People have said it for generations, but supposedly kids these days are too soft. They’re entitled. They’re politically extreme. They’ve got radical ideas about love and relationships. They’ve got a bunch of made-up mental health issues.
Maybe there is some truth to these generalizations but there is much more truth to Scott Galloway’s (great Daily Stoic podcast guest here) observation that for all the gripes about “coddling,” the last few decades are hard to define as anything but war on young people. The climate has been abused. The political system is captured by not only corporate interests but the interests of older people. Devastating wars have been waged to little point, squandering not just trillions of dollars but so much credibility and trust in the process.
They have watched as the courts became nakedly political, clawing back rights and progress they assumed would always be there. They watched their own parents embrace craven hypocrites as their representatives and their parents and grandparent’s own political radicalization from social media and cable news. Meanwhile, everything is insanely expensive and nobody is retiring to make room for the next generation.
It’s not the kids’ fault, but it sure seems to be their problem. It’s like that Bible verse…
“The parents ate the sour grapes
But the children got the sour taste.”
Needless to say this is not how it’s supposed to be. Parents are supposed to forge a better world for their kids. They’re supposed to sacrifice for their kids. They are supposed to set their kids up for success. Instead, older generations seem to be operating under the nasty principle of Après moi, le déluge. After me, the flood. We’ll be gone so it won’t matter.
Our parents may have done this to us, but we have to do better for our children. The unfairness and the frustration that we feel…that’s something we should not pay forward, it’s something that should stop with us. This is going to mean hard decisions. It’s going to mean sacrifices. It’s going to mean looking in the mirror and making changes.
But then again…that’s what being a good parent is all about. It’s about being responsible. It’s about doing what’s best. It’s about planting trees whose shade you’ll never know.
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