Volume 9, Issue 20
The youth of America have carried the message that Black Lives Matter.
In family, economic, and religious matters, there is often a discrepancy in views and analysis between generational demographics of a society. Citizens 45 years and younger sometimes have a different viewpoint than those citizens 65 years and older, based on several precedents of life. Technological changes, economic growth, productivity, and the development of new products change the way we live, the way we communicate, and the way we relate to each other. The real difference in entrenched opinions, however, stems largely from experience versus principled instinct. How this plays out is commonly referred to as the generational divide.
There is an unattributable adage that says if you’re not a liberal when you’re 25, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative by the time you’re 35, you have no brain. This is true in part, but not in its entirety. This axiom often refers to government spending and over-regulation. Forty-five percent of millennials state that they would try socialism as a form of government to solve the economic woes of the poor. Older generations know by experience that it will not work. It has been tried in many forms and variations throughout history, and it has always failed. There is growing sentiment among the youth of America that communism should replace democracy. This is an emotion of the heart based solely on the dream that totalitarian government can dispense justice and righteousness fairly. Any older American who has immigrated from Cuba or the former Soviet Union knows by experience the ultimate tyranny of totalitarian government.
Young liberals feel an emotional connection to the Palestinians as underdogs to Israel in the Middle East conflict. Progressives often prioritize victims as the purpose to justify their cause. Karl Marx repeatedly referred to people in general as the “oppressed masses.” The generational divide on the Middle East that exists today in the Democratic Party is between the younger members who have only known Benjamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister of Israel and the older Democrats who remember history. Young Democrats do not have the experience to know that Israel was once David, not Goliath. The older generation of Democrats are impacted vividly by the persecution of the Jews during World War II. They are not willing to forgive Hamas today unilaterally for its terrorist acts.
However, there is direction from the young that the old should take notice. There are lessons of right and wrong that only the pure can detect before time blurs the obvious. When a young person inhales the first drag of a cigarette, the lungs recoil forcing a cough. It takes determination to get accustomed to a cigarette. Given time, the lungs adjust and addiction sets in. Without the same determination to quit, tolerance of a bad habit becomes the ruling imperative.
And, so it is with racism.
Every individual knows that racism is an abomination. Every individual can think back to their earliest recollection of encountering a racial slur or situation. Like the first drag of a cigarette, you knew instinctively it was wrong, that it was not good, that it was not natural. Only by the tenets of tolerance in society was the action allowed to perpetuate.
The youth of America revolted against George Floyd’s death because they had not yet been corrupted by the norms of society to tolerate or overlook such denigration.
In reaping the benefits of the generational divide, respecting generational viewpoints is essential. Citizens of every generation should consider and measure the strengths of fellow generations, including previous ones, in coming to personal conclusions on critical issues.
The fear now is that society will default back into its comfort zone and people will go about their business as usual as if nothing happened. That is becoming conditioned to smoking a cigarette. It will necessitate the youth to remind us that human dignity demands equal rights without exception. We can never go back to a national culture that tolerated George Floyd’s violation.
Currently, there are serious issues facing America and the world that require experience and the knowledge of history. They include COVID-19 economic recovery, government spending, accumulation of government debt, climate control, and healthcare. There are serious issues facing America and the world that require principled instincts and the honesty of purity in reaction. They include racial relations, judicial reform, gender equality, workforce opportunity, and wealth gap disparity.
For America to serve its citizens instinctively in righteousness and prosperity, eternal principles of freedom and liberty must be enshrined as cornerstones of democracy. Applying policy to achieve equal rights to the pursuit of happiness requires measure and analysis of past lessons.
Principled instincts recognized and not ignored, combined with experience consolidated in the test of truths, unites a country not only in generational benefits, but in common purpose achieved.
My name is Marc Nuttle and this is what I believe.
What do you believe?