Blog

My friends know that I am a positive, optimistic, straight talking, person. Our country, led by the most feckless bunch in history, is careening out of control. It can be increasingly difficult to remain positive. Difficult, not impossible. In recent writings I have discussed reasons for my renewed optimism. Our government has been riding roughshod over our God given rights for too long. There seemed to be no end to its heavy handed nature. Then, almost out of the blue, mama bears decided that the government’s teaching of Critical Race Theory in our public schools was hurting their children. Along with papa bears, they confronted school boards all over the country. Their unprecedented push back marked a significant sea change, and stalled the government’s attack on that portion of our freedoms. That was followed by the trucker’s Freedom Convoy. This represented another example of the working class flexing it’s muscles. For the first time in memory, average Americans are saying NO MORE. These are very positive signs there is hope for our Republic.

Sadly, all of the news isn’t positive. There are too many young people in our society who have been coddled. Many of them have never been told no. They have been sheltered against the harsh realities of being an adult in a mostly free society. A Pew Research report written in 9/2020 was very revealing. It said that 52% of young people between the ages of 18-29 were living with their parents. Some of that could be explained away by the fact that a lot of young people were laid off during the COVID pandemic. Another contributing factor was that a lot of colleges, and universities, were closed because of the pandemic. There are always circumstances that make these situations necessary for a short time. According to the study 25% of those living with parents, neither worked, or were in school. Those were only minor contributing factors anyway, as 47% of young people were living with parents in February 2020, before the pandemic was declared. The 52% number is the highest on record. It eclipsed the percent of young people living with their parents at the end of the Great Depression! Obviously, there is a dramatic difference in today, and the depression years of the 1930s. Jobs are plentiful today. Unlike their depression era counterparts, most of today’s young people have zero experience with personal sacrifice, or delayed gratification. They were raised to feel entitled.

Another disturbing trend among young adults is a growing acceptance of socialism. In researching this post I found polls showing from 33% to 52% of people under the age of 30 have a positive attitude toward socialism. This disturbing trend can be tied, at least in part, to a tragic lack of education on both the benefits of capitalism, and the horrors of socialism. No economic system in history has raised as many people out of poverty as capitalism. I’d bet those who are comfortable with socialism have no idea of this fact. Capitalism is the system that has allowed for the freedom of more people than any other. Socialism has been responsible for the death of tens of millions of innocent people all over the world. It crushes the human spirit by removing initiative. Socialism removes responsibility from individuals and transfers it to the government. College professors teach the theory of socialism. In theory it can sound pretty good. In reality it sucks. The reality is that in order to make decisions for people, government must continue to get bigger, and more powerful. Government can only gain more power at the expense of personal freedom. I suspect many of those who are comfortable with socialism are the same people who find living with their parents preferable to living on their own. These are folks who need someone, or something, to make their decisions for them, and help provide their daily needs.

We are sending too many young people off to college who simply aren’t mature enough to be in middle school. Immediately after Trump won the 2016 election, college campuses went apoplectic. Here are a few examples of how “young adults” reacted on college campuses. Students at Cornell held a “cry in”, I can only guess what that is. Loyola, and Bryn Mawr College students demanded the cancellation of classes. The reason they gave was because of exhaustion, depression, and safety concerns. There are many other examples of immature student responses. More concerning were the responses from professors and administrators. Many of them put out messages of support to students feeling traumatized by the election results. A University of Michigan psychology professor delayed an exam. Some professors at Columbia postponed mid-terms. A UConn professor excused students from classes, and at Yale, a professor made an exam optional. All over the country colleges brought in puppies, and crayons, and stuffed animals. They made grief counsellors available to help the children adjust to the results of a quadrennial event. Just when these children most needed an adult role model, the assumed adults in the room were nowhere to be found. I’d guess that many of the exhausted, depressed, and traumatized, college students in 2016 have taken up residence with their parents.

America has been introduced to a new set of terms. We are now hearing of safe spaces, microaggressions, and trigger warnings. Each of these are instituted in an effort to keep students from feeling threatened, uncomfortable, or being offended. Safe spaces are places where “marginalized” students can go to avoid coming into contact with people who irritate, or make them angry. Apparently non-marginalized students don’t feel irritations. They started out as single rooms. There are now safe dorms that are created for marginalized groups like females, blacks, and the LGBTQ+ community. There are separate orientation programs, and graduation ceremonies, for black students. Until recently this would have been illegal. It has kind of a “Back to the future” feeling.

Triggers, and trigger warnings, are also new to most of us. A trigger is an outside source that offends, or emotionally wounds, people. Professors are instructed to put together lesson plans so as to avoid triggering a bad memory in a student. A trigger warning is an alert about something in educational material that may cause a student intense emotional distress. If professors think something in their lesson plan might cause distress to a student, it is recommended by administrators that they warn students in advance. Can you imagine the futility of trying to plan a semester class for 50 students so as not to trigger any of the students? If a professor is successful in taking out all references to anything that could possibly trigger any student, what would be left to teach? Who would want to learn it?

Microaggressions are also relatively new. One definition of microaggression is: A subtle, often unintentional, form of prejudice.” We are stunned to hear that saying something as innocuous as, everyone can succeed in this country if they work hard enough, is a microaggression. You can’t say America is a melting pot, or there is only one race, the human race. It is okay for you to think, I believe the most qualified person should get the job. But don’t you dare say it out loud. That is a racial microaggression. The list of microaggressions is as ludicrous as it is long. All of this nonsense provides cover for those who don’t, or are incapable of achieving their goals.

Most of the issues I mentioned above are solvable through the education process. It would help if we parents and grandparents regularly took a few minutes to tell our kids how great this country is. They need to know what a good system capitalism is as opposed to socialism. Our kids are smart, but they need someone they trust to fill in the blanks left from school. Most of our kids are good kids. They are not shiftless. Sometimes they just need a nudge from someone they love/trust. If you are over 50 years old ask yourself this question. How long would your parents have allowed you to live with them, without an exit strategy? Your parents were pretty smart folks and they loved you very much. I hope you found this post interesting and informative. If you did please tell your friends. Thank you, Bob