I am suggesting that kids at specifically elite universities aspire to be the power, and therefore question the author's contention that this has anything to do with disrespect for authority.
It is still a perfectly valid argument to analyze whether disrespect for authority has increased or decreased over the years; or whether the disrespect has reached the point it threatens their ability to become functioning adults.
You can sure make that argument, but it's still only a rephrasing of the millenia-old meme of old people complaining about the lack of respect in young people. No, young people are not in danger of being unable to become functional adults, no more than any generation before them (of which the same has been said).
Society changes, you're old, young people are doing things differently. The wheel keeps on turning.
Any time people bring this argument up I don't think they realize how much it can have the opposite effect of what they intend. I can see, with my own eyes, how much my generation (millennials) has fallen short compared to our parents. Let alone the zoomers etc, who seem to be on an even worse trajectory. When someone points out "people have made these claims for millennia", I don't take that as evidence I'm wrong - I realize that perhaps people have been right for millennia.
I do agree with your broader point though that it's worth asking if society is getting more illiberal and intolerant of opposing views. It's not just a "young people these days" kind of thing.
Hard times create desperate men who make like hell to everyone else as they lash out. Good times are created by men who care. Good times create nice people.
Fascists seen empathy and niceness as weakness and something bad. They were also something that emerged from hard times and created misery and pain. Lets not promote their ideology.
"Hard times create strong men". At what age do the hard times start for this to be true? Do children who are victims of abuse become strong? Some perhaps, but I suspect not more than a control group. Do the hard times occur when the people are full adults? Anecdotally in my life, I've seen hard times be precursors to people cope by using drink and drugs, and seen hard times to lead other people to step up to the challenge. And what is the definition of strong, here? Seems so vague as to be pointless. This old saying seems like complete bunk to me.
It's a pat saying, but I don't think history bears it out.
The German people after World War I were suffering. Significant reparation burdens had been placed upon them. They were starving and angry. These should have been the "hard times that create strong men," yes?
It created the Nazis and they were defeated militarily. Seems something went off in step 2 there; nobody considers Germany during World War II "Good times."
Agreed. Western society is very much in a pattern of decline right now. Whether it's terminal remains to be seen, but the decay is blindingly obvious imo.
