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We are Losing our Kids
After listening to the screed of Greta Thunberg, recently discussed in a post by @exjon, as well as reading the comments by alarmed members of Ricochet, I felt compelled to speak about the the distortions that are being presented to our kids and the effect it is having on them. If this young 
woman, who had clearly been propagandized and therefore abused by her parents, was any example of the mindset of our own children, we are all in deep trouble. The teens of today, of course, are our future. And they are seriously struggling with the possibility of a very dark future, even exhibiting mental illness.
I wanted to know the role of mental illness, in particular anxiety, depression and suicide in the lives of our teenagers, and how these factors might affect their mindset. You have likely heard stories regularly about teens committing suicide; the reasons are many, and include the following factors:
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family history of suicide attempts
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exposure to violence
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impulsivity
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aggressive or disruptive behavior
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access to firearms
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bullying
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feelings of hopelessness or helplessness, acute loss or rejection
(bold lettering is mine)
I also learned the following:
Suicides among young people continue to be a serious problem. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for children, adolescents, and young adults age 15-to-24-year-olds.
The majority of children and adolescents who attempt suicide have a significant mental health disorder, usually depression.
The data that especially piqued my attention was that there is a connection among the experience of anxiety, depression and suicide. One CDC study listed types of anxiety disorders:
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Being very afraid when away from parents (separation anxiety)
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Having extreme fear about a specific thing or situation, such as dogs, insects, or going to the doctor (phobias)
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Being very afraid of school and other places where there are people (social anxiety)
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Being very worried about the future and about bad things happening (general anxiety)
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Having repeated episodes of sudden, unexpected, intense fear that come with symptoms like heart pounding, having trouble breathing, or feeling dizzy, shaky, or sweaty (panic disorder)
(bold lettering is mine)
We’ve now raised a couple of generations that are suffering from extreme anxiety, often leading to depression, with the potential for suicidal acts. As I listen to the words and watch the actions of extreme fear, sometimes panic, helplessness and hopelessness for a future expressed by our young people, I look at them and wonder if the Left has any idea what it is doing. Do they know that they are tampering with the emotional well-being of our children? Do they know that in their compulsion to goad these young people into anti-social actions, they are creating future adults with mental illness?
I’m cynical enough to believe that they actually know what they are doing. If our young people feel that the only way they can save the planet is to hate and destroy the bulwarks of society, do they understand that chaos and destruction and lawlessness may be hovering on the other side? Has the Left been so persuasive in spite of their distortions and invented facts that our children have more faith in them than in their parents? Have they convinced our children that together they can all save the earth?
Instead of teachers and schools being our partners in raising our kids, they are abetting this future disaster. They, too, may be victims not only of the propaganda, but of the same mental illnesses of anxiety, depression and suicide.
The only hope I have to deal with these issues is to recognize early what these young people might be going through. Look for the signs of anxiety, depression and potential suicide, rather than assume these children are going through a phase. Let them know there are resources to help them. Expose them to experiences that can remind them there are things they can do to change the world for the better. Give them materials that can put the climate questions in perspective, including the history of the issue and the lack of disastrous outcomes. Talk to them (even though teens are often withdrawn and silent). We owe it to them to be up front with these issues.
We owe it to the world.
The last thing we need are more Greta Thunbergs.
Published in Culture
Yep it is a near perfect plan, because if the youngster is wrong, we are still not to mention her misconceptions. After all, no one should ever be unkind to a kid.
All of us should understand that by now. I mean, for Pete’s sake, we have had three decades of giving trophies to everyone on junior league sports teams even if the team being celebrated has a season of 17 to zip. If the trophy awards for nothing haven’t made the point clear, what will?
I think parents are entitled and required to pass on their ideas about anything they wish. They’re the parents. Propaganda is not so easy to define, so your point is well-taken, @kimk. But when they teach ideas that can lead to self-destructive and anti-social behavior (at its worst), I object. When they teach ideas that are so extreme (whatever they are) that they create irrational fear to their children, especially at a young age, I object. And especially when they depict people who disagree with their point of view as evil, I have a problem with that.
Excellent point, @caroljoy. Even more to your point (I think), there is little time to simply “be,” to reflect, to imagine, to relax. It’s a real loss for kids.
Wouldn’t it be weird if this whole publicity stunt were a means of sponsoring Greta’s transatlantic sail?
Oh, I don’t think it is. Just that, whether a sail like that helps the planet, it is the kind of back-to-nature experience which might help a troubled teen.
In spite of her problems, I wish her well. Now when it comes to figuring out people’s motives, I’ll leave that to the seers!
Maybe what is Universal here is that almost all systems children are innoculated with teach some type of Ultimate Fear.
I was brought up Catholic. To this day I can remember my terror in falling asleep at night after I had committed some mortal sin. (Such as brushing the communion chalice lightly at the communion rail, or eating a bit of meat on Friday…) Would I make it until I could get to confess to a priest, or die in an unforeseen car accident, with my soul whisked straight to hell?
These kinds of stories deeply disturb me. My husband and his brother have them, too. I don’t want to start a thread of Catholic-bashing, either, but there are have been people who have been alienated from religion because they were taught fear.
It’s not a just-Catholic thing. Adults’ moral messages (of whatever religion — or no religion at all) to “straighten up and fly right — or else” are aimed at average levels of child and teenage truculence. This can result in less bumptious, more hyper-conscientious children counterproductively dreading the prospect of putting even so much as an eyelash out of line.
Catholicism, to its credit, officially recognizes “scruples” or “a scrupulous conscience” as a spiritual malady — not something to be celebrated, but a lamentable condition people should seek relief from. Officially. In practice, it’s probably rather easy for scrupulous consciences to fall through the cracks — or perhaps even be abused: The traditional Catholic remedy for scruples is a very close, submissive relationship with one’s confessor, and perhaps that works with a confessor up to the task, but I doubt it takes much imagination — especially these days — to picture how it might also go horribly wrong.
I’m not Catholic. In according “scruples” official recognition, I think Catholicism does better than some of us Protestants who may lack official church-ese for discussing this problem at all. But whether officially recognized or not, ministering to those of tender conscience when many in the congregation likely have much more callous consciences isn’t easy. There’s a joke, “I don’t practice what I preach because I’m not the kind of person I’m preaching to.” Maybe it’s not much of a joke, but it points out people can differ in which messages they need to hear most. The people the church (any church) preaches to aren’t all the same kind of people, either.
I understand and agree with you; people have come away bitter from various churches for all kinds of reasons. And I know churches must minister to all kinds of people, young and old, callous and sensitive. But it disturbs me when part of the teaching includes ideas that tend to inculcate fear in children. And I know that comes from parents and preachers, too. And I know different children respond differently to different messages. But it so damages the message the church, any church, is trying to get across.
Mary Grabar has a great book exposing Zinn and how his book is hurting kids. Key is for parents to get to their kids first. Universities couldn’t warp my kids.