"How do you create relationship?" By telling the truth, admitting the holes in that truth, and constantly seeking to fill in those holes. Stop trying to convince people by rhetoric and power plays. If the truth is insufficient, nothing else is either. When truth is spoken with humility and compassion, the hearer, reader or Googler will see the wisdom. If not, well, that is that not the human struggle after all?
4
I would go to Marjory Stoneman Douglas and othe high schools around the country and take their pulse.
6
Now, head for half a dozen community/small state colleges.
24
So try the facing the draft and Vietnam, nuclear war, rivers catching on fire and other pollution that you can't imagine in this country today, and yes, always it seems, police brutality. Many in my generation decided not to have babies it was so bad. Meet the new boss same as the old boss. We marched in the streets to change all that.
Generations before us fought a war to end fascism and rid the world of the Nazis. Before that others died for the 8 hour day and decent wages and safe work places. Women organized and marched for the vote and yes in 1776 people died for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness which included freedom from religious oppression.
And yes our history is not great but if you ignore it or treat it as unimportant you'll never know how to move on.
And it is all creeping back, the Nazis, the corporate aristocracy, the pollution and the religious oppression. The lesson is you cannot rest. You must stay connected and focused and don't ever think the struggle is not worth it. You are the future don't let your great grandchildren down!
22
As a Yale and Harvard Masters graduate, I am surprised and disappointed to read that these well educated, driven students do not have an appreciation for the hard fight there parents and grandparents endured to pave the way for them to live with less discrimination and greater acceptance. There is a model from the past for them to update with their social media/internet ability to mobilize and improve society.
7
History is taught traditionally from the perspective of "great men in high places." Students would be well-served to read Howard Zinn's superb People's History of the United States, which tells "America's story from the point of view -- and in the words of -- American women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native-Americans, the working poor, and immigrant laborers." Readers learn how the battles to advance universal suffrage, child labor laws, women's rights, health and safety standards, racial equality, and other social changes were "carried out at the grassroots level, against bloody resistance."
5
"Others didn’t recognize an American identity at all: “The U.S. doesn’t have a unified culture the way other places do,” one said."
Maybe traveling a bit will clue them into what a "unified culture" means. Mainly, shutting out everyone else. For instance, the Japanese have a "unified culture" and shut out almost all immigration. As a result their economy has been stagnant for decades, their population is aging to the point the older people outnumber the younger (who pays for the elders care?). And, do you want to discuss racism in Japan?
The "unifying" aspect of the US was, and should be, accepting everyone. of course it has not worked out perfectly - it is very, very hard, especially when we start having more non-europeans groups (which suffered their own racism in the US) - which is why we need to be CONSTANTLY on guard against racism and bigotry and CONSTANTLY fighting to improve. It NEVER ends because some group always wants an advantage.
7
Regarding David Books essay on his experience with college students, he concludes with one student asking "How do you create relationships?" I would qualify that question as I'm sure he would also. "Relationships" specifically, among citizens in a democracy should be our concern. Such relationships are certainly not fostered by living a life segregated from others in our elite or selective neighborhoods or institutions, whether they be educational, corporate or governmental. Democracy is more than a form of government, as John Dewey once observed: "Its is primarily a mode of associated living."
3
I hope Mr. Brooks continues talking to college students, but hopefully he mixes it up a bit: public college students, students from small colleges and regional universities, in addition to the large universities he has visited (though he said Davidson is included) and schools from all areas of the country.
4
"How do you create relationship," is one of the most disheartening, yet oddly hopeful questions in the piece. Disheartening because a social animal should not have to ask the question. Hopeful because in the asking is the desire. Well, Relationships 101: Engage one person at a time, and stick. Continue to engage, continue to stick, add another person, stick. Continue throughout life. Please.
4
Thank goodness for this young generation, and for the kids who haven't yet reached their teen years. They will move us past the current ugly truth. I am 68 years old, and it wasn't until recently that I realized that the education I received about America was so whitewashed it was really just propaganda. I quit being proud to be an American following the 2000 election. It was a turning point in my life.
5
You are from Mars Mr. Brooks. You have enabled many of the systemic issues (finances, guns, education, privilege) that these college students are trying to struggle away from.
5
Keep talking to them, David, and expand your base. Go to the state schools, to the historically black colleges, to the Midwest, and see if this resonates with them. I believe that it will. But I am also very optimistic, having taught high school for much of the last forty years, very optimistic indeed. The generation in college now is filled with women and men who desire to be women and men for others, first and foremost. Yes, they seek some form of economic stability for themselves, but they see right through the hypocrisy of my generation with the disarming clarity of youth, and I think they know they don't want to repeat that. They want more than that, and I think they can provide it on the relational level and on the national level. You can see some of it in the teens on TV right now from Stoneman Douglas HS in Florida. I saw it in classrooms each and every year. It's time to give them the opportunity to lead, to create, and to follow up on the dreams they share. It's our job to help them any way we can.
4
Every generation has faced new uncertainties, new rules, new benefits, and new threats. Every generation has felt the need to break away from norms, to outdo parents, and to reinvent the wheel. Every generation thinks that things were better before... until they remember the nitty gritty: the Depression, the beaches of Iwo Jima, polio, segregation, Vietnam, and 9/11.
Every generation harbors optimists and nihilists. Who will win, and who will lose? One says, "I will," and the other says, "It doesn't matter." Every generation will suffer defeats, learn to cope with problems, and recognize opportunities not seen before. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. Tomorrow will be different, and it will be the same.
2
Sheltered by privilege, students at "supercompetitive schools" reserve the right to be cynical because they are the only generation to have ever had problems.
5
So, the kids from “Harvard, Yale, the University of Chicago and Davidson” wring their hands and wail and gnash their teeth over their generation’s “diminished expectations”? Oh, the noblesse oblige! Oh, the humanity!
12
Any Kushners in the groups?
Now take this dialogue to Peoria.
2
David, Great column! Very depressing though. Why have we stopped teaching American history? We are raising a generation who knows nothing of our past triumphs and struggles, the push and pull of democracy, capitalism and every changing technology that have created a vibrant, chaotic, dynamic country that has done more good for more people than any other nation. Imperfect yes, but what isn't in the world we live in? Elites roll up your sleeves and dig in, we need your brains to invent the next chapter of this country!
3
Wreckage? Are these students refugees from war, poverty, famine, drought?
These whiny ignorant dolts at their privileged citadels of "higher education" evince their total ignorance of America's unique and inspiring role in the history of our world with their dismissal of the American Revolution as nothing more than a "rounding error" and of American history of which they know little except that it is about "powerful white males".
PATHETIC LOSERS!
Mr. Brooks: I'm old, but I work with, and I deal with, many young people. The good news is that your article is dead wrong about America's young people. There's plenty of them, many of them immigrants and yes real refugees from real wreckage countries, who can't articulate things the way you and your silly Yalies can but they do embody the American virtues of individualism, work ethic, and a determination to overcome obstacles and succeed in life. They don't need classes in happiness like these pitiful Yale snowflakes who I guess are in their "safe space" here in this photo. This is NOT American youth!
7
I have twins who graduated from a very progressive independent school, and are both at Ivy League schools. Somehow, despite the constant messaging at their private school about micro-aggressions, racism, systemic inequity and other glories of victimization, they are both positive and engaged. One is a political science major and I hope she will go to Washington and be part of a new generation filling the black hole of leadership in the democratic party; the other is interested in art and design, and is working her butt off in art and art history classes, and apprenticing for a studio artist. I have heard all the kinds of statements that David quotes in this article, but this is representative of only one kind of college student. They are insulated in their social media bubbles of constant reinforcement. Identity politics, racial affinity groups, intersectionality; all of it should be tossed out the window. Victim status never brings happiness or success by anyone's definition.
3
It’s columns like this that feed into the Breitbart narrative of Liberals as “cosmopolitan elites in their ivory towers”.
Why not ask students at a community college in Mississippi? A group of GED students in New Mexico? Some Dreamers out in Cali?
8
We are a country of vehemently individualistic extremists, which is often the greatest obstacle to social progress. While I have a lot of faith in this generation, we have to stop calling every movement that doesn't bring about revolutionary change a failure. The Occupy Movement paved the way for other progressive movements we see now. (I acknowledge it's not the first to do so and won't be the last.) Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, now the rising up against gun violence--all of them are not just important in their own right, but as examples for movements to come. Despite the hate and negativity being spewed by our executive and congressional branches, thanks to movements like these, we can no longer go (at least not completely) back to the "bad old days." And that's something to celebrate--not as an end, but a step. Sure, things could always be better--but, to paraphrase Rebecca Solnit, hope, as opposed to despair or blind optimism, means possiblity. As I like to say, we may never win the war (nor will it ever truly be over) but we can win battles. Though small changes or shifts hardly sell newspapers or elicits clicks, we all need to take a deep breath, keep moving forward, and not lose hope. That's how progress is made.
2
As a 56 year old who was in college when Reagan came to power: fight and vote with anger. We knew then the world was about to go south. Well, here I am working my entire life but whipsawed by corporate power. This is a fight to the death. The powers that be want you and your peers annihilated. The stupid are all the Walmarts and Goldman Sachs of the world want. It is a battle for existence. The wealthy are your enemy. Period.
3
Now I have no regrets for not having the opportunity to attend Yale, Harvard, Davidson, etc. They may be elite, in price, but those students are dufuses. They have been educated by the liberal media.
3
Explain to an uneducated man why these most advantaged are so little patriotic.
7
Harvard, Yale, the University of Chicago and Davidson ........ and you find their comments striking?
What did you expect?
For the most part students attending those schools could be considered to have a modicum of intelligence.
1
It's the lack of logical thinking ability (including a lack of basic math skills) among these students that I find infuriating. So entranced with their own pure motivations that to mention the limits on clean air, clean water, sufficient energy, sufficient food, for heaven's sake, is automatically called racist. Here are some facts that should be dinned at the Ivy League tower denizens: climate change will continue to warm up the world for at least 50 years, even if you cut off all carbon production tomorrow. The Green Revolution has hit its limit: the world cannot feed nine billion people. The enchantment with dangerous, incompetent leadership, just because they made you feel good, has spread nuclear weaponry to nations that will use it, sell it, and embrace martyrdom. Leadership that can make you feel cared for and powerful is in: Russia and China. The third world is marching north, in utter desperation of ever seeing sufficient resources or good government. The only hopeful thought? That there are more than enough sensible, intelligent Americans who did not get born with a silver spoon in their mouths, and that they will one day say, "okay, I have no intention of losing what our ancestors came here to gain, they lit out of Europe and China before it exploded in two World Wars, and we're not going to give up what we have while the world explodes again". And they will line up behind a leader that can supply results; survival is what counts.
6
I think the disillusionment has a cause, and that is the selfishness and lies of our Republican leadership, which has utterly lost its moral compass under the onslaught of a selfish ideology taken too far, corporate money and far-right media. Republican leaders resemble a brainless cult, and it's infecting many of their followers.
When you take conservatism to an extreme (e.g., taking health insurance away from 13 million people so you can increase tax cut for the rich, as the Trump Tax Plan does) you show you are unworthy of leadership. The constant barrage of lies and scandals coming so fast from our President, with no coherent response from Republicans in Congress (e.g., censure).
The good news is under Obama and the Democrats we saw what real leadership can do. We raised taxes on the top 5% to fund healthcare for 20 million people. We got the economy back on its feet with a stimulus program and good policy at the Fed supported by the President. We strengthened our government institutions and regulated the banks prudently.
America will get its mojo back when Republicans are relegated to the political wilderness, and a Democratic President again gets control of the narrative driving our country towards worthwhile goals again.
2
Nine years ago, these bright young people were teenagers just awakening to the world around them. Around that time, three profoundly historic events occurred: 1) The U.S. economy crashed hard after eight years of "conservative" GOP control, putting millions out of work; 2) A young, black outsider was decisively elected president, with an agenda of youthful optimism; and, 3) Mitch McConnell, a powerful Republican Senate leader, declared that the primary mission of the GOP would be to prevent that popular new president from achieving his positive agenda despite the obvious will of the voters to support him, and to work hard to deny him a second term.
Over these incredibly important formative years, these young people have witnessed the GOP's cynical victory of party over democracy and the resulting election by Electoral College of the most dishonest, divisive, incompetent president in our history. Their mood of despair seems completely understandable to me.
5
Just note the editorial listed just above yours. The ightmare of Trump will be over in three years hopefully, or worse yet seven years. What McConnell has done is going to last for generations and not only he loaded the Supreme court, but he and Ryan actively promoted Trump to get their regressive judge and regressive tax plan. And we are all victimized for their deed and greed.
2
Maybe this world disappoints the young and privileged of Mr. Brooks acquaintance. Today's world is much better and for many more people than the world of 50 years ago. If it is lacking in some ways, maybe the answer is to find a way to make it better.
We do need to find ways to stop global warming, avoid nuclear catastrophe, feed, clothe, educate and house the poor in the US and around the world.
Curing Cancer would be a good challenge.
In general, if you see a problem, work with others to fix it. Helping others is work that never ends.
A smiling face and positive attitude when facing challenges goes a long way.
Every person can make a contribution to create a today and tomorrow that is better than yesterday.
4
Mr. Brooks should ask them what is the purpose of government and see how they respond. I suspect a few will reflexively answer "It's too big!" thinking that is the correct answer. He wonders why they have no respect for institutions?
The past 40 years have been an all out assault on government by the political party he supports and defends and he wonders how this next generation has become so cynical? Fox News and Right Wing Media have created a narrative that the Main Stream Media peddle lies and have a liberal agenda and is not to be trusted. Opinions from the right have been propped up against actual science as if they are equivalent and smears of greed have been used to weaken hard data. Not even numbers can be pointed to as accurate or real as everything is subjective and rife with interpretation. AND HE WONDERS WHY!?!
The one fact everyone seems to agree upon is that the top 10% of this country controls a whole lot more wealth than they did 40 years ago. Maybe Mr. Brooks should ask how they feel about that and if maybe the wreckage in which they are mired is in any way connected to the abounding wealth of those few.
1
Mr. Brooks,
Your second sentence perpetuates a myth that is simply not true. The schools you mention are “super-competitive” with respect to gaining admission. These schools’ academic rigor and level of intellectual and social capacities of their students is in no way demonstrably superior to those of many other universities. That you and many others believe this myth is a testament to the marketing prowess of the “top” universities.
Visit schools outside of your chosen bubble and you will see for yourself.
3
This is both unnerving and a cause for some optimism. I remember thinking when trump got elected, in the numbness that followed day after, that it's now up to the millenials. Trump is the apotheosis of the baby boomers run amok. But the kids are alright, although in some kind of anomie. That some don't see an American culture or values at all is the disturbing part. But that they are looking for ways to connect in the real world, not just screeens, is encouraging. The Parkview FL kids are part of this zeitgeist and let's hope the mid-terms boost this phenomenon into a new chapter of Amercian life.
1
Earlier today, I was reading an article in another publication. The title of it was "How to buy a bullet proof backpack". A sad commentary on where America is today. I wonder how many of these elite students need such a backpack?
2
David Brooks has been going through a midlife crisis for the past couple of years and he is seeking out fellow travelers in misery in his quest to dissipate his sinking feeling that he has spent about 30 years of his professional life in the pay and grip of rightwing Republicanism that has sped up our society's downward deviancy. The things he purports to care about have been trashed by corporatism and a practiced disdain for government for the people in pursuit of the kleptocracy's pecuniary benefits now made manifest in the awful reality-tv show that is the Trump Administration. Thank you for your service, David.
3
Against my better judgement I took my stepdaughter to visit Yale when she was a junior in high school. We arrived early at the auditorium for the admissions office undergrad applicant PR schpiel. In search of coffee and with plenty of time to spare, I asked an undergrad outside the building if he could point me to a nearby greasy spoon in lovely New Haven. He told me he had never ventured off campus. My stepdaughter and I wandered off and found a coffee shop a few blocks away. Upon our return to the auditorium, the admissions officer began the session by handing over the mike to the undergrad who had just told me he never left campus. The topic of his presentation? The fabulous town:gown Yale:New Haven relationship and how that has a vital positive impact on the undergrad experience! And that was just the beginning of a day that left us needing a shower, complete with meetings with Yale’s idea of the disenfranchised in need of affirmative action - like Latin American and African sons and daughters of diplomats, some of whom waved and greeted “Tom” - Thomas Friedman - walking across campus.
So...here David Brooks samples youth on this campus in order to find out what? Opinions of overprivileged youth one generation younger than overprivileged David Brooks.
3
I'm not sure I would consider either the Black Lives Matter or #metoo particularly successful. Nor would I consider them "movements." BLM is at best dormant, perhaps dead, and #metoo sprang up in the wake of a series of scandals as so much internet shaming. Both seem to be little more than social media sensations. There was a time when organizing a simple demonstration of more than 25 people required thoughtful planning and actual work. Steering committees had to be formed, allied organizations contacted, mail sent and phone calls made. You had to build relationships with others in order to get anything done. Now it's a FB post and a host of virtual friends. Maybe that's why these pitiable, world-weary 20-somethings feel so lonely.
5
For starters I'd like to suggest that David Brooks go to some universities that do not cater to the rich and the elite, you know the ones where students are drowning in all those student loans at exorbitant bank rates enriching Wall Street. He may get a more mainstream perspective.
To these students that he spoke with all I can say is stop your whining, stop your finger pointing, dust yourselves off and swing into action. The Occupy Wall Street movement failed as a result of lack of interest, no participation, no leadership, no organization. You are supposed to be the foundation of the pool of our emerging leaders, from the sounds of it we as a nation are in deep trouble.
4
After all they have been given; all the sacrifices of their parents and teachers; all the lives lost; this is it? This column made me want to throw up.
7
I was struck that the problems these students named, the Iraq war; the financial crisis; police brutality; Donald Trump; school shootings; lack of security, competence, accountability; inequality; and climate change have been caused by, or aggravated by, Republican policies. The modern Republican Party opposes any solutions to these problems when they aren't in power, and aggravates them when they are in power.
David, perhaps it's time for what's left of rational Republican voters to reexamine their party affiliations.
7
This article is hilarious. Brooks should interview the Ivies in five years when they are all working for hedge funds on Wall Street.
7
On a lighter side,
The easiest way I know to build community is the game of pickleball. (Look it up on YouTube.) It is a cross between tennis, ping-pong, and paddle-ball. It does not drain community resourses to set up pickleball courts. You can buy a personal setup for about $175-200. In just 15 minutes of play, people are smiling and playing as if they have become children again. That shared experience creates community.
3
Thanks for listening and reporting, rather than trying to pronounce your opinion on these young people and what they are thinking.
Sometimes we're all in such a hurry to judge and draw conclusions that we don't take enough time to think about what the actual problems are that we're trying to solve!
Today you sound more like a facilitator than a pundit. I think you could be quite good at this!
2
Seriously, Mr. Brooks thinks that all the problems are on the national level?
2
I'm sorry to comment before reading further, but David, you should stop in on the engorged state schools, who educate the majority of the nation.
Harvard, Yale, U of Chicago, Davidson? I grew up in those worlds . . . and wish I could go back to their bubble.
Reality is an increasingly poor, diverse, and low achieving student body who is working, taking care of family, and traveling between community colleges and large regional state schools to meet the requirements of an uber-corporate/capitalistic America. If you want to hear from students, you should have gone to the University of Houston, the University of Central Florida. or their "feeder schools."
4
That's what the youth during the sixties thought.....the backlash from those in power is what got us to where we are now......
1
Oh those poor students at Harvard, Yale, and the University of Chicago. How will they survive in our current environment of inequality?
Check back in a few years. See how many became teachers in public schools, or went to law school to become public defenders. See how many opted to attend some of our most expensive universities so they can choose jobs that won't pay back their undergraduate loans when they're making the median salary. Contrast that with those that used their diplomas to get their JDs, MDs, and MBAs so they could attempt to join the 1%.
But I do wonder who David Brooks would blame for the current predicament the students are lambasting. It's a multiple choice quiz- the GOP, the Democrats, none of the above, or both the above?
Well the brief interview with students at elite institutions of higher learning is over. Next up, either a book report, or a plea to return to the days when more Americans regularly attended faith-centered places of community. We need more faith and God to save us all!
2
Devolution to the local level and rejection of any large scale organizing entities, which the students Brooks spoke to seemed in accord on, will not make a dent in the truly existential problem of climate change. Nor will local laws fix the gun problem. Or inequality. Or a political system awash in dark money.
1
"It’s not that the students are hopeless. They are dedicating their lives to social change. It’s just that they have trouble naming institutions that work."
That is a good start. Honesty and realism are vital to progress.
2
Too bad Mr. Brooks didn't interview the eloquent students who survived the shooting in Parkland. They are not just heroes, but leaders. And they will have the vote soon. As one said, "We're going to take down everyone of you" [in the elections]. Just watch.
3
A little knowledge can be dangerous. And the youth culture doesn't help. But is this new? Remember the motto "anyone over 30 cannot be trusted" back in the 60s!
That doesn't mean history is repeating itself. Like the influenza virus, the contagion continues to mutate. Back in the 50s, the extreme of the Red Scare brought out Joseph N Welch. Sadly, a lot of us have sounded the alarm in 2016 - 2017 - to no avail. The malevolent spirit of Roy Cohn has been resurrected, with the help of Snowden et al.
Like I said: a little knowledge can be dangerous
1
Next time, try interviewing students at community colleges, HBCUs, technical schools, university colleges, and state universities. You'll run into students who are also probably parents, full-time workers, or low income. Interesting that none of these elite students you interviewed weren't concerned about jobs, climate change, or health care.
4
NOTHING will emerge from the 'wreckage, There is but ONE word for the U.S.A., NOT "First", disgusting!
1
"We were the lucky inheritors of Jefferson and Madison, Whitman and Lincoln, the Roosevelts, Kennedy and King. Our ancestors left oppression, crossed a wilderness and are trying to build a promised land.
"They looked at me like I was from Mars. 'That’s the way powerful white males talk about America,' one student said."
i.e., ..."Check your cisgendered, non-intersectional, European colonialist white male privilege, *sir*!!!"
3
So an elitist like Brooks goes to talk to elitists at "Harvard, Yale, the University of Chicago and Davidson" and what results is the most empty column he has written in a long while. Tells you something, doesn't it?
7
I have to agree - this is drivel, and Brooks has an ever increasing habit of writing what he wants to hear, and finding nice sound bites to support his thinking. Really tiresome article.
4
Statistics on the voting patterns of the younger generations are discouraging. Shame on them for their 16% voting performance during the 2014 mid-terms. All the voter suppression in the world could never have brought such a turn-out so low.
That said, the only two nationally viable political parties offer nothing inspirational to vote for. Shame on US for that! The GOP has hurtled totally beyond the pale. The Democrats stumble inexorably into their tired geriatric ward, bereft of substantive ideas and out of touch with the millennial and post-millennial idealists on which their Party depends.
Does anybody seriously believe that the #MeNext gun violence prevention activists or the Sandernista armies of 2016 resonate with the likes of Hillary Clinton, Steny Hoyer, Diane Feinstein, Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelosi? Bless these oldies' dear hearts for past service, but I don't think so.
I havebright young progressives in my family and among their friends. At the mere hint of the above-cited folks, they roll their eyes and mutter "Give me a break!" After all, Hillary, Madeline Albright and Gloria Steinem condemned young women to "a special place in hell" for their temerity in supporting Bernie Sanders. Oops, there go another few million votes.
Let's find a way for us to get out of the way and bring our progressive juniors into political leadership roles. If we fail to do that, they'll eventually seek recognition outside the system, and the results aren't likely to be pretty.
4
What a bunch of hilariously spoiled little nihilists. You really think things are that bad now? For most of the twentieth century, two major nations of this earth had enough nuclear firepower aimed at each other that we came very close to wiping out life on this planet forever. Pick any random year in the 1970's or 1980's. A very real threat of nuclear holocaust hung over not just every American, but every human on earth, and we came very close to global nuclear war several times--ie, every single person on earth being killed. On top of that, we had way more violent crime. We had way more police brutality. Gay folks could barely even appear in public in most of the country, let along get married. Mixed race couples were stared at. Men could sexually harass women and get away with it. No woman had ever come close to being president. No African-American man had ever been president. Things are not perfect now, but they have certainly been much worse--even very recently. Get your heads out of your navels. These are our best and brightest? This is embarrassing.
5
On the other hand, Nixon was bad but no where near as bad as Trump, and we had Republicans then that put their nation ahead of the party and helped us get rid of Nixon.
And, while global warming was occurring, we weren't really aware of it; we didn't have arctic winters with above freezing weather (at three times the previous record).
Jobs were hard to come by, but we didn't face permanent replacement with automation.
Each generation has its crosses to bear. I have a lot of faith in millineals, but I'm not sure our problems can be solved.
Mean no disrespect, but I think you've just summarized the bygone "Great Era" of America that our President would like to take us back to. :)
1
Harvard, Yale, University of Chicago, Davidson... David, you need to get out more. I suggest CCNY and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County for a start.
3
Mr. Brooks~Why do you consistently embrace only the Ivy League? There's a whole world out there of smart, hard-working kids who aren't winners of the college lotto with valid experiences and opinions.
Next time you are talking to University of Chicago students, add on a trip a hour west to Northern Illinois University; just get on the Eisenhower Expressway going out of the city. You will be welcomed. You also will get an earful from regular Midwestern kids, many who transferred from junior colleges. Stop and have a gyro at Tom & Jerry's on your way back to O'Hare, a pleasant hour northwest through the cornfields.
I look forward to reading your column.
9
This article is incisive and disturbing. As a liberal millennial that worked for the Unemployment Insurance program during the "great recession" I saw the real human damage of a global finance industry out of control. At least after the Savings and Loan Crisis people went to jail. Iraq remains a (predictable) disaster for the entire world, and the Democrats infuriating inability to communicate has led to the rise of Trump and extremists on both sides that are hobbling the country.
Through all of this I am not without hope. I realize that I have to temper my anger and instinct to burn the house down in order to be effective. It is disturbing to hear from these elite young people, who will probably be in charge of the world, that they are this disillusioned and hopeless. Getting involved on the local level is not going to solve the increasingly complex global problems we face; the Federal Government is not beyond repair and MUST work, the financial system can be tamed by stiff regulation. Putting neophytes in power just for changes sake will only make the problems worse. If these future ivy league "masters of the universe" are that disillusioned and are still talking about the "white male perspective" their education had failed them flat out! Lets talk about real issues and solutions and how we move forward.
3
That first paragraph. Man.
1
Harv ard yale and university if chicago. Wow. Youmystbe getting pay well. How about if you go to any underfu ded public university to get a real perspective from students there? What a posseur
3
The annual Brooks listening tour is in need of some course correction.
5
vote out the people who are bought and paid for by the terrorist NRA
1
Of course if you hear from the mass media and from the social media that you are yourself or you are surrounded by sexists, racists, nazis, rapists, misogynists, and that all you've achieved is only because of you privilege or lack of it and so on you are going to feel unhappy.
Spoiled, elitist, over-educated, ignorant crybabies.
Maybe they ought to get a job. Or join the U.S. military.
8
John Xavier III, well said! Thank you!
1
Over privileged, somehow (given where they are) under educated, and wearing the fashionable pose of cynicism. Narcissistic. Pathetic.
2
Try some community colleges Brooks.
That way you can write a better piece than this. More rounded , more inclusive, or maybe Norte Dam, Fordham, Loyola. Just saying.
3
Interviewing whiny jerks = boring read.
2
American history wasn’t taught the way Brooks learned it. David, your teacher lied to you.
2
Davidson is a super competitive school?
No wonder Gates and Zuckerberg left after a semester or few...
What nihilistic defeatist thinking...
Dedicating their lives to social change - that's like McCain dedicating his Senate career to stifling the flow of campaign cash to Senators running for re-election...
If you're going to lead a life, or wage a campaign, about nothing - at least make a TV episode out of it like Seinfeld did...
Barely a decade ago that Zuckerberg began to make his way in the world, with same said group of students - who were only too eager to vote hot or not...
Today, Facebook is worth more than 525 billion 600 (million) dollars...
But - if finance is more your shtick than social...
The cryptocurrency that the Winklevii begat was worth more than half of that, at its high of a month or so ago...
.....................
To these folks, STEM is probably a four-letter word...
Do any of them even know who George Church is - just one of the gaggle of biomolecular geniuses resident at Harvard...
From your own paper...
*ttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/science/08church.html
*ttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/10/health/gene-editing-pigs-organ-transplants.html
And for those who want to curse the darkness of sexual harassment rather than look at transcendentally-lit candles - also by way of biomolecular Harvard...
*ttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/12/science/jennifer-doudna-crispr-cas9-genetic-engineering.html
...for anyone who thinks that biochemistry isn't a full-contact sport
2
"To these folks, STEM is probably a four-letter word..."
Brooks doesn't say how the students he quotes were selected, but it's hard to see any of them being STEM majors.
Harvard and Yale must be the new Applebee's Salad Bar.
2
These forays of yours, Mr. Brooks, are meaningless. All you do is talk to the social, cultural elites. You should rename your column, “ Brahmans are Us.”
4
Did you tell the students that you voted for Trump? No wonder they looked at you as if you were from Mars. To quote the late Fred Rogers, kids can spot a phony a mile away.
3
I suspect that you might have heard from a positive different generation if you had visited super-competitive schools like the Historical Black Colleges and University such as Morehouse, Spelman, Hampton and Howard.
Instead of an awakening you would know who was "woke" to the magnificent hopeful real legacy solid edifice built by Barack and Michelle Obama and the fictional world of T'Challa aka "Black Panther". Every month is "Black History Month" in African America where the resounding hopeful message of the Black National Anthem aka "Lift Every Voice and Sing" is in rising hearts and minds.
This African America is invisible from Harvard, Yale, the University of Chicago and Davidson except as a unique alien planet pathology of ignorance, sloth, immorality, violence and criminality.
6
Thanks. Interesting to get the view of privileged cloistered whiners (from a privileged cloistered pontificator).
2
To find out what's going on in America, Mr. Brooks mostly went to "...super-competitive schools - Harvard, Yale, the University of Chicago and Davidson..."
Yeah... Nah.
3
David, you are hopeless.
Writing this column for over a decade and never taking a principled stand on conservative Republican misbehavior until it veered of into outright fascism with our current regime.
3
Poor David Brooks. He’s always whining and puling about how divided the country is — from his vantage points of Yale and Washington DC. He wonders why he feels out of touch. A suggestion: spend a year with students in public universities and colleges in far-off lands like, say, Ohio, Iowa, Alabama, Oklahoma, Utah, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Florida, just for starters.
2
“We don’t even have a common truth. A common set of facts,” Here's one: Systems and software are taking over the world of work, and you'd better learn to ADAPT or you're going to be toast. Sort it out, bucko!
1
As a parent of a student, I feel these students grew up in a world of unprecedented prosperity and opportunity. The vast majority of these kids grew up in affluent neighborhoods, and those who didn't are a testament to the opportunities that Americans have. Their grandparents grew up in a world in which 80 million people died in WW2, where blacks couldn't vote in certain states, and couldn't attend the same schools as whites, where unemployment reached 25%. What is needed here is a little perspective. Times are good, and the problems we face now, while significant, are nothing like those faced by our parents and grandparents. Can we do better? Absolutely! But the lack of perspective by these students is astounding. There are, for instance, probably students who believe that more blacks are killed by police than criminals, or that poor people are worse off today than 50 or 100 years ago, because of the super rich. Who can blame them when the media perpetrates these myths on a daily basis, and stokes class envy and racial divides. Furthermore, meaningful discussion of these issues is largely banned on campuses. Here are a few facts: Vladimir Putin is no Josef Stalin, Trump is no Hitler, voter ID laws are neither Jim Crow laws nor Slavery, an unwanted pass is not rape. As these kids go out into the world and become affluent themselves, perhaps they will instill some perspective in their children, clearly, my generation has failed in this regard.
2
This is Brooks’ rough notes. When will he write the finished piece?
1
Wow, a white media elite interviews Ivy League level (probably white) college students in order to measure what’s happening in America. Am I the only one who sees the rife elitism? Some things never change at the NYT.
3
".... today's successful movements, like Black Lives Matter and #MeToo, don't have famous figureheads or centralized structures...."
I'll add to that list "Occupy".
If it was such a "visible failure" then it would have been forgotten.
But, it hasn't been forgotten.
Yes, David, you were part of the "lucky inheritors of Jefferson and Madison, Whitman and Lincoln....", but I never was.
My heroes were the IWW, Red Emma Goldman and her sidekick, Alex Bergman, my artists were Maynard Dixon and his wife, Dorothea Lange. My villains were J. Edgar Hoover, Frick, Pinkertons and Tricky Dick. I mourn that this nation lost the Gilded Age War, that the men of this nation became cannon fodder so JP Morgan could make another dime off someone's child's blood. Yes, I believe that we are in Afghanistan for the 3 trillion of minerals and, yes, I believe that the filling of this government's cabinet is a deliberate act of Kakistocracy, rule by the most incompetent and indifferent. It is no accident.
And, no - I don't think that we will ever recover from what is happening.
There's only so much "push me, pull me" that a nation can stand and this time this nation is being pushed to the bottom of the barrel.
We make nothing.
We consume less and less.
We have given every cent to the military/industrial complex.
We will not recover from this, David.
Not even Lincoln could save us.
I think the young will survive, but, oh, they will be poor...
and they will remember and join each other....soon.
3
Super competitive, Davidson?! Must be an outlier or have a super marketing department! For crying out loud, it's in North Carolina! The state with the N.R.A.'s, Burr and Tillis in The Senate, and Foxx and Meadows in The House! The state with all those scandals we read about, especially in The New York Times! Gerrymandered districts! The State that gave us Senator Helms for so long! Mentioned in the same breath as Chicago, Harvard, and Yale! Could it actually be so competitive, because you need a lot of bucks to get in, and you are not related to The Belks, The Piedmont Duke's, or Woodrow Wilson?! Even the scandalous, Wells Fargo has its' strong eastern base there! But, alas even though you lumped Davidson with those venerable institutions, David, you chose not to quote one of their student's! What's in a name?!!!
2
Harvard, Yale, Chicago and Davidson? It is apparently beneath Mr. Brooks to set foot on a state-supported campus.
Seriously, how can you possibly pontificate on a generation of college students and ignore where the vast majority of students go to school? And they call liberals elitist.
5
I.e. they're feeling like the rest of us: the system is breaking down. Typical shallow Brooks column that implies it has more depth than it does.
3
I feel sorry for not only this generation coming up in America but all Americans. The Republicans and conservatives in this country have largely destroyed it. With the covers completely pulled back, courtesy of Donald Trump, we see the truth with regard to the character of these people. Fully 80% of Republicans still support this President and Christian evangelicals have never espoused such stalwart support for any leader in the history of this country. This Republican leadership has brought America rapacious greed, culminating in the largest financial fraud in the history of the world, thoughtless global violence (the war in Iraq), a sickening love for the weapons of war, the complete debasement of anyone who is not white, the degradation of women and an utter lack of compassion for anyone who is not wealthy. There is no thought of the public good, of caring for the least among us, of ensuring access to affordable healthcare, a quality education and basic necessities. Like the images of the children devastated by the never-ending war in Syria, we are now all looking at our own children begging, literally begging those in power to do something meaningful to ensure they are not slaughtered while trying to get an education. The Republicans, so called conservatives and Donald Trump are all rabid supporters of greed, violence, lying, deception and vanity. Yes, America has become a living hell. Thank you for pointing that out, Mr. Brooks.
2
I usually like Brooks, but I think he is going over the deep end here. Is the title poking fun at the Social Justice Warrior mindset, or paying respect to it? Honestly, did Brooks only talk to self-centered pessimists on campus, or is he just bending over backwards to be open-minded to the activist left?
1
Lost and looking for a leader. Says something about Ivy League education, eh?
2
Ahhh, yes, the millenials.... we're in deep trouble if we expect them to "fix" our problems... the generation of "everyone gets a trophy" is now in the real world and surprise surprise, they are really bummed out that things don't go their way and they have to do something about it. But what ? Get off your phone and start talking to each other... Pay attention in class.. One said that she didn't learn much of American history ! She just didn't pay attention or didn't seek alternative means to learn the "real" american history by reading books ! Oh yeah, reading is a real bummer dude, takes time...
3
JFK and the entire neo-Camelot scene was a manifestation of neo-fascism Not the Nazi kind of fascism. Not the red fascism of Stalin. Nay. It was American fascism, fascism with a friendly open American smile. I heard the warning bell when JFK uttered " Aaaahsk not when your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country". The question should have been "What can you do for yourself, and when will you do it".
1
Meanwhile back in the black African American new generation world they are still" woke" while emerging from the mighty fine hopeful edifice exemplified by the reality of Barack Hussein and Michelle LeVaughn Robinson Obama and the fiction of T'Challa aka the "Black Panther". And they are standing and singing the uplifting words of the black national anthem "Lift Every Voice and Sing".
After all it is "Black History Month" every month of the year in the African American community. Too bad that Brooks innate enduring white supremacist context and perspective did not lead him to any "super-competitive" historical black colleges and universities like Morehouse or Spellman.
3
errata Spelman with one l.
My great grandfather was born enslaved and graduated from Atlanta Baptist College aka Morehouse during Reconstruction.
My grandmother was born to formally enslaved parents and she graduated from Clark Atlanta University Jim Crow.
2
Good Lord ... This is it!? Centuries and generations of struggle and we end up with ... a bunch of whiners?
6
Sounds like the students are being properly indronated.
What a bunch of whiners. “I don’t believe in politicians.” All of them? Really.
What a lazy and downright silly statement. That kind of attitude keeps us from solving problems and advancing in any meaningful way.
3
As to all the comments re Brooks’ limited survey of college campuses... It’s all about those speaking fees! Brooks commands some serious cash, no doubt.
1
"Most of the students I’ve met with so far are at super-competitive schools — Harvard, Yale,"
Are you sure about that David? Is that not where George W. Bush went, accepted on the Legacy Program, after he was rejected from UT Austin because his high school grades were dismal?
Umm...Yes...... Yale and Harvard admit up to 40% Legacy. That is otherwise known as White Affirmative Action for Sub Performing Children of Sub Performing Rich people.
4
I apologize in advance for rolling my eyes a bit at the poor, pitiful, picked on Yalies who get to give the NYT what for, and I don't blame them a bit for being more than a little disgusted.
However, it might be good for them to a) take a good hard look around the planet, and b) contemplate, say, how very much worse black folks in America had it, not so very long ago, within my lifetime.
Not saying that the Civil Rights movement made everything nifty; saying that those folks never seem to sit around Eeyoring.
3
Dear David, I watch you weekly on PBS Newshour. You and columnist fellow NYT Paul Krugman are truly decent men. Thank you for you insights.
These students are totally brainwashed. I have zero sympathy for them. We live in a golden age of science & technology, These kids have been given an incredible opportunity to study at the best colleges & make our world a better place. Yet they are resentful, cynical & defiantly ungrateful. How did this happen? Schools are supposed to teach kids HOW to think for themselves, not WHAT to think. If the "smartest" students aren't being taught American history properly then our educational system is intellectually bankrupt...end of story. What is going on inside our schools is a disgrace. It needs blowing wide open. Our education system has produced a generation of self centered brats whose only commitment is an absence of commitment to a common culture, a shared history. They are perfectly hollowed vessels, obedient, pliable, without any real obligations or devotions. These students are a desperate herd looking for a master. Ready to be taken over by anyone, anyone who will tell them what to do without the burden of thinking. This is a mentality ready for a Fuehrer. Our students’ ignorance is not a failing of the educational system – it is its crowning achievement. Efforts by several generations of reformers & public policy experts have combined to produce a generation of nihilists. They're the culmination of a progressive education that has forgotten nearly everything about American history, & as a result, have achieved near-perfect indifference to their own culture. Very sad.
5
Sorry, David, this is just lazy writing. You can do better. You missed something important: schools like these have populated the highest ranks of the institutions in reputational decline, so now where do they turn? Despair? Let's hear from other voices for a change.
2
These are arrogant pups full of a false understanding of life who feel sorry for themselves instead of grateful for their rare educational opportunities.
1
Hmmm.....not that I want to wax critical over this valiant attempt by Sir David of the Brooks tribe but....really? Harvard, Yale, the University of Chicago and Davidson? You went to those elite institutions to garner your opinion of what the younger generations, you know - average America - are doing? Really? I see you acknowledge that 'this is a tiny slice of the rising generation." It is. How about it's a minuscule slice and not worthy of a basis of real determination? I will acknowledge, though, that some portion of that cohort may very well be future leaders.
You need to unplug yourself from your bastion of privilege and walk around in the heartland of average America. Go to a local community college and the like. Ask your questions of the citizens attending those institutions. They comprise the majority of America. From this you might garner a better clue.
Indeed, Frank (see below), an acknowledged retired military guy, may better understand the diversity that is our country than you (again, no offense meant). Come to think of it, putting your questions to the rank and file of the military might be a better indicator since it pulls its own from the average citizenry of our country. Disclosure, I'm a military brat by rearing's so like to think I know something about this. Just some thoughts worth about that much.
John~
American Net'Zen
1
All college students want to kill and bury their parent's ideas and institutions. Then as they start their real lives they notice that they turn into their parents more and more every year.
2
I have 3 children, all grown now, post college, but still young adults. They don't fit your model. They are engaged politically and while they are not optimistic they are committed. As am I. But I want to speak to one aspect of your piece: you spoke to elite groups of students at elite schools. In a world where inequality, lack of opportunity, and the crisis of (the lack of) access to quality education, doesn't that make you a enabler of the belief that in some ways we are 2 Americas (the entitled and the left-behind)? Why aren't you talking to state universities? Community colleges? Coming from a familiy of entitlements, for myself, my children and my siblings, I know how undeserved my good fortune is. But you seem to be feeding the perspective that these entitlements are worth pursuit. It is that way of valuing these unfair advantages that solidifies their influence on our society. If we want more shared prosperity, shouldn't we share these opportunities more widely? Shouldn't students at the non-name brand university have the opportunity to speak with someone like you? with thought provoking ideas? and a commitment to shared values?
3
Well, Mr. Brooks, it looks like you've won!
It only took 30 years of concerted Republican effort to make so many people disillusioned with government - to "prove" that there was no way to get government right. You and your friends finally figured out you only have to tear it down, and make it as dysfunctional as possible, and your average kid would say "[we don't even have] a common set of facts".
You might ask yourself who caused this wreckage of which you speak.
"Thanks for you service" to the cause. I guess.
3
If these students want to know how to "connect" or even "reconnect" then they must ditch the phones, ditch the on-line dating sites and become human beings.
The "social networks" are nice to some extent but should never be used as a substitute for real human contact. These young people seem to have been raised by robots and have allowed themselves to be "taken in" by vapid commercials and advertisements. Get Real, to say the least. If they are unaware of America's History then get in a car or on a bus or train and go see America. It's problematic but it's also wonderful. When I was raising my son in the 80's and 90's we NEVER went to Disney World. Instead we went to Harper's Ferry, Monticello, Appomattox, Philadelphia, the Capital in D.C., and many many more historical sites. They need to do the same. NOW.
Average Americans have not seen a raise in the last 30 years. If the average American had shared in the prosperity of the last 30 years, she would not be agitating today.
I am no socialist, but I have come to believe that we will have economic redistribution in American in the next 30 years, one way or another. Which way will it be?
2
A president, his brother a presidential candidate and a civil rights leader murdered. Rebellion and rioting in our cities, a war that was tearing the country apart, unbridled population growth and degradation of the planet, an oil embargo... it was "The Eve of Destruction" -- While I recall some tuning out, bloody protests, and more, I do not recall a great deal of faith in institutions. While sympathetic in nearly every respect, I wonder whether more comparative analysis might help restore faith and hope. When one turns inward, with grief, or self-pity, I am not sure it ever works out well in the end. Lift up thine eyes, see the past to find the future.
Things that popped out at me in this piece; "I found little faith in organizations...It's not that the students felt hopeless. They are dedicating their lives to social change...the loss of faith in the American idea...'America is undergoing a renegotiation of the terms of who is powerful'". I smell my youth in LBJ's and Nixon's America. What happened to most of us will challenge this generation, especially these elite students: Creature comforts. Money. Once pushed out of the bubble of academia, this generation will need to turn their backs on those things that seduced my generation. This is not the first time the 'present' has deeply disappointed the 'future' in this country. The question becomes: What will you do when the 'present' fades away and you are offered the corner office? Can the cycle be broken or will Greed continue to look Good?
Regarding creating relationship: Look up. Look up from your tablets and phones. Recognize that relationships are not created by swiping to the right or left on an app funded by a corporate buyout or by liking someone's status on another app that exists to convince you to click on an ad. Look up! I am 61 and I am ready to follow you into a better America.
Cry me a river. The "wreckage"? Give me a break. My living experiences were the loss of the Vietnam War, a few serious recessions, gas rationing, stagflation, cities in decay, Watergate, Iran hostages, Iran-Contra, the emergence of AIDS, etc, etc. And guess what: when we graduated we got on with it and did the best we could. These students have never lived without instant communications in their hands, instant access to almost unlimited information, have the economy at full employment, incredible opportunity, and a louder voice than any young adults have ever had. And yet they have been taught to look at the work through a lens of grievance and injustice and pessimism. And to hear this is the view of the most elite young Americans is not as depressing as it is shameful. Feeding them this gibberish has done them a grave disservice. As one reporter rightly said years back, to paraphrase, "Pull up your pants, turn your hat around, and get after it." I am optimistic, though, that when tossed out of the nest, they'll learn to fly, and take us to higher heights. Americans always do.
Perhaps these young folks should fall in love and start families. Nothing widens one's worldview as much as having children in the picture.
1
Sorry David, you lost me in the first paragraph when you started out at "super-competitive schools". These schools have never represented America. These students are members of the elite whether they think so or not.
I hope to see a future piece by you where you speak to those at state schools, community colleges and the young who have not gone on to college after high school.
1
Trump and many of his fellow Republicans denigrate American institutions on a daily basis. Their consolidated power leads them to govern arbitrarily — like invoking the nuclear option for the confirmation of Supreme Court judges and tax "reform" without consultation of the party out of power. They seem to be romantically involved with trashing those who are not in lockstep agreement with them. There is no solution for fractured relationships in this approach.
1
David, Why do you visit only super-competitive ivy league schools? I'm not suggesting you would find a different narrative at state schools and universities but the very fact that you chose to talk to the "tiny slice of the rising generation" represented by Harvard, Yale, the University of Chicago and Davidson gives at least the appearance that you consider these students' opinions more interesting or worthy of considering than the views of students at less competitive (or expensive) schools. Why not visit the University of New Mexico or Arizona State or the University of Utah? What would the students at these institutions, many of whom are working hard to juggle jobs, school and family, tell you about how they see the world?
1
I do not find David Brooks to be a reliable interpreter of the millennial zeitgeist. He is too stuck in his own half pessimist, half pollyanna vision of America to accurately see these young people for the force they are.
The comments he shares from these young people sound clear eyed not soul sick. Their words do not express a lack of knowledge about American history, rather I hear a complex interpretation that is more realistic but not necessarily pessimistic. Their vision of social change is that it is not only worthy but necessary. They express a lack of faith in large institutions not a lack of faith in humanity. In fact, their gusto for engaging in local, grassroots efforts is heartening as it expresses a willingness to do the really hard work of social change.
I would rather hear more from them about their vision of our potential for a better future than more moaning from Brooks who still seems to believe that our better days are behind us.
1
I found extremely positive that these bright young students, to quote one, 'don't have a sense of being proud to be an American.' Few countries, if any, can be really proud of their histories. In their bitterness, I found a yearning for something better...With this awareness all of us can begin a more healthy journey. Unquestioned nationalism is all too often a gpdangerous slippery slope
1
One other thing these young folks have in common: they have spent their lives watching the republican dystopian vision of austerity for the masses and prosperity for the oligarchs.
They have spent their lives listening to the lie that both political parties are corrupt and will not work for the common good.
While that is true about republicans who obviously do not listen to the voices of the people; it is not as true of democrats. Elect a democrat and you stand at least some chance of them listening to you.
The killing of the kids in Parkland seems to be inspiring their fellow kids to take to the voting booths.
Watching the two young men who were so eloquent and inspiring in pointing truth to power I was struck by one thing the fellow at the meeting with t rump said that should strike fear into the hearts of every republican in Florida and beyond: "I just turned 18."
2
You should have these conversations with high school students too. There will be a lot of similarities (social media dysfunction, shrinking of opportunities, wanting to make a difference). Alternatively, you will find them asking the questions how did we get to this position and will it correct itself in the upcoming election or will we go further down the rabbit hole of anger, division, and hate.
2
In eras of the past such divergent views would either not be expressed or could not gain traction. I take solace that most of the students express a "we" desire instead of a "me" focus. As Brooks points out, the challenge for our society is to bring the good to the forefront and climb over the continual roadblocks placed in its way by special interest groups and selfish people.
2
When I was in grade school in Washington, D.C. (this was in the public schools) we had to memorize and recite the opening sentences of the Declaration of Independence, ending with "to a candid world," and the Preamble to the Constitution. By the eighth grade we had to memorize and recite the Gettysburg Address. I now begin to suspect myself of no lomnger being young, but I remember the passages verbatim--and they are passages despised by those now elected to power. The notion that "all men are created equal" is derided. The idea of a "more perfect union" is decried. The phrase "of the people, by the people, and for the people" is crushed by mockery and money. And you could ask a hundred random U.S. citizens what the first three words of the Constitution are and they either wouldn't know or (if you told them) would say "that's a media lie. It doesn't say that." So I don't blame these kids for their cynicism. There is a hole where their civic education should be, and there isn't anyone to fill it right now except the contemptible circus act posing as our leadership and the ignoramuses who elected them.
1
Yet we must continue to hope and all of us who care must make every effort to realize our forbearers' ideals .
Brooks goes to the elite schools to interact with students in order to avoid the harsh realities of 99% of campus life nowadays.
It allows Brooks' the illusion that he prefers - no government with little pushback from the unwashed.
IF he were to venture to a more normal university, he might have to endure the reality that 99% of us face. His republican mind would hate that.
Nero famously fiddled while Rome burned. Mr. Brooks hides from the truth as our country is burned down by HIS sick party.
It is indeed unfortunate that these young people are disillusioned with the America we older folks grew up in. It just struck me, after reading this, what these students have grown up with. Most would have been born in the very late 1990’s-very early 2000’s. What did they see when the reached an age where they were more aware and responsive to the world around them? They saw a completely disfunctional government, one where more time was spent by both parties bashing the other. They saw no effort at compromise. They’ve seen a government more driven by party loyalty than loyalty to country. As mentioned by others, they’ve experienced wars that have dragged on for many years without an end in sight. They’ve seen nothing but the desire to solve problems only if the solutions are one-sided victories. They’ve seen their parents and grandparents generations react to fear(s) of, something. The list can go on and on. The point is, how do we expect them to feel about what they’ve seen about democracy and America? I must confess that I have been very concerned about what my grandchildren, who are all under twelve, are going to think about our country when they start becoming aware of the world around them. It has been encouraging to see how the young people in Parkland, FL have taken action in the wake of the shooting at their school. Maybe this younger group will right the ship. We boomers haven’t done so well.
Reading this, I was struck by another article published today, about Walter Cronkite and the Fairness Doctrine. And bang, I felt smacked in the head by the fact that the Fairness Doctrine, and the date we got rid of it (1987) was the beginning of the extreme polarization in the media. It seems like since then we have withdrawn into our extreme corners of political beliefs, blaming each other and not believing in anything but the alternative facts that our own associates spout. I don't believe the world is ending, but I can see the young generation not believing in our institutions considering all the polarizing things that have happened and their polarized characterization in the media. Maybe regulating some of this is necessary. In some countries, hate speech, false advertising, and flat out open lies are illegal and or regulated by societal norms - maybe that's the price our democracy has to pay to stay alive.
2
If Brooks' "cross-section" is representative, it sadly validates my contention that, for a generation, America has failed to teach civics and history to its own kids, while coddling them in self-defeating identity politics, Left and Right. A generation deeply concerned with "micro-aggressions" would not survive a Kent State. As well, America has failed to provide a positive, collective vision like the Apollo Program, instead letting people define their commonalities through not-this or not-that.
Enter current high school students: as with the Viet Nam War and Civil Rights in the Sixties and Seventies, it will take a generation of young people to Just Say No! They are the ones with the energy, focus, and creativity to organize boycotts, take to the streets, engage in civil disobedience, and whatever else they deem necessary. After all, they are the ones who will live with the consequences of what they choose to do or not do. Most of us spending time making comments to the Times online are of an older generation.
The most positive thing for positive change I have heard about recently is the call by high school students for a national day to walk out of school to demonstrate that unless things change, there will be no business as usual. If they do this, if they continue on the road to determining the nation they and their children will live in, they will be criticized, bribed, threatened, and worse, but that's the way life is. Remember Kent State. There is no free lunch.
2
A gratuitous comment from a dotard abroad: The US used to be something to admire with world's oldest institutions. Now it looks even older with a lot of feudal flavors.
1
My 25 year old son is optimistic in his personal life but about life in general, he says "Everything always gets worse. Nothing gets better, only worse." I don't disagree! Take for example computer program "updates" and website "redesigns." Always worse, am I right?
I'm glad I grew up when I did, before ubiquitous screens. I got to be a hippie and experienced free love and a counter-culture and the early women's movement, and it stuck with me. But now I'm very afraid of getting old(er).
1
Don't be afraid of getting old(er) considering the alternative. But those were the days my friend, weren't they?
1
Me, too.
'When I asked how they were taught American history, a few said they weren’t taught much of it.'
Oh, please. These are students at elite universities - how many did NOT take APUSH? Almost half a million high school students took the AP US History exam in 2016 alone - second in popularity only to English Lang & Comp.
Did David also take them out to 'a gourmet sandwich'? Where they professed themselves incapable of understanding the menu?
1
University students have long been this way, but it's worth remembering that college kids are often exposed to injustices and, especially, past injustices on a large scale for the first time in their lives when they are just beginning to awaken from a teenage near-obliviousness to the world beyond the confines of their high school. Exposure to leftist propaganda easily wins their hearts, and for many it can be a lifelong affection.
America? An embarrassment -- it is but a story of ethnic cleansing, if not outright genocide, slavery and patriarchy, a story of war and imperialism, exploitation and commercialism. The Almighty Dollar reigns supreme. Kids migrate to CounterPunch and Democracy Now! and find Noam Chomsky and Glenn Greenwald exhilarating: "Everything we were told was lies!"
I'm frightened -- terrified, even -- of how suspicious so many are of institutions and hierarchy (even though their socialism, unbeknownst to them, leads to the most tyrannical form of centralization imaginable). Let's recall the words of Lord Acton: "[The Athenians] understood that for liberty, justice, and equal laws, it is as necessary that Democracy should restrain itself as it had been that it should restrain the Oligarchy. ... [G]overnment by the whole people is an evil of the same nature as unmixed monarchy, and requires, for nearly the same reasons, institutions that shall protect it against itself and uphold the permanent reign of law against arbitrary revolutions of opinion."
1
Curious is it not that the “eye for an eye “ justice of the vengeful Old Testament God in passionately Christian Alabama supercedes the message of love and forgiveness preached by Jesus in the New Testament. For the state to sanction revenge as a justification for capital punishment takes us close to Hobbes’ state of nature where each judged his own case because no sovereign state existed.
1
One thing that I find heartening is that they seem to know the difference between right and wrong and what constitutes corruption or amorality.
Their youthful cynicism though makes me totally sad. It takes most adults decades to reach the point of cynicism they are already at. Thank God their families, teachers, and local communities have provided them with the best examples of America and Americans. They have half the information needed to forge their own identities and place in this world, they know who and what they do not want to become.
Armed with this they will do better. Just look at the movement started by the Parkland teens after the latest horrific mass shooting at a school. They will not let Congress get away with doing nothing about gun control because to do nothing is the easiest way out, and because the GOP have received NRA donations for decades and they don't want to take a financial hit.
These kids know the value of lives over profits, and they are exposing adult rhetoric for what it is, a meaningless string of self-serving words that only amount to gratuitous lip service for the devastation caused by mass shootings, with no plan or promise to do everything possible to end this madness.
Talk to students not in top 5% schools. Immigrants at community colleges. Universities like Clemson, or Fresno State. You woukd write a very different story. It would be about hope.
1
Actually, you could have been interviewing students at UW-Madison in 1960.
Like those of us waiting at the airport to greet Jack Kennedy or at the Union on the Lake. I fail to see the difference between those students now and us then, filled indecision and to be or not to be's. We were more optimistic then. But things have changed here and not for the better and the time is now for them to get engaged. So,come down from your ivory towers and climb up on the barricades. Your country needs your fervor not your passivity.
1
This is a well spun article with some good insights. However, as David mentions at the beginning, this is a very biased same of students at privileged schools. He should balance this with interviews from a range of public universities and colleges - land grant, small, etc - for anything meaningful can be mined from the comments.
1
On the last paragraph, we connect with one another by being interested in one another, sharing experiences and opinions, enjoying each other's company, working on projects together, spending time together. We connect with one another by investing in a relationship. We meet one another's friends, and sometimes new friendships are kindled.
But you have to put down the phone first. Delete your Facebook account, your Instagram account, your Twitter account. Quit Snapchat and WhatsApp. Look UP from your phone at the people around you in school, at work. This generation will not have real relationships until they disconnect from their 1,500 Facebook friends and reconnect and recommit to their 5 real life friends. Even in my generation, women in particular are so absorbed in the drama of social media that they've forgotten the art of conversation.
1
Many commenters expressed concern that this article focused on the "elite" educated of society. Well students today are mostly not from the elite classes. Take out the Ivy league students, even there you will find some struggling financially, and you'll find students from all backgrounds.
True to take the real pulse of Millenials and the Generation without Hope responses should be found at community colleges and smaller campuses. Regional campuses will differ in perspective from rural campuses. Character as grandma used to say is built on the experiences one has in life. These students are still young let them grow. Once that happens we will see the results of being bombarded each day with immoral actions from our leaders.
In the meantime, we need to get off our laurels and be proactive in gaining the high ground with these incompetent immoral capitalist leaders who are destroying everything we have built so far.
How surprising that this generation is down on the U.S.? They are taught to be ashamed of the explorers and early revolutionaries that founded our country. They hear how bad a guy Columbus was, how cruelly we treated the Native Americans, and how wrong we were in Vietnam. Statues of historic, at the time heroic, figures are taken down. Text book chapters erased. Some towns have even stopped teaching perhaps our biggest sin: Slavery. It's too shameful to discuss.
We are still a great though bitterly divided nation. It would do us well to remember why we were great at our nations birth---the incredible bravery and survival of the early settlers, the foresight of our forefathers in crafting the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The unbelievable heroism of our armed forces in all of our conflicts, and the special potential we still hold on this planet. And we'd do well to learn from, not erase, our nation's sordid history.
1
This article would have been more interesting if the author had visited at a variety of schools across the country. He's assuming that Ivy League students speak for all students and that's probably not the case. David Brooks might need to step out a bit, find out what kids are thinking who attend tech schools, community colleges, state colleges and universities, traditionally black colleges, small bible colleges, etc., etc. This article makes his experience and thinking seem hamstrung.
It would be interesting to see what answers he would get from power 5 conference schools. Also to see the difference of opinion from business school, computer science dept, and engineering schools versus the poly sci and and humanities students.
My days in getting my degree the country was in love with the builders of companies that employed people, created better products, and created wealth. Not the diatribe of the last administration --"that those people didn't create anything"
What struck me most about this article is how students at leading liberal universities view the US as an oppressive state, and have no idea of American history. This says to me that the Left, which controls the Academy, has been successful in undermining American culture and creating ignorance about the past. Of course the US is imperfect, but we have always been less imperfect than others, and have been the vanguard of the Enlightenment since our founding. Apparently the Ivy Leagues don't teach that anymore. I guess they would prefer, say, Wakanda as an exemplar for the world. The fact that Wakanda is a fictional place is probably irrelevant, as facts no longer matter to the Academy.
2
Perhaps it would be helpful to the “emotional tenor” of the country if we had someone, anyone, at the national leadership level who could effectively and authentically demonstrate genuine empathy without the requisite notes or talking points.
David Brook's descriptions remind me of leading-edge Generation X'ers circa 1979-80. And, we forget, the college class of 1983 was the most unemployed college class in American history since...1940, and until ... 2009. American memory has more or less skipped the unpleasant years from 1968 (1965 if you grew up in an urban riot zone...) until the Roaring Eighties began in earnest.
When one political party has abandoned ethics, honor, and any sense of duty, it is to their advantage to make it seem as if the other has too.
1
When I was young and conservatives said liberals “hated America” or “blamed America first,” I thought the attack was not well-founded - liberals were surely saying American behavior fell short of American ideals and we needed to bridge the gap. That was part of the logic of MLK’s “I Have A Dream” speech. Liberals wanted America to live up to its creed.
Nowadays the Southern Strategy is entrenched on the right; and the left, to hear them talk, really does seem to hate America. Hopefully these students will carefully and soberly think through for themselves what sort of underlying logic best fits America.
So America is renegotiating the terms of who is powerful. Fine. Hopefully these students will also carefully and soberly think through for themselves the extent to which this must involve race, gender, zero sum strategy, and attributing characteristics to entire groups defined by race and gender.
Having once occupied the intersection of white, male, large, rough, and working class, I don’t see where I was rousted once a year, taken to tour the Texas prison for 1st offenders with other rough looking white guys at age 16, subject to industrial accident and to a draft during a war, and drawn down on due to mistaken identity because I was privileged. I think the black and Hispanic guys had it much worse because they were discriminated against much more than I was and, though I was expendable, their lives were wrongfully valued less than mine.
You chose to visit four elite colleges .If you wanted to hear the voice of this generation why did you not select a list of colleges large and small and public and private and visit at least four schools with more diversity. I am willing to bet that you would have heard some more optimism and a little less cynicism.No doubt some of our institutions have let us all down.My college experience was during the McCarthy era when the government was on a ghastly witch hunt.Some of our professors were "blacklisted".Even then we believed that our educated voices would make a difference.We felt it was our responsibility to be engaged and work toward change.
1
"...super-competitive schools — Harvard, Yale, the University of Chicago and Davidson..."
Say, what?
Inter alia, what distinguishes these places is that they're the matrix of grade inflation.
Better to brand them "exclusive," not "super-competitive."
1
I believe that the significant characteristic of the age we live in is the utter disconnect between what people say and the actual facts. If things were really as terrible as Mr. Brooks (and his fellow columnists) and these students think, then their Ivy League colleges would not function, the online NYT would not function, sewer and water and transportation and state and local governments and a million other things in this country would not function. These would have real impacts on your lives. All of these things function!! What has happened in the past 30 years or so is that people are presented with constant pessimistic views of the US in newspapers, TV, films, books. The internet greatly amplifies this. So that view is what people gossip about and repeat to Mr. Brooks. All the while they go about competently working, raising children, going to school, volunteering, etc. etc. 5 or 10 years from now why don't you find out where these students are? I bet they have jobs and families and are doing great. By the way, Mr. Trump is the supreme piece of evidence for my belief. How did he get elected--all talk divorced from facts. Compare his style of speaking and thinking to that of Barack Obama.
Speaking of wrecked generations...
Can’t wait until Brooks and the rest of the Boomers are out of power.
David, you’ve contributed to the decline of our Democracy, mostly because you’re insecure.
Seek answers in retirement, please.
2
Sad to think that the Boomer generation, which had the courage and foresight to raise these same issues decades ago ,has not, despite their great effort, made so few inroads.
Perhaps we might return to a time when Bill Buckley's good friend Murray Kempton might appear in the pages of National Review, slamming Mother Teresa. Reason and argumentation, rather than screaming and confrontation. Perhaps social relationships will someday transcend ideology and politics. I have hope that our youngsters will do as we say, and not as we do.
To find out how “they see the world,” today, right now, up-close-and-personal, I would not have questioned students at Harvard, Yale, Chicago, Davidson; instead, I would have gone to the MSD High School in Parkland, Florida, and asked the surviving students there that question. That would be way more instructive, it seems to me.
1
"Again and again, students expressed a hunger for social and emotional bonding, for a shift from guilt and accusation toward empathy."
Stop right there. That is exactly what you would expect from those interviewed. Now pose your questions to Trump's base and anyone who would vote for him today. You will hear virtually the opposite.
The situation in this country is as bad as the article suggests, but it does no good to simply look at it from one side.
2
The pall behind the Millennials' disillusion is economic injustice and the general lack of purpose and meaning that it creates. They see it. A few get ahead and do fabulously. The rest stagnate. Who would find meaning in this? Except those who game the system, of course. Politicians of revolutionary, promise, like Bill Clinton and Obama, come into power, and then squander their moment by becoming Republican Lite. Then even this faux liberal "hope-and-change" is quickly followed by a retrogressive George W. Bush or Donald Trump cartoon who promptly attempts to undo all the progress of his predecessor. The Millennials see that we are in a macabre dance of one step forward, 2/3 step backwards, a cruel pendulum of absurdity. They are thrilled with some of the liberal advances on the social front with greater liberty and equality being accorded to women and an array of the oppressed (black, brown, gay, lesbian, transgender, handicapped, even animals) but cannot get a decent paying job themselves, much less one that has some redeeming meaning in and of itself. They are now "spiritual, not religious," a strong step in the right direction, but that direction soon requires deep searching and feeling, something most millennials are too diverted and distracted and divided to undertake. The answer is to break the pendulum by rejecting both the conservative status-quo and the apocalypse, step into their purpose as defenders of virtue, and remake the world. If they don't, who will?
"The students spent a lot of time debating how you organize an effective movement. One pointed out that today’s successful movements, like Black Lives Matter and #MeToo, don’t have famous figureheads or centralized structures. Some students embraced these dispersed, ground-up and spontaneous organizations. If they flame out after a few months, so what? They did their job. Others thought that, no, social movements have to grow institutional structures if they are going to last, and they have to get into politics if they are going to produce any serious change."
For some time I have been convinced that a key difference between liberal/Democratic and conservative/Republican people is that conservatives tend to be joiners, belongers, believers, jocks, militants and dogged partisans, while liberals tend to be free-spirited, laissez-faire (socially), open to others opinions and feelings (xenophilic), all of which makes for less "effective" and enduring political organization. Unfortunately, I don't yet see how to effectively and enduringly bring fresh air, sunshine, flowers, and love into the boardrooms and back alleys inhabited by the dark side...
A “loss of faith in the American ideal?” How appalling! People from all over the world are begging and fighting to come here. This is a clear indictment of our liberal education policies begun in the 70’s. This country was founded on faith, family and civic pride. Now we hate ourselves? Many changes need to be made in our schools and communities to restore what has been stolen from us by liberalism.
1
The only history course I remember that taught the unvarnished truth was one about the American Indian. The teacher was a man who had gone to college in Kansas and was appalled by the number of drunken men he saw lying along the road to the local Indian reservation. They were people without hope.
He taught us the facts of how treaties made by the American government with Indian tribes had been broken again and again across centuries. He taught us the facts of the hideous slaughter that had occurred on both sides. He took us to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in D.C. to learn more about the life of Indians in the present day. He didn't take sides; the facts spoke for themselves.
They left a poor taste in my mouth. But ever since I've wondered what service we do in presenting a sanitized view of history to our children, who must, after all, inherit the earth.
1
"'That’s the way powerful white males talk about America,' one student said."
I rarely agree with David Brooks on public policy issues. But to dismiss what he has to say on the basis of his race or gender is cowardly. Mr. Brooks invariably makes me re-examine my own values and positions on the issues of the day. A comment like that from a student at a "prestigious" university is disheartening. America really is an equal opportunity country. You don't have to be white to be a racist; you don't have to be male to be a sexist.
Keep doing what your doing, Brooks. I rarely agree with you but I think your a nice old white guy.
This column raises my hopes. Students at elite schools are questioning the direction and superstructure of this country yet the power elites of both parties have historically come from just these schools. Major change cannot be far behind if the elite lose sel-confidence and at last must question their reason for being.
This column was very strong food for thought. It was good to learn how the younger generation views the world, America, and us. Recently we learned what an affected group of high school students think and how they react. Despite their tragedy, they showed resilience. Just as I have faith in them, I have confidence that it is/will be the same for those referenced in this column. Some of us still hold on to The American Dream - our concept of it - and it contains optimism. Thank you, Mr. Brooks.
1
One question that Mr. Brooks seems to have neglected to ask was how many of these students were looking to have children in the future. Or not.
My two grandchildren (16 and 21) say they are planning no children. Their friends are planning no children. Young people I encounter are planning no children. They look around and see so many families struggling to provide for small families and cannot see any future for themselves that has children in it. Only the very rich or very poor can afford to have children and expect the standard of living to not fall any further.
The birth rate in the U.S. started going down about 35 years ago. Now, with birth control an option for almost everyone, young people are doing what we've been telling them for generations. They are making a conscious choice to have or, more likely, not have children.
With such a view of the future, who can blame them.
2
I am very happy to see that young people today are far more realistic and questioning of the U.S. then was my generation. A major source of cultural division in our country is between those who view the U.S. as being thoroughly admirable and without flaw, and those who recognize it's many flaws and strive to improve it. Much of the current cultural divide that plagues our nation can be traced to the founding of the country, The U.S. Constitution rather then being an egalitarian and democratic document (as I was taught) , was in reality created by white, male, rich elite to their own benefit. It excluded Native Americans, persons of color and women from it's governance. A better understanding of the an accurate history could serve to lessen the current cultural gap.
1
Keep posing these questions, David. Spread your reach to include less elitist institutions, although a large portion of future leadership does come from them.
Young people generally tell us what they think we want or expect to hear or what others have told them, but then so do their elders. Original thought or analysis is by definition rare.
Regarding failed institutions, David, where were you in The Sixties? Faith in institutions has always been a questionable activity. (See the U.S. constitution with its checks and balances necessitated by serious skepticism.)
1
I am sure that my opinion is colored by the fact that I am 75 years old, but I believe that you will have a hard time creating real relationships unless you put down your smartphone and get away from social media...... at least for a while.
3
The piece is yet another Brooks fluff piece about an idealistic fantasy land.
Our country is being torn apart by the Trump administration, the Congress that neither hears nor sees any evil in what’s happening and the stacked by McConnell Supreme,court.
Can’t David see that the students and the most of the country favor an assault weapon ban. And the supposed “leaders” are presenting cockamamie ideas that will take for ever to be implemented. For the students and our countries sake let’s get rid of assault weapons for startrers!
4
when I was in college my generation, GenX, was considered lazy, cynical and possibly nilistic. We figured it out. they will too.
1
The thing today's college-age students understand better than anyone else is that America is not special. We are just like everyone else, except with way more guns. I have one question for Mr. Brooks: why are only elite institutions included in this piece? Don't students at other colleges have opinions worthy of the New York Times?
3
Mr. Brooks went to the University of Chicago! Maybe he's looking for a future professorship, or Presidency at the other three! Need I say more...
1
Perhaps, MrBrooks, you should have spoken with the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Your conclusions might have been different. The premise of the article is unclear. Are the students at the super-competitive schools supposed to be representative of the students of that generation? What competition have these students won and what demographics do they represent? The elitists? If the purpose of the op-ed is to confirm pre-conceived ideas with quotes from students that is fine. If the purpose is to provide an in-depth analysis of this generation, the op-ed is vacuous.
2
"we don't have a common truth. A common set of facts."
That is the goal of the Russian bots and rightwing pundits. Keep spreading lies, circulate them far and wide, and repeat incessantly until there are only alternative facts. Apparently, they succeeded. How utterly depressing.
My advice to young people is that facts are facts and based on truths, and it is there. Please stop getting news from social media, go to reliable sources, and for gods sake turn off fox news.
4
You create relationships by listening and self-disclosing.
3
My advice for college students today?
Study hard sciences, real humanities (cream of crop literature). And certainly no matter your major in college, it is absolutely essential you have acute psychological knowledge, and I mean by that every drop of psychological insight you can get from the most penetrating thinkers in history. Why do I stress psychology? Because of our current historical situation. We are in an era in which religion is on the way out and morality is free floating, less and less considered emanating from some Godhead, and religious people are willing to do any number of psychological numbers on your head to get you to return to conform.
And even worse, just because religion is declining does not mean the project of trying to make something sensible, responsible, of the human does not go on--in fact such a project is desperately needed what with an overpopulated, environmentally compromised world, and WMD. Which means in absence of religion there will be forces trying to get you to conform in new ways, and these forces cannot be better named than by calling them nurture over nature left wing forces, left wing socialism taking up from religion the task of "correct morality for the human".
Again why study psychology? To see that neither religion nor modern socialism has any true grasp of the malleability of the human, no scientific footing as to how much a person can be changed by nurture, yet the both would twist the human this way and that. Beware.
Somewhere between my generation (I am 71) and yours, Mr. Brooks, the children were left behind in this country's soulless pursuit of profit. We began to confuse narcissism with individualism, self-righteousness with righteousness, lies with truth, and shameless greed with community service. And the result is, regardless of anyone's politics, right or left, the leaders of this country have become self-serving cowards, traitors to democracy, delicate snowflakes who have abandoned the nation's children in order to serve the god of avarice. The leader of the free world today is a member of my generation. He is a draft dodger, a compulsive liar, an adulterer, a man with no manners and no moral backbone who lacks even a drop of the milk of human kindness. He is what we have wrought. If there is disaffection on college campuses, it is wholly our fault. (And you might do well to stop visiting elite colleges and try speaking to community college students, the ones who are not intellectualizing despair.)
6
Appreciate that a columnist left his office to go talk to people, but it appears he was talking to the privileged few. Next -- public universities?? The ones that are amazingly diverse and have all kinds of first-generation-to-go-college students? The kind of students strapped for money who have to hold down a full-time job to afford tuition? Nary a silver spoon in site?
2
Any of these kids talk about voting ?
2
Speaking to students at elite colleges is a privilege and surely a joy, but these are not the people setting the tone in America. Talk radio is readily available to anyone with a cheap radio. Their view of America is it’s a cruel nasty place that can only be fixed by a strong man. They blame government for all problems, even if they have to wear a tin foil hat to make it so.
This is what you hear echoing throughout America. Turn on your radio and try to listen without getting nauseous.
4
David, my sister hung out with an occupy group for a little while but left because there was nothing to grab hold of and "nobody sings anymore."
The Socialists have full control of our education system -- traditional Americans can stop the indoctrination only when they choose/fight for careers in academia....and that fight won't be pretty, as the Left will not easily cede its major power base
1
Dave
As it relates to point #2, loss of faith in America, you can point directly to secular liberalism as the root cause. It’s proponents find it bizarrely satisfying to hate America and put down its traditions. The treatment of Prof Wax at UPenn is a shining example of how these people think and how they poison young minds.
I'm not sure how intellectuals have been corrupted, unless by Science and lack of spirituality.
1
"I'm not sure how intellectuals have been corrupted ..."
This appears to be the quote you are referring to: '“I don’t believe in politicians; they have been corrupted. I don’t believe in intellectuals; they have been corrupted,” said one young woman at Yale.'
The problem with all these quotes is that they are ambiguous or incoherent. In that quote, the speaker seems to confuse "belief" and "faith". Taken one way, the speaker is saying that "politicians" and "intellectuals" don't exist, because they "have been corrupted".
Even more bizarre is that a Yale student is implicitly accusing Yale professors, who are surely "intellectuals", of being "corrupted". Why go to Yale, if the professors "have been corrupted"?
When I went to school (class of 72) history was filled with “whitewashed” content on America’s “forefathers”, politics , economic truth and gender equality. A high school in suburban Pennsylvania that was 99.9% white pursued an agenda of complete ignorance of student rights. I began to discover reality outside of the school and our sanitized textbooks by personally selecting a wide range of writers on history that was not available in school. Thank goodness the “radical” student movement in the sixties in a large part changed my regressive public education.
3
"A high school ..."
Not to diminish your point, but the students being quoted are in college.
"I began to discover reality outside of the school and our sanitized textbooks by personally selecting a wide range of writers on history that was not available in school."
Where did you find those "writers on history"?
This is the story of the balkanization of USA, a disturbing, frightening reality.
4
The most recent presidential election has proven that the United States is not a shining example, a model, of a nation that practices civil equality, liberty, and fair democracy. When led by a dishonest, rabble-rousing, racist charlatan, our powerful country is well-equipped to threaten the whole world.
So. These students are wise to ask serious questions about our nation and examine its history with some skepticism.
Remember please, other American citizens have faced more awful wreckage. World War I? Hemingway tells us it wasn’t much fun. World War II? You could get killed over there!
David Brooks would prefer that we all return to the hopeful post-war Fifties (before blacks and gays got so uppity).
But you know the land of 1950s mommies and daddies and laundry soaps and Alka Seltzer were pretty well disintegrated by the Vietnam War, by resistance to the draft, and by revelations that our government had lied about conditions on the ground, in that foreign region (rice paddies?), for years.
Mr. Brooks, these young students you interviewed will find friends, they’ll build networks, even if they don’t attend your church or go bowling. I suspect your interview questions solicited answers that would characterize them as lonesome and angst-ridden since that would fit your interpretation of our history.
They want to work locally for change? Great. They don’t believe the United States acts as a beacon of hope for the wide world?
That’s pretty obvious. Isn’t it?
2
Brooks:
What a waste of words. We already know what those students have experienced and what they think. And it isn't positive.
2
Being in my seventies and having lived in America most of my life , although my culture and upbringing are European, I have to agree with theses students and young people in general.
We are handing them a broken society and a cloudy future .
I have immense trust in young Americans, they will change society using their voting rights , pushing out of office corrupt,ignorant and inept politicians, who are glued to their highly paid seat with all the “ outside “ fixing .
Young Americans must start from scratch starting with civil rights, respect for the constitution and law, voting out the predators of Wall Street, re establishing a civil society, where education, healthcare, human relations , inequalities, infrastructures, environment etc will be put in the front burner .
They will start in their community and branch out wide .
Their goals are more idealistic than previous generations, but not realistic.
Me too ....I am deeply disgusted with the current direction of this Country, where people in charge insist that the meaning of life is “ you are what you have (own) “ and “ not who you are “.
Go for it , young people , I will root for you and thank you !
37
Again and again, the disconnectedness of our society is discussed. Since Reagan the country has increasingly become more fractured. Think of the idea that unions are bad. Today's kids are shown that Big Money talks and sets agendas. On the other hand the working class has had their collectivization taken away starting with Reagan's firing of the Air Traffic Controllers. Think of the idea that money rules elections. Representatives in Washington spend a significant amount of their time "dialing for dollars". While unions generally represent the interests of the workers by lobbying for an agenda that is fairer and shines more on the workers than the Koch brothers and other billionaires, big money wants labor as inexpensive as can be had. Next up, think about educations, with the balkanization of education. Money is taken away from public education, K-12, college, with those with money going to providers that give them the "education they want", with the ongoing argument between liberals and conservatives about what constitutes a proper education. All of these debates result in fractured values and beliefs rather than a unified national understanding of who we are, what we stand for, and what we wish to accomplish next. It's no wonder that confusion reigns supreme, with those with money driving the agenda.
2
It takes a lot of years of living before hope arises about our collective life together. The dissatisfaction of feeling separation from one another is inevitable for everyone unwilling to bend to our national materialism as the apex of life; it takes time for our better angels to move from the head to the heart. One must suffer before eyes open to the suffering of others, and we see ourselves compassionately.
But we must not forget, or ignore, that human history does bend toward justice. The bell will toil for each of us, as even now it approaches thee.
1
America is a country with ideals that are rarely met. This is because money trumps justice and equality. For this reason we are a corrupt and hypocritical country. Young people today see it more than I did 40 years ago. Just when I think we are taking steps forward, the Kochs, McConnells, Ryans, Trumps and NRA jerk us back into reality.
2
Wreckage? I can't really believe that's an accurate way to describe students attending Yale and Harvard. Regardless, I agree with the student who said "We're more connected but we're more apart." I admit I'm an old, tired cynic, but it seems that even a lot of the most educated millennials lack a basic understanding of history, and are living in some kind of on-line alternate world where they attach themselves to disparate and sometimes misguided social causes in order to give their lives meaning. The absence of many college students from the voting polls in this last election could be said to be partly a result of that. And while I have to admire and respect a lot of young people who are looking at a future with dimmer hopes and more challenges, I don't get the feeling that a lot of them are grasping what's really in store for them.
1
A very tiny slice, indeed.
3
"How do you create relationship? one student asked. Maybe start by putting down the cell phone for an hour or so and interacting face to face over a cup of coffee. Look at someone's face, not screen name. Notice how he or she laughs or intones words. Share common experiences. laugh, or console one another. I'm heartened that the article mentions that today's students apparently are not as enamored of technology as they once were. Hope this includes cell phones, which while they can indeed connect--also isolate and divide if misused, which I think most people do.
1
Gen Z'ers have it even worse and are full of apathy and lack of faith in the future in all ways. A very depressed generation indeed. There is not much good news on their horizon.
2
If you give points to every situation that students have lost faith, I suspect Trump as President would carry the maximum weight
2
Yeah, sure, whatever. In the end they all become econ majors and go to work for JP Morgan or Blackstone.
3
David, to them you really are from Mars. The feeling engendered is unpleasant, much like the first time someone offers to help you cross the road because you look old. Don't overlook how this factors into the universal urge to say anything to the old establishment guy that will tweak his nose.
College kids at prime (I would not say competitive) schools may not feel the diminished expectations of almost everyone else their age, but despite their likely injection into the upper middle class, they also have had no personal experience of either the white hat myths or rising tides of your youth. Their global view makes the facts of American history look criminal, or at least sad.
Don't cry for what's lost. It was myth, built on war, domination, greed. It was our myth, though, and was pretty comfortable. On the other hand, them what learn not from history......
2
The quotes are fantastic but the sample is badly skewed. If the interviews were done at an NRA convention or BYU I think the answers would be significantly different.
2
And we think gun rights and religion are under assault. Ha!
1
What students are identifying is that there is work to be done to salvage what is good in humanity and to dismantle and discard what is not. This generation is ill-equipped to deal with such a herculean task. Even less so that those of the past. They have not even been taught what the good and the bad are. Some of them are smart enough to know it.
Their dismay at the waning American zeitgeist is justified. The powerful, the charlatans and shamans of false ideologies have fed the different portions of human good to the moral dogs of egoism, fetishism, greed and power and most of all to the surrogate religion of technology as progress, technology as the ultimate fetish. A few insightful students in the West can sense that they are being sold a bill of goods and short changed on what is worth believing in and what to avoid.
1
Mr Brooks. It seems clear to me that you are so distressed with the current state affairs within your beloved GOP that you'll do anything ( touring select colleges ) to avoid facing and writing about current events.
Face it Brooks, the sunshine feel good days of the Reagan 80's and 90's are gone. Today, we have to deal with the results of what those days brought.
I understand completely. It's hard for you to be a cheerleader, when there's nothing to cheer about. I would suggest you start reading some of Jennifer Rubin's work over at the Post, and get with the program.
2
So long Op-Ed story short,
The kids of today are disgruntled. Just as the previous generation and the one before that.
Shocked! Shocked I tell you!
Thank dog! Maybe some of the issues we created and failed to fix will be corrected.
Till the next generation comes along and needs to set the world straight.
And so it goes.
2
Oh, for God's sake -- Yale, Harvard, Chicago, Davidson? Am I supposed to take these people and their "diminished expectations" seriously? If you want to find out about diminished expectations, Mr. Brooks, try visiting some community colleges and state universities like Northern Arizona, where I taught for 25 years. You might find out what it's really like in young America. I just can't work up any sympathy for these folks. Give me a break.
2
College students are taught to despise dead white slaveholders such as George Washington.
I wonder how many students realize that Washington could have easily seized power as a “king” or a dictator. He could have become a strong man after the British were defeated.
Also, he could have stayed in power after completing two terms as president. When Washington was president there were no other democracies in the world.
Look at what is happening in China today. How can college students understand what is happening in China at this very moment if they can’t put current events into perspective.
2
Despise! No they just recognize slavery as an evil system that was replaced by Jim Crow and lynching.
1
So these young people have little faith in large organizations but are not yet altogether hopeless, David? It would seem your party's program isn't yet entirely successful.
What you need is a generation committed to workplace obedience and the latest in self-fulfillment sociology, as selectively detailed on this op-ed page, for whatever spare time is left over.
You definitely don't want these people looking to government, otherwise you might have to forfeit your tax breaks and the stock market would go down.
2
It's wonderful to be young, cynical, privileged and without responsibilities. Let's check back with them in five years. As an ancient philosopher said "When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to loose. "
Mortifying.
The post 60's left wing intelligentsia and professorate has done its work well. Let's dismiss or criticize anything written or done by a white male. Let's demonize our country's past. Let's make everything about your identity group: race, gender, sexuality, etc. Let's ignore that life is better for each of those identity groups in the West than anywhere else. Let's ignore or criticize the Institutions (many created by dead white men) that protected the rights and privileges of those identity groups.
And then let's see what we reap from what has been sown...
5
It is a better time spent searching insights into next generation than towing NRA line and questioning young generation's movement for gun control in your article-Respect first,then gun control.
1
"Speed Kills!" America always was a dynamic society, but changes seem to be more dramatic and occur faster. IMHO technology is one reason. I remember walking with my grandfather to buy his NY Times. The other side of the world was on the other side of the world. Now it's a few key strokes away. Anyone up for a Pizza? We can send a drone to your place, pronto!
There are other issues. Worldwide competition, a by product of globalization is another problem. As an example, a few months ago my son interviewed for a residency position, (internal medicine) at an Ivy League school. 5400 qualified people applied. He was congratulated for being one of 120 people selected to be interviewed for 6 openings. That and 50 cents will get him a ride on the subway. He won't hear for another three weeks.
Are there too, many talented people. Musicians, artists, writers et al? Instead of quitting HS at 16 and "getting a job" we're delivering more and more education. Not a bad thing, of course, but there should also be a payoff!
We live in a post truth society. One has to check several sources to get the facts straight. I see some youngsters grasping at soap bubbles. They may be bright an willing to work, but they don't know what to do or what to believe in.
5
A wiser man than myself once said: "I've seen the future, brother, it is murder."
1
How about teaching real American history, not that of Howard Zinn. He taught students to hate America and we are seeing that today.
1
While everyone agrees that we lost common "set of facts", not mentioning common culture, its still considered as selfevident, that the only available meaningfull action for youth is attacking the only thing we have in common - institutions. They all currupted, they say, family, police, government, constitution - you name it.
Its not wise, to say the least, no wonder people started to seriously talk about new civil war.
1
Mr. Brooks wants to write a column about how young people in this country "see the world," so he interviews some privileged students at a handful of the most elite universities in the nation--and then expects that their views have anything to interest the rest of us?
I try to give Mr. Brooks the benefit of the doubt--I really do--but he makes it so diffiicult.
2
My guess is that if Brooks went to Florida high schools, he’d get similar answers.
Leadership in our country has become about power.
Our political system has been perverted toward the concentration of that power.
Democracy? Hah.
1
"Their lived experience includes the Iraq war, the financial crisis, police brutality and Donald Trump"
Please Brooks, can you at least save your incredible bias for the end of your articles so I can actually get through at least a majority of your thoughts. Plus, the most terrible thing this generation has lived through is being addicted to the Internet. Once they sober-up and dry-out from walking around while constantly being bombarded by bits of information with zero context, they will realize their entire youth was wasted. They were duped. They won't wake up. The will go permanently to sleep.
1
"I asked the students what change agents they had faith in. They almost always mentioned somebody local, decentralized and on the ground — teachers, community organizers."
We had, Mr. Brooks, a president who cut his teeth as a "community organizer," a calling at which Sarah Palin scoffed viciously in 2008.
These young people, Mr. Brooks, are thinking their way through the sea change of what it means to be "an American." It no longer has the cache that it once had, the term now one of opprobrium and redolent of abuse--of lousy government raping natural resources and its rabid refusal to care for all of its citizens--and immigrants--not just the selected, gilded few.
Perhaps you ought to be grateful that college students are thinking deeply about what and who we are and where we are going. Because your fellows on the Right want nothing more than to blow up the educational system. They seek a plutocracy. They want a nation of slugs for citizens; dull cattle doing their daily best for nothing more than a mere pittance as sustenance.
America, Mr. Brooks, is no longer a white man's paradise. Those in power are struggling to strangle the future and, as they do so, they summon to their aid all of the evils of mankind: Biblical, historical, recent, and present. You yourself have written about how loathsome Donald Trump is as president, yet it is your side of the political aisle that called this evil genii out of the lamp.
We are a wreck and it will take generations to repair.
2
People offering the usually trenchant critique of Brooks that he's barking up the wrong elitist tree are missing the broader picture, a frightening and dispiriting one: i.e., that EVEN these kiddy elites are angrily alienated from fundamental cultural and political institutions, as have their less privileged peers felt for a long time. As an older person who has often been in struggle with our culture I hear these acrid views with ambivalence: on the hand, I feel fear and disdain for their easy dismissal of structures and ideas that are the very foundation of their relative ease, wealth, freedom, and opportunity; on the other hand, I recognize the searing truth of their cynicism, founded as it is on the "system's" failure to self-correct through honest self-evaluation. We are reaping what we've sewn, whether we're the mendacious, self-serving, rapacious right or the complacent, self-important, smug left.
1
FROM RICHARD LUETTGEN
It’s become evident that we’ve lost any sense of how a society perpetuates itself, even to eventually improve itself, which is largely accomplished by how it acculturates its children. The American Revolution was a “rounding error” in these kids’ early educations?! We might consider bringing back flogging for whoever determines curricula in today’s school districts – school boards or individual educators. Hanging still is on the books as punishment for treason, although it hasn’t actually been imposed for a crime in our military since April 1961, and not for treason but for rape and attempted murder. However, raping and murdering the souls of our children strikes me as a good pretext for dusting off the penalty.
We can certainly identify the historical crimes of which we were once guilty, such as slavery and the near-extinction of the Native American, but to place them in NO context of what we got RIGHT? And GREAT? How can this be acceptable?
Schools have an obligation to acculturate AMERICANS. When they fail, eventually … there IS no “culture”.
To be honest, reading David’s column I can’t help but feel very sorry for today’s young, if those whom he interviewed truly are representative. To find your way to a productive and contented life has been a heavy lift at ANY time in history for almost all of us; but to attempt it with NO grounding as to who you are, where you came from and on whose shoulders you seek to stand strikes me as nearly impossible."
2
"It's difficult to say which caused more ill:
Citizens United or the Gulf oil spill."
Jackson Browne
1
OK, we’ve heard from the purported best and brightest. An important take. Good for David for seeking out and listening to those students.
Now the usually fair minded David Brooks must ask the same questions at less prestigious institutions, including community colleges and organizations that provide professional certifications to those with little or no post-secondary schooling. Those students will be a lot of our future. It is to those institutions I will make charitable donations - not to the highly selective college from which I graduated.
1
This is a very important interpretation of the current view of the country and the world held by the Ivy League portion of today’s young adults. It captures that perspective beautifully and needs to be taken seriously. I would love to see David Brooks publish two companion articles, one after interviewing students from a random sample of students attending state universities and one after interviewing students from a random sample of community colleges. The similarities and the differences could give us all a basis to truly capture the life experience of what is commonly called the millennial generation in America and to define the challenges that my baby-boomer generation has left in our estate.
1
I agree that a broader range of young opinions are needed here. But let's be real. How do we define privilege? Even the public schools have their share of "privileged" students.
I taught at a community college and had plenty of young middle class and low income students who either had mom and dad paying or used financial aid money where not all of it went towards college. Very few paid anything out of their own pocket. Many would drop out before midterm when the tougher assignments loomed ahead. Fewer than 30% finished and less than 10% transferred to a university. Their situation didn't involve "wealthy" parents but they received money other than their own and often exploited that aid. That's probably one ignored story of ballooning student debt. Many had been told at home, "You either get a job or go to school"---an ultimatum that didn't produce the most motivated student.
My greatest joy came from teaching the re-entry folks in night classes who had worked all day in low-paying jobs, sometimes coming from the fields where they had toiled since sun up. They were always prepared and driven to do better, learn more. Very few missed class. Some of my best students, too, were veterans. Almost all would finish and get their college credit.
So there's been plenty of spoiling going on at all economic levels, making many students indeed "privileged." You don't always need a trust fund to spend someone else's money.
Mr. Brooks, I graduated from college almost half a century ago and we felt the same way about things even then. The Vietnam era, remember? What fairy tale world were you living in?
1
Why restrict yourself to the "elite" schools? I've been teaching high school for 30 years, the last fifteen in an urban school. A couple of our kids get to go to big name schools, but the vast majority go where they can get financial assistance and often begin at the community college due to its affordability. Not a lot of navel-gazing in these kids, but an awful lot of spirit and energy that in turn gives me more spirit and energy than I think I would have working in any other calling at my age.
2
We have given our children the worst possible national role models--Donald Trump and his band of neo-fascist opportunistic thieves. How can anyone argue that character is necessary for great leadership when you have the likes of Trump supporting the likes of Roy Moore? And Christians endorsing both?????
1
Why only the university elite? There should have been a mix, from a community college to all-black Howard University in Washington to Harvard — the gamut. Without a big canvas, your portrait of a coming America is cockeyed.
Convenient that Brooks hears exactly what he wanted to hear...
1
Among the things that David Brooks's column shows is that, even at so-called elite and competitive institutions, there are an awful log of stupid people. Indeed, it seems almost as if Brooks sought out stupid students. The American Revolution was a "rounding error"? What in the world does that even mean? It is a pity that, in an example of regrettable superficiality, Brooks takes his interviewees as representative of their generation (an ambiguous term at best these days). I wish he had made the effort to search out the many other students at these schools who have different views and who know what they are talking about. I note that none of these students appreciate the freedom they have to express their views--one of the unrecognized (to them) admirable parts of the America they don't seem to appreciate.
1
Please interview some State School students and see whats on their mind when it comes to America's place in the world. These young people don't contemplate their navels as much.
1
I'm afraid, Mr Brooks, you ARE from Mars--see "Men are From Mars, Women
are From Venus." I used to consider you the voice of true conservative Republicans, but you so often now go out of your way to defend the indefensible, I fear you must actually be from the Planet Trump.
1
News flash
College students think big societal institutions are corrupt.
Sky is blue.
Water is wet.
2
@college, intelligence is passive and stumped. Maybe these kids might have taken a few anthropology classes and read philosophy along the way to get a sense of the nature of the human. Notwithstanding and luckily, it is now ok for citizens of all social and economic classes to be idiotic and uneducated.
What else can you expect after a lifetime of the liberal media telling them things are hopeless and a hopelessly effete education industry reinforcing that message? There are plenty of people from a broad spectrum of American life who are too busy moving forward and enriching their lives to waste time whining about it.
1
What a bunch of spoiled brats. President Trump isn't building a wall to keep people in - there's a reason that millions want to live in the U.S. Maybe Brooks should have visited Parris Island or Camp Pendleton and spoken to those young people who are defending the hard fought freedoms of these Ivy League crybabies.
1
Harvard and Yale? Feh. Come to a real university. You're welcome into my classroom at San Diego State anytime.
4
Mr Brooks should visit kids in jail. No, not the higher-ed jails, which are more like expensive spas, with faculty zoos. But Brooks and his GOP buddies have all been looking very reasonable compared to the GOP swindler in chief.
1
Where I'm sure there's no privileged students attending and some real learnin' is happening as I type.
Let's stop compartmentalizing the young. Aren't we tired of that yet?
"How do you create relationship?" I'm reminded of the end of the original STAR WARS when the voice of Obi Wan tells Luke to "use the force,"-- turn off the targeting computer -- and connect with that which binds together everything in the universe. I think this and succeeding generations are learning, and will learn, that technology is not the answer -- connecting with our common humanity is. The challenge is to know how to discriminate between technology that is helpful to humankind, and that which is not. Burying one's nose endlessly in the phone, on apps, on email, texting about nothing, sending out photos, viewing photos sent by others -- how helpful truly are these uses of time in establishing contact with others? Not very, I'd say. In person contact, hearing a friend's voice on the phone, your friend hearing yours, sharing meals together, sharing honest discussion -- these are the building blocks of a satisfying life. They are now, as they always have been. No computer or machine can provide them, not now, not ever.
1
"Yale students gathered for a class about happiness in January."
Yeah....THAT says it all.
1
How do you create a nation of empathy? Vote Democratic.
4
Saddest column I ever read.
Even by David Brooks' low bar, this is pretty thin soup. You visited Harvard and Yale and the University of Chicago? Oh please. You're fishing in the wrong pond if you want to really catch some youthful angst: young people with no employment prospects that can possibly pay their student loans to which they are indented servants; young people who have no prospect of even earning what their parents scraped by upon; young people who are personally experiencing the political Argentinization of the US without the consolation of being in the educational .5 percent of the Ivies or U Chicago. Save your typing fingers David and go back to your club and have your waiter pour you another dry martini.
2
Brooks's findings are horrifying.
These students just sound self absorbed and boring.
2
This sounds quite like German students during the Weimar Republic.
David, try reading Peikoff's "Ominous Parallels". If you're honest, you'll find it quite disturbing.
2
Locals in the trenches are getting things done
Leaders are not
They have failed
"Educated fools
From uneducated schools" Curtis Mayfield 1973
2
Service is the hallway. Kinship is the ballroom. Fr. Greg Boyle
Mr. Brooks: Are you planning on visiting any community colleges? You really should, don't you think?
1
Remember the three Rs.
Repeal
and
Replace
All
Republicans
Dave
3
Harvard, Yale, U. of Chicago? Once again elites consult elites, then tell the rest of us what's going on. Sigh...
EPA, CFPB, PBS, PUBLIC SCHOOLS, STATE DEPARTMENT, PARIS ACCORD,
What are you talking about, Brooks?
you ae infighting this dark age. The republican Trump budget does away with Summer school, with music and art, attacks unions.
You are looking at the new retail class.
Thanks a million
I don’t buy this “ portrait” of these kids for one minute. David I think you were in the robot making class..next time talk to real human kids.
A generation of whiners is what we have to look forward to.
No backbone, no optimism......gonna be a long life kiddos..
Exactly. When I was a kid I just got a job in a union factory and made money to pay my $150 tuition fees!
Brooks achieves greatness once again. Tyler Durden said "We have no great depression, no great war. Our war is a spiritual one, our great depression is our lives". Actually young people have had real war and real depression, yet instead of creating unity, this has broken us. Its time to admit that a people without a common religion, language, culture, and heritage can't effectively govern themselves, on a political level but also very importantly on a social and cultural level.
It's the graduates of these "super-competitive" schools who have led us into the present dysfunction of our institutions. I suggest you visit some large public universities where students are competing in the fight of their lives....a chance to have a future.They are not guaranteed success due to the privileged position of their parents.Building cultural change from the bottom up is not a theory to them.It is a reality.Those students would share many of the goals you have spoken of but they know they'll have to be on the front lines and in the trenches as the battle rages on.
3
My favorite Dilbert comic goes like this:
Dilbert: Maybe I should become at teacher so I can teach the leaders of tomorrow
Dogbert (his dog): Maybe you should teach the idiots of tomorrow not to listen to the leaders of tomorrow.
These Ivy League kids are the future generation of "leaders" on Wall Street and Washington and we need to stop listening!
When I hear the ugly right, Trumpism, declare that the brave and vocal Parkland students are shills for left wing agitators, I want to cry. People my age challenging how a 17 year old can be cogent and articulate about guns.
You forgot who ended the Vietnam war? Who came up with "hey hey LBJ, how many kids did ya kill today?" We faced down the same existential crisis (not domestic as now, horrifying) and moved the needle.
We were labeled Russian influenced "Reds", "Commies" and "Pinko Punks". (Who are the real Commies now?) But we prevailed.
Go for it kids, we are marching right beside you. Sorry we left you this mess, it's not like some of us "coastal elite" Trump haters didn't try. There weren't enough of us in recent years, now there are.
2
well, the young students might not believe in institutions but they believe in digitality.
Quite sad that these elite students weren't able to recognize that the MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements are building upon the Occupy movement. Occupy showed us what is possible. It was just the start.
2
Just listen to paul ryan and Republican Party blame FBI for failure in Florida shooting as another scapegoat to do nothing. I want people to ask how many times FBI and CIA got tips on Osama Bin Laden flying planes into US buildings. Yes there are flaws but how many safety measures are in place today on air control over US. Any guns that have a title of AR whatever is not 2nd amendment protected and should not be sold to the public. Let the top 10 gun manufactures with 8 in the US keep selling them to all foreign countries that the US will be involved with in the next century. Now let the youth fix this!
David Brooks needs to get around much more than he does.
Why just visit the "super competitive schools" and represent their views
as if they were everybody's views?
Very elitist, to put it politely.
1
Mr. Brooks: with all due respect I would hardly consider students at Ivy League schools representative of young America. Why didnt you ask clerks at Target, whole foods, community colleges or state colleges, immigrant dishwashers, clerks???
That one student who said you had a white man in power view of American history was right. You clearly also have an Ivy League/elite/NY Times view of who young people in America are. Harvard? Yale? Really? I know lots of people, young, middle aged and old - none went or go to either.
3
Every one of the tribulations you list falls squarely at the feet of your party. These are all entirely Republican-created problems, yet you refuse to admit it.
1
Gee, maybe they'll vote next time.
1
This is this is like Simon and Garfunkel singing about being off to look for America except for Brooks it is found in Harvard Yard. You have to be kidding. brooks wants to re-evaluate after having failed to recognize most of the big events of recent years and he starts by going to Harvard?
Interesting that the one hand raised in response to your question "Which of you believes that the leaders of your government are basically competent " was from Germany.
'“In my high school education the American Revolution was a rounding error,” one young woman said.'
Can someone please explain to me what this means?
Like every generation before them they will learn, once they have be self-supporting, that personal financial concerns outweigh everything else.By the time that they have solved that problem another generation will have come along that regards them as old fools.
2
It's been a downhill slide since Reagan. So thanks, GOP. Just Die off, and let the younger folks take over. They absolutely cannot do worse.
1
My God. The whinging, the whining, the wailing, the bed-wetting of these students. And journalistic blather that puts "Iraq war, the financial crisis, police brutality and Donald Trump" on a list of "lived experiences" The Iraq war might have involved a lot of young Americans, but doubtfully any from this cohort. Police brutality is a totally fiction made up a craven useless press. And Trump? Why is he included with these other events? Because he upset the lying liberal press' story of America electing a woman president? Why not at least give him four years and then see what has happened?
1
David, this is the generation that experienced a black president, someone who did a sterling job under the most trying of circumstances. How could you omit that? Pardon me, miss, but your slip is showing.
1
"...successful movements, like Black Lives Matter and #MeToo ..."
I have doubts about #MeToo being successful. I think there is going to be a huge backlash against that organization and their candidates come November.
These young people have been exposed to nothing but degeneracy from the elite in education, business, churches and the state. Of course they think the institutions are terrible - they are run by degenerates.
Rich white man talk. There is no accountability from the financial elites as we all know. They escaped accountability. George W and Cheney escaped responsibility. It’s obvious: do as I say not as I do cause...freedum. For me.
Children repeat what they see and if it’s grifting, lieing or killing will surely repeat what their elders sanction.
"I talked to a bunch of rich white kids at elite universities, and they said some stuff, so, uh, here it is."
Note: the students interviewed were not all “rich white kids”. Your prejudice against young students at the best colleges in the world is showing.
I was born into a blue-collar, conservative, unsurprisingly anti-intellectual, anti-education, devote Catholic family in 1944. All was going swimmingly until they discovered I was homosexual, "gay" hadn't entered the common lexicon yet. So, shunned and with an enormous amount of time on my hands, I began to read, and study hard, and think. I worked and saved and borrowed my way into University and eventually earned 2 graduate degrees at an Ivy League school. It became almost immediately apparent that I arrived with no social network, no familial support and faced pretty much the same social ostracism I'd negotiated most of my life. I'll never forget a young man who strode into one of my classes shortly before graduation from one of the graduate programs telling us that he'd landed a job as a supervisor...... He had no experience and had been a mediocre student. But he was fabulously connected. I can't think of a sample less representative of the thoughts and feelings of young people than Brook's sample. Nevertheless, these young people, those nurtured by families with generations of wealth, status, and power, will have a significant impact on the course of our culture. Those among them who are not socially and politically and financially secure and connected, not so much.
I hope that Brooks and/or the New York Times will keep in touch with a sample of these young people and get back to us in, say, three years, and let us know what these people have done to effect the culture
3
Unless we’re evolving toward a radically unforeseen but better form of society, we continue to need institutions that are effective and have legitimacy in the eyes of a great majority. In this column, Brooks offers very important dispatches from the generation next to shape our country, even if his sample is limited to the elite.
There are powerful lessons here for the advocates on the left and the right of our growing political-social-economic chasm. The right is reaping the atomization and loss of faith in institutions that results from the libertarian ideal of favoring the individual over the constraints of the group. The left has been slow to reform institutions, especially government, to adapt to enormous social changes driven by technology and rising global expectations. Our dreadful campaign finance system has contributed mightily to both kinds of dysfunction, increasingly empowering the libertarian-leaning, status-quo defending plutocratic class.
1
“The utopia of our parents is the dystopia of our age”, huh - well, we parents are still alive and we better get off the links and go do something about this!
1
Leave it to Brooks to go to elite schools to listen to the students of America. When he’s spent a day or two at Normandale Community College I’ll listen to what he has to say.
4
Interesting how blind Brooks is to the fact that these events he cites as having eroded faith in our institutions— “Their lived experience includes the Iraq war, the financial crisis, police brutality and Donald Trump”— reflect the failures of a single political party that he has historically supported.
4
For all your sneering, you missed the mood during Bernie's campaign. You political pundits thought you knew it all and these young kids did not know anything, that they were merely blindly following a Pied Piper for free candy. You insulted the heart and mind of these youngsters. Guess what, they are no longer silent and they are older and more mature. They want to fix the country and the environment and they don't expect politicians or political pundsters like you to do it for them.
6
If this upcoming generation wants a clear-cut, unambiguous victory, it will have every AR-15 rifle in this country confiscated and run through metal crunchers. These kids are the ones getting shot by them.
1
If you want to find non-elite young people doing what these elite kids dream (seriously or not?) of doing, you might try attending a few meetings of a Democratic Socialists of America chapter.
You'll be astonished. They have study groups. They have community service and outreach. They have lessons on Roberts Rules of Order, and the chairs are constantly pleading with the members to 'keep it comradely'. They have a mutual aid fund. They are ambivalently involved in local politics. I think they kind of like calling each other 'comrade' the same way ten years ago Tea Party clowns liked dressing up in Uncle Sam outfits. At least I can't find any of the old Totalitarian Left that sloppy thinkers like to conflate with socialism. A few aging Red Diaper babies, of course. It's the furthest thing from a single-issue focus. They are all over the place, trying to figure out what's going on.
Get out in the field and stay away from the mothership in Manhattan. Bury the $45 annual membership in your expense account. These people are living what your sources are talking. That is, if you're genuinely interested and not simply engaged in an exercise in confirmation bias.
2
Hey millennials, history class and voting count, Facebook and Instagram don’t.
2
Every generation has its challenges. Much of this generation, especially many of the coddled, well-to-do, that you spoke with, need to step up.
Going from their pacifiers to there virtual realities, one would wonder whether or not they're equipped for the fight.
I readily admit that we've left them a mess. But I think of prior generations; WW1 and 2, Vietnam and the 60s, and I saw in those a sense of purpose and strong resolve. No More!
Figure it out, children.... Stand up, fight, pay back for what you have.
There's corruption, sure... and racism, still.... environmentalism, and on and on.... The present failures are on us, the next one are on YOU! Whining ain't gonna get it done.
2
“I don’t believe in intellectuals,” says the Yale student. Apparently she is not majoring in irony.
2
Why didn’t you hop a plane, David Brooks, and fly to a small state, say Montana, to ask students there what they think? You are like the Supreme Court, where most of the Justices graduated from Ivy League colleges, in that your interviews are always collected at elite eastern universities, like Harvard and Yale. There is “another America,” a “forgotten America,” outside the East coast. This America’s views are hardly ever listened to. It’s as if we don’t exist. An airplane ticket to Bozeman, Montana, would’ve cost you around $600 and you could have skied a day at Bridger Bowl, flying back east with fresh views and snow burned cheeks.
3
“I don’t believe in intellectuals, they have been corrupted”, said a young woman at Yale.
That’s rich. She should drop out.
4
“ a renegotiation of who is powerful.”
The rich are powerful. Like always. If you think you can “negotiate” that, well...
3
"That’s the way powerful white males talk about America.”
Uh hunh. I'm guessing when presented with Plato the same student wondered, "Why am I being forced to read the ideas of a backwards, 2,500 year old dead white guy."
I also like the idea that the young are supposed to be "change agents" without knowing much history.
Behold, the death of the liberal arts.
6
The sooner we can eradicate our white-nationalist/populist bents -- e.g., Liz Taylor as Cleopatra; Charlton Heston as Moses; Mel Gibson as Jesus; etc. -- the sooner "change agents that [globally] look like us" can tip evolution's better scale on adapting to change to duly quash survival-of-the-fittest tactics demonstrated by the dinosaur in the White House fatally oblivious to the meteorite showers from our far brighter stars already MOVING FORWARD.
America presently has a GOP Congress and a White House that opposes its better nature. These institutions are presently in the hands of a few demonstrably monstrous wealthy wackos with a well-oiled re-election machine based upon money buying everything. They have bought the GOP Congress body and soul. Their aim is to implement a horrible “Christian” Theocracy by and for bonkers billionaires.
The question in front of us is how to get rid of their control and their vassals. A palatable partial answer is to vote them out while elections still have a vestige of authenticity.
Unpalatable remedies may rely upon the Second Amendment: ” A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Hope we are not headed that way.
1
Good to hear students in university,(Some didn’t get much history)
You on the other hand (taught about Roosevelt’s,Kennedy,and Madison.)
Do you remember Ben. Franklin? He said You have your republic “if you can
Keep it”! To those, who with him ,wrote the Constitution.
Now comes Trump!
You think he’ll let us keep it or left to his consistent mindless brutish thinking
Will he destroy it and the world we hoped and worked for?
Lie down with dogs,get up with fleas,no offense to dogs ,or fleas.
1
Brooks has completely and somewhat magically transmogrified into a touchy, feely conservative - no relation to the crew that infests gov't, Wall Street, etc. He's about as Conservative as Einstein was German.
1
They are a tiny slice of the future 1 percent. They do not speak for a generation. This is not reaching out beyond the elite class. If this is reaching out for Mr Brooks he is horribly out of touch. This is his kid’s bubble.
2
"How do you create a relationship?" Wow! Maybe they need to have a conversation with the older generation that did not have the technology they have to give them some clues. Start searching about how to become a well rounded person and then act! Take control of your life instead of just reacting to it. Ignite those other neurons in your brain. Scarry? You betcha. It took me 21 years to accomplish.
1
“How do you create a relationship?” Get off your phone and social media.
1
"Most of the students I’ve met with so far are at super-competitive schools — Harvard, Yale, the University of Chicago and Davidson — "
Goodness! We wouldn't want you to go slumming at a community college, now would we? Students who are the children of house cleaners and tree trimmers, working full time and struggling to go to get an education as well-- their perspectives are no doubt identical to spoilt rich kids who party in Bora Bora for spring break.
2
Why do New York Times columnists always spend so much time doting on the top 1%? Whether covering expensive homes, extravagant trips fancy galas or discerning trends, the rich and privileged are always the go to people. If Mr. Brooks really wants to learn about what’s going on, why not talk to the other 99% who attend less selective schools. These are the people who will not have their careers boosted by a fancy Ivy League name on their resumes nor will they have influential friends and parents. They will have to work hard and will not have time for self absorbed victimization. After President Trump won, David Brooks acknowledged that he was in a bubble and needed to get out more. It looks like he travels with his bubble.
2
Discussions on campus are interesting but divorced from reality. Better to speak to young people several years after graduation as they are navigating their careers and young families. Those are the views that are anchored to the real world and that really matter. I vaguely remember the idealistic notions my generation had in college. They were valuable intellectual points of view but they were mostly put in deep storage as one grappled with making a living and providing for a family.
1
"I vaguely remember the idealistic notions my generation had in college."
This is the way students have thought in the seventies and sixties.
The issue is: Nowadays the most privileged students in this world seem not to have these notions anymore.
“The utopia of our parents is the dystopia of our age,” is a classic American text full of pathos, but when it comes to substance the meaning ist not much different.
Key words of this article are in my humble view:
- "generation with diminished expectations",
- "little faith in large organizations"
- "I don’t believe in politicians; they have been corrupted.
- "I don’t believe in intellectuals; they have been corrupted (and incompetent)",
- they have trouble naming institutions that work.
- the loss of faith in the American idea
and no consistent idea how to change it. Students seem to think only a new "movement" can bring hope. Established parties and institutions are entirely meaningless for them any more. They seem to be "over it".
Do you really think this would be so far from the situation that enabled the early Trump movement? This quite different movement went in a quite different direction ("The movement for simple minds from fly over country") but a movement to cope with the same kind of situation sharing the same nucleus.
It doesn´t matter here Mr Trump turned out to be a traditional GOP/business wolf in sheeps clothing in fact making it much worse right now. That´s where his genuine voters started from too.
I live in Bethesda, MD and the kids are raised in a politically correct world. Kids needs to be pushed, throw away participation trophies and learn that nothing is owed them. They have to bust their butts just like we did to be successful. Nothing has changed. Instead of landing in NY for a couple of years after college, they may need to go Birmingham or Nashville or Sacramento for work. First into work and last to leave is still a virtue.
4
Mr Brooks, you set the conversation up with your second sentence. You clearly recognized that going only to elite schools represented some sort of bias. My question is why DIDN'T you go to other schools and ask your questions? Don't tell me you couldn't find any, or that there aren't any community colleges near you.
Could it be, Mr. Brooks, that you thought the opinions of the elite students are better or more valuable? Holy ____, Mr. Brooks, don't you see that is the problem? No wonder Americans are feeling helpless. Most of them/us don't even get ASKED. About anything.
4
No generation was more outspoken and committed to a so-called better world than mine-the post-war babies. How'd that work out for ya? The draft lottery took the steam out of the anti-war movement (turns out it really was mostly about saving your own butt). The the Clintons emerged first as the self-appointed spokespeople, then later as the leaders of the generation. Wow, what a revolution in values. Sorry but I have a hard time crediting reports from the campus as the dawn of a new age.
It sounds like a Progressive ground swell on the way. It also sounds no different than when I was in school in the seventies. We had the same way of looking at America after Nixon and Vietnam. Problem was boomers got sucked into the Reagan vortex of the crass eighties and we never quite recovered. Let’s hope this generation doesn’t suffer the same fate.
1
I live on the fringes of the society out in rural Minnesota, a very politically liberal state. Here our youths' battles are simple: to find a future that is economically stable. You focused your interviews on the most privileged class in the world. perhaps the leaders of their generation. They the time and resouces to consider big ideas.
In my world, just designing a life that is viable is the big challenge. Ideas and ideals be damned. I think that is the key to Trump's election and how our future will unfold. Too many of this generation have been left in the dust by our political leadership. They are getting ready to rise up and fight. Beware.
1
For me, you sucked the viability out of this op-ed at the first sentence: "Most of the students I’ve met with so far are at super-competitive schools." 1) you took the privileged white-guy path as the foundation of your inquiry and on top of that never owned it or the comments made by those attending these elite 1% institutions; 2) if you spoke with students at the public institutions of higher ed, you'd have met people more thankful for their lives instead of those making over-arching, we "run the world," egotistical, self-congratulatory blah-blah. No wonder they can't form relationships, their navels are blocking out the view. Stop punching yourself in the face and start getting to know the 99%.
3
If Mr. Brooks had interviewed me when I was in college. I had just returned from Nam. Nixon had just left office. My favorite political leaders had all been assassinated and gas rationing was the norm. Yes, I felt my institutions were failing. But, I had dreams. I was down, very down. But, my dreams, all of them came true. It took a long time. Now we need to survive Trump.
Thank you Mr. Brooks for sharing the opinion of these students. It might be a good idea to make it a series of articles about the generation emerging from the wreckage. As suggested in many comments, you could now speak to people in public universities, community colleges, high schools and people without university degrees and ask the same questions. The result might be a more representative sample. You might also ask the people belonging to the baby boomers generation (mine), who also emerged from a wreckage, why they think the new generation feels the way it does. Perhaps, we could find out about their virtue or lack thereof as the Cambridge, UK's individual comment suggested.
2
Mr. Brooks says the challenge is to take local solutions to the national level, where the problems are. But the main reason for national problems may be that we rely too much on national government and national organizations to fix our problems. National institutions have been tremendously successful in giving us what we have now, but that very success has led us to rely too much on them, and that has prevented us from getting the new solutions we need now. Why not encourage creative local solutions to local problems?
2
Hola Austria,
While you are on holiday having fun, one of us has to stay behind with The Statue of Liberty and keep an eye on our Country. Planning to send you the daily summary of News from the Times, and feeling somewhat on pins and needles.
Trump is no longer mentioned in public hearing and there is a tacit understanding that it is rude to mention his name. By the time you return, Old Man Winter will have gone and you will be marching with shamrocks in your crown. Lots of rabbits on display for the Easter celebration, and I caved in and bought some simple token gifts for all the neighbors, which is childish and great fun.
The Metoo Movement seems to be growing in momentum; students are getting ready for the New Season. The latest tragedy of Parkland; of young persons being shot at school has brought The Country together in an unexpected way in the face of evil.
Well, this is a bit dismal in the face of reality. We are becoming Isolationists and in a state of regression, but We can Vote. Spring is in the air, but it may take an Older Generation to remind a Younger One how to enjoy the darling buds of new beginnings.
On this note I leave you while Canada comes this way with his lovely lady; his companion of four years. Can you imagine, it is 'America's birthday'. She would have been eighty and there is a flavor of Daphne DuMaurier's classic in this story. America knew that you would be my Rock of Gibraltar; we share the same skies and have miles to go.
wonderful thoughts from a naïve generation who will succumb to the same economic and social forces as their baby boom gen?eration parents and grandparents of hippies, yippies, and later, grumpys.
are there any common denominators? self evident truths? moralities guiding our societies
1
“The Occupy strategy was such a visible failure, it left everyone else feeling disillusioned,” one lamented.
Later. "One pointed out that today’s successful movements, like Black Lives Matter and #MeToo, don’t have famous figureheads or centralized structures. Some students embraced these dispersed, ground-up and spontaneous organizations. If they flame out after a few months, so what? They did their job."
4
This may be the sign of the "Decline of the West" coming to the USA.
2
These students from the elite colleges could learn some lessons from the students in PARKLAND, FLA.
The students from MSDHS in PARKLAND, FLA are engaged, social, and there is plenty of emotional bonding with millions of students around the country.
These elitist students "spent a lot of time debating how to organize an effective movement?" Just take a look at what the MSDHS kids did in one short week.
3
The American Revolution is a "rounding error". The American story is "mostly a story of oppression and guilt".
How has a generation of parents allowed this kind of curriculum to be taught in their children's secondary schools, and then paid $50,000+ a year to ensure that the little nipper gets more of the same at our nation's most prestigious colleges and universities?
3
I was struck by the comment that some students felt it was important for their movements to have famous or high-profile figureheads. To that I ask this – was Martin Luther King, Jr. famous when he began a movement to confront the ugly realities of racial discrimination? No, he wasn’t. We’re students that began a grassroots movement to oppose the Vietnam war and force it to an end famous? No, they weren’t.
It’s silly to believe that a movement is only viable when it has a famous figurehead from day one. It’s though struggle and organization that figureheads arise. Don’t look for the person with the most “likes” to represent you; look for the person with strong ethics, moral conviction, commitment and a sense of common decency to be your leader.
If this is the response from students who have far more privilege and life opportunities than most, one can imagine how the average working stiff feels ---I could write a book. We have to understand that our votes matter, and those we entrust with our votes must demonstrate real concern for working men and women. Today, that sadly includes very few of our elected representatives from either major party. Until we vote these bums out, force our elected officials to legislate campaign finance reform, remove the gerrymandered cheating that is found in every state, and begin limiting terms, there is very little reason for optimism in America. The current cast of characters will continue to serve their financial backers at the expense of the rest of us until they are forced to do otherwise----and only by our votes can we change this situation. The alternative is a second American revolution, which we must all hope to avoid.
Part of the problem has been the decades long effort by GOP to undermine the legitimacy of the state and its institutions. You can't have faith in a system when your elected representatives are busy dismantling the institutions that serve the public good. As presented and implemented, the current Republican agenda will lead to a failed state where you can trust only God and your guns.
It looks to me like a lot of your audience got into these elite universities under "affirmative action," with the goal of "diversity. "
How is that working out?
I would be interested to know what they study at Yale, Princeton, etc.
Do they graduate? Do they vote? Do they think about what kind of civilization they would like to create--other than "people who look like them?"
2
Mr. Brooks, I'm not saying that you didn't hear what you report, but you certainly listened with a set of filters. In my conversations with my son's friends (not competitive school types), they are focused on survival. These privileged men and women are not the sounding board you should listen to.
1
i admire your work, but i would suggest you go back and read "the uncommitted," by sociologist k. keniston. it describes and explains in lucid detail what you are circleing around in this article - and it is about the youth in the sixties!
1
This pessimism is due to the intractable inequality in our economy. Those that have get more and are insulated from the consequences of their failures, either economic or legal.
Handwaving explanations involving poor indoctrination (history lessons) or too much social media are missing the point. We have transitioned from a career economy (my father's) to a job economy (mine) to a gig economy (my son's).
They see and understand the social issues and see no progress, only tactical politics.
They can't get a job with a future, only a new generation of app-enalbled piece-work temp positions.
They have educated themselves and don't see a path to economic security, so why buy in?
If things don't change, we haven't seen the extent of what wreckage can look like.
1
These students who are not pleased with the direction our country has taken in recent years should think seriously of running for public office. They have been given educational opportunities from these elite universities that are out of reach for most young people. They are very bright and can take their concerns to the American people and promote change. They need to not just complain but take action. All the complaining in the world will not create change if all they do is talk. If they are really serious about improving our country, they will be the ones to do it.
1
How do you create relationships? The only way I know is through unconditional love and service.
2
Sorry- this is not wreckage. Wreckage was the Great Depression that my father experienced as a child. The Great Recession, by any measure, was a fender bender compared to the train wreck of the years 1929- 1940. My grandparents (in their 20s) lost their house and their business; yet they never owned a stock. Their small town bank failed with their savings, and for six years my grandfather never had a steady job. This skilled machine operator was reduced to odd jobs including cleaning cells at the local police department.
For one solid year my Dad's only meals came from a church soup kitchen.
My father never had a new set of clothes until the Army gave him a uniform in 1944. Talk about reduced expectations: my father's one vice in life was a refrigerator completely jammed with food.The idea of not having food readily available would drive him crazy.
He got a GI Bill college education, he used to say, "Courtesy of an all expense paid vacation to Europe". Meaning of course that his education came at the cost of fighting across Europe from 1944 1945.
My Dad, until the end of his life in 2011, was satisfied if he had a heated house and food on the table. He started his own business in 1961 and worked as only some who survived those times could.
He used to chide us at the dinner table with this: "What you kids need is a good war and a depression" then laugh and say "Well I have had mine and I learned life's lessons well from them."
66
Yes , let's have a war , that'll teach'em. Barbaric .
1
The narrative of the Great Depression while very important does not address the challenges of today. It's not that straightforward anymore.
3
I live in Northwest Louisiana, a deep red region of a deep red state. When Trump won the presidency, the Democrats/progressives here, like many in the country, were sickened and horrified by it. We first joined the Pantsuit secret groups on Facebook to vent our horror and anguish. Many people who joined said, "I didn't know there were this many Democrats here." They were relieved there was a place they could find like-minded people without their Trump-supporting families, friends and co-workers knowing their political affiliation.
Then, we began getting together in person. Some of the people who were scared came. And then we started organizing, forming groups and taking action locally -- showing up at our representative's town hall meetings, writing letters to our representatives, holding meetings to strategize. The more things we did and talked about on social media, the more people came out of the closet and showed up too.
What I've learned from all this is, social media is great as a first step of getting people together and sharing ideas and planned events. But showing up and meeting each other in person is the next vital step. People need to see and talk to each other in person. Social media help you lay the foundation for building networks and for reinforcing them, but the meaningful connections happen live.
This past year has been one of the most gratifying ones in my life because we've come together and have caused change in a place that is hard to change.
12
The students seem disillusioned. The world has not changed that much, but having been sheltered and protected during childhood from the realities of humanity they are stunned upon becoming adults. The VR goggles attached by mom and dad when they were young are removed and behold. I see it in my sons to varying extent. My hope is that disillusionment yields to a rolling of shirt sleeves and commitment to the struggle, which is really all we were ever promised anyway.
4
The GOP is close to destroying our country. Everything mentioned goes back to them.
3
I will be sending David's article to the 20 young millennials that I interact with to get their observations. My take on the millennials comes from 9 years of involvement with them. One of the twenty informed me that we live in two worlds - the immediate world of family, neighborhood, work colleagues etc. and the larger world - everything outside of their immediate world. So I do agree with David's final paragraph assessment to translate what they have locally into sort of a globally endeavor. The twenty I know seem incredibly grounded and not at all frustrated with their emotional tenor of life and a frantic search for purpose. In spite of what some non millennial generations say - that the millennials are all about themselves, the 20 have strong commitments to humanitarian ideals, empathy toward the less fortunate and
a far greater understanding of how to use wealth and power than any previous generation and that includes many of the power brokers now and many in the 1%. David's got the right idea to engage them in different parts of the country and certainly he has a greater forum to get the word out but also what is needed is for those in generations previous to the millennial generation ( X and Y, the boomers, and WWII) need to engage them, motivate
them, share with them your history. After all if this country hopes to lead in the next decades the millennials will be called upon to lead us. Besides these young people can teach us a lot if we let them.
1
Thank you for this wonderful piece, Mr. Brooks. In "The Great Dictator" (1940), Charlie Chaplin appears in a dual role as a Hitler-esque dictator and as a barber consigned to a Jewish ghetto. After a mixup at the end of the movie, the barber gets the opportunity to speak to thousands, and directs his words to his sweetheart, resulting in the heart-rending "Look up, Hannah" speech. It's a 4-minute masterpiece, but includes, "Let us fight for a new world, a decent world...to do away with greed and hate and intolerance...The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed...you the people have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure." I saw this movie for the first time as a college student, but its message - especially in this age of greed - is poignant and powerful.
4
Why are they being indoctrinated with anti-American propaganda in the schools? America has a lot to be proud of, and they should be taught it, as well as our flaws. Start with the good, and then explain that we weren't, and aren't, perfect.
Always looking at the bad side of things is as wrong as ignoring them.
5
I think I'd rather skip the pro-American propaganda I got in middle school and high school, too, and just take our history neat, thanks.
Mr. Brooks. I suggest you visit some state.urban schools rather than those super- competitive ones.
How about Detroit's Wayne State, Cleveland State, UMass, UConn, Illinois State and East Carolina?
Oh, and an historic Black school too.
Geez, It is not always about what the elites do and think.
Or is it?
11
What hardships, really, has most of this generation and the one before it faced until now? No draft, no rationing, no bread lines, fewer siblings (hahaha) to share with, no silly drills at school to "protect" them from a nuclear bomb, no assassinations to bear, no fire hoses and attack dogs in the streets to disperse peaceful demonstrations. Any person over 60 might have another item to add.
I hate that any child must experience a school shooting, a deportation, parents without insurance, an opioid crisis, a dysfunctional government. But if we get anything out of this "dystopia," it might be a generation that will fight a little more, work harder for what they want, appreciate our democracy, vote in every election, care more for each other, and hopefully raise their kids without spoiling them and sheltering them from the world's problems.
We're going to need their strength in the decades to come.
4
You're obviously a Boomer, and out of touch.
That puts another sad nail in the coffin of the idea of America. Why would anyone fight a Civil War to preserve "whatever."
3
"The utopia of our parents is the dystopia of our age,”
That reminds me of the saying when we were young: "Don't trust anyone over age 30."
2
It is no wonder that there is a distrust of large organizations. The propaganda campaign to discredit them is extensive. Nothing better than scandal and malfeasance to attract eyeballs to media. Nothing better than outrage to drive the base to the voting polls.
Castigating and assigning the worst motives to political opponents works for the New York Times as well as Fox News. Why should anyone believe in our institutions when so much money is used to paint them as corrupt?
PS One of the students confuses facts with beliefs. There is always one set of facts, but often multiple belief systems.
I think Congress and the President did a fine job of voluntarily corrupting themselves. They really don’t need anyone else’s help to paint them as corrupt, their actions and words speak for themselves.
1
'One of the students confuses facts with beliefs. There is always one set of facts, but often multiple belief systems.'
You appear to be referring to this quote: '“We don’t even have a common truth. A common set of facts,” added another.'
Like the rest of the quotes in the column, that is too ambiguous to be very informative. Anyway, most people accept the heliocentric theory of the solar system and that the dollar is legal tender, so that statement appears to be false.
I'm putting my faith in the social justice movements #MeToo, the Women's March, Black Lives Matter, Students Against Gun Violence. These movements fight for equality.
These movements are driven by virtuous people. People who have commonsense, empathy, vision of a better future for all, not just themselves, and they have the personal drive to achieve it. Eventually, some of the leaders, activists will run for political office. They will replace the jaded, self-serving occupants who have spent their lives fighting to keep power for white men, power for their own survival (i.e., to enrich their big donors), power to take advantage of the powerless, power for power's sake. These politicians have sold out; they need to be kicked out.
America's future will be molded by a new generation which doesn't see patriotism as wrapping yourself in an American flag, but as making America safer, more just, more fair for all Americans.
The wealth-inequality is partly a product of the wreckage America has undergone since 2000. The vast wealth inequality accelerated, but it cannot continue. It has turned America into a feudalistic society of many serfs and a few lords. It is self-destructive because it is immoral; it rots away humanity.
The emerging young generation recognizes the evil of wealth inequality, gender inequality, race inequality, justice inequality and safety inequality. I have faith this generation will attack greed, racism, religious myths, gun worship and fake patriotism.
60
When power, greed, materialism, and "every man for himself" rule, we are--all of us--deeply diminished and impoverished. Connection has been lost. Nurturing values have been trampled. The Earth has been looted.
3
The "...generation with diminished expectations..." may be so because they also are the generation with by far the greatest volume of information - information true or false but a lot to think about. Not hard to lose pride in the country if one has volumes of information about the evil perpetrated. Not hard to lose confidence in current leadership when overwhelmed with information about political greed, incompetence, and lies.
So it appears to me they are as they are for understandable reasons.
Yes we have a “unified culture”. It’s called Shopping and it makes our lives so happy, content, and fulfilled that we need and do little else.
4
Skewered to say the least. Most have to be wealthy to attend these schools.
1
An excellent start on an extremely important topic. After you continue your interviews with other schools, I suggest your next step be to bring students together. Talk, discuss, & develop an inclusive political organization.
“Wall Street tanked the country and no one got punished. The same with government.”
Out of the mouths of babes. And Democrats, of the party that contends it can be trusted to do the right thing, were in on it at the beginning and looked the other way when it was time for accountability. Dereg Clinton and no-reg Obama.
With "Democrats" like these, who needs Republicans?
Mr. Brooks after interviewing students at elite schools you can ask the same questions to students at State Universities. Income inequality will most likely be their first response. There disillusion will start with their need to survive after graduation on a $10.00 an hour job while being $100.000 in debt. The interest they pay on student loans was not reduced in Congress. They are faced with living with mutiple roommates or with their parents due to their expenses and salaries. They have lived through their parents losing their homes, retirement and saving that would have gone towards their tuition due to the 2008 fiasco. Those responsible had actually profited from it and were never prosecuted. Their parents lost employment, faced age discrimination and reduced wages when they were hired. They can't afford to get married or have children. Look at the statistics of how many students graduated from schools in the last 10 years and think about their employment opportunities. Then look at the statistics for the rising suicide rates for their age groups. At present they see the corruption, nepotism, a president who not only profits from his office but is a greedy narcisist, crude, uncouth, blow heart, self centered along with the wealthy Conservativess and Political puppets they put in office They are well aware they are ruining our democracy and stripping every Cabinet in the Federal government. Why did you go to strictly elite universities in the first place?
4
That Mr. Brooks says most of the schools he visited are "super-competitive" accounts for the skew in editorial commentary toward power elites. visit a regional state university, Mr. Brooks, or a community college. Go to LSU!
3
Leadership. Remember that word? The entire top of both parties are run by old cartoon characters who, as the saying goes, "couldn't lead a group of hungry soldiers to the mess hall." Who in their right mind would have proposed a Goldman-Sachs-loving millionaire to run for President. Both parties did this! America is in crisis. This leadership failure started with Reagan and it has been on a slide ever since. Both parties are guilty. The government isn't working and the economic inequality plus a brainless foreign policy is at the point that the only idealism about our future is being expressed by 17-year-olds.
1
This column is fine, for what it is. But wasn't it David Brooks who told us he needed to spend a lot more time engaging with and listening to the non-elites of this country?
4
You do realize that the kids that go to these schools are from across the entire county, right? They weren’t actually born and raised on that “elite” campus. Just because Brooks spoke to them on university grounds, it doesn’t mean those kids view of the country were shaped there. The kids were perfectly able to observe the country from all the different corners of the country where they grew up and formed their own opinions. So let’s please stop judging opinions based on geography, it’s an antiquated notion that died with the advent of affordable travel and the Internet.
Try interviewing twenty somethings in a welding shop in Arkansas or a twenty four hour restaurant in New Mexico. The Harvard and Yale students may be more articulate but they represent such a thin slice of the young people who must fight the autocrats if America, the hope and promise of America, is to be saved from the greed heads.
4
Perhaps if people in their age bracket actually costed they wouldn’t be living through the Trump administration.
A Generation Emerging From the Wreckage. Look, my generation, the baby boomers are still alive. We're living in a corrupt political environment. The "loser" by 3 million votes is President. Is that corrupt? We've watched our money being wasted in Afghanistan and Iraq. Thank the previous loser by 1/2 million votes that became President, George W. Bush. And now, our Congress has just passed the Kushner Trump Tax Cuts for the Rich which is essentially, "Stealing from Social Security and Medicare". I would expect that in 10 years from now we'll feel the repercussions of this budget deficit which has accomplished nothing except route more money to the rich. Then top it off with global warming and an increase in global hostilities fanned by current administration.
We're living the wreckage all right.
2
No mention of Fredrick Douglass formula of "personal responsibility and self respect".
1
Several weeks ago I was looking through old photographs taken between the late 1800's to about 1915. They were all of immigrant children between the ages of eight and fourteen. They were working in foundries, textile mills, on farms, in industrial settings, selling newspapers on the streets of New York. They were all invariably dirty, haggard, ill-dressed, hungry, depressed looking; and they were all white and--I suppose, "privileged." It was a real eye-opener. Cut to today--to an "elite" college forum where, according to Brooks and the students themselves, they feel "lost," and sorry for themselves, somehow. Excuse me--but Really?
2
The biggest mistake this country ever made was to eliminate the draft. Anyone who ever served in the military, love it or hate it, experienced the first real opportunity of their lives to mix and work with all races and classes from every spot in the US. Reading obituaries today shows what an impact service had on people's lives.
1
David Brooks has a way of leading the witnesses to provide the sort of answer he is looking for. In response to his inquiry about American history, a student criticized him saying, "'That's the way powerful white males talk about America.'" He then asked them about how American history was taught. We then get the "'rounding error'" comment and the America is an "'incredibly imperfect place'" comment. It's as if Brooks wants history teachers to jump back into teaching an idealized "white male" version of history. No sane person would reflect back on America's history and lament the passing of the "white male" version of history. We're supposed to forget about slavery as if it were a "states' rights issue"? That a "white male/female" falsehood. I think we ought to see our Constitution as our Ideal. In it is all the things we ought to try to be including fair and just. We weren't fair and just in 1787. We weren't fair and just in 1865. We weren't even fair and just in mid-60s with the passage of the Civil Rights Acts. There's no need "whitewash" history. Let's simply teach the Ideal that's been around for 230 years; an Ideal that needs our re-commitment. We're abandoning our democratic institutions, which were designed to check fascism, and these kids see that fascism is winning here and are pessimistic about it. We don't need to re-engineer our history lessons. We need to learn from them and double-down on democracy.
1
Is anyone else as horrified as I am by these young peoples' perception of American history?
4
I'm guessing that many of these disillusioned and anxious students were much less so when President Obama was in office. The Republicans have poisoned the community well. Small wonder that young people have a thirst for something better. They'd best get out and vote if that's their hope.
1
"The utopia of our parents is the dystopia of our age,” a Harvard student said, summarizing the general distemper." (3d from last paragraph thanks to Janet Nelson)
Yes I, soon to turn 86, lived in a utopia in Rumford, RI where I attended 7 years of primary and grammar school. My 7 teachers were all female, seen in my memory as either young or very old. Same in my two years at Seekonk Junior High School with one exception, our music teacher Mr. Wendell.
Nothing ever happened in my 9 years in those schools. Neither there nor in my 3 years at East Providence High School was I taught anything about slavery or about the creation of a racial order in which whites were designated as superior to blacks.
But I can now see those years as utopian as concerns my being able to know that none of my teachers, and emphatically Mr. Wendell could ever have imagined carrying a weapon. Now, thanks to BBC World Radio at 3 AM Swedish time, I learn that 300 teachers in Ohio rushed to sign up for a free concealed carry course. And I was just as troubled when I read the transcript in the Washington Post of Trump's information meeting where he proposed arming teachers. Of the 7 students from the Parkland Florida school where 17 of their classmates had been killed, none said a word to the president about his proposal and 5, I believe, expressed their full support for him.
Why not ask those students.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Let me see if I understand Mr. Brooks priorities...
Students at Harvard deserve our sympathy because they've been let down by wars, financial crisis, police brutality, Donald Trump, and the biggest boogie-man of all the 'government'.
Students at high-school in Florida, on the other hand, should wait patiently for gun control until we show respect for gun owners (Feb. 14th column).
I think I got it. The banal suffering of the elite trumps all.
3
The vast majority of these students had nothing to do with 9/11. Nothing to do with the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, other than what they read on Twitter, nothing to do with losing their savings in the recession, and nothing to do with direct participation in the political milieu in their lives. So the "wreckage" is what they heard in heavily condensed versions on social media, or late night comedy, or maybe a poster in some school's hallway.
2
Mr. Brooks - go talk to students at Wake Tech Community College here in Raleigh NC. Or at the SUNY Binghamton. Or at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. And maybe talk to some kids who enlisted in the service right after high school. An awful lot of them are doers, not talkers, and they are the generation that will rebuild us. Frankly, the elite colleges you've been visiting are another set of institutions that don't work - after all, they produced the generation of leaders that put us where we are -
4
Of all the comments made by these students, all living on the top edge of academic life, the most notable are the comments made about their knowledge of history: virtually none. How would anyone expect different results than Brooks received? Anything built on a faulty foundation will likewise be faulty by definition.
"I came away from these conversations thinking that one big challenge for this generation is determining how to take good things that are happening on the local level and translate them to the national level, where the problems are."
Thankfully, we are seeing this with the most recent shooting in Florida - the elected officials, however, are doing everything in their power to stop the focused change that is being demanded - even voting to enhance access to guns (see recent Kansas vote). When democracy is blatantly ignored in favor of corporations or powerful lobbies then we face the real possibility of deeper fascism spreading.
There are many stops along the line toward a true fascist regime - we are barreling toward one of them now.
1
First, strengthen labor vis-a-vis capital.
2
When they students colloid with the real world and have to get jobs, pay rent, etc it will be interesting to see how their views evolve or don't. It is worth noting that Yale was the place that students screamed down a teacher over Halloween costumes.
1
Mr. Brooks must have enjoyed a profoundly isolated existence in his high school and college years; growing up in the 50s and 60s, I was acutely aware that our institutions did not serve everyone equally. My Dad tutored a refugee from the Russian invasion of Hungary. I read Malcolm X, H. Rap Brown, Douglass. Then there were those assassinations and that awkward business in Vietnam. Seriously, Mr. Brooks?
1
Odd that these 'best and brightest' have so little confidence in our institutions. You might factor in that this is the generation that grew up with GOP scandal machinery attacking Bill Clinton every day - followed by the kakistocracy of George W. Bush, who was asleep at the switch on 911, lied us into war, exploded the national debt, and saw the economy explode on his watch.
This was followed by 8 years of President Obama, who inherited a mess and got zero help from Republicans in cleaning it up. They opposed him from day one, challenged his legitimacy despite a clear mandate from the American people, shut down the government several times, and did everything they could to cripple government. They stole a Supreme Court seat.
When presented with clear evidence that Russia was interfering in our elections and was spreading division, they refused to allow any meaningful action. They have embraced a man totally unfit for office, a man who failed to get a majority of the vote. Those students have since seen the GOP systematically trying to roll back decades of progress and turn the government into a tool of the super rich at the expense of everyone else. They've seen racism and xenophobia translated into policy. They've seen a confessed sexual predator practice open nepotism and use his office to enrich himself.
You want to see things turn around? Start acknowledging the social contract has been broken, and do something about it.
129
Larry Roth,
Yes.
"Wall St. tanked the country and no one got punished. The same with the Government."
"I don't believe in politicians; they have been corrupted. I don't believe in intellectuals, they have been corrupted."
"We don't even have a common truth. A common set of facts."
"That's the way powerful white males talk about America."
"You come to realize America is this incredibly imperfect place."
"The US doesn't have a unified culture the way other places do."
"We want change agents that look like us. We want to see ourselves moving the country forward."
"We are more connected, but more apart."
"How do you create a relationship."
The top six quotes are the reasons for the current dystopia in millennial's. Their previous generations have created this and their previous and those before them. We continue on this path of social wreckage, generation after generation. The rules remain in tact, but how we play is the only change.
On the other side David would you go to lower class socially/economically and ask the same from them for their responses? Would you find another American millennial looking to create a new relationship with the first six quotes? or just a totally different American?
Even not being millennial's, how many Americans feel the same way the students do?
Welcome to life, kid. This is it. As the saying goes, "Life is hard, then you die." Dark, right? A little too noir? Maybe. But, in truth, that the point, you can let it bog you down or it can set you free. Life is, and always has been, what you make it.
Ya, we're all born into different situations, demographics, skin colors, and genders, and some seemingly have an advantage of another, but that doesn't discount choice. At some point, we grow up, and begin making our own choices, walk the path you want to walk. Be who you want to me.
I don't know, but from my seat as a 57 year old, the kids in the column are living in a pretty exciting time -- there is some wild potential in the air and they are poised to be the first group of college grads to take off on this wave. Be it political activism, or environmental, or simply how folks interact with each other. That's pretty cool. Pretty exciting. I'd love to be in my 20s right now.
These days, not only am I 'woke up', I'm intrigued, I'm freaked out, I'm excited, and I'm scared, and most of all, I realize it is all out there for me -- I can choose my path!
2
So Howard Zinn won the history wars in children from elite families. Teach middle and secondary students as little of their own American history as possible, and fill what you do teach with mainly the bad stuff, teach them even less of the world history that preceded the American Experiment, and it is inevitable that students have an overwhelming sense of self-loathing, a distaste for reason, a horror of the ideals of the Enlightenment, a disdain for market economics, and a complete lack of appreciation for the tragic element in all human life experience.
These privileged, elite children (who are 98% of all the children admitted to the elite schools), hate their own society.
America is ripe for the plucking.
2
As someone who was a teenager in the 60’s, I have been waiting for college age individuals to show some spirit and activism similar to the Vietnam era. I have been disappointed. However the circumstances are somewhat different in that we had the draft (and therefore the potential threat of death) and relative economic security (and therefore not risking our entire economic future). Hopefully a new activism will emerge so that the new generation will have some control over their future.
1
Elites send their offspring to elite schools because it’s a rigged route to a very comfortable life. The answer to today’s problems naturally elude elite students because the solutions are not in their interest. Same old.
2
Do the perspectives, ideas, and beliefs of students at community colleges and less-selective state schools not count? Are these kids, despite being the numerical majority, less important? What a terribly misguided--for its arrogance--sample.
My students have thoughts about what it means to be American. About the future of democracy. And about the most pressing problems for this nation and the world more generally. And, when they express these, they do not use the buzz words of elite schools.
1
"Politics" and getting into it. There is no barrier between "politics" and the rest of life. "Politics" IS LIFE! People involved in "politics" make the rules by which we live. Participation varies by degree, from voting to being an elected office holder. To affect the rules, one must engage in "politics".
The historical illiteracy of these kids who are supposed to be the best and the brightest is really depressing. They don't understand the origins of our wonderful country so it is natural that they are influenced by the anti-Americanism of today's liberal so-called educators and don't appreciate the uniqueness of the America. I am no expert in American history but I am absorbed in European history. These kids should travel to the former Soviet Republics and watch in amazement how these people have risen from the depths of unimaginable deprivation and violence and are now rushing to fully participate in the 21st century. I have learned so much about the USA travelling throughout Eastern and Central Europe (forget Western Europe) and studying their history. These kids are still young enough that they still know everything, but without having any knowledge of the world and the history of their own country they can never be considered educated people. Every time my plane touches down at the Atlanta airport after a trip I always get a thrill to be back in the greatest country in the world. With no perspective there is no way these kids will ever understand what our country means.
2
I really enjoyed your column today but you still have not moved out of your comfort zone to mingle and work among those that are not elite. When will you stretch yourself to reach a larger cross section of Americans. When will you have the courage to step up? These students already have a leg up in society. What of all the others?
Trainor's Cave Analogy:
Imagine you are huddling in a cave with the rest of your caveman community and a herd of bears and lions (hmmm) are outside ready to maul and eat you. The men of the community get together and tell the women and children to huddle in the back of the cave and a leader (Bruce Willis or maybe Russell Crowe) smugly leads the men with a plan to defeat the animals and pikes and slings. (a movie deal?) The women and children cringe in the back softly crying until the men return bruised and bloody but victorious. The following weeks the men sit around talking about their wonderful victory and the adoring women make food, grass huts and decorations to make the community happy. Peace at last. Then the men get bored. "What are the likes of us, hero's and warriors, doing making grass shacks we should be doing something heroic. Lets attack the neighboring village and steal their cows". A quick summary of human history.
I think we have to re-imagine our history and start to live the life of peace. Your interviews seemed not to find cultural or social goals. Because of your perception and questions or the premier student's lack of a story about their culture which unites us in peace? Dreadful if we need war. But we do have Rock and Roll, Sport, Tech, Art, Science, etc. but none as exciting as war. So we elected Trump, Putin, Erdoan, to have military parades, sabre rattling and boorish insults and hyper-partisanship. Is the arch of history War or living the peace.
1
The more these students are immersed in the truth of American history, the better this country might become. Cynicism, distrust and impatience are virtues not heralded by the old white men who govern this country. And universities top-heavy with legacy students are a poor litmus test of the future of the heartland. Congress is crippled, state legislatures wastelands of special interest shenanigans, the judiciary continues a law and order version of jurisprudence with uneven, unconscionable sentencing favoring one class and the leader of this country is an inarticulate, vulgar disgrace with a good-sized following. Give me the young people of Parkland as better indicators of hope, the version with an open mind, that can be nourished.
50
In response to Doc. Yes, teaching students a less xenophobic version of U.S. History AND world civilization might produce citizens better able to understand contemporary events. Squabbling over Civil War causes and the democracy of the Puritans has not produced keen analytical skills.
Beautiful, amazingly 'American' photograph.
My son attends college in New York. Every time I see him, which is not often enough, I plead for his generation to fix our politics. Never in my life did I think this country would get highjacked by an unholy alliance of big monied individuals, white evangelicals, and no nothings. The current generation really couldn’t have done a worse job it they tried and now it’s up to the younger generation to bring some sanity back to our government and national discourse.
1
Recently scientists put together an anthropological model of what Jesus might have looked like in ancient Israel more than 2000 years ago. They determined he looked More like today's middle easterner than a white Anglo. Imagine the shock of white evangelicals when they have to worship the image of a Semite, brown light skinned with dark hair. They would run crying Arab! Muslim! Terrorist!
The extroverts run Washington and Wall Street. The introverts run Silicon Valley. Both are utterly corrupted by money. It's Biblical. Let's hope there's a Moses among the young.
2
Its pretty hard to intellectualize the situation the country is in. When the president is a shallow, mendacious, vindictive, cruel, bragging egomaniac, empowered by a bastion of like thinking fellow travelers, and supported by billionaire muscle, change is about putting out the fire out.
Mr Brooks, if you want a good earful from younger people about a dire necessity for change, interview some Dreamers. That 690,000 members of the community can have their futures put in instant jeopardy by the whim of one cruel man, is not something that can be fixed by some up-welling of local politics and energy.
1
David, does it really surprise you that these students have no faith in institutions? Didn’t your sainted Ronald Reagan say that government is the problem? Has not your Republican party worked diligently to undermine projects for social welfare in the name of do it yourself, you are on your own policies?
Please get wise to yourself. What you see now is the result of a nearly half century project to maintain an atmosphere of fear and rage. Why do you think we need all these guns?
2
“How do you create relationship?” one student asked. That may be the longing that undergirds all others.
Well, not by shouting over each other on TV! Not by the screaming of the NRA. There is no civil discourse in this society because the far right has decided it is their way or the highway and they use media for that purpose. This causes others to either do the same thing or shut the thing off.
Bullying works. When will it not?
1
Look at the current stewards of our nation an der the reasons for disallusion are obvious. Rapacious greed without penalty from either party, think the financial crisis, some one beyond the small Chinese neighborhood bank in NYC should have been indicted, the recent tax bill, the total inaction of Congress on anything meaningful, and their obstinate loyalty to ridiculous donors and supporters, think the knock brothers,NRA, big Pharma. DJT has been a total sellout to the swamp he was supposed to drain. Look at a couple of articles in today's NYT- McConnell and Merrill Garland, the Union case to go to SCOTUS.
There are so many examples of the failures, depravities and injustice put forth by the current generation in power, it makes me ashamed to belong to it. I will be 54 in just a few months, and feel total disappointment in the lack of vision and selfishness that exists in our leaders, government, business, media.
I wholly support the activities of the high school victims, and so many of their generation becoming active in politics. We need their energy, their sensitivities, their outrage. If they are our future, we are in good hands. They certainly can't do any worse.
1
One does not teach history, unless one is a Stalin, Mao, Erdogan, etc. One learns history. One reads, one ponders, one concludes. No teaching necessary, merely the ability to reflect critically on the past plus good access to good texts.
2
Republicans--supposed conservatives --have destroyed faith in our institutions. Deliberately rendered government nefarious and incompetent--ever since Bush, then raise up the devil and put him in the White House. Brooks aided and abetted in the destruction of modern American with his false appraisal of Bush's character, with his advocacy of the Iraq war which brought us multiple civil wars there and led to ISIS. Now has the chutzpah to talk about emerging from the wreckage. The country is going down, it may not survive Trump, Trump's harm to the democratic process may well be irrevocable and now one knows if the country will emerge from it.
I’ll bet that David will hear the advice offered by a number of responses here and take this to a broader range of young people.
The dystopia felt by the new generation studying at the elite educational institutions would still be a half story unless completed with the experiences of the generation yet to see opportunities of decent life.
1
I'm so impressed by the level of commentary! Let me add my two cents:
It's distressing that our students are being taught such a one-sided view of American history. The American Revolution a "rounding error"? As Dan commented, America's history includes many low points, but it has also shown progressive change towards a better,more enlightened society. Our history teachers need to give our students a more balanced view.
I also think that there is more commonality between "the elite" young and the non-elites than people understand. Both are distrustful of our institutions - be they financial, political, governmental, educational. The non-elites voted for Trump because they saw him as someone who could break the power of those institutions. They also hunger for connection. To act on this,however, they need to get outside of their comfort zones and spend time exchanging ideas with "the other side." Facebook/twitter with each other, get past the cultural, financial, educational differences,communicate on a personal level, and find their common desire to make America a better place.
Working at the community level is good (and usually more rewarding) than fighting at the national level. Both are good, and both are important. Young people can't give up on the country. FIGHT to change our institutions, and VOTE.
I find it interesting that you say none of the students have learned much about American history. In the public school district where I taught for 26 years and from where my children graduated, US History was taught in 5th and 6th grade, 8th grade and 10th grade. They also were required to take a US Government class as well. Students could take Advanced Placement US History, and Advanced Placement US Government. What was missing, and still is, was a class on Civics. All of the students from the US who attend these Ivy League colleges most likely have taken these AP or and IB history classes. Perhaps they just have not taken a US history class or a comparative history class in college because they are all being pushed into STEM and Engineering classes.
2
If I were a GOP strategist, I would definitely create mistrust of institutions among young people and minorities. So they will not show up at ballot box. Indeed, democracy is not functioning well in this country because mostly older white people vote. Unless people are planning a revolution, working within the system is the only reasonable way moving forward. Using the African American community as an example, studying is not cool and it is a white people thing. Tell me who end up suffering?!
I am not optimistic. I just don't think the "entitlement generation" can deliver. To make things worse, nobody has the courage to point out the obvious and to fight for the right things. America relied on "free/cheap" labors and we are finally dealing with the consequences. With the coming of AI and automation, seriously, can anybody be optimistic?
Most ironically, instead of talking to elite students, I hope you will find time talking to farmers, ranchers, cowboys, fishman, etc. Coastal elites are the problems. Their liberalism is fake!
30
"Studying is not cool and it is a white people thing"
Never thought I'd have to call people out for casual racism in NYT comments but here we are.
Little or no history of the nation, it founders, etc. Now just dead white men, whose ideas are bad because they are just dead white men and not like everyone today. No wonder they are puzzled.
Are we on a course to trash all that was and to create soomething from these ideals? Perhaps, perhaps the old will just die off and the replacement, who knows...no one found in here. Or is it now just everyone for themselves and those they perceive to be like "us." Is it now "them" and them are the dead ones. And "us" who wonder about all the institutions which don't work well anymore? Does anyone wonder why institutions don't work well today? The ideas that animated them have been banned from the public square so now they lost their force, the values and ideals put into them by the founders. Now we are adrift.
2
We are not taught how to be grateful. Instead we are taught how to find fault, how to be snarky, how to look at the great successes and see failure. To be sure there are great issues that need to be fixed, income inequality as an example. But the long list of wonder and accomplishment that defines our age should not be ignored nor trivialized. We live in a time of abundance, where information is everywhere, health is generally amazing, and food is not scarce. It is easy to take that for granted, but it is actually miraculous.
7
Ben, please go visit some of your less fortunate neighbors. Abundance is NOT everywhere.
The “wreckage” has been a long time coming David, it’s not something exclusive to the most recent group of soon to be graduates from elite colleges, they are just beginning to be affected by what many have since the early seventies. A fascinating recent discussion in The F.T. with Thomas Piketty cast a light on this subject which many of us have been attempting to introduce into the narrative for decades. What once was a Democratic Party representing the working and lower classes in post war America began to change in the turbulence of the late sixties with the shift of The Democratic Party from one concerned with worker equality to one concerned with specific issues, the War in Vietnam, civil rights, women’s lib etc., thus beginning the takeover of the Democratic Party by a highly educated liberal elite focused on specific issues rather than the traditional Democratic emphasis of representing labor and the common man. Piketty rightfully points out that what we now have are two elite parties representing on the left wealthy liberals with specific agendas and on the right the traditional pro business Republicans, also wealthy, the end result being both parties have become tools of the one percent existing only to carry out their wishes. Globalization and immigration as Mr. Piketty also points out accelerated this process, alienating black and white middle class males, being the primary losers as manufacturing shifted to Asia. Both parties represent only the rich.
16
Both parties have to take money from the rich, but you'd be a fool to think that makes them anything like "the same." There's a HUGE difference between what you might see as simply the 'greater versus lesser of two evils.'
We have to get real about this or kiss our democracy good-bye.
1
I was wondering why the most-repeated response I hear in conversations with this age group is "Perfect." If they are making an appointment for a doctor and I agree to the time, "Perfect." If I order a glass of water with dinner, it's "Perfect."
Maturity is not about "Perfect." Maturity is about being courageous enough to wade into the reality of imperfection that is not only projected on others but acknowledged within one's own self, and learning what grace and forgiveness can do with that imperfection. Confession of our imperfections goes a long ways toward building relationship and empathy. We practice this in church every Sunday hoping it helps folks out there when the rubber meets the road. It's never "Perfect." But it is how we experience hope in the midst of the imperfection that persists in the human condition.
7
It is in the nature of English. Young people have always been doing this. Remember the cat's pajamas? Me neither. My grand daughters now talk about "ships" a lot. Can you guess what that means?
On the positive side, they say that having to learn new things prevents dementia.
Amen to that. Let’s not forget “how’s your day so far” and the ever annoying “literally.”
Like it or not, THE institution that is most likely to effect the change sought by liberals is the Democratic Party. Occupy Wall Street, Move On, and other well meaning groups lack the mechanism to actually doing anything; despite what Will Rogers said, the Democratic Party is an organization - the only organization that gives us, the liberals, a chance.
9
We would do better if we would only vote. How can one expect a democracy to survive when 49% don't vote in one of the most hair-raising (pardon the pun) presidential elections ever?
1
The current generation seems to be in worse shape than I feared. Elite students who have learned almost no history? And the history they have learned is all about guilt and accusation? And then there is the repeated emphasis on power: the rejection of white males in power, and the demand for people in power who "look like me," whatever that may be. Identity politics ascendant in a vacuum of historical context, among people who are lost and alone, their idea of "relationship" consisting of facebook likes and twitter feeds, sounds racist, sexist, punitive, and lonely. But who can blame them? Wall Street did steal our finances and get away with it. Obama failed to make them accountable, after the Clintons told him that putting bankers in jail would not solve the problem, and more importantly, would jeopardize donations to the party. And now they get Trump? Lacking trust or empathy, and knowing nothing of history, this could be the generation that starts a revolution.
10
Don't panic. This is David Brooks' take on it and he is forever trying to discreetly discredit liberal thought and protect conservative ideology. It is his brand.
A friend of mine grew up as a Republican and became an accountant. Once she became the head of finance for an oil fields equipment company, she saw how the American economy actually works. The company was making all its money from buying and selling other companies, not from selling equipment. And every time there was a sale lower-level employees lost their jobs and management made more money. At Christmas time, management got huge bonuses and staff got turkeys. My friend left the company and is no longer a Republican. Like the rest of us, she had had enough. This is the problem with America today. And you talk about bonding! Empathy! The fish rots from the head down.
10
"... she saw how the American economy actually works."
She saw how one company worked.
"My friend left the company and is no longer a Republican. Like the rest of us, she had had enough."
"She had had enough" is not an explanation. Why did she leave the company and what is she doing now?
Thank you for your comment. I confess, the only reason i still go to Brooks' columns is he inspires articulate liberal responses such as yours.
As a baby boomer who is feeling the same lack of trust and faith in institutions that I was taught were the best of the best in the world, I am now wondering if perhaps as school children we were duped. Corruption among elected officials and in government is age-old and ultimately weakens societies. We had an era of blissful, blind ignorance until the 1960s. Let's hope there is hope in our young people whether at Harvard or the local community college.
1
Why not meet with students at regional comprehensive universities—places where universities actually make a difference in changing lives for the better?
9
I wish Brooks would get around a little more. My kids attend Pitt and Temple; they've traveled the world, have a wide range of friends and influences and thoughtful perspectives too, although perhaps not as self-consciously clever as, “The utopia of our parents is the dystopia of our age”.
10
I see two things here. First, people do not talk to each other anymore. They text, or Tweet or FaceBook. Its anonymous, you do not have to show who you are many times so that many kids that have come up in this age do not know who they are. Are they the unrestricted anonymous person who expresses himself in a blog, or are they the person that they are in person? They don't know and when you don't know who you are, it is difficult to get into a relationship with anyone, since the first thing they want to know is "Who are you?".
The second is about institutions, mainly the government. Our model of multi-party democratic government is failing. It is failing not because of some external factor, but it is failing from within. This system only works with partisans come together in the context of the legislative process and engage in legislative compromise so that all parties can get buy in on the national policies adopted by the country.
That all changed in 1994 with the Newt Gingrich idea that politics is war and that the objective of the exercise, as with war, is not to get along with your enemies but to vanquish them and then to rule. So the idea of legislative compromise was discarded by one of our major two political parties. The logical conclusion of such a path is Syria today, where the Assad Regime is dealing with its internal opposition by a systemic process of eliminating them. China is leading this paradigm with one party rule.
4
They are looking for a functional society. Not one dictated by corporate dollars and special interests. The answer is to get money out of politics. It is the number one source of the anti-democratic trends in this country. Like no gun control when most Americans want it!
1
What this article says to me is that there is a crisis in American education. Apparently young people are being told the US is bad, they are powerless, and if they are white and male they should feel guilty. It is shocking. Maybe some of us need to leave our jobs and go into teaching.
6
Being a white male, I totally identify with the idea that because I'm a white male I should feel guilty. I'm so tired of feeling like I had it easier than African Americans and all the minority groups who are now in this country. Not everyone who is white was brought up rich and entitled.
2
"Apparently young people are being told the US is bad, they are powerless, and if they are white and male they should feel guilty."
Brooks doesn't say how the students were selected, but I am guessing they selected themselves, so they are not representative of students generally. Brooks should also report the demographics of the students he heard from.
"Maybe some of us need to leave our jobs and go into teaching."
Public school teachers are usually constrained by curriculum standards and often by what parents demand. And charter schools are businesses, so they are constrained by what their customers want.
These students are looking for Penguins in the deserts of Sahara!
They demonstrate a shocking understanding of history: There a no common facts, but multiple perspectives and narratives.
A generation brought up on the "false consciousness" of a social media community can hardly think. They seem to be looking for "the" truth instead of plain truths. I wonder if this bunch can hold to two competing viewpoints and see the logic of both!!
Mr. Brooks, next time you're interacting with such a privileged group, ask them if they see a life without their smartphones?
4
All these young people have to do to make things way better is to go to the polls, beg their friends to go to the polls, and at Long Last, put leaders in Washington and in every State who are good Citizens who care about the people of America and not the NRA or the Billionaire donors who are in control right now. If we do not get decent people in control of the Country, we will continue to go down and many will suffer. Not the Rich. They just get richer. Please vote in good people. Learn about the people who are running for office. I am convinced that Trump is in there because of Russian meddling. We have been electing many people who are just awful and greedy and have crazy ideas. Vote for a Statesman or Woman. Stop voting for extremists and greedheads.
1
I can't believe Brooks wrote this whole column without even making a passing reference to the students at Marjorie Stoneman Douglass High School who are leading the charge for sensible gun control legislation.
1
It would be nice if you could acknowledge that this is wreckage that conservatives have created; two Republican wars, the collapse of a poorly regulated financial system, the highest level of gun violence in the developed world brought to us by the NRA and its mostly Republican enablers, a unified Republican government whose primary objectives are to increase the wealth of the upper one percent, increase the extraction of carbon and make America White again. But of course you can't, because the primary imperative of conservatives to to never admit that they might have been wrong.
6
"Again and again, students expressed a hunger for social and emotional bonding, for a shift from guilt and accusation toward empathy." The studies I read state that the younger generations who use social media, are losing the ability to show empathy. How do you teach empathy when kids are socially distracted? Current life is moving at lightning speed. No time to think, just react. I don't see this as anything but destructive to the human race. We are trigger happy, mentally challenged, insecure, paranoid and fiscally scared. This will not change anytime soon but I wish these students luck for trying. They are the future but they must keep up the fight for the long haul.
How is Black Lives Matter a “successful movement”? I don’t think it has a unified, cogent agenda or made any positive change. Successful movements like Indian independence, vote for women or civil rights have an understandable goal and a measurable endpoint.
With the exception of same sex marriage, today’s college students have only experienced protests without goals or results. Occupy, BLM and National Anthem can’t be won because they have no winnable purpose.
These students also grew up during a time when the successes of our age are ignored or seen as failures. The lives of the poor are measurable better than they were 50 years ago, but this is lost in the focus on income disparity. There is certainly less discrimination than in the past but protest movements don’t recognize this for fear of losing their support.
Today’s movements can only lead to perpetual dissatisfaction because there is no goal except to keep on protesting.
And what is a “community organizer” and who are the examples that these students see as role models?
2
‘How do you create relationship?’ That says all anyone needs to know about the state of the country. However, the question is easy to answer and hard to do: seek and meet in person people unlike yourself, and have a shared experience. Neither of which can be done online.
There’s no denying the modern horrors and dysfunctions that afflict America. But it’s bracing and disheartening that students interviewed at these elite schools don’t have either the historical context—or perspective—to see anything optimistic, positive or inspiring about our messy American experiment.
This is a failure of parenting, or schooling, or media-filtering, or all three. It is certainly a failure of perspective and gratitude.
For every school shooting, police shooting, market implosion, company fraud, leadership vulgarity, or cynical political act, there are a thousand stories of achievement, accomplishment, honor, and progress afforded by our messy and at times chaotic democratic system. Immigrants can rise to unimaginable heights. Black men can become two-term Presidents or CEOs of Fortune 100 companies. Women can (and do) lead in nearly every enterprise imaginable, from politics to business to science, technology, medicine, media, and entertainment. Fairness is enshrined and enforced by law. Imperfectly, but still.
In terms of opportunity-creation and fairness in a large, heterogeneous society, can they point to a better society or system?
Perhaps wise, world-weary collegians would prefer the comfort of Xi Jinping Thought and state-controlled national “unity”? Or the thriving, economically robust, well-integrated social-democratic models of Europe?
We have no shortage of problems. But we do have a shortage of perspective and appreciation.
After 9/11 and our repeated legislative overreactions to it and various crises that followed, why would anyone have faith or confidence in the U.S. governance or hegemony? Look at the list of legislative and executive branch disasters:
- Sarbannes Oxley
- Patriot Act
- Dodd Frank
- NCLB
- AUMF
- Gitmo
Yep - a cornucopia of confidence-inducing accomplishment.
1
I feel their pain…but….
Mr. Brooks notes that “their lived experience includes the Iraq war, the financial crisis, police brutality and Donald Trump — a series of moments when the big institutions failed to provide basic security, competence and accountability.”
While I acknowledge that this is a tough burden to be saddled with, it surely pales beside that of America’s students in the 60s/early 70s. Back in the day, students were killed for helping people to register to vote (Mississippi, 1964) and for protesting the Vietnam War (Kent State U, Ohio, 1970). I’m sure that there is police brutality today but can it compare to that in 1965 when the shooting of an unarmed motorist led to the Watts Riots, in which 34 lost their lives and $40m worth of property was damaged?
A little historical perspective always helps to put today’s events in context.
2
Your article is shocking. You are describing a lost generation with little beliefs and not much sense of where they are going or how they will change it.
I rather look at the generation that has not started college yet. The teenagers that want to change the world, one regulation at a time, the ones who are active and not passive. I heard one of the survivors from the Broward massacre say in NPR that their movement will change the world, whether "they" like it or not. It will happen. These teens are also emerging from the wreckage.
2
Hm. As a child of the early eighties I believe some rank me as a millennial. I went to a prestigious medical magnet high school and carry a masters degree in Accounting. Here is what I learned about history in school:
-The history of European exploration.
-The history of European conflicts.
-The history of American colonization.
-The history of and reasons for the American revolution.
-The history of American expansion.
-The history of and reasons for American conflicts. (Up to Reagan).
-American Civics
-American civil rights history.
-Political Science
I believe Churchill once said that "Democracy is the worst form of government, until you consider every other form." Yes, America is great and we are a wonderful nation. We have also perpetuated systemic evil. We have relegated those of non-European heritage to slavery or second class status and reacted violently when they wanted to change their status.
The upshot of what I learned about my country is that we are a good people who have had a history of supporting terrible things. You take the good and the bad.
As for what my father's generation learned: That the civil war wasn't about slavery. Ponder that.
77
I am always surprised when others are surprised to learn Americans have done bad things. Every nation, state, race, culture has committed evil. The scale might differ, but cruelty, genocide, ignorance, and enslavement form a large part of the story of civilization.
1
Thank goodness what you father learned about the Civil War is not longer accepted as fact but was in fact the so-called Lost Cause and all it's white supremacy. Good riddance!
This is really dispiriting. These students have grown up in a culture of head-spinning contrasts. For eight years of these kids' lives the White House was occupied by the most dignified, exemplary first family in history. The economy went from terrifying in 2008 to solidly growing in 2016.
But things have degenerated to the point where "truth" is an uncertain concept. I am 60 yrs old and I too have lost faith in government. I am still shocked that Senator McConnell defied all norms and traditions to refuse to consider a Supreme Court Justice. Money buys power. Environmental protections have been lifted, to the delight of the wealthy fossil fuel industry. Knowledge and expertise are no longer respected.
It is not just government. TV journalism has degraded to the point where conservative shows simply lie and liberal ones just riff on the Russian investigation while ignoring other crucial stories.
Despite all that, I look at my children, ages 20 to 23, and have renewed optimism. They know all about corruption and lowered standards of behavior, yet they are not cynical like these students. They are working to make things better. Is it just my children? Or is this typical of the non-elite?
I assume Mr. Brooks is going to turn his attention now to millenials at second and third-tier colleges, and to those who aren't going to college. I'll be curious to see what he learns.
1
So what’s new, I’m 50 and have little faith in either side. The bankers never went to jail and stole with reckless abandon and the drug users went to jail when they needed help, not incarceration. Now the military is ramping up, the rich are getting handouts, healthcare is getting restrictive and social security is being played with. Faith in our elected officials? Seriously?
My advice for this generation? Wait for the last of the "Greatest Generation" and most of the Boomers to die off, then, if anything is left to build on, study, learn form their mistakes and start over without making the same mistakes.
My hope? The next generations will forgive us our trespasses and will vote early and often to rectify our errors.
“No society can make a perpetual constitution or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs always to the living generation.” Thomas Jefferson in a letter to James Madison, Sept. 6, 1789
The students are not the super-competitive they are the best and the brightest or amongst your nation's most privileged and some are not at all competitive. Donald Trump is super-competitive but I would bet he hasn't got a friend in the world he can trust.
I spent a decade living south of the University of Chicago in a neighbourhood UofC students were told to avoid. Freshman orientation was about where to fear to tread. Your universities are about removing their humanity so they can serve your greed and and lack of an ethical foundation.
I still believe that in month in our mainly black working class community we could have taught those UofC students more of what is truly important in life a week than in a dozen years on campus.
I am 70 and completed high school. I learned what was really important when I was between 3 and 20. I am 70 and now is the time to study metaphysics and linguistics. Not only can I now understand but I celebrate their value.
We now live to 80 and those 30 extra years we have earned should be spent in University with people who believe knowing what life is all about is of infinitely more value than stuff.
I often wonder how much better this world would have been if all those brilliant young economists and lawyers at the UofC would have spent a little time in the neighbourhoods around Hyde Park.
David are you happy? My father and father-in-law died at 93 and both died still hungry for knowledge and understanding. That is the more we should aspire to.
1
I think that an important issue that needs to be examined here is that many accepted values in this discussion need to be examined and challenged. For instance personal worth as erroneously expressed as personal wealth. Can anyone truly make the case that there exists any one person on Earth who is literally "worth" even one billion dollars? We have backed ourselves into a corner which can only result in massive misery.
I missed the evidence that they are “dedicating their lives to social change” — where’s that? in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if a heavy percentage of them end up working on Wall Street or in Silicon Valley, dedicated to nothing more than getting really rich really fast. To me they sound almost comically self-absorbed and, considering they’re college students, alarmingly vacuous. “we’re more connected but we’re more apart,” etc. and is disillusionment with the American idea really such a new thing on college campuses? I just can’t figure out why this column exists.
2
If these kids want to have an immediate impact, they need to convince their parents to stop voting for Republicans. And then, they need to get their own noses out of laptops and smart phones, and head to the ballot box themselves. And then they need to demand that their news sources on social media act like real journalistic organizations and hire gatekeepers to vet what’s published. And on and on . . .
Maybe the world is in its current state not because the younger generations have lost hope, but because they either don’t know or don’t care about their responsibilities as citizens.
"When I asked how they were taught American history, a few said they weren’t taught much of it."
Famous quote: Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Back in my day (as any old person starts a lesson), we had several history classes, both world and American, in high school, along with government classes and civics. In depth. I realize it's not a sexy or charismatic subject, but if you are living in this country, understanding where we've been and where we are going are extremely important.
In the 1960's and 1970's there were marches that brought to light the wrongness of the Vietnam war, the inequality of our civil and voting rights. Yes it was OUR lifetime, but every generation should understand the power of their voices. And yes, (shudder, bad word) politicians are the ones that are handed their rights by our Constitution. You don't have to be a career politician, but at minimum we all need to find the person who supports most of our ideals and elect them to office.
I can understand their frustration. Probably most of it stems from money in politics. But who can change that? The political party that wants to. So find those candidates, run for local, state and federal offices, then they can appoint judges and Justices.
Political apathy landed us here. Learn from it and change it going forward.
1
The solution, of course, is to enact legislation that actually works for the people.
Looking around the world, what would that look like? How about a country where people earn a living wage, do not worry about food, or health care, or educating their kids, or retirement? And they get 4 weeks paid vacation by law? And the country runs a balanced budget every year? What would that look like (cough*Scandinavia*cough)?
Well, we know no conservative would want any of that.
I don't think this malaise is restricted to the younger generation. Those of us in our "golden"years are having the same crises. We're all affected by these issues. I had to retire when my last job went away because a bigger company bought my employer and I was made redundant. Now all I can find are hourly wage jobs to try and survive, despite Social "Security." I agree with these young people. No one cares about people anymore, or the qualify of life.
2
I would argue that we are experiencing a malaise paralleling that of the late 70s. That time represented the death throes of the New Deal era, and I think present day malaise is indicative of how the Reagan era of American history is coming to a close.
1
Some of the comments David reports are striking: the decay of the nation-state? A serious issue, but who dunnit? There are thousands of two- and four-year colleges whose students are much more in tune with the current malaise of American politics, much closer to the Calvinism and Jansenism of Middle America than the most astute Moroccan student can be. David also found a serious disconnect from reality (in the students or in himself?) when he mentions problems at a national level. Good things are surely happening at local level in some places, but in others, not so much. In 2017, there was an increase in anti-Semitic incidents nation-wide. White supremacist activity has increased on campuses 2.5-fold in this academic year. And a local church in Pennsylvania has invited heterosexual couples to bring their AR-15 killer weapons, unloaded, to a special service. Every gun- massacre is local. Our prisons are bursting with minorities, and Trump still implies that our problems are caused by the snakes, immigrants, we take in. Perhaps the most telling item was something many of us already know: Americans aren’t taught much history.
Left unsaid in Brooks’ exploration is that this generation, more than any other, has grown up during a time of massively increased diversity. For all of its many positive attributes, diversity also leads to a decline in social cohesion which seems to be exactly what this generation and the country now is suffering from. People are simply less trusting and less willing to work with and make sacrifices for others who aren’t like them. It’s human nature. It leads to more extreme thinking and radicalization on both sides.
1
Therein lies the problem: American history is not taught in our schools anymore.
Civics isn’t taught anymore. Parents don’t instill pride in American Exceptionalism anymore.
Morality and virtue are out the window. This is the by product of out lack of virtue.
We reap what we sow. It’s pretty simple.
1
Students are always surprised when they meet the best of American thought and letters. Whitman, Lincoln. One of the worst things about education today is the neglect of 19th century lit. The heroism and generosity and invention. The jazz. The unsystematic pragmatism and transcendent realistic and fair-minded, Democratic handbook to resistance. It’s a great time to work with kids. A lousy time to be conservative.
David, please allow me to remind you how you mis-judged the last election results. Let me also remind you how you indicated a certain insularity of those in Washington. Having said this I think it’s great that you’re getting out of the local confines however I suggest that you take the same two questions and go to those areas across the country that supported Trump. In doing so you’re writing will become much stronger, much more realistic, and much more on point. Clearly interviewing college kids is convenient but not much more
If these "elite" students many of whom have had every advantage in life continue to have no faith in our public and private institutions and the power of their votes our country is in big trouble.
For me, who grew up in Europe and lives in both worlds (in Western Europe and the U.S.), the most powerful sentences in this article are "You come to realize the U.S. is this incredibly imperfect place." "I don't have sense of being proud to be an American." With ethnocentrism there is no hope for world peace! And these are sure signs that our young people do not buy into the dangerous myth of the "exceptional America." No country is perfect, no country is exceptional. If you believe that your country is all these things, you are not only hurting progress in your home country, but you are hurting the world.
After reading comments here condemning Ivy league students as misrepresenting American youth and Ivy league education itself, I think most people are missing the point. What struck me most about both presidential candidates in the 2016 election in a negative sense was how both were baby boomers who viewed the presidency as an entitlement. What explains this folks, and what enabled this? Was this the consequence of Ivy league education?; or, was this the result of apathy?
If college students today have low expectations of govelement by virtue of a cynicism normally associated with older age, it's because the general apathy of their parents fostered an environment congenial to it the past 35 years. The failings of trickle down economics has been well known for a quarter century already, but where have efforts been to remedy this? Sorry, but blaming Harvard and Yale for the problems of the present serves only to absolve us of our culpability in this as well.
I wish David Brooks had visited a state school in the middle of the country. Not even the UW Madison, but more like UW La Crosse or Green Bay. I'm not sure what he would have found, but I don't think a handful of kids at Yale are representative of their generation... or maybe they are. In any event, it would have give his piece a lot more credibility if he had reached out beyond the most elite schools in the nation.
David - a good article, but I'm a bit disappointed in your first paragraph. I remember after the election you stated you were going to make an effort to hit the parts of America that you and our federal leadership neglected for 2 generations. And I think you went to Pittsburgh (great city). But if you are going to talk to the next generation, why can't you combine a Harvard with a visit Youngstown State, Bowling Green? Talk to the kids who work two jobs to pay the tuition. Talk to the engineering student that excels because she works on restoring a motorcycle on weekends. My financial institution loves hiring kids from Baruch because they have an ingrained work ethic, AND the ability to think about the world around them. Don't just talk to the people who have the luxury of pontificating such deep questions about cultural identity because they have the time to do so.
1
For a less rarified perspective, I invite you to visit John Jay College/CUNY, where I have been proud to teach for more than two decades. The students you meet at “highly competitive” institutions will be fine no matter which way the social, political and economic winds blow. Our students, mostly people of color, first-generation college students, immigrants, Dreamers, strivers looking for entry to the middle class, are far more vulnerable to the vagaries of policy and neglect. Come listen to them.
"I came away from these conversations thinking that one big challenge for this generation is determining how to take good things that are happening on the local level and translate them to the national level, where the problems are."
Many of the major problems these students complained at some point require some level of government involvement: laws or regulations. The answer as what to do is not that complicated.
1. Vote!
2. Organize at the grassroots and/or run for office if you feel the calling
3. If you don't do #1 stop complaining. You have earned it.
1 out of 6 people age 18-29 voted in the 2014 midterm elections. Let's see what happens in 2018.
1
I'd welcome this sort of round table with the plutocrats of the country. If we're dysfunctional, there's plenty of demographics that share in the responsibility. We are here because leadership has failed us: Corporate, Religious, Government, Intellectuals, and Media are among the most culpable in my view. The kids, well, they're just dealing with the consequences.
1
I was born in 1953, so I am a baby boomer who grew up in the 60’s and 70’s. I grew up with Vietnam and the draft. I grew up with a war that took the lives of 55,000 US soldiers. We found out the government lied to us about the war and we took to the streets. I grew up with the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King and with riots that left neighborhoods in flames. I grew up with the financial crisis of the 70’s and high inflation. I grew up with Watergate. Unemployment hit 10.8% in 1982. Okay, we didn’t have Trump, we weren’t living at a time where facts didn’t matter, at least not to the extent we see this today. While I understand the legitimate concerns of young people today, their situation is hardly unique.
Well la-di-da, David Brooks discovers that young people in the institutions of higher learning are somewhat nonplussed by America's much-touted "greatness".
There is hope for the country yet.
Maybe when the majority of Americans realise that they don't have some kind of moral monopoly on truth, justuce and democracy the rest of the world can breathe easier.
Unbridled, free market, deified capitalism commodifies people, politics and the press. Our interactions are exploitive, characterized by insecurity and various displays of dominance - like big houses, Facebook cosmetics, beauty surpassing knowledge in value, etc. and demeaning as people make self-punishing choices like Trump. There is a collective shame abroad in the land. When the scapegoating turns to self-examination and accountability we will have begun to re-establish empathy as the leading element to inform the future constitutional, political and personal order.
1
I am 56 and oh so ready to hand the reins to the next generation.
This is profoundly sad. You wonder if out all this cynicism will rise some new sort of deeper spiritual awakening within the next generation. Sort of like the "tune out, drop out" slogan in the sixties, but yet different. Perhaps "tune inward"?
I was born in 1948. We lived through the assignation of John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther king. Dealt with the Vietnam war and the draft, started the environmental movement because of the severe pollution we lived in. As I recall it was no pick nick for young people then either. Those today need to get active if they want change
2
Brooks ignores the obvious- there is a giant unstoppable machine that is dragging the country over an abyss: the Republican Party and its repudiation of a role of government. Just today, they use a stolen Supreme Court seat to destroy the labor movement. Last month they set in motion a tax scheme that will bankrupt the government - the goal is to reduce the role of government. It's all a move to Ayn Randianism, orchestrated by the Koch brothers, with Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan as their lackeys.
5
I wonder how different our perception of the world would be if Hillary had won. Most of us, the readers of the NYTIMES, we would be thinking that she is not so great. The Republicans in Congress would be making her life miserable. Some others, not readers of the NYT, they would detest her, and would be muttering hatred about her, whenever they could (the same way we do about Trump) .... but things would still be passable.
It is just the election of Trump, and having the guy as our President, that really makes things look so dire.
And Hillary almost won. Popular vote, she won. It was close, except for the electoral college.
I'm not sorry that this generation learned to look past the myths of America that your generation and mine were taught in history class. We don't need a history that obscures the complex truths of the United States. The truth makes us strong. The myths send us backwards and make us vulnerable to phony populism.
2
While it is a little sad that some of perhaps our best and brightest find so little to have faith in anymore, I am not surprised. My generation has failed our young people in so many ways, myself included. When I was growing up, and facing my own disallusionment with our Country, I had my, albeit immature, faith in God to fallback on...for a while at least. Even that, got lost somewhere, for a while. And during that period of doubt I had kids, whom I failed to fully share that grounding with...at that time. Unfortunately, so did so many of my peers. I rediscovered that grounding, my faith in a relationship with God, and I have begun to find my faith in the American Dream again, warts and all. America is far, far from perfect. But it takes us, all of us, to make it better.
These results are not all that surprising. As a retired professor who taught at public universities, I saw these same reactions in many students, but I also saw an amazing amount of hope in the same ones. Yes, they had their "you dealt us a rather lousy hand, professor" moments, but they also were studying so they could give the next generation a better hand. In a way, they were saying to me that life isn't "death and taxes." Rather, it is hope and dedication to something other, greater even, than themselves. As sour and dour as Mr. Brooks' interviewees were, I'm willing to bet they will eventually become actively engaged citizens.
1
I am struck that time and time again in interviews & conversations the big question is always about relationships & how to create them.
We've become increasingly insular, thinking we are so worldly because we connect on social media w/ someone in India, Spain or elsewhere in the US. Instead we've lost the basic reality of being human & that is the connection one person to another.
I can talk/text my partner, best friend or my sister daily but there is something about sitting in the same room w/ them & those relationships that fill the void & make me feel grateful to my core. I don't have to be anyone but myself w/ these people. These relationships help keep me mentally stable.
We've gotten to a point where we don't even want to hear the voice of those we wish to communicate with, preferring texting over speaking, emojis with smiley faces to the lyrical quality of a conversation, its' nuances and inflections.
Knock religion all you want, but it gives people a sense of belonging to something bigger. For an hour or more each week people gather in a group around a "common truth" & take their nose out of the phone/internet & are actually present in a space, possibly connecting w/ a handshake, a smile or a kind word to another. If only it would last beyond that hour...
And this isolation is carried into our politics. If we are ever to get back to what we want in our country, we need to turn from "social media" and actually become social. I hope this is happening now.
Wake up, David Brooks, what else is new? Nearly a century ago, spokesmen for our culture were writing, with justification, that the center was not holding while the beast slouched toward Bethlehem. A decade later, the economic Depression was destroying the fabric of civilization, and Nazism was sweeping across Germany, then across Europe. Then came six years of the bloodiest war in human history and the death camps at places like Auschwitz. In the 1950s, we were besieged by McCarthyism and by what appeared the imminent threat of annihilation by the atomic bomb. A little later came the threat to the Constitution by Nixon and his cronies. The problem with David Brooks’ thesis is that he writes as though the pessimism of today’s students reflects some unique malaise. There have always been reasons for anguish and pessimism, but mostly we manage to muddle through.
1
I graduated from a high school in Brooklyn in 1970 and I do not remember any of this pride of heritage or gratitude toward American historical figures. I remember just the opposite. The kids thought the Viet Nam war was unjust and was symptomatic of an unjust system. They did not want to get drafted and did not want to flee to Canada. Like most young people they were not historically minded and were concerned about what was right in front of them.
3
This new generation is not connected, but isolated by technology. They have not learned how to relate to others on a face to face basis. No wonder they are disillusioned.
3
Funny Mr. Brooks continues to falsely believe his education was liberal. Letting conservatives define liberal has been a huge liberal mistake. Like the media, his education was decidedly not liberal because of what it left out and how it presented an already myopic recording of the American myth. Good on the kids for instantly recognizing his confusion.
I’m a member of the failed Gen X and have always felt as these kids seem to feel, there is nothing to count on, it’s all very corrupted. And now trending in the wrong direction.
1
E.O. Wilson wrote in his book - we are in a age with Stone Age emotions, nineteenth century political system and God like technology. There are fundamental contradictions in the whole system and society. In our 2000 years history, we never faced this type of challenge and acceleration of change. The young minds see this contradictions and trying to grapple an answer - and they see none. Political systems or corporations or elites will not bring any answer. The only group of people who are looking to this human life as integral part of the cosmic existence not a exploiters can lead us from this impass. There are minds in this world who are silently conveying that message to the watchful minds. This process will grow and human minds will look deeper inside to find the solution. Participation in the Yale course on happiness is the sign. Answer is there - we never tried to look on that direction.
The way you "create relationship" is to reach out and get involved in organizations that represent your values. It is also to engage in person with others you wish to befriend. Our problems exist because of non-acceptance of those who are different than us. This is magnified on a National level when you see how Trump Administration members push away anyone with a human approach to solving problems. It is magnified by the Republicans and Democrats inability to compromise. The Republicans are in charge and they have an obligation as the Majority Party to negotiate in good faith and think of all Americans when they have proposals on the table. They have an obligation to stop working behind closed doors and not including Democrats in the process.
This is a bad example for this generation. This is the generation who were not exposed to Civics in grammar and high school. This is the Generation who have watched their parents divorce in greater numbers. This is the generation that has watched, over and over again, mass shootings. This is the generation who have watched the Corporate world put greed above workers. Watched the Republican Government try to take away some basic rights like making it harder for certain groups to vote. Watched certain groups be demonized by Trump and his cohorts. Watched our elections being interfered with by the Russians.
Why shouldn't they have low expectations.
It is our duty as the adults to give them hope. We are failing miserably.
1
Not much different from our baby boomer world view. The danger is looking for a homogenized outlook. Many of us questioned the government, the military, the unbridled power of corporations and its links with government. Who knew then that a near majority of us dreamed of material success and would emerge as the backbone of Reagan aMErica? Now in my 70's it's my hope that the young of this world will fight to free this country from the tentacles of corporate board rooms and the plague of inequality, dirty air and water, melting ice caps, senseless wars for oil profits, and widespread corruption. Brooks are with us or ag'in us.
Once again, one gets the sense that David is avoiding.the national debate that our Congress is bought and paid for by the super rich. The tax law was a gift to this group. Senator Rubio's response to the gun crisis demonstrates his kowtowing to the NRA. If we concern ourselves to the local level, we avoid the more serious problems affecting our nation and give a GOP Congress a free pass to enact more draconian laws.
David goes off on these socio- philosophical tirades that do not offer solutions to our national problems.
"I came away from these conversations thinking that one big challenge for this generation is determining how to take good things that are happening on the local level and translate them to the national level, where the problems are."
Dear Mr. Brooks,
Please note that your sentence above extrapolates from slim anecdotal evidence in the most exclusive and elite areas, and applies them universally. Isn't this precisely the elitist mistake that led to Donald Trump being elected?
It's interesting to me that people at these "elite" schools sound so disenchanted when their professinal opportunites are likely to be so much better than so many others'.
Mr. Brooks, I would invite you spend a bit of time in Idaho, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana, and Nevada - places with a different culture than the coastal urban centers where the cultural and traditional upbringing of students might have been different. I'd be interested to know if their viewpoints are quite as pessimistic as these seem to be. And if it feels different to you, perhaps you could devote a future column to discussing your thoughts on why that might be.
If only your second sentence read “ Most of the students I’ve met with so far are at great schools — Marist, Grambling, SUNY Oneonta and Toledo - schools where parents and students struggle to find a path toward the old American Dream.”
I might have continued reading.
1
Mr. Brooks observations are reflected in most recent Quinnipiac University polls which cover a much more diverse cross section than Brooks. Universally in that poll the 18 - 34 age group is more dissatisfied with the status of government with the averages taken across all party disciplines. They don't like or trust Trump, they don't believe in the God given right to gun ownership, and they don't believe the in the moral standing of Congress.
They are right and possibly not as cynical as they ought to be. A country whose Supreme Court has decided that the rich vote is millions of times more important than the vote of the average citizen (Citizens United decision) has some extremely serious self examination to do. (Oh, yes, just like in Russia, everyone gets to mark a ballot, but organizations or people with $billions decide what name is on the ballot with their money.)
Oh, and by the way I am a 73 year old retiree and I've maintained this attitude ever since the US military industrial government complex sent my generation off to fight in an unwinnable war based on fictitious stories and led to 50,000 deaths of my peers, untold suffering of the wounded, and unemployment for huge numbers of those vets. Government hasn't changed since then, big money has just made it worse.
1
Loss of faith in big institutions about to include the Supreme Court as GOP’s Gorsuch settles in to do his Republican masters bidding. Some day I hope a lawyer in argument before the court will call Gorsuch out on the way he got his robes. Challenge his legitimacy. Some day I hope a Democratic Congress might add four seats to the Court to show that Dems can play rough too. Neither will happen, of course. Too radical for Dems to play rough. So prepare for a 30 year trump Supreme Court — guns everywhere, women second class citizens, workers ground under the thumb of unchecked capitalism.
1
These responses often characterize"elites" as some foreign, unattainable culture. I have taught at "elite" schools - that description is a weaponized buzzword. What many of you write about these students is incorrect. Schools mentioned as "elite" - whatever you mean by that - happen to teach excellence thoroughly and deeply. Be thankful they exist and endure. Many of the students who have worked hard to gain admittance are far from "elite" - they are industrious, thrifty, motivated and smart, and made great sacrifices (as did their families) to excel. Since when does such behavior deserve your derision?
1
If I were in my twenties again, I'd certainly be questioning (very deeply) our economic and political systems. They have failed.
Capitalism, as practiced in the U.S., has caused enormous poverty, a gigantic level of income disparity, massive environmental damage, and corruption of our politics.
Our form of politics has become plutocratic, with a Congress that is literally bought and sold and politicians that choose their own voters and manipulate the system, even with foreign help, for their own ends. Few, if any, politicians care about the needs or desires of the majority and even fewer will actually do anything about those needs or desires.
Our country refuses to accept that the challenges of this century are real and enduring. The culture is about denial, ignorance, fear, and materialism. Unfortunately, the U.S. is really not a constructive participant in world affairs as a result. We foment war, we encourage authoritarianism, and we perpetuate the damage to our climate that will, if unchecked, eventually put our entire biosphere at risk.
So the kids have reason to be pessimistic. They are right, though, that there are many people who do care. They are just not in politics and, for sure, no mega-corporation wants them in the ranks.
The Occupy movement had a tremendous impact - it (and Bernie, though one could argue his national success may not have bloomed had it not been for Occupy) brought the true horror of income inequality to the forefront. It's now close to common knowledge just how much richer the top is than everyone else. This wasn't the case in the late 1990s, even in a college seminar on Marxism in the People's Republic of Vermont.
That this generation profiled is so disillusioned is more evidence that the Myth of the American Dream is dead, or dying. In 2008, much of the nation dismissed Occupy as Communist dithering and spoiled students. Yet this last decade bore out the truths that Occupy offered.
Sooner or later, cosmic dust is drawn together by gravity to form a star - that's what we're seeing here. These seemingly disparate temporary movements will eventually coalesce into a powerful progressive force. The kleptocracy knows this - which is why they're in such a hurry to steal everything not bolted down (and break everything that is bolted down).
Try going to some state universities to see how the other half thinks.
We've failed to teach American history in a way that helps young people understand the miracle of the U.S.
1
I've lived long enough to see in my beginning the world of unity and cooperation in the U.S., respect from all disparate groups, except the obvious ones that worked for ill, helping each other, uplifting the poor, admiring accomplishment, then the gradual beginning of a decline of all that and complete polarization of now. A good start would be to get rid of Fox Fake News that promotes nothing but dissent and hatred for anything not them. I have the same senses these student express. What was once important and good and carried us up and forward in noble ways has deteriorated into utter corruption of our government and institutions. There's almost nothing and no one who hasn't become the opposite of what it was intended. Getting rich and having it all at the expense of everyone else is endemic and works like a fever. Theocracy knocks at the door with the Evangelicals who have snuck in pretending to be Christians and drop their robes with the admission of Donald Trump into the miserable mix of awfuls and now can't be regarded anything but a political arm with 17th century attitudes toward women, lgbt communities and gun rights groups. We've all been intimidated by the guys at the top with all the power who don't give two hoots what we do to each other as they continue to take the American dream away and trash anything left of it. It saddens me immensely that American history is barely acknowledged. It was one of the most meaningful courses of my education,
1
Quite frankly I feel much the same way as these students and i am 80.. I have watched our politicians manipulate the system to work for their corporate sponsors and eat away at the American Dream, and it is very disheartening. As i have said many times, the principal threat to the future of America is Congress. This country stopped a long while ago being of, for and by the people, and look at the mess we are in, and the greater mess we will be in down the road from today's dreadful decisions and indecisions.
1
Alas, this feels a lot like when I grew up in the mid-70s early 80s.
Nixon, Vietnam, energy crisis, limits of sustainability, beginning of the end of middle class majority.
I remember being taught in middle School that mine was the first generation that should expect lower living standards than our parents.
And what did we collectively alight upon as the solution, a new world order based upon neoliberalism. The end of history not so much, we reduced human needs to economic pursuit, abandoned culture and values, allowed plutocrats to capture government, lost track of any common mission for humanity and reduced life to a simple equation: money = good.
Ain't working so we'll.
If David Brooks wanted a wider cross-section of young people would he know where to look? I’m a high school teacher and long for a discussion of the paths for our young people beyond college and certainly the elite, selective colleges Brooks focuses on in this article. I would be much more interested in a comparison of the thoughts of these students to students at tech schools, community colleges, City Year, or working. I’m curious why Brooks focused on these schools? Is it assuming these will be our leaders? Maybe our problem is that our leaders come from to narrow a pool with too small of life experience. We wonder why so many feel disenfranchised in this country maybe it’s because unless you are going to or went to an elite college no one is interested in your opinions. Would my comment mean more to the NYT or David Brooks if I include that I went to Middlebury College? Then shame on you.
Please come visit a community college on your tour. Most Americans in college today are in a community college, far more than in "elite" schools. Ask your questions to my students at the Community College of Baltimore County. you may find something surprising.
This is a tedious column. Mr. Brooks needs to go schools where students are more nuanced in their thinking, and where teachers are allowed to posit opinions that clash with that of the ruling elites. I hope the students that he talks to have the fortitude to "find themselves," roll up their sleeves and do the hard work that is demanded of their generation. They should do more to fix income inequality and vote to empower others who are less fortunate. It was thrilling to see college students vote for Sanders. As a fellow Sanders supporters, I saw the energy that these college kids expressed as hope that some of them will put their money where their mouths are.
1
Maybe these folks should just start with themselves. How patient are they with circumstances and change? How kind are they to others and the earth? How curious are they about the deepest sources of suffering and corruption?
Brooks: "We were the lucky inheritors of Jefferson and Madison, Whitman and Lincoln..."
Student: "That’s the way powerful white males talk about America”
That will probably be the most depressing thing I read all week. Any student who puts in an honest effort to study Jefferson or Lincoln will walk away amazed by their accomplishments, and the service performed for our country. It is shocking to me that we cannot be proudly American and concerned by its flaws, simultaneously.
1
Mr Brooks surveyed students from a social/economic group that he knows and is comfortable with. Perhaps if he had risked stepping outside of this group and spent a few days among the children of oil field workers or salespeople at Walmart he might have learned something he didn't know. As it is, Mr Brooks understands only a very narrow, thin segment of America. This is like Donald Trump, who only understands the life of privileged billionaires.
There seems to be a sampling problem here that is first acknowledged and then completely ignored.
But the question at the end, “How do you create relationship?” is an interesting one in many ways. I’d say about this, that YOU don’t CREATE relationship; rather it happens without awareness as those involved relinquish priority favor of themselves in participation with one another. In others words, being “there” without worrying about “there.”
So the best young minds in America have no idea where to begin? Tell them to visit Emma Gonzalez who will attend a local liberal arts school that is on no ones radar. This brilliant young woman has captured our attention and our hearts and our minds. Emma is the one to watch, to support and good people like her will lead. We have a leadership problem - no one will take a stand - no one will push for real change. We can name the problems but no one will vote for change
Get the money out of politics - move to publicly funded elections
Tax all income as ordinary income
Eliminate loopholes and subsidies
fund the IRS, the CFPB the FDA and EPA
Ban assault weapons, high capacity magazines and implement licensing, registry and training
Ban the bots - regulate the internet - users must be verified.
1
You create relationships by working together for a greater cause.
Would be interesting to visit outside the blue/purple areas of the country. And maybe not the elite.
I hate organization, i realize there would be no society without organization but all these endless groups plotting to get their way has turned into a quagmire of conflict.
Timothy Leary said, turn on, tune in, and drop out.
I have simplified my life to the barest of essentials and have never been happier.
“I don’t believe in politicians; they have been corrupted. I don’t believe in intellectuals; they have been corrupted,” I agree in principal with the young woman that made that statement.
We have long known that intellectuals tend to serve power.
To say that all politicians are corrupt is something many Trump supporters also say.
I think the young people should be encouraged to look deeper. Why do most politicians appear corrupt?
Could it be that when Reagan said "government is the problem", he began a process where the self interest of corporations superseded the common interest of governments?
The generation emerging from the wreckage, is one of practicality. Much like the one that existed before the counterculture. A culture that adopted as their mantra, “If it feels good, do it”. When those searching for such feelings obtained influence over governance, their quest led them to attempt a manufacture of public opinion; ‘little white lawyer lies’, to promote and support their eternally obfuscating vision. Those works, now have brought forth fruits; lack of peace of mind. As the constant chant for change emanating from today’s impressionable young minds, is an extension of those feelings.
It is not to wonder why stable governments, largely supported by their people, want to hang onto ‘peace of mind’ when they have it. Examples, globally abound. The new global struggle looks a lot like the last one; for peace of mind.
The economy will be fine and so will the young people whose lives were turned upside down by the financial crisis which is not to suggest the world in 2050 and 2100 will be anything like the world so many of us once took for granted because it won't be. The defining problem is how to restore public trust in a country where lies have become commonplace. The solution is to tell the truth and deal with it.
Millineals face a world where the value of 'human resources' is declining as our input is replaced by machines. They face a world where families are broken apart by electronic interlopers. They face technology that has far outrun our cultural capacity to deal with it. They face environmental degradation that threatens us as a species (along with many other species with which we share the planet). They are, in short, facing problems for which there may be no solutions.
And I have to point out that they're doing a better job of it than the generation that thought that electing Donald Trump might provide some solutions.
I would like to know who are the students that David Brooks is talking to. I am guessing that they are not STEM students.
Mr. Brooks keeps writing columns that imply that all politicians are responsible for the diminishing opportunities available to our next generation so I have to keep reminding him that it's the Republican party that encouraged distrust and disrespect of our government and its employees. It is the Republican party that has taught the public that hypocrisy and deceit wins. It is the Republican party that never tires of dividing the nation along cultural fault lines like race and abortion. These are inarguable facts and yet Brooks keeps writing columns like this. And I'll keep responding.
To read most of these comments on Brooks' essay is horrifying. It's almost like wading through the comment section on Fox News, only with sentences that have prepositional phrases and thus dressed up and delivered as though there was any actual insight in them. To dismiss what these students have to say with the charge that it smacks of "elitism" is pure knew jerk reaction-- the very impulse that arouses Trump fans and has formed our belligerent, extremist, irrational political and civic climate. OK, so they're students in some of the country's most competitive (and often most expensive) schools -- how about the possibility that they got there because they worked hard? Because they're highly intelligent and have a lot to offer society? Because they're ambitious? I teach in a community college and I can say with confidence that what these students are saying is in line with what my students think. Because we've been stuck in a neoliberal culture for decades, it's understandable to be suspicious of people who may be deemed "elitist," especially when your politics are telling you to hate the "elites." Guess what, that's how trump won. The Left seems to me to be in serious danger of getting trapped in the faux communist thinking associated with political correctness that we are all alike -- and that we should all be alike. We are not. To silence highly intelligent kids for being "elitist" is to take a step closer to Mao's China or Stalin's Russia.
1
The global one percent -- about 70 million people -- own 1/2 the world's wealth.
$140 TRILLION. No, not billion. TRILLION. Which, if you calculate it out, comes to $2 million per person.
They stole it from us, basically. Think of how that money could be redirected.
1
When i read that the current university students dub themselves (at least to David Brooks) "the school shooting generation", I was put in mind of MY youth: we were the atom bomb drill kids, the Korean War kids, the go-off-to an undeclared Vietnam War and lose friends cut down in their prime, all for the government's unwillingness to say we made a mistake getting in there.
Point being, there is no one era worse than any other. My father's generation would have cited the depression and WWII.
David, please stop trying to find grand schemes in today's mess and start calling for your party to step up and re-join the rest of America in trying to solve problems like huge income gaps, terrible maternal and child mortality, increasing voter suppression, subverting the laws to attempt to back to the "good old days" when, if you were white and male, the world was your oyster.
These students have been taught to recognize that history is written by the winners, and that white men have beaten back all challengers to their 'winner' status with whatever tools they could grab - military, financial, political, cultural and even medical.
This is not to say that white men have been terrible stewards of history or that great achievements should be invalidated. But those achievements must be seen through the prism of lost opportunity as well. What if Frederick Douglass had been able to be elected president? What if women could have voted from the beginning of the American experiment, had been allowed by men to own their own property and persons, to invest and explore? What if cultural contributions were valued equally to military ones?
These issues are still with us, in the election of a rabidly white-male-supremacist political elite hellbent on protecting the yawning chasm of income and power inequality that benefits them at the expense of everyone else.
The students recognize this, having been taught to think outside of the traditional power structure. The question is, can they upend our current rotten, oppressive status quo and find a better paradigm? It appears that, right now, they see the problems more clearly than a way out of them.
The "I hate America because of its history but also don't know about any of the US' big ideas, only its problems" is the real problem - there is not imagination of how the US should work. And so if it is not local citizens engaged in their local communities, then you get a bunch of nonsense on either end - "only occupy activists matter" or "only presidents matter". No one thinks like end of Middlemarch:
"But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs."
I think the big city is a real cause. My parents and grandparents all grew up in these small self-sufficient, "redundant" small towns. It was inefficient, all these grocery stores and insurance agents and grain elevators and, but it gave a bunch of someTHINGs between them and the fed government. A chance to own a home (vs anonymous renting) and know their neighbors and be in clubs or committees and have a local impact (vs sitting in their apartment tweeting "#Resist!!" 500 times a night out into the aether, shouting at the sky instead of cultivating what is around them. Subsidiarity, local attachment, cultivation, sphere sovereignty, mediating institutions -- all these terms are our only hope and they keep receding further away.
The culture imposed on these people is full of anger, violence, and the denigration of others. Judgmental thinking is prized and second thoghts are banished.
There were more guns i their parents' lives than there are now, but we never had mass shootings. Of course, we didn't see a political party cut off its moderate wing and go all-out socialist like we've seen with the Democrats, either. The GOP is so diverse that it can't make its mind up.
Reason? The most recent former president insists that no one can be excused for denying climate change, even if the same people insisted that we'd all have been deaf by 2000 A.D. The same man insists that the gun-waling, Iran-funding, war-on-religion and destruction of basic bankruptcy, and spying-on-reporters scandals weren't scandals.
The Occupy strategy was only a 'failure' according to the right and liberals who think they're so sophisticated like these well-heeled snobs. Occupy completely changed the conversation, and Bernie Sander's success could not have happened without it. I can't wait to see what's next for the left. This bunch can stay above the fray in the Democratic Party and watch history unfold, or snap out of it and realize that their meritocracy is the problem.
The potential of this generation is incredible. Expectations and ego, moderate; performance and accomplishment, sky high. I have a lot of confidence.
6
Perhaps what might be possible (or working) on the local level is not applicable to our current environment of national fragmentation. Disparate groups are closing tightly around their preferred ideology rather than engaging each other to find common ground in solving problems. Young people see this on a daily basis, and are correct to hold the national circumstance in contempt.
Like the actions of the students from Florida, young people will, at some point, no longer be supportive of any institution which does not act in their best interest - especially government.
2
"The utopia of our parents is the dystopia of our age." True for every generation, I think. Part of the Ying/Yang of life. We swing from one extreme to another, rarely finding that balance point in the middle. Our nation was conceived as a compromise between Aristocracy and Democracy. Too much Democracy leads to rule by the whims of public opinion. Too much Aristocracy, aka Meritocracy leads to rule by the 'experts' aka 'conformists'. I think the current generation fails to see the inherent contradictionary (or complementary) forces of Democracy and Aristocracy. A balance is needed.
Not a single mention of two enduring institutions that continue to lead change, no matter the cause, issue, or candidate?
How many of these students are registered and voted in an election?
The last election was decided (among the young people) who were NOT college educated, David. They are not on ivy league college campuses, imagining what the world is like or could be like. They are living it, every day. And they will decide a present and future for some time to come.
I don't agree with some of their choices, but their choices do reflect a reality I experienced when young - the institution of work. It was sometimes mind-numbing, or near back-breaking, but it put me in relationships with older adults who do "teach" by experience. Later (29-37) I completed three degrees certain the fields I chose were things I was suited for and would do very well in.
Talk to young people who are NOT in college, or those who attend community college or a state institution while working. You might get a whole new perspective about trust and institutions.
Continue to vote in every election. Fortunate to be retired from work now, fully engaged in continuing to learn from both those older and younger.
Expectations? I never had the luxury of time for that.
5
While interesting, elevating these anecdotes to some kind of doctrine or broader message is a mistake. These student, which are from a sub set of elite universities, self identify that their American history knowledge is a rounding error. They also state America has no identity. How can one possibly make those two statement and also expect to change America? The first step towards changing the world is understanding the world enough to formulate a strategic and tactical viewpoint based on facts. What they should do is learn a little bit about contemporary (20th and 21st Century) American history (the wars, the presidents, the depression, the social unrest/movements). What worked, what didn't, what has changed, what echoes Trump's America has in recent history.
8
The great child psychologist, Haim Ginott (Between Parent and Child), devoted a significant part of his book on child rearing to how to help children learn that they can have two feelings, even two that are contradictory.
There has not been a country that has done so much good for its people and for the world as has the United States.
AND in so doing there have been people who have been brutalized and oppressed (Native Americans, slaves, women, gay people, immigrants, etc.).
It is possible, good, and healthy to be able to feel strongly about all of this. Have these students missed this wisdom?
Trump's message of Make America Great Again was a message of despair. And it connected with a lot of people, people probably much different from the crowd Brooks talked with, but similar nevertheless in this feeling.
I'm a baby boomer. I grew up knowing how my parents and family lived through the depression and how those same depression survivors saved the world in WWII. We were proud. Our generation then ended the Vietnam War, were part of the civil rights movement, saw women's status altered completely, advocated gay marriage, etc.
I believe we had both feelings at the same time--pride and revulsion regarding some aspects of American life. Without both feelings there will be no forward movement--just the inertia of hopelessness.
18
I too am a member of the Baby Boomer generation. I was apart of all the great movements of the 60's. However I have come to realize that in a significant way we were the outliers, the coastal elites. How did I come to realize this? I look at the pattern of voting by the Baby Boomers. We still vote in huge numbers, but we are the most conservative and I dare say the most selfish. I am not anxious to go into that dark night, but I believe when our cohort is no more the country may be a better place, sad to say. I have great belief in the young people of today, but I hope their goals expand to those who don't reside on the blue coasts.
"We're more connected but we're apart." I remember the day after the Kent State shootings students met on the Quad to hear guest speakers. We were urged to honor the fallen students by taking several actions. One recommended action was flying the flag at half-mast. That was not possible because the "He-Man" fraternity surrounded the flag pole preventing the lowering of the flag. We were divided then. That said, there were movements which became successful through the 1960's, 70's and 80's; Civil Rights, Viet Nam War Protest, and Women's Liberation. Some of the things that enabled these movements to succeed included a well defined organization and leadership, organized gatherings, good communication within the movement and outside the movement; e.g. editorials, periodicals, books, speeches and art. Also many movements had songs which enhanced the movements identity.
7
Hail to the new generation. They have the opportunity to be this century’s Greatest Generation. They will use their connectedness, technology and life experiences to create a new world coming out of the wreckage from the current worldwide nervous breakdown. I wish I could live to see the future they create in 50 years. I admire this generation and congratulate especially the Florida and other students speaking out against gun violence.
9
Sure...all possible but only if they vote. Perhaps they can engineer some kind of "vote by thumb" legislation.
If you listen to a lot of current pop music it feels like there is anything but optimism in this generation. Xanax is talked of casually; melodies are moody; vocals are mumbled; there's a lack of self respect in the way many artist portray themselves. It's one example, but i can't help but think it reflects a deep lack of optimism in youth culture.
6
Every generation will have it’s challenges along with defining moments. This one is no exception. There is a greater needs for multi-generations (old, young) to engage in dialogues and civic duties to lift our America out of the present wreckage.
4
As other commenters have pointed out, it would be interesting to hear what students at less elite schools are thinking on these topics. Perhaps Mr. Brooks can do a bit more investigation at some local community colleges or state school campuses and see what is on the minds of students in those settings.
If past is prologue, someday some portion of the elite school students will probably be running this country. Now that we have a sense of what their concerns are, it would be wise to have a similar sense of what the voters of tomorrow are thinking as well.
18
First you have to convince "voters of tomorrow" they have a civic duty to vote in our democracy.
I teach at a public college and I assure you my students are anti/gun and think the idea of arming teachers is ridiculous.