… if you prefer to read this series as one page, please go to https://mikevargamusings.com/institutions-re-examined/
In the November election, the young people I know were more involved, and more insistent that their voice be heard than I’ve seen since the 1970’s. In the last several decades, as young people get to the point of career decisions, family decisions and the new stresses on finances, they would find little time for politics, little time for considering the impact institutions have on their lives.
However, I’ve noticed a new awakening. Expanded understanding. This next generation is much more highly educated thanks to an explosion in college education. Partly due to student loans, and a more technically demanding society and job market. But none-the-less the number of people with some college versus no-college has dramatically increased. College is not just about education, but also diversity. Exposure to more people and more ideas than prior generations. In the past, people grew up and lived within a 20-mile radius of home. This was pretty much a norm, and except for either forced migrations or military service, most people had limited exposure to other social environments. It is no longer.
If you want further anecdotal evidence, consider the emergence of new thinking and acceptance of alternative family structures. Yes, the institution of the family. Today on television shows, and on all sort of advertising, notice the variation in family structure. Capitalism show’s us what people are interested in and what is acceptable, more so than any other indicator. Interracial families, homosexuality, and diverse living arrangements are prevalent and becoming more prevalent. This is not the Leave It to Beaver generation.
This generation is re-examining the core constructs of our institutions. It is challenging to many of us, to consider the way they have unchained their thinking. They are resetting the norms. The institution of church has not kept up with them, and yet they have great faith in each other, in humanity, and they are spiritual. They are ethical and they have reverence for the Earth and all people. They’ve chosen to turn upside down our traditional notions of how things are done. They are more interested in ensuring each other’s space, and happiness, than restricting each other into norms of prior generations. They are breaking our social fabrics and repairing in ways that are far more colorful and textual. This generation is not weighted by the institutions that dominated their parents and grandparents’ lives, and they are far less judgemental.
Prior generations were asked to ignore the decay and corruption for sake of the power of institutions. I like this new generation, I like this generation’s learned skepticism and their way of gaining wisdom. Our world is in good hands. They will come back to religion, all people do, but in their own way, and they will make it better than what we’ve known.
Furthermore, I suspect this generation will insist that their government institutions, their healthcare, and their educational institutions will do the same. It will take time, but it will happen. They will remake these institutions just as they are remaking our social world. As long as we give them space, by maintaining our justice system and our free press, they will find a way. They will redefine our world to make it what they want to leave for the generations that follow. The white supremacist movement, the authoritarian biases of extreme right-wing nationalists will fight this, and will do so on the basis of cultural and social issues. This makes them very dangerous. For this reason, we must support our free press and rules of law. We must give space for this next generation to survive the last gasps of intolerance and racism.
We must hold institutions accountable to their mission and purpose, and correct corruption where we find it. This next generation will then have the space to make the world a better place.
I have great hope in the future.