Great article and very admirable of you to purpose your make a difference in the lives of young people. I don’t think we can underestimate the damaging impact of Tik Tok and other social media platforms . Having mental illness has become trendy. But I agree that teaching wisdom and problem solving can help build resilience in this generation. Schools have become havens for leftists who tell their students that they are being abused by parents who try to pass down wisdom . We need to pray and speak truth!
Spiritual disciplines from around the world have for millennia stressed the importance of the messages we say both to ourselves and to each other. Our societies have known for millennia that the messages we tell ourselves and each other are a primary determinant in the world we will achieve for ourselves, and the communities we will make for ourselves.
Do we want communities where people are genuinely caring and compassionate? We need to propagate messages of genuine caring and compassion.
Are we doing this now, broadly speaking? I am of the belief that we are not, or least are not often enough.
We can change the world we make for ourselves, if we are willing to begin by changing our messages.
The problem is that fear sells and fear controls. So we are fighting a battle against those who want to sell and control at any cost. But we must still fight and truth is powerful in the right hands.
Fear sells and controls in the absence of alternatives.
We are fighting a war—not a battle—against those who want to control by fear. Of that there is no doubt.
Still, even fear can only go so far, and fear based on lies and propaganda cannot even go that far.
Hope and Truth have the advantage of time.
When we draw people in with hope, we never need worry about what they will think or what they might do—we have already secured the cooperation of their best selves.
When we give people hope by telling them the truth, we need never worry about being contradicted. The truth can always stand on its own.
Fear is a powerful instrument of control, but we can counter fear by giving people reasons to hope and awareness of the truth.
I enjoyed this one. I always feel like an old curmudgeon when I talk about the fragility of the younger generation with my kids and their associates. Not only does the data you marshal prove my point, but (much to my kids’ delight) it even shows the problem probably my fault!!
I had an Uncle who fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He would not talk about it, but I managed to learn his story from another family member. I shared that with my kids and I could the light bulbs start to come on. Maybe teaching actual history (as opposed to the PC bullshit they now teach in schools) would be a step towards fixing this problem.
There is something to be said for that, and I do believe that experience teaches us a certain contentment with our lives.
However, that lack of life experience is going to be more or less a constant in every generation. All things being equal, we should be seeing approximately the same levels of happiness and unhappiness in every generation. The data does not show that.
Instead, the data shows levels of unhappiness increasing in each subsequent generation. Some of the studies done show Gen Z members self-assess their mental and emotional states significantly worse than millenials did at approximately the same age/stage of life. While self-assessments are notoriously imprecise, the data does show a distinct downward trend across generations with regards to mental and emotional health.
Mental health issues and crises are undeniably on the rise, and they are happening with greater frequency among younger individuals. There is more unhappiness in evidence than can be explained by a lack of life experience.
It is normal for young people to be "unhappy" to a degree. It is not normal for young or old people to have their lives and activities impaired by that unhappiness.
It's one thing to be dissatisfied with one's life and from that derive motivation to make changes and grow. It is quite another for that dissatisfaction to render one unable to cope, unable to adapt, unable to make changes and grow. We are seeing more and more of the latter case among young people, and that's a problem.
It is a fixable problem, but it is a problem nevertheless.
The wisdom of elders was passed down in many ways, but one big way was by the act of "doing things" together. Building a wall, digging a garden, cleaning windows, fixing cars. This is why the "disposable culture" was encouraged, by those in power. When a man or woman can do/fix things for themselves, they realise they can do anything, even deal with adversity.
Another way was through local community celebrations/interactions. By sharing stories, dancing, discussion, debating, eating, skill testing, etc. All these things show a person WHY life is so precious, WHY its worth fighting for, and WHAT really matters- connection and community.
If you have not had that, then why would you fight for it?
Systematically, the very things that nurture and build strong spirits, and by extension, strong, compassionate people, has been stripped out of culture. Now people yearn for "something" they neither recognise when they have it, nor understand what it is thats missing when they dont. How then can they posdibly fill their cups with self resilience?😐 Convid BS, stripped us of our elders experience and wisdom, and terrified those who would/should have been taking up the wisdom mantle.
Devastatingly, the shots have stripped us of our next generations...😭😐😤😤🤐🤦♀️🤦♀️
All of this is exactly why one my longer term ambitions for The Houses Of Refuge Project is to bring generations of people together in housing communities--bring them together so that there will be "doing things" together, and there will be community celebrations.
When young adults who have grown up in the foster care system turn 18, they are summarily dumped out of the system with nary a thought for what happens next.
When people who have gone through the darkness of mental health crisis, substance abuse, and homelessness get back on their feet, and get back into some form of permanent housing, they too are summarily dumped out of the resource agencies and charities which assisted them in their recovery.
Two groups of people, young and old, who would benefit greatly from community, both to teach and to learn, and to build (or rebuild) the support networks of human contacts that buffer adversity in our lives. If we bring them together in a safe and supportive housing/community setting, what might come from the cross-pollination of ideas that will invariably occur?
This is the vision I have, and what I hope I will be able to bring into fruition. Along the way, I am looking for bits of "low hanging fruit", things that can be done to help people with simple necessities such as proper footwear for work, and perhaps even proper business attire. These are things which also send a message of caring and support, and are a practical, irrefutable way to send a message of hope to people.
(At the risk of sounding unduly mercenary and focused on the Benjamins, I would like to point out that each donation we receive is likewise a practical and irrefutable message of hope!)
We don't have enough messages of hope in the world. I want to change that. We need hope, and we need faith, or we are all lost.
Alle Generationen werden unwissend geboren. Die Generationen, die ein Leben geführt und überlebt haben, können Lektionen lehren, die die heutige Generation lernen muss.
Okay, Peter, I had high school German (and Spanish and French), so please tell us, do you speak German this well, or did you use a translator? (I’m impressed either way.)
Part of the problem, in recent years, is that older people trying to pass on advice to younger ones will inevitably be ‘cancelled’ for using an ‘incorrect’ word, a ‘racist’ concept, or an ‘offensive’ bit of advice. So people just keep their ideas to themselves, to avoid trouble. Even worse are the school systems, where not spouting the party line will get a teacher fired.
Another part of the problem is the food, which has become so lacking in nutrients that it’s not even food anymore. The younger the person, the more likely they have lived their entire life eating mostly processed junk food. This results in their brain cells being poorly formed and poorly functioning. If you don’t ingest nutrients, you don’t have the molecules to create healthy cell membranes, receptors, and organelles - and so your brain functions badly, and you have mental illness or fragility.
Yet another part of the problem is all of the pharmaceuticals taken by younger people, from the overload of childhood vaccines to the normalization of taking drugs for every malady. This results in so many compounded adverse effects that it’s a wonder any young person has any health at all. Add in environment toxins, negative thoughts, and lack of spirituality and you get a lost generation.
Peter, you have a huge task with an infinite need, but you have the right idea. It may start small, but you have TRUTH, so your solution will catch on, find sponsors, and grow. Bless you for taking a stand and BEGINNING!
There is an irony in crafting a workable solution to the challenge of generational wisdom transfer.
In business and in nonprofit development as well, the prevailing mantra is to have a "Big Hairy Audacious Goal". Corporate mission statements are not supposed to be small or even all that realistic. Seek to change the world.
Yet teaching--and what we are discussing here is the essence of teaching--is not accomplished with big sweeping and complex programs. Teaching is an intimate activity, not a bureaucratic one. Teaching is always best when the master focuses his attention on one or two students, or perhaps a handful, but no more than that.
Perhaps the best metaphor for what needs to happen is to think of the penny which doubles in value every day. You start with a penny, but if it doubles in value every day in a month's time you will have several million dollars -- $5,368,709.12 on the 30th day, to be precise.
So it is here. If each person can but teach life skills and life's lessons to just one other person, and every person then goes on to teach just one other person, and this cycle gets repeated over and over and over, within a short period of time not just millions but tens of millions of lives will be changed for the better.
All it takes is one person taking the time to mentor and teach one other person. If we can but do that, we will quite literally transform society almost overnight.
The anthropologist Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” You go, Peter!
But oh, the problem of funding! Today that pretty much requires skill in algorithms, social media trending, and other computer skills that you probably have. And somewhere out there are the people with money, and you need to match them up with your conceptual goals. But I have recently seen two very good ideas posted on Substack, for which I fully expected to net huge financial donations, but they got almost nothing! I’m concluding that the problem of inflation is really, severely affecting everyone’s budget. Discretionary purchases and charitable donations are the first items to get cut from the budget, right? Plus, younger people have been indoctrinated to automatically feel that if there is a problem, the government is supposed to do something about it, ‘not me’. You have your work cut out for you - to find the people who have the means and the interest to advance your charitable goals. They ARE out there, and you’re just the man smart enough to find them.
I am going to indulge in a bit of enlightened self-interest and remind everyone who might be reading this that donating to the Houses Of Refuge Project is easy and can be done straight off the website.
Funding is the constant challenge. I am hopefull my paying subscribers here will continue to support me, with their subscriptions and donations going in full to the Houses Of Refuge Project. That's not a complete solution but it will in short order help get more and more of the basics established.
I am also hopeful that, once we get a couple of initiatives started and pilot projects going, even if they are "small", that will help generate positive press and help raise awareness of what we are working to do. The more we raise awareness about these issues--and raise awareness that solutions are truly at hand, if we will but extend that hand--the more we will find people willing to support our efforts. Funding is a challenge but so long as we keep promoting the message, the mission, and the vision, it is also the piece that will come along on its own.
Here’s an idea to file away for later: getting work-boot companies to endorse, sponsor, or publicize your ministry’s goal of getting work shoes to people. For example in the small city of Red Wing, MN are the home offices and factory for Red Wing work boots. I’ve always had the impression that they are a decent bunch of people - the kind that would donate some work boots and use their corporate connections to help you find more funding. Once you’ve got a pilot project running, you might want to contact them.....
That will definitely be something I want to explore going forward. The idea behind the $50 gift card approach is that it is a simple straightforward approach--put a resource in the hands of businesses to directly resolve the challenge of having necessary footwear for new employees.
There is a double purpose here. By engaging with businesses and putting them in the "pipeline", so to speak, the business owner also gets to send a message of hope and support to new hires. The business owner is able to do something tangible to tell new hires "I got your back."
Not only does this resolve the challenge of not having proper work shoes for the new hire, but it also builds morale and is an easy means for the business owner to encourage retention among the staff.
Excellent! I just listened to a podcast on how weak the younger generations are from overprotecting and self-focus leaving them crippled in dealing with life because it’s hard. Abigail Schrier has written about this new reality. What a huge divide between the WWII and Vietnam generations being honored this weekend and today’s young adults. As long as we have breath in our lungs there is hope! Let’s engage and share how to respond and endure to life.
Therapy in many ways has gone off the rails in recent years. Sometimes it seems that culturally being "in therapy" is the accomplishment, rather than being healed of life's traumas and tragedies. Yet if all one seeks is to be "in therapy", one can never be healed.
This is not to bash therapy. A good therapist can save a person years and even decades of unnecessary mental pain and anguish. Yet we should also be mindful that successful therapy is a committment on the part of the patient more so than the therapist. The patient has to be committed to seeking healing, seeking growth, seeking inner peace, and has to do the work of changing, growing, and evolving.
Only with that commitment from the patient is any sort of therapy ever going to be successful.
Where mentoring and teaching and generational wisdom can come into play is to encourage young people especially to retain hope--hope that therapy is possible, and hope that therapy will work. So long as people retain hope, change is possible, and growth is inevitable.
Great article and very admirable of you to purpose your make a difference in the lives of young people. I don’t think we can underestimate the damaging impact of Tik Tok and other social media platforms . Having mental illness has become trendy. But I agree that teaching wisdom and problem solving can help build resilience in this generation. Schools have become havens for leftists who tell their students that they are being abused by parents who try to pass down wisdom . We need to pray and speak truth!
Thanks!
Truly everything that's old is new again!
Spiritual disciplines from around the world have for millennia stressed the importance of the messages we say both to ourselves and to each other. Our societies have known for millennia that the messages we tell ourselves and each other are a primary determinant in the world we will achieve for ourselves, and the communities we will make for ourselves.
Do we want communities where people are genuinely caring and compassionate? We need to propagate messages of genuine caring and compassion.
Are we doing this now, broadly speaking? I am of the belief that we are not, or least are not often enough.
We can change the world we make for ourselves, if we are willing to begin by changing our messages.
The problem is that fear sells and fear controls. So we are fighting a battle against those who want to sell and control at any cost. But we must still fight and truth is powerful in the right hands.
Fear sells and controls in the absence of alternatives.
We are fighting a war—not a battle—against those who want to control by fear. Of that there is no doubt.
Still, even fear can only go so far, and fear based on lies and propaganda cannot even go that far.
Hope and Truth have the advantage of time.
When we draw people in with hope, we never need worry about what they will think or what they might do—we have already secured the cooperation of their best selves.
When we give people hope by telling them the truth, we need never worry about being contradicted. The truth can always stand on its own.
Fear is a powerful instrument of control, but we can counter fear by giving people reasons to hope and awareness of the truth.
I enjoyed this one. I always feel like an old curmudgeon when I talk about the fragility of the younger generation with my kids and their associates. Not only does the data you marshal prove my point, but (much to my kids’ delight) it even shows the problem probably my fault!!
If you're having this argument with your kids, I suspect it's safe to say you are already far more the solution than the problem!
The younger generations are more fragile and less resilient, if we go by the data. That's reality.
I don't look at it from a standpoint of blame. My questioning is always a simple "how do we fix it?"
I had an Uncle who fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He would not talk about it, but I managed to learn his story from another family member. I shared that with my kids and I could the light bulbs start to come on. Maybe teaching actual history (as opposed to the PC bullshit they now teach in schools) would be a step towards fixing this problem.
Teaching anything in schools rather than the crap they serve up now would be a step forward.
Actual history. Actual math. Actual composition and rhetoric. Actual thinking skills.
I think there's considerable research showing that for most people, happiness increases with age. (I see an article asserting this at https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/312512).
In which case it is "normal" for young folks to be unhappy.
That said, improved passing on of wisdom would be a good thing.
There is something to be said for that, and I do believe that experience teaches us a certain contentment with our lives.
However, that lack of life experience is going to be more or less a constant in every generation. All things being equal, we should be seeing approximately the same levels of happiness and unhappiness in every generation. The data does not show that.
Instead, the data shows levels of unhappiness increasing in each subsequent generation. Some of the studies done show Gen Z members self-assess their mental and emotional states significantly worse than millenials did at approximately the same age/stage of life. While self-assessments are notoriously imprecise, the data does show a distinct downward trend across generations with regards to mental and emotional health.
Mental health issues and crises are undeniably on the rise, and they are happening with greater frequency among younger individuals. There is more unhappiness in evidence than can be explained by a lack of life experience.
It is normal for young people to be "unhappy" to a degree. It is not normal for young or old people to have their lives and activities impaired by that unhappiness.
It's one thing to be dissatisfied with one's life and from that derive motivation to make changes and grow. It is quite another for that dissatisfaction to render one unable to cope, unable to adapt, unable to make changes and grow. We are seeing more and more of the latter case among young people, and that's a problem.
It is a fixable problem, but it is a problem nevertheless.
The wisdom of elders was passed down in many ways, but one big way was by the act of "doing things" together. Building a wall, digging a garden, cleaning windows, fixing cars. This is why the "disposable culture" was encouraged, by those in power. When a man or woman can do/fix things for themselves, they realise they can do anything, even deal with adversity.
Another way was through local community celebrations/interactions. By sharing stories, dancing, discussion, debating, eating, skill testing, etc. All these things show a person WHY life is so precious, WHY its worth fighting for, and WHAT really matters- connection and community.
If you have not had that, then why would you fight for it?
Systematically, the very things that nurture and build strong spirits, and by extension, strong, compassionate people, has been stripped out of culture. Now people yearn for "something" they neither recognise when they have it, nor understand what it is thats missing when they dont. How then can they posdibly fill their cups with self resilience?😐 Convid BS, stripped us of our elders experience and wisdom, and terrified those who would/should have been taking up the wisdom mantle.
Devastatingly, the shots have stripped us of our next generations...😭😐😤😤🤐🤦♀️🤦♀️
All of this is exactly why one my longer term ambitions for The Houses Of Refuge Project is to bring generations of people together in housing communities--bring them together so that there will be "doing things" together, and there will be community celebrations.
When young adults who have grown up in the foster care system turn 18, they are summarily dumped out of the system with nary a thought for what happens next.
When people who have gone through the darkness of mental health crisis, substance abuse, and homelessness get back on their feet, and get back into some form of permanent housing, they too are summarily dumped out of the resource agencies and charities which assisted them in their recovery.
Two groups of people, young and old, who would benefit greatly from community, both to teach and to learn, and to build (or rebuild) the support networks of human contacts that buffer adversity in our lives. If we bring them together in a safe and supportive housing/community setting, what might come from the cross-pollination of ideas that will invariably occur?
http://www.housesofrefuge.org/
This is the vision I have, and what I hope I will be able to bring into fruition. Along the way, I am looking for bits of "low hanging fruit", things that can be done to help people with simple necessities such as proper footwear for work, and perhaps even proper business attire. These are things which also send a message of caring and support, and are a practical, irrefutable way to send a message of hope to people.
(At the risk of sounding unduly mercenary and focused on the Benjamins, I would like to point out that each donation we receive is likewise a practical and irrefutable message of hope!)
We don't have enough messages of hope in the world. I want to change that. We need hope, and we need faith, or we are all lost.
Die heutige Generation, wird dumm geboren, lebt dumm und stirbt dumm!
Alle Generationen werden unwissend geboren. Die Generationen, die ein Leben geführt und überlebt haben, können Lektionen lehren, die die heutige Generation lernen muss.
Okay, Peter, I had high school German (and Spanish and French), so please tell us, do you speak German this well, or did you use a translator? (I’m impressed either way.)
Google Translate is my BFF!
I have a better one......DeepL
Yes, yes, yes, Peter!
Part of the problem, in recent years, is that older people trying to pass on advice to younger ones will inevitably be ‘cancelled’ for using an ‘incorrect’ word, a ‘racist’ concept, or an ‘offensive’ bit of advice. So people just keep their ideas to themselves, to avoid trouble. Even worse are the school systems, where not spouting the party line will get a teacher fired.
Another part of the problem is the food, which has become so lacking in nutrients that it’s not even food anymore. The younger the person, the more likely they have lived their entire life eating mostly processed junk food. This results in their brain cells being poorly formed and poorly functioning. If you don’t ingest nutrients, you don’t have the molecules to create healthy cell membranes, receptors, and organelles - and so your brain functions badly, and you have mental illness or fragility.
Yet another part of the problem is all of the pharmaceuticals taken by younger people, from the overload of childhood vaccines to the normalization of taking drugs for every malady. This results in so many compounded adverse effects that it’s a wonder any young person has any health at all. Add in environment toxins, negative thoughts, and lack of spirituality and you get a lost generation.
Peter, you have a huge task with an infinite need, but you have the right idea. It may start small, but you have TRUTH, so your solution will catch on, find sponsors, and grow. Bless you for taking a stand and BEGINNING!
There is an irony in crafting a workable solution to the challenge of generational wisdom transfer.
In business and in nonprofit development as well, the prevailing mantra is to have a "Big Hairy Audacious Goal". Corporate mission statements are not supposed to be small or even all that realistic. Seek to change the world.
Yet teaching--and what we are discussing here is the essence of teaching--is not accomplished with big sweeping and complex programs. Teaching is an intimate activity, not a bureaucratic one. Teaching is always best when the master focuses his attention on one or two students, or perhaps a handful, but no more than that.
Perhaps the best metaphor for what needs to happen is to think of the penny which doubles in value every day. You start with a penny, but if it doubles in value every day in a month's time you will have several million dollars -- $5,368,709.12 on the 30th day, to be precise.
So it is here. If each person can but teach life skills and life's lessons to just one other person, and every person then goes on to teach just one other person, and this cycle gets repeated over and over and over, within a short period of time not just millions but tens of millions of lives will be changed for the better.
All it takes is one person taking the time to mentor and teach one other person. If we can but do that, we will quite literally transform society almost overnight.
The anthropologist Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” You go, Peter!
But oh, the problem of funding! Today that pretty much requires skill in algorithms, social media trending, and other computer skills that you probably have. And somewhere out there are the people with money, and you need to match them up with your conceptual goals. But I have recently seen two very good ideas posted on Substack, for which I fully expected to net huge financial donations, but they got almost nothing! I’m concluding that the problem of inflation is really, severely affecting everyone’s budget. Discretionary purchases and charitable donations are the first items to get cut from the budget, right? Plus, younger people have been indoctrinated to automatically feel that if there is a problem, the government is supposed to do something about it, ‘not me’. You have your work cut out for you - to find the people who have the means and the interest to advance your charitable goals. They ARE out there, and you’re just the man smart enough to find them.
I am going to indulge in a bit of enlightened self-interest and remind everyone who might be reading this that donating to the Houses Of Refuge Project is easy and can be done straight off the website.
http://www.housesofrefuge.org/
Every dollar donated will make a difference. We need and appreciate everyone's generosity and support!
Funding is the constant challenge. I am hopefull my paying subscribers here will continue to support me, with their subscriptions and donations going in full to the Houses Of Refuge Project. That's not a complete solution but it will in short order help get more and more of the basics established.
I am also hopeful that, once we get a couple of initiatives started and pilot projects going, even if they are "small", that will help generate positive press and help raise awareness of what we are working to do. The more we raise awareness about these issues--and raise awareness that solutions are truly at hand, if we will but extend that hand--the more we will find people willing to support our efforts. Funding is a challenge but so long as we keep promoting the message, the mission, and the vision, it is also the piece that will come along on its own.
Here’s an idea to file away for later: getting work-boot companies to endorse, sponsor, or publicize your ministry’s goal of getting work shoes to people. For example in the small city of Red Wing, MN are the home offices and factory for Red Wing work boots. I’ve always had the impression that they are a decent bunch of people - the kind that would donate some work boots and use their corporate connections to help you find more funding. Once you’ve got a pilot project running, you might want to contact them.....
That will definitely be something I want to explore going forward. The idea behind the $50 gift card approach is that it is a simple straightforward approach--put a resource in the hands of businesses to directly resolve the challenge of having necessary footwear for new employees.
There is a double purpose here. By engaging with businesses and putting them in the "pipeline", so to speak, the business owner also gets to send a message of hope and support to new hires. The business owner is able to do something tangible to tell new hires "I got your back."
Not only does this resolve the challenge of not having proper work shoes for the new hire, but it also builds morale and is an easy means for the business owner to encourage retention among the staff.
Everybody wins. Which is as it should be.
Excellent! I just listened to a podcast on how weak the younger generations are from overprotecting and self-focus leaving them crippled in dealing with life because it’s hard. Abigail Schrier has written about this new reality. What a huge divide between the WWII and Vietnam generations being honored this weekend and today’s young adults. As long as we have breath in our lungs there is hope! Let’s engage and share how to respond and endure to life.
https://biblicalcounseling.com/resource-library/podcast-episodes/bad-therapy/
Therapy in many ways has gone off the rails in recent years. Sometimes it seems that culturally being "in therapy" is the accomplishment, rather than being healed of life's traumas and tragedies. Yet if all one seeks is to be "in therapy", one can never be healed.
This is not to bash therapy. A good therapist can save a person years and even decades of unnecessary mental pain and anguish. Yet we should also be mindful that successful therapy is a committment on the part of the patient more so than the therapist. The patient has to be committed to seeking healing, seeking growth, seeking inner peace, and has to do the work of changing, growing, and evolving.
Only with that commitment from the patient is any sort of therapy ever going to be successful.
Where mentoring and teaching and generational wisdom can come into play is to encourage young people especially to retain hope--hope that therapy is possible, and hope that therapy will work. So long as people retain hope, change is possible, and growth is inevitable.