Always pressing mankind, from variant sources, are odd influences in personal and social lives that sometimes work for good and sometimes for ill, sometimes for virtue and sometimes for carnality, sometimes to lift and sometimes to drag down. They may be continued for years to advantage or loss for generations. The following are a few observations to which we ought to give attention for continuity.
GENDER – My concern here relates to males. Leadership Quarterly, in 2011, included a squib about men in current context, with emphasis on the younger generation. We are told that the shift in interest is from more to different. I may not want a good thing, but a different thing. I may even want a different good thing from the good thing I’ve got. Apparently that isn’t the problem. Young men are said to be moving toward isolation. According to Psychologist, Philip Zimbardo, by age 21, young men spend 10,000 hours gaming, mostly in isolation; and the average man watches 50 porn clips per week. (This seems unbelievable to me.) This and related factors lead to poor relationships with women. Men in these contexts are, I read, dropping out of life. It affects their academics. They are taken with addictions. They are out of sync, and lack social skills especially with women. I would add more than this report has included, relative to the decline in grooming, hygiene, language usage, work skills, goals and spirituality.
EDUCATION – In my exchanges with many young men the language skills even disregarding the texting oddities, the spelling and grammar errors (partly inspired by the casualness of the E-mail/Texting habits), and various oddities including limited vocabulary, we can be rather sure that the future will mean a lower standard of living for these men. One’s grasp of language has been shown to be a part of the advancement of a person in life, in status, in quality, and in solutions to problems – personal and social. Some statistics show a higher number of educated persons hold to religious faith than do lesser educated persons. Education is presumed to be vital for balanced life. There is concern that the student may abandon that belief. Some argue that the sexual casualness, the excesses of drinking, and other student habits will end.
CULTURE – When pop culture becomes strong there is introduced a decline in values. Beliefs become scattered so that excuses become reasons, minor matters become major, insignificance becomes significant, new resolutions are not focused but former cultures are diluted, or distorted. Marriage, meant for a man and a woman, is to be diluted by either making it fit other partnerships, or denying its value altogether. If we are thinking, we can come up with an alternative nomenclature and context that can well meet the needs of that segment of society that wishes to have a substitute offering the same legal benefits as that of married persons. A major article recently argued that child culture (insufficient) had taken over. A grunge quality has entered, resisted at first by the elders, but now joined in the generations.
VALUES – Qualities of honesty, truth, rightness (righteousness), integrity, purpose, love, idealism, and the like have fallen to various levels of decline, even gaining some momentum after the turn of the millennium from the 20th to the 21st century. There was a general feeling that the new century would draw something better from us than had obtained in the previous one. It did not in its first decade, because the record of time has little force to it. Matters improve when we look to our better selves, and include God in our thinking even if god is made generic for a massive number in the population. Even the idea of God is helpful: In God We Trust. God must feel for mankind in all the spiritual fumbling. This last may be something that lifts us a bit. Those who hold truth about how God works know that some human claims simply will not hold and serve in the long run. But they may serve somewhat. Christ is present to help. Christians hold for values even in the humanistic society. He does not disregard those who assist in the better program, even if they do not regard him. God is larger than any disregard mankind offers whether modest or severe. Bible students often run on to the helpful conduct of persons outside faith contexts. Those persons are presented well, and may be blessed of God in common grace. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020