Before the devastating psychological effects of the COVID lockdowns, the U.S. faced a frightening rise in drug addiction, with youth suicide becoming the second-leading cause of death among people aged 15–20 in the U.S., and suicide in children quadrupling from 2007 to 2020. What's behind this alarming trend? Let's consider what the young need to thrive.
Infants and young children constantly challenge themselves to learn the next hardest thing — how to walk on uneven surfaces, how to run down a hill, how to say "rain boot." As they grow, the challenges become psychologically complex.
Significant purposes are critical to their motivation, including a vision of work as important to achieve independence. Vital are a hopeful view of the future, a vision that life can be an adventure worth the striving, and heroes that embody the highest reaches of human nature. Without these elements, the young are lost, adrift — only too susceptible to depression and even suicide.
Throughout life, humans need
inspiration to get through the difficult and dreary parts. Where do the
young find it today? Our culture is schizophrenic: on the one hand,
Intel's commercial "We believe there's an innovator in everybody"
captures the classic American excitement toward challenge with financial
reward. On the other hand, running rampant are cynicism, resentment of
achievement, intolerance toward differing ideas and values, and a bleak
picture of the future based on the premise that human technology is
destructive, expressed in the drumbeat of climate change disaster,
artificial intelligence boogeymen, and the soul-crushing nature of
capitalism..........To Read More...
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