The Dumbest Generation Grows Up is Mark Bauerlein’s sequel to his bestselling 2009 book, The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future.
Both books deal with Millennials, the generation usually defined as
anyone born between 1981 and the mid-90s, and the author, who taught
English at Emory University for many years, has had a good look at this
generation. His first book was widely reviewed, with many critics
commenting on its “dire predictions” for the future of Millennials. As
its title implies, Prof. Bauerlein’s new book explores whether these
predictions have been borne out. He argues that they have.
The conclusions of the earlier book can be summarized in a single
quotation: “The Dumbest Generation will cease being dumb only when it
regards adolescence as an inferior realm of petty strivings and
adulthood as a realm of civic, historical, and cultural awareness that
puts them in touch with perennial ideas and struggles.”.......To Read More....
Some of the recent polling data is very discouraging.
And if you want to be even more depressed, here are some tweets with the most-recent data about the the views of young people.
For what it’s worth, the same problem exists in the United Kingdom.
And it may be even more lopsided.
Latest student voting intention:
Labour 72%
Lib Dems 10%
Conservatives 8%
SNP 3%
Brexit Party 2%
Plaid Cymru 2%
Green 1%
ICM 29 Nov-2 Dec#GE2019
— Matthew Goodwin (@GoodwinMJ) December 5, 2019
(Though I’m very relieved the misguided views of young people didn’t prevent a victory for Boris Johnson last month.)
For today’s column, let’s keep our focus on the United States.
What’s the underlying cause of bad polling numbers in America?
In a column for the Washington Times, Robert Knight explains that many young people have been spoon-fed a leftist version of American history.
Why do so many young people hate America and think we’d be better off as a socialist country? …reading and believing Howard Zinn’s best-selling ‘A People’s History of the United States’… First published in 1980, “A People’s History” has sold more than 2.5 million copies and is in virtually every school district, university and local library. …Everything Zinn wrote was couched in the language of Marxist class warfare. Key events were omitted. The mass slaughter that followed the Communist takeover of Cambodia? Good luck finding it in “A People’s History.” …Zinn was a member of numerous Soviet front groups, and he helped found the socialist New Party… Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Zinn warned that concern over communism was due to “hysteria,”… In a chapter titled “The Coming Revolt of the Guards,” …Zinn states flatly that “capitalism has always been a failure for the lower classes. It is now beginning to fail for the middle class.” …Zinn envisions a utopian future in which “certain basic things” would be “…available — free — to everyone: food, housing, health care, education, transportation.” …The reason this insane, economically illiterate, un-American scheme appeals to so many is that they’ve been miseducated via Howard Zinn into thinking that they live in a bad country that must be rebuilt as a socialist paradise.
Jarrett Stepman opined on the adverse consequences of historical illiteracy in a piece for the Daily Signal.
As young Americans are losing an understanding of civics and American history, they increasingly embrace socialism. …younger generations have a far sunnier view of socialism and communism than their elders. …Perhaps worse than nostalgia for the Soviet Union, “57% of millennials (compared to 94% of the Silent Generation) believe the Declaration of Independence better guarantees freedom and equality over the Communist Manifesto.” That’s appalling. …there’s not only been a worrisome decline in inculcating informed patriotism in young Americans, but a willful attempt to re-educate them to turn them against the foundations of America itself. …So far, we have escaped the curse of socialism… But a troubling collapse in a basic understanding of our history, along with the malignant attempt to reframe our country’s origins to make us more susceptible to doctrines outside our tradition, means that the specter of socialism now hangs over us.
But it’s not just bad history in government schools.
It’s also bad policy in government.
In a column for the Wall Street Journal, Mene Ukueberuwa shares some insights from Edward Glaeser, a professor at Harvard who warns that statist policies are leading young people to support bigger government.
Bernie Sanders…has become an unlikely voice of the young generation. …this axis of today’s struggle could change politics for generations to come, as millennials reject the country’s capitalist consensus and embrace socialism in record numbers. …Critics often blame today’s socialist surge on millennials’ laziness. …One free-market economist has a different explanation. Edward Glaeser, a Harvard professor…, argues that young people have radicalized politically because “there are a number of ways in which the modern American economy isn’t working all that well for them.” Many public policies make it harder to get a job, save money or find an affordable home, leaving young idealists thinking, “Why not try socialism?” But that cure would merely worsen the disease. Mr. Glaeser decries policies that constrain the job market and increase the cost of living compared with what the economy would produce if left alone. …Consider the housing market. “In the 1960s and earlier,” Mr. Glaeser says, “America basically had a property-rights regime that meant that anyone who had a plot of land could pretty much put up anything reasonable on that plot of land.” …The shift of income toward those Mr. Glaeser calls the “entrenched” is most explicit in entitlement programs. …They’re funded by payroll taxes, which snag a disproportionate share of low-earners’ paychecks. Taxpayers also pony up ever more to fund the retirements of government employees.
“They say, ‘Well, there are a whole bunch of projects—a whole bunch of government spending that helps old people. I want mine. If we’re going to spend a huge amount on Medicare, why aren’t we spending a whole lot on education for me?’” …To give newcomers a chance, Mr. Glaeser would curtail the influence of entrenched groups and restore incentives for “a capitalism that is inclusive, and that provides a place of opportunity for more people.” …Mr. Glaeser insists that this message would be likelier to catch on if it were backed by policy reforms that make work more fruitful. A program of plentiful job opportunities, cheaper housing, and tax cuts financed by curtailed entitlements could be a significant step toward replacing socialism in the hearts of Mr. Sanders’s young supporters.
For what it’s worth, bad history and bad policy are both good explanations, but they don’t fully explain why young people are misguided.
I suspect many young people also think support for socialism is a way of signalling that you’re a nice person. That you care about others.
I’m not sure how we solve this problem, but this clever video from Kristian Niemietz suggests that part of the answer may be satire.
Though I may be biased since I have an entire collection of humor that targets socialism and communism.
A New York Times opinion column acquaints humanity with the injustice of forbidding the vote to 16- and 17-year-olds -- who, nevertheless, would gain the franchise once a budding movement to that end came to fruition and then would impose the superior wisdom of the young by handing the presidency, so we are entitled to infer, to Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The well-ripened alliance between various young folks and snowy-haired Sanders -- a 78-year-old heart attack victim going on age 5, to judge by his simplistic politics -- is hard to sort out. The truth seems to be that old-time political alignments -- e.g., Democratic populists against Republican country club types -- no longer hold. Nobody seems happy, not even the young, once famous for generally ignoring politics in behalf of more sensible activities, such as homecomings and the new car styles............To Read More.....
The entire American left -- the mainstream media, the environmentalist movement and Democratic politicians in particular -- are celebrating the involvement of teenagers and even younger children in protesting the world's "inaction" with regard to global warming.
And not just the American left, of course. The left throughout the world is celebrating. A 16-year-old Swedish girl whose contempt for adults is breathtaking is an international hero. Congressional Democrats invited her to testify in Congress, and the United Nations has likewise invited her.
The mayor and city council of New York City further politicized their city's public schools by allowing students to skip school to actively participate in a global warming protest.........To Read More......
My Take -There's a lot of talk about this spoiled brat, but this isn't going to be effective. This is as who one commentator called an act of desperation, and just like flatulence, it;ll pass.
Alexandra Ocasio Cortez sees the “Z Generation” as the most historically cognizant of all time and they are also those who can and do “puncture more taboos” as compared to previous generations.
There are dozens of random on-street interviews both on and off campus where young people are asked simple questions about geography, history, politics, and current affairs. The product of most of these videos does not support AOC’s conclusion.
A typical video asks the question – “Do you know where Mt. Rushmore is?”
[R]ight-wing
groups have launched a multi-million-dollar campaign to torpedo Obamacare
before it even gets started. Their plan: Mislead young people about how the law
works so they get scared and don’t enroll. The problem is that it really could
work because if younger, healthier people don’t participate, then costs will
skyrocket and Obamacare will fail.
MoveOn.org
footnotes a Washington
Post article, which
explains that last sentence. From the Post Wonkblog article by Sarah Kliff:
“Young adults tend to have lower medical bills, which would hold down premiums
for the entire insurance market. If only the sick and elderly sign up, health
costs would skyrocket.”.....To Read More......
My Take - Pelosi insisted that Obamacare be passed as soon as possible in order that we could see what was in it. This must be one the things Pelosi was anxious to see. Pelosi has consistently shown that she earned her position as a executive officer in the Club For the Galacticly Stupid. Congratulations Nancy!
This article was originally published by heartland.org.
This Commonwealth Fund study
should be very worrisome to supporters of President Barack Obama’s law: Just
one in four 19- to 29-year-olds is even aware of Obamacare’s exchanges.
From October 2013 through March 2014, young adults
without affordable health insurance through an employer will be able to select
a plan from their state’s insurance marketplace, with coverage beginning
January 2014. Those with incomes under 400 percent of poverty will be eligible
for subsidized coverage or Medicaid. The survey findings demonstrate just how critical
outreach and education will be to inform young adults about their new options.
Only 27 percent of 19-to-29-year-olds in the survey were aware of the
marketplaces, with awareness lowest among those uninsured for some time during
the year (19%) and those in low-income households eligible for subsidized
coverage or Medicaid (18%). Awareness also varied by education levels:
one-third of college graduates were aware of the marketplaces, compared with 20
percent of those with a high school degree or less…..To Read More….
