I hear a lot of people talking about how the new generations are getting worse and worse and will continue to do so until we run the world into the ground. I am guilty of thinking that too, but why do we think that? Our whole philosophy and source of morals are crumbling. What are the staples of our worldview as American youth?
Look at our heroes: Lil Wayne, LeBron, Justin Beiber, Steve Jobs, and lots of other really rich people. We idolize rappers, who only ever care about themselves and brag about their riches that they never give back. We idolize athletes who don't know our name, "musicians" who are "Christian" but we have never met them, and smart guys who made materialism look like easier. Why do we idolize (and pay crazy money) people who couldn't care less about who we are? Maybe there is no one else who seems worth looking up to.
In a "globalized" country like ours, I'm not sure what is so global about it. Sure we can do business and Facebook with almost any country, but that doesn't mean anything. We have all this global knowledge and availability, yet our perspective seems increasingly more miniscule. All we know is our tiny little habitat. If we only knew the atrocities outside our borders...and we can watch all the Unicef videos we want, but we will never help anyone until there is a name, a face, and a creation behind the picture. We need to take back our perspective; go outside of ourselves.
The family is a wreck. Divorce is getting way out of control. At lease half of the elementary school kids I work with have divorced parents. It is obvious which ones have broken family relationships. We are growing up in a world with no men because everyone's dads are not man enough to love. All dads seem to be now are sperm donors. We are growing up with women who see no other message than that they are a piece of meat. Our families are dying.
A buzz phrase that I thought was quite helpful (but isn't really) has become a motto for our attempt at recovery. That phrase is "personal responsibility." This is the idea that if each person took care of themselves, and handled their business, then we would begin to recover as a society. That sounds wonderful at first glance. When you think deeper, however, there is a problem. Some people don't know how to handle themselves (prob. cause of family issues), also each person has a different idea of how to take care of themselves. So some philosophies will clash and the whole thing falls apart. Instead we need accountability. We need each other, like it or not, and accountability is much stronger than personal responsibility. If you don't believe me, try it.
Possibly a good thing is that although we are increasingly more materialistic, we are also find increasing value in experience. That may stem from selfishness, but like anything else it could be used positively. Experience means that relationships are more important than things, and pictures more important than junk. Maybe we could use our relational, experiential culture to take back our cultural values.
We can't start over. We can't take back the past. But we can take back our future. Take back what is truly valuable. No matter what your worldview or belief is you can't take your stuff with you when you die. On a basic human level we know that how we live cannot be right. Everyone is waiting for a hero. There is a lot of "is this really it?" going on. This isn't it-- we are in the in-between. There is a God who is personal and calls us to himself through the life and death of his son. Christians aren't perfect, and most people who claim Christ have never met him. But there are those of us who mean what we say and practice what we preach. We have to start somewhere. There is someone worth giving your life to. Take back our future through him.
