Do Millennials fear freedom? Well, not you, of course, but those other Millennials.
Young Americans seem to be losing faith in freedom. Why?
According to the World Values Survey, only about 30 percent of Americans born after 1980 believe it is absolutely essential to live in a democratic country, compared with 72 percent of Americans born before World War II. In 1995, 16 percent of Americans in their late teens and early adulthood thought democracy was a bad idea; in 2011, the number increased to 24 percent.
Democracy hasn’t exactly been kind to Millennials. It gave them perpetual war on foreign soil. It produced the Great Recession. They came of age in a world that persisted in telling them that they were special, and if they only played by the rules, they would enjoy great success, only to learn that the end of the road was dead or dying. And then Darth Cheeto was elected, despite everything they had been told about social justice.
Young Americans also are disproportionately skeptical of free speech. A 2015 poll from the Pew Research Center found that 40 percent of millennials (ages 18 to 34) believe the government should be able to regulate certain types of offensive speech. Only 27 percent of Gen-Xers (ages 35 to 50), 20 percent of baby boomers (ages 51 to 69) and 12 percent of the silent generation (ages 70 to 87) share that opinion.
Why is this happening?
If wariness of democracy and free speech does not represent a political position, what does it represent? What unites so many young Americans in these attitudes? I propose that the answer is fear — the ultimate enemy of freedom.
Simultaneously, young people are suffering anxiety at alarming rates.
Researchers have linked helicopter parenting to college students’ having a lower degree of self-confidence. Relatedly, a study released last month found that today’s teenagers and young adults are less likely than those of past generations to engage in a range of activities that involve personal independence, such as working for pay, driving, dating and spending time with friends without adult supervision.
They need safe spaces, trigger warnings and support animals. They can’t bear to hear words or ideas that offend their sensibilities.
Colleges and universities have exacerbated the problem of dependence by promoting what is sometimes called a culture of victimhood. American college students (who are some of the safest and most privileged people on the planet) are to be protected from, and encouraged to be ever-vigilant about and even report, any behavior that could cause emotional distress. Feelings and experiences that were once considered part of everyday life, such as being offended by someone’s political views, are now more likely to be treated as detrimental to mental health.
Much of our world has been reshaped by fear of things like crime, terrorism, drugs, a valuable motivator by politicians to get people to agree to relinquish rights for the sake of safety, even if they’re exceptionally safe. But has fear become integral to our culture?
Fear, in all its forms, is at the heart of these issues — fear of failure, ridicule, discomfort, ostracism, uncertainty. Of course, these fears haunt all of us, regardless of demographics. But that is precisely the point: Our culture isn’t preparing young people to grapple with what are ultimately unavoidable threats. Indeed, despite growing up in a physically safer and kinder society than past generations did, young Americans today report higher levels of anxiety.
The consequences of fear aren’t limited to acquiescing to, and promoting, the regulatory state, but to building an impenetrable wall around one’s beliefs.
Fear pushes people to adopt a defensive posture. When people feel anxious, they’re less open to diverse ideas and opinions, and less forgiving and tolerant of those they disagree with. When people are afraid, they cling to the certainty of the world they know and avoid taking physical, emotional and intellectual risks. In short, fear causes people to privilege psychological security over liberty.
Ironically, the posture taken by the most fearful is that they are the most open to ideas but have already come to the only correct conclusions, such that they need not listen to ideas they are certain are wrong, and know to be horrifying to them.
So what can be done about this fearful state of affairs? From the perspective of intelligent, independent people of good will, the answer may have been that they were expected, at some point, to grow up, stop viewing the world like infants and take charge of their life. Psych prof Clay Routledge says, without explanation, that criticizing Millennials for being scared little lemmings isn’t enough.
It isn’t enough to criticize young people for being overly sensitive and insufficiently independent. They didn’t engineer our security-focused culture. We must liberate them, let them be free to navigate the social world, make mistakes, fail, experience emotional pain and learn to self-regulate fear and distress.
So “we must liberate them”? They were coddled all their lives, and it remains the grown-ups’ job to “liberate” them from their fear, because they will never be bold enough to take responsibility for their world without our chewing their food for them?
Is fear really the problem with Millennials hating freedom? Are we doomed to a presidential campaign in 2040 where, instead of promising a chicken in every pot, Chelsea Clinton promises Play-Doh in every safe space? Will they ever grow up enough to boldly seize control of their world and allow freedom to ring?
*Tuesday Talk Rules apply.
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I wish you would have given a trigger warning before i read this. I am now forced to face my day in a severe state of anxiety.
My work space – safe space has been compromised.
You are not the only one.
keerist
look, can we just accept that this picture exists, and in future just refer to it as “that picture”, as I don’t think my nerves or my stomach can really deal with that . . . person (?) ANY EFFIN MORE!
You call that a knife? This is a knife.
And what are the odds that he is old enough?
On the internet, nobody knows if you’re a dog or a puppy.
ooh, that is a bit ruff . . .
i guess i’ll just have to throw another shrimp on the barbie, eh cobber?
https://youtu.be/W4-7UObXxeI
Did you have to get the biggest image of Ms. Gay that you could? FFS, Papa, Tuesday Talk is ruined with this picture at the top. Free speech be damned if this is what we get.
Does she make you . . . afraid?
Trigger-warn before posting.
Put on those big girl pants: She’s here. She’s Gay. Get over it!
You can take a joke, you know. Rough week already?
Not my fault you missed the joke, old lady.
I didn’t overcome my snowflake and teacup qualities this go-round did I? And you’re hilarious as usual big boy..
I turned 63 on the 3rd. How could that be old to you?
Happy birthday, KC.
That’s a little better. Thank you.
I don’t understand fear. Run, hide, or fight. There’s no room for fear.
What’s upset is my gut.
You think the Union will survive long enough for there to be a 2040 election?
I never pegged you for an optimist, Scott. TIL
I’m a total optimist. That wasn’t obvious?
Let’s not forget that Murphy’s Law was also formulated by an optimist.
I’m an ex-science guy so instead of reading the summaries of the reports on the papers which summarized the results, I went and read the actual results. (If you’ll allow the link: Go here, http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSDocumentationWV6.jsp and scroll down to the “Codebook” section and then click on “WV6_Results_v_2015_04_18.pdf”. You’ll get a big PDF file. it’s interesting.)
From the results:
V140 asks: How important is it for you to live in a country that is governed democratically? On this scale where 1 means it is “not at all important” and 10 means “absolutely important” what position would you choose?
United States *1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7 * 8 * 9 * 10 * (possible scores)
United States *1.1 *0.4* 0.9* 1.1* 9.6 *6.4 *6.0 *12.1 *14.1* 46.5* (percent who answered that score)
Average was 8.41
While this is statistically a shift, it doesn’t represent a major move away from democracy overall. In fact the US response is pretty similar to a lot of other ones. There’s only one country which averages above 9.0, which was Sweden. (also, why did they exclude almost all of the Western Europe from the test?)
Unsurprisingly we have almost nobody who doesn’t score at least a 5.
And then we have this…
V141 asks: And how democratically is this country being governed today? Again using a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 means that it is “not at all democratic” and 10 means that it is “completely democratic,” what position would you choose?
The results:
United States *1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7 * 8 * 9 * 10 * (possible scores)
United States *2.3 *1.9* 4.5* 7.0* 15.2* 14.3* 18.0* 18.6* 7.4* 7.2* (percent who answered that score)
Mean 6.46
The “should we have democracy” need to be read in the context of what we have now. And in fact it turns out that most folks don’t think we have democracy now. That’s interesting but it puts things on a crucial scale, because if they like the status quo they will not seek to change it–so if they think they
And yup, it also seems that most people associate themselves strongly with it. For example, fully 92% of US citizens either “strongly agree” or “agree” with V214, which asks “I see myself as part of the nation”.
When you have people strongly associating themselves with their nation (214) and simultaneously believing that their nation is not democratic as it currently exists (141), then it is not entirely surprising that they don’t rank democracy as absolutely essential. This is really a factor of complacency.
“Ex-science guy.” Not everybody is cut out to be a science guy, Erik. It happens.
Ha.
Seriously, though, I don’t think that the article you’re reporting on is accurate.
I’m not “reporting” on an “article,” but commenting on an op-ed that relies on a study that you (and I, if you carefully note the questions raised in the post) have some doubts about. But as David explains, that’s really not critical to the issues. Then again, some people paint pictures and some people sweep up the artist’s studio.
I agree with your assessment. (By the way, Western Europe was excluded because those countries were surveyed as part of something separate, called the “European Values Study.” Supposedly, anyway. The link WVS gives to that dataset’s broken.)
Still, the point about Millennial political immaturity remains. Speaking personally, though I appreciate the importance of being able to falsify your government, I don’t much care for democracy without strong republican underpinnings. Obviously, you Americans have a better republican toolbox as well as a more developed individualistic culture than we Yrpeans do, so it pains me to see many in my age group happy to discard what their forebears fought for (and I find so appealing.) I agree, guys – your liberal heritage is in danger.
Should we be surprised Millenials have difficulty becoming well-adjusted adults in the real world? Since they were born, they’ve been protected every step of the way by any “danger” in life. As children, playtime is carefully structured and monitored so everyone is being fair and nice and no one is excluded. Instead of learning on their own important lessons when those things don’t happen, parents/teachers/adults swoop in to fix any “wrong.” As they progress through school, it’s constantly drilled into them the need to always stay within the lines less they want to jeopardize their chances at a good college. And this is done well before high school. Add in the fact that normal adolescence/teenager behavior is now criminalized way too often, and it seems reasonable that this generation has grown up to be irrationally fearful. Boys get into a silly fight as boys are often to do and every damn adult in the room is looking for the police to intervene.
While I’m trying to not to excuse anyone from getting control of their life and grow the hell up, as parents/teachers/adults way too many of us have done a God-awful job at preparing them for life.
I wanted to comment like yours, but I don’t have a vantage point to say that times are changed and everything is more formalized and serious than the past. What I have instead are stories like the ones Judge Kopf tells of fist fights. He told us about the crime, but left out the punishment. What would have happened to Judge Kopf if those fights were recorded for posterity? Everything seems like it was more relaxed in the past, but was it? If things have changed, is it the fault of technology or people or our very institutions or all of these?
There’s plenty of questions to ask that sociologists ought to be studying. That we increasingly rely on our institutions rather than our society to resolve disputes, intercede for us, and help us is hardly a new idea. The iron cage of bureaucracy has been a known threat since Max Weber explained the idea in the late 19th, early 20th centuries. Weber feared that the trend that I think you’re describing will only get worse. I think he was right.
The parents/teachers/adults seem to be parroting government by swooping in to correct “wrongs” where they might do better leaving well enough alone.
As you pointed out above, Millennials got a bit screwed by recessions (not depressions of course), sky rocketing college debt, high paying jobs vanishing and getting replaced by minimum wage, ect. I think their reaction is more towards: This is what we have and it isn’t working. They look at the freedoms that are used to create this mess that they are living with and think that someone should do something to fix it. That something requires the removal of some rights. I think they are being very short sighted, different is not always better, but I understand their frustration.
Mencken.
Why do you fear serious conversation on substantive topics?
You can be as serious as you wanna be. It’s Tuesday! Knock yourself out.
If you start the conversation with a premise NOT filled with logical fallacies next Tuesday, I’m in.
In short, they don’t want to grow up, so once the university is tired of replacing mommy and daddy, the perpetual kids are looking for the government to take over.
But why don’t they want to grow up? Why do they want to be perpetual kids? Why do you hate Peter Pan?
Why wouldn’t they want to be? Never worry about anything, and leave it up to someone else to take care of them. No need to plan, the government will save them. (With the magic money that comes from wherever, in unlimited quantities). I think this is going to end badly.
“They need safe spaces, trigger warnings and support animals. They can’t bear to hear words or ideas that offend their sensibilities.”
So that’s why my daughters don’t hear my wisdom and accuse me of mansplaining all the time.
Correlation does not prove causation.
I feared two things in life: failure and my mother. The first drowned in a whole lot of it. I still fear the second, and she’s been dead seven years. She was a short, tough Irish broad and I miss her dearly.
The result is I fear nothing. Drop me anywhere on Earth with a pistol and knife, and I will either find my way out or shoot myself. Which, matters not. Life is obstacles and solutions, nothing more or less. That the end may or may not be near alters nothing. Life sucks–Thomas Hobbes–so what?
I therefore declare one week from today, Tuesday October 24, 2017, Millennial Day. On that day, it is required that every adult find a couple millennials, smack their heads, and tell them to stop being pussies.
I think before we can address the fears of the youth of America, we need to address the fears of their parents.
So much of the fear being bandied about seems to start with the terror of something bad happening to kids, which leads to parents being overprotective. We live in an almost ridiculously safe time, but people have convinced themselves that we’re constantly in danger. Is it any shock that this affects our kids?
“It’s the parents’ fault!!!”
Yes. So what? So you plan to spend forever blaming your parents and whining about it, or you going to grow up and do something about it?
I grew up to get past it. The younger millennials will have to too.
But the problem will persist until we as a culture stop creating bogeymen to terrify each other with. It seems like we’ve convinced ourselves that kidnappers, rapists, terrorists and white supremacists lurk around every corner just waiting to destroy us in but a moment of weakness and that the correct response to them is fear.
The kids need to learn not to be terrified but they didn’t develop that fear in a vacuum. We gave it to them.
To this I will add the helicopter parenting that parents either choose to provide or are forced to provide by various government thugs. Kids that aren’t allowed freedom at an early age aren’t used to it and are frightened by it as adults.
On Freedom of Speech, I think part of the problem is that Millennials grew up in an age where free speech was enjoyed quite broadly. Unless they have looked back at history, they don’t have an appreciation of what it means for a government to try to suppress speech. Many of these kids are too young to appreciate that this is a relatively recent phenomenon. They don’t understand that their favorite and oft-quoted line from Justice Holmes about fire in a crowded theater was uttered while sending a group of Yiddish speaking dissidents to prison for protesting the war. They didn’t live through McCarthyism. They likely don’t even remember that as recently as the 1990s, the country lost its mind over a rap song with law enforcement, Congress, and the President calling for censorship.
They don’t appreciate this freedom, what it took to obtain it, how relatively recently it was won, that the battle is still raging, and how easily it can be lost. Without that realization, it can seem like it isn’t that big of a deal to give back a little on free speech.
Spoiled peoples or generations in nations often have trouble until they are confronted with a challange and forced to overcome or die (grow up).
The “parents” job isnt to “liberate” them as only they can liberate themselves. The older generations job is to preserve the fixtures of society (bill of rights, etc) and to stand up to the mob long enough for the mob to grow up. How many hippies look back on thier hippiness and cringe, glad they grew up and have a job and a 401k.
That said, as the last election proved you cant trust polls. Not all millenials grew up afraid to face fear or uncertainty. I dont think the mob is anywhere near this dominate. Especially in historical avenues of national leadership such as buisness or the military (academia.. on the other hand).
Alright. Enough of talking about Millennials as a single unit. My brother and sister Millennials know dick about me, and I know dick about them. No one talks about my “brothers and sisters” living in mobile homes who don’t give a fuck about microaggressions or what’s going on on college campuses. No one talks about young people being fucked over by buy-here-pay-here car lots. Those Millennials couldn’t care less about coloring books or stuffed animals except for the few gifts they can afford to buy their children. Fuck the poor and what matters to them so long as we can mock a subset of them who get disproportionate interest from all media sources.
Fear doesn’t have a place where rage is encamped. The politicians of our age have been wholly hypocritical and ineffective. There is nothing to celebrate in our times that came from politics. The biggest changes are private and technological, but those changes haven’t seeped through to our calcified institutions. Our businesses are more sophisticated, massive, established, and powerful than they have ever been and our government is so broken that it cannot effectively police the economy.
So the rich and privileged kiddies are fucking around with speech on campuses. Big fucking deal. Talk is cheap. The trucking industry is going to fucking collapse with driverless cars sooner rather than later. Blue collar workers (the types who can afford attorneys, god bless them) are disappearing and will continue to disappear. The pace of technological progress is accelerating, and yet we’re stuck with 18th Century political structures that have mutated into something else entirely.
Still, social justice has its place. My comrades can be brought back into the fold of individual freedom and liberal ideals while advocating for social justice. History has a template for them already: “Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.” If the great American hero, Eugene Debs, was not woke, then there truly is no hope. Does he only advocate for the fellow woke? Nope.
Yep. It’s an argument from the left of the progressives, surprisingly, that might save them. This won’t be popular on SJ, a haven of half-anarchists (libertarians, yuck), but hey, it’s an idea. Millennials of the world, Unite! You have only your helicopter parents to lose! You have a world that’s going to be yours once the old people die!
So says PK on behalf of all Millennials, since you know that we all agree on everything.
I never pictured you as a Wobbly. Go figure.
I’m afraid to ask. Did you picture me as anything in particular?
I love me some solidarity with my working-class brethren (yep, even Trump voters) even though I’m petite-bourgeois at best. I don’t like to out myself because “socialist” is a bad word to the ignorant. All said, you can’t tell me that Debs quote isn’t awesome. Rhetoric is a dead art.
They had better music, too.
Joan Baez did it better at Woodstock.
“They were coddled all their lives, and it remains the grown-ups’ job to “liberate” them from their fear, because they will never be bold enough to take responsibility for their world without our chewing their food for them?”
So it’s the kid’s fault that their parents did a shitty job raising them?
Is it also the fish’s fault the chef undercooked it?
I was under the impression that if you make a mess, it’s your job to clean it up. Well the millennials are a mess, and the boomers made them.
As a generation, the baby boomers blundered from myopic decision to myopic decision, then settled on blaming their children for everything, completely abdicating their responsibility for the situation. Kids didn’t invent the participation trophy, that’s on the adults.
“Well the millennials are a mess, and the boomers made them.”
I thought millennials were the offspring of Generation X, not offspring of Baby Boomers?
If you’re The Liz, the evil Boomers are responsible for everything wrong in the world. You can’t get hung up over facts.
We changed your diapers. After that, you’re on your own. Trust me, changing your diapers wasn’t that much fun.
It’s the kids’ fault they don’t adjust. I’ll tell you a story, and it ain’t about nurture.
I became a lawyer when I was 38. I had advantages. I could have done it at 25. I didn’t. I worked, starting at 10, and in jobs most couldn’t imagine doing. Before me, every generation worked at that age. It was normal. I am a “baby boomer.”
No one caused your lot in life. Your upbringing doesn’t cause your present. Mine wasn’t great; maybe yours wasn’t either. So what? You’re responsible for your own place in life. I was. I overcame. I’m a pretty good lawyer: cases in every intermediate court of appeal and the supreme court of my state, hundreds in federal districts, a dozen or twenty in our federal circuit and a few in the Supreme Court of the United States. I’m not a government lawyer. I’m just a guy with a job.
The problem with your lot, and yes, I mean lot, is that you want to blame someone else. Every parent “did a shitty job” raising their kids. It’s the nature of the job. It’s the history of the world. Move beyond and make something, really something, of yourself. Whining will get you nowhere. No one will listen.
SHG–thanks for this thread.
Thank God my wife and I were too busy working to helicopter parent our boys.