Here’s a thought on David Brooks’ recent essay in The Atlantic: “Chicken Littles Are Ruining America,” aka “The Zeitgeist of Doom.”
He writes: Since about 2004, the share of American 12th graders who say it is “hard to have hope for the world” has been surging, then provides many possible explanations for people’s negativity, including the notion that it’s become fashionable to be dour; young people may feel that they look silly and stupid with a smile and a “can-do” attitude.
But isn’t it possible that these folks are precisely right? What did 2004 look like in terms of hostilities with world superpowers? Did it seem possible that a Donald Trump would come along, reduce the United States to white nationalist, anti-intellectual rubble, then make a valiant and possibly successful attempt to overthrow American democracy? Did it appear possible that climate change would soon be baking our planet while world leaders sat back and watched from their palaces?
Maybe it’s a good think that our teens recognize this crap for what it is.
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Have you ever wondered why every dictator in human history follows the exact same playbook? Check this outPlato nailed this 2400 years ago, and it’s been on “rinse/repeat” ever since.
On average, I meet perhaps 50 K-12 teachers each year, and I often ask them: What is the biggest challenge you face that impacts your ability to connect with and educate your students?
Here’s a rough tabulation:
Screen time, how it robs kids of their ability to pay attention, impedes social interaction, and makes parenting more difficult: 80%
Everything else combined: 20%
Maybe this is a cynical viewpoint, but it seems like that world of today revolves around the mega-corporations profiting by punishing their customers.
In this case, we have the tech giants ruining the lives of our children. Elsewhere, we have healthcare industry driving people into bankruptcy, Big Oil ruining our planet, the gun lobby murdering our kids, and, of course, an ultra-corrupt government looting our treasury to pay off billionaire donors.
Note that this wasn’t the case when we boomers were growing up 60 years ago. This is a distinctive shift from the 1960s when corporate America was focused on things like color TVs and the Ford Mustang.
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