I’ve been giving a lot of thought to young Americans lately. In many ways they’re like generations that have come before them, but there’s one thing I’ve seen that really alarms me. Many don’t seem to have any fire in their bellies. They just don’t seem to care.
I’ve talked to some folks who say that they’re just un-teachable, but I don’t believe for a minute that’s true. The fact is, they’re incurable learners and unfortunately they’ve learned their lessons well. They’ve been told for more than a generation that everything they see around them is just a cosmic accident and they’re just mirroring, in action, what they’ve been taught.
Bob Dylan expressed, prophetically, the things that are becoming the hallmark of this generation:
“We live in a political world
I’ve talked to some folks who say that they’re just un-teachable, but I don’t believe for a minute that’s true. The fact is, they’re incurable learners and unfortunately they’ve learned their lessons well. They’ve been told for more than a generation that everything they see around them is just a cosmic accident and they’re just mirroring, in action, what they’ve been taught.
Bob Dylan expressed, prophetically, the things that are becoming the hallmark of this generation:
“We live in a political world
Where courage is a thing of the past
Houses are haunted, children are unwanted
The next day could be your last.”
How did they get to this awful place? It’s simple, really. They had mentors who expressed a modernist creed that told them that life was meaningless. They told them that they needed to shed the old doctrines of life and create new ones. They were taught well and they learned well.
This is the lesson they learned, as expressed by British journalist/poet Steve Turner:
“We believe that each man must find truth that is right for him,
Reality will adapt accordingly.
The universe will readjust.
History will alter.
We believe that there is no absolute truth
Excepting the truth
That there is no absolute truth.”
“We believe in the rejection of creeds,
And the flowering of individual thought.”
With nothing to root themselves in, with nothing to believe but nothing, they’ve become bored with it all.
Read these words from Ernest Van den Haag, cited in Kenneth Myers’ “All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes,” and see if they don’t strike a frightening chord with you:
“Though the bored person hungers for things to happen to him, the disheartening fact is that when they do he empties them of the very meaning he unconsciously yearns for by using them as distractions. In popular culture even the second coming would become just another barren “thrill” to be watched on television till Milton Berle comes on. No distraction can cure boredom, just as the company so unceasingly pursued cannot stave off loneliness. The bored person is lonely for himself, not, as he thinks, for others. He misses the individuality, the capacity for experience from which he is debarred. No distraction can restore it. Hence he goes unrelieved and insatiable.”
Solomon was very wise when he penned the words of the twenty ninth proverb - without vision, people perish. I believe that’s what’s happening to many in America’s young generation.
We’re now at a place where the only thing that can turn this around is a massive infusion of vision. The Church must find a way to reach this generation and make the vision plain, so that those reading it may run with it. That’s the only thing that will break the curse their mentors have laid upon them.
How did they get to this awful place? It’s simple, really. They had mentors who expressed a modernist creed that told them that life was meaningless. They told them that they needed to shed the old doctrines of life and create new ones. They were taught well and they learned well.
This is the lesson they learned, as expressed by British journalist/poet Steve Turner:
“We believe that each man must find truth that is right for him,
Reality will adapt accordingly.
The universe will readjust.
History will alter.
We believe that there is no absolute truth
Excepting the truth
That there is no absolute truth.”
“We believe in the rejection of creeds,
And the flowering of individual thought.”
With nothing to root themselves in, with nothing to believe but nothing, they’ve become bored with it all.
Read these words from Ernest Van den Haag, cited in Kenneth Myers’ “All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes,” and see if they don’t strike a frightening chord with you:
“Though the bored person hungers for things to happen to him, the disheartening fact is that when they do he empties them of the very meaning he unconsciously yearns for by using them as distractions. In popular culture even the second coming would become just another barren “thrill” to be watched on television till Milton Berle comes on. No distraction can cure boredom, just as the company so unceasingly pursued cannot stave off loneliness. The bored person is lonely for himself, not, as he thinks, for others. He misses the individuality, the capacity for experience from which he is debarred. No distraction can restore it. Hence he goes unrelieved and insatiable.”
Solomon was very wise when he penned the words of the twenty ninth proverb - without vision, people perish. I believe that’s what’s happening to many in America’s young generation.
We’re now at a place where the only thing that can turn this around is a massive infusion of vision. The Church must find a way to reach this generation and make the vision plain, so that those reading it may run with it. That’s the only thing that will break the curse their mentors have laid upon them.
Selah!
5 comments:
Phil, Although you put it in words much better than I could ever hope too, I did write an article along the same lines. It was my blog about thanks.
Sorry for the shameless behaviour, of leaving a self serving link. Won't happen again. LOL
MY ARTICLE
The point about boredom is a very telling one. I don't think there has ever been a generation such as this that complains at every turn and opportunity that it is bored. It seems to be a disease that has infected the young everywhere.
Oh, and while we're talking shameless self promotion, here's an article of mine on The Absolute Truth and one on teaching entitled Thank You, Johnny, Wherever You Are. Far be it from to ignore a trend! ;)
I like your post but I must disagree. I would blame the current generation on a decline of the educational system in this country. It's easy to learn, but quite hard to push for much else, since everything now has been dumbed down to meet standards. I think it's a feeling of "we've won", whether that be a post WWII hangover, or a post Soviet-collapse hangover, but there seems to be no driving point - just continuing what is now. I think the solution has to do with science leading the way, inspiring people to dream again.
Being a Gen Xer I would like to pose a question. Where does "vision" come from, and can one simply be given "vision" or must one be challenged to create their own "vision"? There have been no significant challenges for my generation. We've gone untested. Both World Wars, the Great Depression, the civil rights movement were all major challenges for their respective generations. Those challenges influenced people and shaped their vision. The most historically significant events of my lifetime are occurring in the present. These events are the ones that will test us. Over the last few years it already has. It has tested our resolve and our since of morality. The events of the last few years have also tested our political ideologies. Perhaps when these events become events of the past and not the present, we will have our vision.
"Your son", I think you have an excellent point. I am at the tail end of the Baby Boom or the beginning of GenX. Our class in school was very apathetic, as I remember and I think your point about not having any real challenges at the right age, is a good one.
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