Filling Up Those Holes

Filling Up Those Holes.  In our country; in our society; in our culture; there is a huge void in peoples’ souls; both young and old.  More than ever before in history, there is a litany of things competing to fill those voids.  From TV evangelists to video games, there is no shortage of profitable enterprises whose entire purpose is to address and exploit that vacuum.   As strange as it may seem to some, the two recent college campus episodes at Yale and the University of Missouri, combined with last night’s Republican presidential primary debate, has led me to write a bit about this topic.

In his recent column posted on RealClearPolitics, http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/11/11/peggy_noonans_words_to_live_by_128692.html  , Peter Berkowitz writes this,  “From informality of dress and casualness of locution to hypersensitivity to slights and shirking of responsibility; from prolonged adolescence—sometimes reaching well into the thirties—to mawkish displays on talk and reality shows; from disengagement from civic life to politicians who lie brazenly with every expectation that their side will embrace their bald-faced falsehoods as self-evident truths, adults in contemporary America exhibit childish self-regard, thoughtlessness, and petulance.  Universities, which increasingly resemble kindergartens for adolescents and the adults who are paid to educate them, have taken this immaturity to new heights.”  Read that once more, maybe twice, and then reflect on it.  Berkowitz captures in a few carefully selected words exactly what we are witnessing in today’s world that makes us shake our heads and wonder what the hell is going on. 

Our children are stuck in their children mode.  Regardless of how good and pure their hearts are, many (if not most) are devoid of the life lessons that help them develop into mature and independent adults.  They go from high school to college to….where?  Some go back home (permanently).  Some go directly into supervisory or policy-making positions that grossly overvalue their education, mistaking it for life experience, and they never have the benefit of someone telling them, in a fashion they will listen to, that they do not know what the hell they are talking about.  For many of these kids, life is nothing more than a board game.  Collegiate academia has become a self-perpetuating bastion of liberal gobbely-gook; creating a nice, cushy career for shiftless intellectuals who see everyday existence as nothing more than another excuse for an endless philosophical discussion about the meaning of life and the lightness of light.  The college system (bubble??)  continues to atrophy, reliably fed and nourished by our nation’s elementary and high school network and the everlasting misnomer that any money spent on the education of our youth is money well spent.  It is becoming more ineffective and inefficient each day, saddling its eventual graduates (and non-graduates) with debilitating debt, and skill sets that makes them annoying dinner guests and infuriating children rather than productive citizens.  These young adults have holes in their lives and in their souls; holes that are being filled by gaseous college professors who view them as nothing more than modeling clay given to them for their experimentation and amusement.  At some point in this education process, we must get back to providing an education to people that leads to a purpose; a career in something that they can find both personally rewarding and self-sustaining.  Through family revitalization, education reform, and simple common sense, our adolescents must obtain ethical standards for conducting their private lives, their public lives, and achieving some form of independence in and from society.  I noticed in reading about the University of Missouri episode that the kid that was conducting the hunger strike had been in college for eight years.  EIGHT years!...are you kidding me.   There is so much wrong with that situation that I don’t know where to begin.  Education must get back to the point where it is a means to an end; not a personal magical mystery tour.  Self-enrichment and self-fulfillment are principles with merit, but they must be secondary to the primary purpose of college: Broadening your personal experience and knowledge in specific preparation for becoming a useful and responsible citizen of this society.  If kids want to change the world (and lord knows a lot of it needs changing), they must come to understand that they must first equip themselves to achieve that change and then move on to implement that change.

I firmly hold to the belief that a large reason (perhaps the largest reason) for the cultural decay previously addressed by Mr. Berkowitz is the fact that so many of our nation’s adults do not have a job.  I don’t say this to regurgitate the arguments about the nanny-state dependence that has grown so dramatically under this president and his policies; but rather to state the simple fact that a paycheck is one single thing in life that can help to build personal esteem and encourage people to reach for a better life.  I have been unemployed in my life and the feeling of helplessness it engenders is crippling.  It eats away at your feeling of self-worth and engenders a frustration that is beyond words.  To see the needs of your family and, in spite of your best efforts, not be able to meet those needs is simply a purgatory of sorts for any man or woman with any gumption at all.  That is the other hole that has to be filled.  Forget the people who simply refuse to work and look for a free ride.  They exist; they will always exist; and their generational influence on their children must be addressed in order to break the cycle; but I do not believe that this type of person constitutes the majority of our unemployed.  As I have previously discussed, we as a society have failed our children.  Our government has equally failed our adults.  We must get back to the point where our economy generates sufficient opportunities for those who are seeking work and cannot find it.  Many will say that people who are out of work simply are not looking hard enough.  In a few cases, this is true.  However, in most cases, it is simply a misconception and incorrect.  I continue to believe that if we can somehow establish that first initial link between a paycheck and an unemployed adult individual; then we have gone a long ways towards helping to re-establish some pride and self-respect in our citizens that are out of work.  When it can be ignited, that pride and self-respect is contagious and can spread to a spouse, or to a child, or to a friend, or to a neighborhood, and can work to literally change the face of our culture.  But it all begins with teaching our children how to live; equipping them with the right tools to accomplish dreams that are pragmatic and obtainable, and creating a nation where opportunities exist that allows them to seek that dream. 

I fully realize these words that I write are far from original; they have been spoken so many times before by so very many well-intentioned people.  Many people still dedicate their lives to the challenge of trying to achieve these goals.  I readily acknowledge that the easiest part of this equation is recognizing the problem.  I do not have the solution.  But this much I do know; what we are doing is not working.  Look at the hysterical and mindless rant of the Yale student…and the reaction of the zombie-like administrator she is addressing.  Think about how a student can be in a college for eight years and still find time to go on a hunger strike in a campus revolt.  Think about the lowest workforce participation by our population since the second Great War.  Think about the vacuous looks you get from the kids (and adults) that populate our service industry from top to bottom.  Think about the drivel that our political characters constantly generate, in the full expectation that we the people will swallow them all…hook, line, and sinker.  It will take a better person than me to come up with the remedy for this malady and I am far from certain that I see that person on either the Republican or Democrat debate stage; but change had best be coming soon.  The Europeanization of America is in full swing and someone, somehow, needs to start the process of taking this country back.