Tuesday, March 6, 2018

In Praise of Youthful Idealism


The title of this column is meant to be ironic.  In the wake of the Parkland Florida shootings, we have been subjected to battalions of teenagers lecturing us on what we must do to protect them in their classrooms.  They tell us their sad tales of terror, which are supposed to certify their expertise on gun policy.
The liberal politicians and journalists, who trot them out to persuade us to back stronger gun laws, care not one whit about reasoned arguments.  They instead get out the crying towel and hope the emotional tears we shed will blur our vision.
This is a travesty.  It is demagoguery.  It takes advantage of the earnest idealism of youth in order to promote an ideological agenda.  In other words, this is rank exploitation.  It manipulates a vulnerable group so as to enhance the power of the manipulators.
Let me explain something about idealism.  It is not an accident that it is concentrated among the young.  Those, who are in its thrall, like to believe that this is because older folks are embittered sell-outs.  The elderly have presumably abandoned their principles for the sake of money and to conceal their personal failures.
Many teenagers seem to think that as folks grow older, they forget what they ever knew.  Unwilling to keep up with the latest advances in wisdom, these adults are trapped in an antediluvian past.  Of course they can’t solve social problems.  Their inability to do so is demonstrated by having never done it.
In fact, what mature adults discover is that life is devilishly complex.  So many things are going on—and interacting in unforeseen ways—that it is enormously difficult to figure exactly what caused what.
On top of this, years of experience reveal how little control we have over events.  Not only are they difficult to dictate within our personal spheres, they are even more problematic in the larger society.  After all, millions of people, with conflicting interests, participate in deciding what occurs.
Time and again, what we expect to happen does not.  Time and again, unanticipated events turn matters in unpredicted directions.  As a result, we must often react to surprising occurrences.  All too often, we likewise only discover what works by bumping into it.
The young have less time to acquire this experience.  They may know important things, but usually within a relatively narrow compass.  They also have less power than their elders.  This means that they exercise less influence that those they assume to be ineffective.
This is not the fault of the young.  It is merely a consequence of their condition.  But it explains why they seize upon easy solutions to complex questions.  In their anxiety to protect themselves from potential dangers, they need to convince themselves they understand how.  They must believe that events are simple enough for them to master.
They are, in fact, told as much by their teachers.  From kindergarten through graduate school, they absorb abridged lessons about life.  Moreover, given that most educators are liberal, their students are exposed to an unending string of liberal shibboleths.  The media then reinforce these.
I, for instance, never heard about Edmund Burke, Friedrich Hayek, or Milton Friedman until I was working on my Ph.D.  Previous to this, I assumed that all conservatives were dumb and selfish. 
The young generally don’t know what they don’t know.  Furthermore, in their haste to reform the world, they are seldom concerned with finding out.  They do not want to be diverted by rationalizations for inaction.
To reiterate, this is what it means to be young.   Nevertheless, the young should be encouraged to explore their ideals.  This is one of the best ways to discover the limitations imposed upon us by reality.
A problem develops only when adults allow themselves to be led by the young.  We get into trouble when those of us with more experience eschew our obligation to recognize, and respond to, life’s complications.  That’s when we adopt policies that cannot work.
Idealism is fine for the young.  It encourages them to stretch themselves and seek a better world.  But it is dangerous for responsible adults.  For us, the watchword should be principled realism.  The truth is sometimes hard to swallow; yet it is what it is.
Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Kennesaw State University



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