The divide

This is something I think about often. I have to. I'm involved in youth work with my church, the local government, and through another voluntary organisation akin to scouts. This a big issue, and it is often a stumbling block to many of our projects.

Unfortunately, I don't believe it is one issue. It is many issues, some big, some small, and some things that really just shouldn't be issues, all intertwined in a big, tangled ball of interconnected problems. A great way of putting it is "integrated complexity" (Uncontrolled, Manzi, Jim, 2012). Our society is so complex that no phenomenon has a single, isolated cause, and no factor would create exactly the same phenomenon, other factors being different. We can't hope to change everything by changing one thing. Changing everything requires changing everything, and that is both almost unachievable, and bound to create new, unexpected problems. So maybe our society itself is the issue? I don't think it's that simple either.

First, let us ask, how deep does this generational disconnect run? Let us take an (almost real) case study. John wants to be an engineer. He enjoys the practical skills of designing and building things in a workshop. Locally, there is a group of men, mostly of a well-matured age, who maintain and operate a working vintage railway. They have a well-equipped workshop and would teach any young person who choose to show interest with passion, happy to have someone interested in their craft. Even if John knew of their existence, which he probably doesn't, he would rather pay to take a class with a bunch of other people and a single tutor, than step into that workshop full people waiting to teach him for free. Why?

Well, first of all, John probably doesn't even know they're there. Older people seem to find it hard to interest younger people in their hobbies and interests. They often move in different circles and connect in different ways. That doesn't mean it's impossible, just difficult. Sometimes older people struggle to learn how to adapt to new patterns, and sometimes no-one makes the effort to help them.

Even if John did know they were there, the same issue crops up. Older people struggle to make their interests relevant to young people. John probably doesn't see the connection between what they do and his aspirations. And if he does, he probably thinks that what they have to teach him is outdated and irrelevant. Sure, it may not be up with the newest technology, but that workshop contains hundreds of cumulative years of knowledge and experience that is worth learning from.

However, things don't end here. Despite any impressions that John may or may not have, they're not the only factors at play. There are plenty of older people that think young people are irreverent, obnoxious, and self-obsessed. Unfortunately, sometimes they are right. But, at least as often, they are not. These people can tend to be very vocal about their opinion, which further clouds young people's perception of the older generation. Whether or not the men in the railway workshop hold this opinion, John may expect that they do, and so keep away from them.

And so we see that young people may think that older people are irrelevant, stuck in the past, and judgemental. While older people, in turn, may see younger people as lacking wisdom, impulsive, and disrespectful. Those who are young need to learn to appreciate the wisdom of the old. While those who are older need to learn to appreciate the energy of youth, and consider how to harness and temper it effectively.

Wait, you ask, what about the generation between? Surely they appreciate both the wisdom of age and the energy of youth? Let them be the mediators. Spot on, well said. I could not agree more. But why isn't it working? Well, my observations would suggest that the current generation of young people feel let down by the previous generation. If you think someone has let you down in the past, why would you listen to them now. So exactly how have they been let down? And why?

This is another issue with no straight-forward answer. Let's briefly look at what I think are a few of the issues. We all know that the cost of living is rising. Pressure to have the newest and best, along with the never-ending onwards race of technology has pushed more and more parents into working longer hours, and spending less time with each other and their families. Young people may feel sidelined or forgotten, and the newest tech seldom truly makes up for the lost bond of time spent together. This, along with other issues related to how our society perceives marriage relationships (@voiceinthewind has some relevant thoughts here), have lead to increased break downs in family stability, which also affects young people. Further, we encourage young people to break free from anything perceived to define them, to decide their own identity. Perhaps we force this choice upon them at too young an age, before they are ready to understand and choose their own path. (For more on this, see my recent post The problem of choice). This results in our young people growing up disconnected from faith, gender, race, and family, among other things. In short, the things that provide them with a framework for their identity. Lastly, some parents have allowed technology to parent their children. They are not made to learn any social skills or life skills. Their devices become more familiar to them than the physical world. All these things add up. Not every family is affected by them all, and there are plenty of good families out there. But perhaps young people are simply disillusioned about how they have been raised, and what they were taught (or not). Perhaps they feel that it does not match the reality of the world.

Finally, this is not entirely new. The issue runs generations deep. Different factors, different issues, but a similar result. We are trapped in a vicious cycle, each generation letting down the next, and then criticising when they do the same again. But to change everything requires changing everything, and that is both almost unachievable, and bound to create new, unexpected problems.