In Portland, Seattle and other cities around the country, our youth have taken to the streets to protest “injustices” they’ve had shoved down their throats by Communists masquerading as educators since the day they entered public school. Outsiders and critics attribute the uprising to a generation raised on participation trophies and timeouts. They may have a point. While mockery remains an effective tool for diminishing the mob’s power, we should take heed of the situation at hand: we are witnessing a crisis of our youth.
The crisis is three-fold: we are dealing with a generation who indeed has been coddled since Day 1; a generation that lacks purpose, which has traditionally been provided by families but for whom that goal now feels not only unattainable but undesirable; and a generation whose boredom has reached a boiling point after its college experience has been put on hold due to Covid restrictions.
Most of the “protesters” lack any marketable skills, which you can witness night after night as they attempt to destroy the federal courthouse in Portland, but struggle with the manual labor it takes to remove plywood from the façade of the building, or topple the chain-link fence. As they’ve been coddled, few have ever experienced the sweat and grind it takes to build something from the ground up, whether it be a house, a business, a family. I’ll admit I was in my late 20s before I ever experienced the pride of watching hours of my sweat and effort manifest into results. It is character-altering in ways that you can’t explain to someone who hasn’t done it. Much like the love you feel for your child – trying to describe that feeling to someone without kids is impossible.
It is no surprise then that our youth are roaming city streets, destroying businesses they have no idea how to build, tagging graffiti they’ll never have to clean, toppling statutes they could never dream of creating. “This is why insurance exists!” they’ll argue, never having had the privilege of finding a contractor who will show up when he says he will, complete the job at the cost he estimated, all the while haggling with the insurance company to pay for it promptly, if at all. Add to that the backlog created by dozens of these business needing services, and that’s months, possibly years, of income business owners have been deprived of, the full levity of which the perpetuators of the destruction will never understand.
After the tragedies of the Columbine massacre and 9/11, there was a dramatic shift in American society. Growing up during that time, I can recall a shift in the approach toward children. The worst thing that could ever happen to a parent is losing a child, and Columbine made America realize it could happen at even what we thought were the safest places. They started treating us with kid gloves. I witnessed the implementation of active shooter drills in schools. Stories of abducted children increased as most homes got internet access and 24-hour news networks profited from the fear. There were boogeymen around every corner.
Bullying became the cause de jour shortly thereafter, and instead of working out our problems amongst ourselves, we were directed to run to the teacher. Pre-Columbine, snitches got stitches. Now? Even thinking about laying a hand on another child might get you expelled. Thus, we have a generation of kids who have no conflict resolution skills; their only coping mechanism is to run to authority. What happens when you view the authority as unworthy? We’re witnessing it – a public tantrum and demands that they are now the authority. No matter that they have no applicable skills, no knowledge of how the system really works, and their ideas are unpopular. Pesky details.
Further, because these kids have never endured a spanking, let alone a playground brawl, they are completely unequipped to deal with the fruits of the confrontations they’re instigating with police. I can’t tell you how many at these riots I’ve seen prodding a police officer for much longer than I would have tolerated, who then scream “POLICE BRUTALITY” once their behavior crosses the boundary into illegality. Much to my dismay, the police more often than not dole out the gentlest arrest ever witnessed, society once again treating the most coddled generation with kid gloves.
As a result of the coddling, our young people are unequipped to fend for themselves, to build lives, to operate in the real world they so desperately want to change. They’ve rejected traditional goals like marriage and family, which often feel unattainable due to crushing student debt but also because of the dearth of role models who exemplify successful and happy marriages and families. The former is self-explanatory. Many are unable to purchase a home, often the first step toward a family, because of loans they were told they needed to take out for a piece of paper they were told they absolutely had to have. While no one can deny they signed agreements to repay their loans and should have done so knowingly, the fact of the matter is most are force fed the lie that they won’t be successful without a college degree and student loans are the only means to that end.
The latter lack of family-oriented role models may be attributable to the declining influence of religion. Religiosity in America has been declining rapidly, especially so in the last decade. We are seeing the result. Church in the past has provided young people with not only a blueprint for the future, but examples of success. This is particularly important when divorce is so prevalent and many of our youth have been raised in broken homes. The church community could provide examples of successful marriages when the parents couldn’t. Church promoted family values. Suffice it to say, few on the streets in these “protests” understand having a cause that is truly bigger than yourself – namely, your children. If they did, they wouldn’t be there. And we can see it in our marriage and birth rates, which have reached record lows in the past several years.
Without families, the promise of purpose draws our young people to the streets every night. The cause of “justice” fills the void. Religion has been usurped by the Church of Woke, whose dogma is preached in college classes across America. You can see it in the streets every night. Speeches reminiscent of church sermons occur nightly before the riots start. Whites confess to their original sin of whiteness and repent to protesters of color. The cause has its martyrs in Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and others.
The void has further been exacerbated by Covid-19. College closures sent students home, away from their friends, and deprived them of at least half a year of the college experience they’re indebting themselves to acquire. Normal activities like spring break, music festivals and concerts, summer beach trips, and bar hopping have been cancelled. The ones who work summers in restaurants and retailers likely have been unable to work. Our youth are home, alone, and away from their friends, with few outlets for their frustrations.
You can see it nightly in the livestreams. There’s a fair bit of rioting and destruction, but there’s also a street festival feel, a “Summer of Love” as Mayor Jenny Durkan of Seattle so aptly described the CHAZ. There are those devoted to the cause, but many look as though they’ve simply repurposed their Coachella outfits for racial justice. Couples march down the streets, hand-in-hand, like it’s a date night stroll down the riverfront. Clubs have been replaced by dance parties in the streets. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see why the protests might be appealing. Nearly six months of pent up energy is being unleased in our streets.
Our young people need purpose, and unfortunately they’ve found one that will radically alter the course of America should it remain unchecked.