marriage and, what is no less important, the delay of procreation within marriage as a general pattern. I have a friend who spends a fair amount of time at the Vatican. The authorities there are concerned that they have no idea how to minister to the needs of those in prolonged adolescence. This is not just an American phenomenon.
Aug '10
Re: A Generation Detached?
And it goes both ways. The younger generation blames its elders for the mess.