From de-platforming people with whom I disagree to needing trigger warnings for every statement, the youth of the world are constantly being shown as hysterics. How much of this is actually true? Is there a reason for this hysteria? How do we calm this structural resonance? Will name calling help? I want to take an opportunity to understand, analyse and provide an opinion based on the data I have got at my disposal. As a person who is as far left in the political spectrum until it becomes a cult or violent, I got myself in situations where I had to oppose people with whom I had more in common. A past “socialist” employer of mine wanted to retain employees people based on their political and social beliefs. While I mostly agreed with his belief’s, I didn’t agree with the process. This was my first direct contact with such a hysteria. I have been waiting to analyse this since that day. I want to start by identifying the behaviours which I deem part of this youth hysteria.
- Retributive justice
- Identity politics
- Intolerance towards alternate ideas
- Correct Speech
- Safe spaces
- Post Truth
- Intergenerational guilt
Difference due to the generational gap is bound to feel hysteric
Every generation I have met thinks they are at the peak of the wisdom curve. The insight I got from the conversation was quite uniform. All of them think they have revolted against the previous one to get all the wisdom by eliminating all the dogma. They also believe that the next generation is squandering all the wisdom with their stupidity. Imagine the counter-culture and free-speech movements of the late 1960s and 1970s. Now all those revolters and their children believe the millennials are the issue. They are anti-intellectual. I strongly believe both of them are right and wrong. It is true that collective wisdom grows with generation and age. Under ideal conditions, a person at 40 is meant to be wiser than one’s 19-year-old daughter. But the same daughter at 40 will be wiser than what her parents were at 40. However, the only way for the 19-year-old to be wiser at 40 is to let her do the mistakes at 19.
Can the current situation be explained purely as a generation gap? Dr Jordon Peterson tamely put the situation as ‘it feels the adult society is stuck in the body of a 13-year-old girl’. I do not think the current hysteria can be brushed away as purely generational differences. The actions are symptomatic of a deeper problem which is fairly unique to the time.
Symptoms of tribalism are seen at a time of anxiety
The word tribalism has a specific meaning in behavioural psychology. Oxford Dictionary defines it as a state of being organised in a tribe. Tribalism is characterised by violence, destruction of all social structures, loss of civility, disregard for judicial systems, hostility towards the opposition and extreme sensitivity.
Economic uncertainty
Economic uncertainty in people triggers the same behaviours which they exhibit when they have to fight survival. The young people from the middle or lower income group in the developed nations has concerns about decent paying jobs, student debt, healthcare, job security and the environment. The concerns are exasperated when the individual has an average IQ and sees that one’s government is not doing anything to address the issue. What is worse the jobs already in the market might be eliminated by automation. The young person’s mind is filled with questions like below.
- Can I have a decent paying job?
- Will my job last my lifetime?
- Can I ever have a family and buy a house?
- What if I fall sick?
Environment Uncertainty
People read about the man-made climate change and its threat every day. The youth are naturally disgruntled at the previous generation for the world they are leaving behind. I won’t be surprised if the question, “Is the climate change going to make it worse for me to live a healthy life? ” is on the top of their mind.
These uncertainties are bound to drive people to a tribal behaviour.
Fellowship
All of us are affected by our fellowship both positively and negatively. The bond and camaraderie across social groups have helped break the barriers of the past. Now, the bonds are causing some structures to implode. Having broken the barriers, I have now forced myself to take steps to correct for the atrocities which my friend’s grandparents have encountered. I read history and policies in the context of how can I help my friend. This is empathy gone wrong completely. These friends have become too empathetic for the collective development of their society. There is also a conflation of reflection and self-loathing which has made people feel guilty for mistakes they never personally made.
The reactionaries stuck in a time warp
According to me, the reactionaries are the group of people who are stuck looking at a fact with their time-warped memory. The left-wing of these people were called by Maajid Nawaaz as the regressive left. I prefer the term reactionaries because of a set of common attributes which are anti-enlightenment. Before I list down these attributes, I want to call out my observation. If you ignore the spikes, the world in general always moves leftwards socially. The worst racist is not as racist as the 16th-century one. The average homophobe doesn’t want to kill them. Women have the right to study and work in more places than in the 18th century. It is not where we want it to be but in general, the world is moving towards being more inclusive and tolerant. While one set of people feel this is wrong as they felt the world was better in the 16th century. The other set feels like the situation hasn’t improved but has morphed itself to a different form of discrimination. I want to list the commonalities of these people
- Ideological conformism
- Extremely sensitive to trigger
- Lack of appreciation to the present
- Lack of respect for the due process
- Complete disregard of the facts
- Blaming others
If I put the above six points in historical context, I can excuse someone if they think of Stalin, ISIS or the crusades. If I say these are some of the universities in the developed nations, then we have a major issue. These leaders are either dishonest and want to exploit the situation to make a name for themselves or they have gotten stuck in time. I want to look only at the honest players. If one is stuck in the 1960s, then all one can think of at that time is the fight for civil liberties, protest against unjust wars. If one has the nostalgia of those days or feels for their inability to participate in those activities, there is a chance to retry those now.
These reactionaries are in positions of power now. They have the opportunity to do their bit on the issue now. They see all social issues with the same lens. They also have the power now to influence the next generation, what they think, what they say and also what they should study. I want to detail this in a separate blog.
Rushing to solutions from symptoms
This is comfortably one of the most dangerous human aspects of how our brain works. We seek patterns and jump to solutions. Two people can see an institution not representative of the society based on a set of criteria like race, language, gender etc. I then see the same pattern in another institution. One person comes to the conclusion that it is based on discrimination and another one comes to the conclusion that the under-represented groups are not good enough. President Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders saw the same problems with the rust belt in the United States. While the latter attacked the large corporations, the former blamed the immigrants. I see the same problem with this issue as well. People see that the community as they see it is not represented. However, instead of taking an approach where I find out what is happening, why it is happening and the causal factors that led to this, I jump into a massive conclusion and come up with a solution for this. The issue then becomes worse when the two groups start blaming and attacking each other. The problem is exasperated by economic anxiety as given above.
Need to hate someone
I always wonder if as humans we have a need to hate some group. Who else better to hate than someone my group has marked as my enemy. As a guy growing up in India, I was always told to hate Pakistan. If I don’t I was told I am not a good person. When I met people from Pakistan and engaged in a conversation with them, I came to know that they had a similar upbringing. I wonder how many of these issues we see are because of a similar problem.
Tremors from a long gone earthquake
Structures are broken in an earthquake. The tremors from that are felt long after the earthquake is over. The effects of second world war still linger in the minds of people though most of them are dead. The families of Japanese people in internment camps, Holocaust or India-Pakistan partition still have the scars in their mind. The same can be attributed to people whose grandparents were abused during the apartheid regime or slavery. It takes a few generations for these tremors to completely disappear. The second generation doesn’t think like the first. So, we will see different reactions with every passing generation but it will eventually disappear.
Unprepared for the social experiment
Social Media is an experiment which has caught us by surprise. What started as an innocuous way to connect with friends and family has been a mass propaganda machine. The transfer of information and indoctrination through this media is damaging the social fabric which we didn’t have ways to protect.
Breakdown of social safety nets
The youth always has three social safety net to ensure they are well prepared to take the civilisation to the next step. The three levels of safety according to me are given below. The breakdown of these structures has caused a massive issue.
- Family
- Community
- State
The family structure has become a conservative talking point. However, people have to be careful before having a child. By no means, I am asking for people to stay in an abusive relationship. I am advocating against having children before you sort out your lives. If two doesn’t work it is crazy to think the third one will work. Also, having a child is a massive responsibility and you shouldn’t do it with an abusive partner. I see more families breaking down now that I did when I was a child. However, people still seem to have children at roughly the same timeframe in their relationship. These children are going to be impacted.
The community was previously structured around class, race or religion. These three have no basis in the present world. However, we haven’t replaced it with anything. What does this neighbourhood mean to us? How do we help each other? I remember a story where a colleague of mine from a remote village told me about his rather poor neighbourhood. With a lot of love for his community, he told me that he can walk into any home and people will feed him with love. Everyone wanted everyone else to succeed and be happy with it. Where is that community now?
One of the key developments of the 20th century is the development of social democracies. From the ‘New Deal’ in the US to the welfare schemes in Europe, states provided a safety net to people. These schemes have been systematically eroded with time. The governments have been keen on removing them under the name of free-market. Not every individual has the capability to run all races. Some skills might not be needed anymore and some might be needed in the next generation. We have to ensure people are given the necessary support to ensure this continues.
With the breakdown of these three structures, we are creating a generation with is on a high dose of anxiety from their very young age.
Conclusion
To summarise, I am by no means justifying the hysteria or pushing those people away. I want to highlight the causal factors which have given us this situation. I do not have an answer on where this will take us. Therefore I operate under the below principles.
- Try to understand the individual context to be best of my ability
- Discuss bad ideas without trying to smear individuals
- Avoid causing further partisanship
- Recreate the safety net for people around me
- Fight for the right of the present oppressed instead of the past oppressed
- Let facts drive and correct the course of my path
Addendum
After I wrote this blog, I had an experience which relates a lot to this blog.
I responded to a tweet by Peter Boghossian in Universities becoming cults by agreeing with him and adding my view on what cults are and how I want universities to be.
I got a response to my tweet from a random person who just called what I said ‘masterpiece in irony’. While tweet might not be the best form of communication, I felt the need to engage with her. I finally got a response from one of her followers that Peter Boghossian said something in terms of ‘Universities have become advocates of American Capitalism’ in an interview.
As I dug into the profiles of people who either liked the tweets of people who responded to me or directly responded to me, I found a pattern. All of them hated the US for its history. They believe that the only solution to this is annihilation. They were anti-white(for want of a better word), anti-United States of America(they live there) and anti-capitalists. While I am not a big fan of Capitalism in general, I don’t think hating capitalists is an answer to the issues caused. We have to live in the world which will have people who hold differing views. Further, I also don’t know why one has to be guilty by association. Can’t one agree with their friends on 4 points and disagree on another 2 points in a discussion? Further annihilation of a complete society is not a solution for anything. Their views felt like the God of the Old Testament in human form. I re-read my blog and have to wonder which of the categories these people belong.
Demystifying a skeptic's world 