Every once in a while, I like to share an impactful episode from Dennis Prager’s weekly Fireside Chats on this blog. Two weeks ago, Prager U released one of the most impactful Fireside Chats that I have ever watched: Episode 186. With all that, let’s dig into the video’s content.
A Hopeless Generation
Last month, the Institute of Politics at Harvard University released an insightful survey. A poll of over 2500 Americans ages 18-29 years old responded as feeling “down, depressed, or hopeless” at some point in the last two weeks. Moreover, 68% of American youth said that they have “little energy”, and 52% find little pleasure in doing things. Those are some highly concerning numbers regardless of your political persuasion.
Dennis Prager opened up his Fireside Chat by discussing this Harvard study. After explaining the study’s findings, Mr. Prager stated that American youth are struggling in this day and age. In this Fireside Chat, he gave three reasons for why modern American youth have become a “hopeless generation”. For clarity sake, this term is not used to denigrate American youth. Instead, it’s just a description of the hopeless feeling that a majority of American teenagers and young adults possess. I appreciate how this Fireside Chat is shedding light on this reality.
Reason 1: America’s past is evil
American youth are constantly told in school and the media that America’s past is evil. From the New York Times’s 1619 Project to Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, Americans my age are taught a revisionist version of American history that’s complete garbage.
Overall, it’s tough to love America when you only hear that your nation is irredeemably racist, sexist, xenophobic, and much more. It’s truly despicable how much our country gets trashed by radical professors and “educators”. Sure, America is not a perfect place. Over 60 million babies have been murdered in the United States since Roe v. Wade. Nevertheless, so much good has come of out this country. But, our children don’t get to hear about both the triumphs and faults of America. They only hear the negative aspects of American history.
Reason 2: Today’s youth is told that we have no future
Climate Alarmism and COVID-19 fearmongering have convinced many young Americans that we won’t live much longer. In the present time, many healthy Americans have been scared to death by the news media to the point that perfectly healthy young people (without any medical issues) are still worried about leaving their homes (even after getting the vaccine). The news media has not properly shared the facts about COVID-19. For example, the odds of a a 20 year old dying of COVID-19 is about 0.07%. That amounts to 7 deaths in that age group for every 100,000 infected 20-24 patients. When’s that last time that the legacy media has stated that fact or one similar to it?
Even if you survived the COVID-19 pandemic, then you’ll be sad to hear that climate change is going to kill us all. Politicians, the legacy media, woke corporatists, and celebrities have all teamed to share this same message: that man-made carbon emissions will kills us all. If we don’t immediately change to Green Energy, then the Earth will become uninhabitable in 10 years.
Elon Musk better hurry up and send us to Mars if the Climate Alarmists are correct.
Reason 3: American youth are deprived of purpose and meaning—namely religion, marriage/family, and patriotism
Personally, I am glad to see that Dennis mentioned this reason because it’s probably the biggest factor as to why young Americans are struggling.
Secularism, the denigration of marriage/family, and a lack of patriotism have negatively affected people my age. So many college students that I personally know lack these these parts of life. Faith, family, and patriotism were central to the lives of Americans in the past–like the Greatest Generation. We can see the dire effects of a lack of meaning in the lives of young Americans: isolation, depression, suicide, and general loneliness. No wonder many young Americans have turned to groups like Antifa or BLM. People need to have meaning in their lives–as pointed out by in Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. People will look to secular ideologies to fill the void in their lives.
The Video
To wrap up this post, I wanted to include the actual Fireside Chat video from YouTube. All of Mr. Prager’s previous Fireside Chats can be found either on the Prager U YouTube channel or the Prager U website.