The Disappearance of Virtue From American Politics

[JA]

The Disappearance of Virtue From American Politics - The Atlantic

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Personally, I would certainly like to see virtue and ethics become more common today; this would also include sensitivity towards other groups - particularly ones who are underprivileged. There is a lot that every person could gain from focusing on strengthening their moral character, educating themselves, paying more respect to others, and even cultivating some of the traditional Christian and Stoic ethical values that have long been virtues in our society. However, by targeting the blame at millennials, Sen. Sasse is completely missing how millions of Americans, even the majority of us, simply do not fit into the group to whom he is speaking. Most of us are not part of the upper-middle-class, nor are the millennials to blame for our institutions decaying to their current state; the older generations are solely responsible for that and, of them, particularly those in positions of power and influence.

[JA]

My point is that the "hippie" movement is only a small part of the 1960's and the cultural changes of that era.  My point was that the parenting changes post-WWII, which manifested themselves through the '60s as these children came of age, explain much of the downhill trends seen since then.  These demographic/generational changes form the core of the decline in morality.  Granted, I think we may be talking about different things, since we likely see issues like economic inequality a bit differently, so we are going to disagree on how to interpret neoliberalism, but I'd imagine that where there is common ground - the basic social institutions, represented by things like divorce rates, out of wedlock births work force participation, social network strength, etc. very much have their roots in problems of societal changes in the 1960s.

The millennial generation (along with the tail end of Gen X) has actually reversed a lot of these trends and in many cases it dates back to the mid 1990's right when they began coming of age. And early signs thus far suggest that this will be the case with Homelanders aka Gen Z as well.

-Youth risk behavior as monitored by the CDC has been declining across the board from 1991-2015. These risk behaviors include not wearing a bicycle helmet or seatbelt, having sex, drinking alcohol, and smoking cigarettes, etc.
-Teen pregnancy, birth rate, and abortion rate have all fallen since they peaked in the 90's.
-Crime rates have plummeted 60-70% since 1995.
-Suicide rates among the youth have been steadily declining since the 90's.
-From 1990 to 2013, the share of high school grads with AP course credit rose from 12% to 39%
-Record breaking high school graduation rates for millennials so far.
-SAT scores have been rising, particular for math, which is amazing given that more and more teenagers are now taking the test.

Sources: I, II, III, IIII.

I think this is why a lot of the "family values" rhetoric from the GOP doesn't resonate well with millennials. They're already by and large doing the things they've been asked to do. And even then they get berated by boomers who accuse them of a lot of society's moral degradation when by most accounts, boomers constituted higher crime rates, drug use, teen pregnancy, etc. when they were coming of age.

Despite the countless and mounting pieces of evidence that demonstrate millennials, especially ones born in the '90s, are overall the most exemplary of all groups - especially at this age - the attacks are relentless. Apparently, when older people completely screw up a society, it is the norm to throw all the blame onto those who come after them. Even if we did every last thing they could want us to, they would still whine and complain about how awful we are. I just hope millennials do not do the same thing to future generations.

[JA]

Despite the countless and mounting pieces of evidence that demonstrate millennials, especially ones born in the '90s, are overall the most exemplary of all groups - especially at this age - the attacks are relentless. Apparently, when older people completely screw up a society, it is the norm to throw all the blame onto those who come after them. Even if we did every last thing they could want us to, they would still whine and complain about how awful we are. I just hope millennials do not do the same thing to future generations.

I wonder if their scorn has been amplified by Millennials not thinking along similar lines, or acting like they do. It's easy to put the blame on us if they can convince themselves that, "if they just voted like we do, behaved like we do, thought like we do and stopped fighting us on everything, we could fix this mess!"

After all, it's much harder to look at one's own actions and the consequences of them than it is to just pass the blame.

I've wondered the same thing. There is a very substantial generational divide in politics and religion; millennials are considerably more liberal and secular than their parents and grandparents. We were also the biggest supporters of Obama and Sanders, along with most likely to vote for Clinton or third party. If you notice, most of the complaining is done by older White people, primarily because we depart considerably from their political values of blind patriotism, Christian moralism, and Reaganesque "rugged individualism."

Not to mention economic conditions today make responsibly achieving certain benchmarks of adulthood, such as owning a car, buying a house, getting married, and having children, less realistic and often require considerably more time and effort. We not only have to graduate college with a 4-year degree, but land an (typically unpaid) internship and/or volunteer, gain a year or more of work experience before we can even obtain an entry level job, earn relatively little pay in said job while remaining in a precarious position that demands longer work hours, greater flexibility, and more skills, and afford expenses, such as rent in most cities which often exceeds $1,200 a month. I'm not sure how adding the expenses of saving for a home, covering the costs of raising a child, and all that is realistic on a $30-40,000 a year salary.

[JA]

Millennials are basically narcissistic bourgeoisie brats with mental issues and an extreme sense of materialism (seriously, every study of their social attitudes has shown they have terrible yuppie values). Their lack of "embarrassing" behavior is more the result of living their lives on screens than anything else. I mean let's be real.

This sounds more like Boomers

The most useless generation in American history...haven't legislated a single thing of significance.

What's "significant" in your eye? Is it a fancy way of saying Great Society type measures?

Uhhhh... does anybody want to tell this person that the Great Society was created by members of the Greatest Generation?

Baby Boomers gave us Clinton, Bush II, Obama, and Trump. Their political era has been marked by neoliberalism, neoconservatism, and Trumpism.

[JA]

Millennials are basically narcissistic bourgeoisie brats with mental issues and an extreme sense of materialism (seriously, every study of their social attitudes has shown they have terrible yuppie values). Their lack of "embarrassing" behavior is more the result of living their lives on screens than anything else. I mean let's be real.

This sounds more like Boomers

The most useless generation in American history...haven't legislated a single thing of significance.

What's "significant" in your eye? Is it a fancy way of saying Great Society type measures?

Uhhhh... does anybody want to tell this person that the Great Society was created by members of the Greatest Generation?

I know that. The point is their has been a lot of legislation with very great consequences under Boomer-dominated government.

Aside from gay marriage legalization and the (rather awful, but considerably better than nothing) ACA, what legislation? I seem to recall repeal of glass-steagall, welfare reform, mass incarceration, Iraq War and lies of WMDs, massive budget deficits and irresponsible tax policies, an election contest between Clinton and Trump (both preferred by the older generations, albeit Trump more so), re-election of Bush, Bush tax cuts, attempts at privatizing Social Security, refusal to provide amnesty for undocumented immigrants, widespread Islamophobia, and now "fake news" conspiracy theory nationalism.

[JA]

I don't want to buy this book, but I wish that I could have have a closer look at its core argument, which simultaneously intrigues and repulses.

That said, for nowI'll gawk at its more pornographic highlights, without context, as they reveal themselves:

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" is a simpler - and less controversial - way of making that same point.