Recent commentary has broached the subject of why there are no visible signs of the mass unemployment similar to that of the Great Depression--lines for soup kitchens, vagrant camps and hitchhiking migrant workers. One answer was that the current welfare state, where SNAP cards, payments for housing and expenses are electronic, keeping recipients off the streets, didn't exist in the 1930s.
The result of government feeding and coddling the unemployed and under-employed is anything but invisible. Commentators are looking at the wrong symptoms because they are actually everywhere, especially among the youth, and they are getting out-of-hand... they are trending.
The concept of youth needing to be functionally occupied may have been behind the misguided plan Marie Harf touted last February to supply jihadis with jobs. The off-the-wall idea stems from a complete misunderstanding, and illogical view, of what incites youth, in particular, to latch on to a passing trend. And "trends" come and go in the blink of an eye. All one need do is observe how rapidly social media switches focus from one shallow subject to another. Idleness fuels the constantly changing interests. But what fuels the idleness?
It is a fact that purposeful occupation brings with it a satisfaction, a feeling of accomplishment. Youth today are sinking deeper and deeper into a dissatisfied life, expecting to fill the holes with what George Carlin used to call "stuff;" and it is "stuff" that the government is providing that creates a divide between filling basic needs and real accomplishment. One can receive every kind of benefit from a benefactor--housing, food, electronics and distracting toys--and, although every physical need is met, satisfaction is fleeting because there is no effort expended in attaining the "stuff."
Why would that make a difference? If you have lack and someone (in this case, government) can supply your need and even desire, there should be no discontent; the recipient should be happy as a clam. For most, however, that's not the case. Pleasure is not the automatic response because the "stuff" can't fill the emptiness of idleness. So the idle seek fulfillment by other means and those other means are often harmful to themselves, or to others if the person displays even a little tendency toward natural self-preservation.
If this appears to be delving into psychology, note that the premise derives more from common sense and human nature than psycho-babble... people need to be earnestly employed to achieve happiness, and handing a person all they think they could need and want breeds discontent, restlessness and displaced blame and hate. There is reason behind the adage of "biting the hand that feeds you." Idleness creates irrelevance, and causing pain provides significance, albeit wrongly acquired. This is the 15 minutes of fame syndrome.
What the idleness of having everything supplied to your doorstep produces, in that there's no need to leave one's home (or attic accommodation with the 'folks'), is an isolation that gainful employment satisfies. Government volunteerism doesn't cut-it, either.
Most young people who have been schooled to believe that judgment is antithetical have nothing by which to gauge success. Education tells them that they need not earn anything, whether an "A" or enough dough to buy a sports car. Well, as a result of that education, who would want to own a vehicle in the first place since it represents aggression against the environment? They are taught they deserve the best without exerting effort, yet when they receive all the goodies, the "stuff," they find no sense of fulfillment and their individuality is compromised because everyone is treated the same.
This is where the striking out for uniqueness leads to connecting with a fad, what was called a "movement" in the 1960s. Problem is, a fad doesn't express individuality, it's just another trend that other drifting people join in hopes of filling a void. They become one of the crowd who are tattooed, wear wild-colored hair or distinctively similar clothing. They may even fall into sexual-abasement or zealot cults in seeking acceptance. What they find is some form of attention but emptiness and isolation are not dispelled.
These are the danger signs of a young person who is directionless and ambivalent about life because it lacks meaning, despite Grandma Government supplying everything it deems should satiate a person. And that's when the lashing out from loneliness, self-loathing, despair and desperation occurs.
The knife attacks in Jerusalem, the beheadings of Christians and other 'infidels,' the shootings at 'gun-free' campuses, the wastrels of the Occupy Wall Street buffoonery... take it back a few decades to the streakers and hippies, the essentially lost looking for attention. In fact, go back to the Bohemians like George Sand and Oscar Wilde or the Lost Generation of Ernest Hemingway to find personalities trying to express individualism through faddish boozing, cross-dressing, sexual or semi-heroic exploits launched from their Paris hangouts. Today's self-perceived anti-establishment sorts have stepped beyond self-destruction to conducting virulent social mayhem.
Unfortunately, heinous and despicable as are some of these acts, they are still only fashionable in the pure sense. Scandalous and sadistic behavior to serve a faction or belief is a manipulation of the aimless and hopeless by religious and secular power-mongers (ISIS, atheists, #BLM, LGBT and the like).
Nothing can replace the satisfaction of having meaningful purpose, of enjoying the fruits of one's labors when it fulfills more than just one's brute needs. And for that, one needs self-determination to fulfill a spiritual goal of service, not to oneself but to God and His children.
Former newspaper publisher, A. Dru Kristenev, grew up in the publishing industry working every angle of a paper, from ad composition and sales, to personnel management, copy writing, and overseeing all editorial content. During her tenure as a news professional, Kristenev traveled internationally as a representative of the paper and, on separate occasions, non-profit organizations. Since 2007, Kristenev has authored five fact-filled political suspense novels, the Baron Series, and two non-fiction books, all available on Amazon. Carrying an M.S. degree and having taught at premier northwest universities, she is the trustee of Scribes’ College of Journalism, which mission is to train a new generation of journalists in biblical standards of reporting. More information about the college and how to support it can be obtained by contacting Kristenev at cw.o@earthlink.net.
ChangingWind (changingwind.org) is a solutions-centered Christian ministry.
Recent commentary has broached the subject of why there are no visible signs of the mass unemployment similar to that of the Great Depression--lines for soup kitchens, vagrant camps and hitchhiking migrant workers. One answer was that the current welfare state, where SNAP cards, payments for housing and expenses are electronic, keeping recipients off the streets, didn't exist in the 1930s.
The result of government feeding and coddling the unemployed and under-employed is anything but invisible. Commentators are looking at the wrong symptoms because they are actually everywhere, especially among the youth, and they are getting out-of-hand... they are trending.
The concept of youth needing to be functionally occupied may have been behind the misguided plan Marie Harf touted last February to supply jihadis with jobs. The off-the-wall idea stems from a complete misunderstanding, and illogical view, of what incites youth, in particular, to latch on to a passing trend. And "trends" come and go in the blink of an eye. All one need do is observe how rapidly social media switches focus from one shallow subject to another. Idleness fuels the constantly changing interests. But what fuels the idleness?
