Brooks took that retreat as an example of a larger phenomenon. I think he really has the Occupy movement in mind, though he never says that. Brooks' summary is this:
This seems to be a moment when many people — in religion, economics and politics — are disgusted by current institutions, but then they are vague about what sorts of institutions should replace them.
I am struck by the fact that this diagnosis matches what popular demographers Neil Howe and William Strauss predicted for the Millennials - today's twentysomethings. Howe and Strauss thought that they would be a new "silent generation," nice people, good team players, but weak on a theory of institutions. I don't know how old Jefferson Bethke is, but his screen name is bball1989, which makes me think he is 22.
I am glad young people are finding a way to raise a critical voice. But they do need a positive, institutional theory of what they want instead.
2 comments:
I suggest that they reject both the left and the right and choose liberty...
If you don't have strong institutions, you don't have liberty (see Somalia).
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