3 ms·

Yes, you describe a failure of obligation quite well.

beepbooptheory 4y ago
Perhaps, but I don't see how my point still stands. If individual responsibility and obligation are the things that make the difference, then by that logic, the responsibility and obligation of generations before have created a world that has instilled kids with the sentiment they have. Like... when you say this, who are you blaming? Who is to blame? You can say something like "Well, in fact, the world is doing fine, we are progressing, it is all just appearance, it is an epistemological problem for these kids, brainwashing"; and you might cite some NGO report about decreasing world hunger or the happiness index, or whatever, and say "these kids have nothing to complain about". I see this argument a lot. But I would just ask, OK, if thats true, it simply shifts the problem. If it is just about the kids perceptions, and their dwindling sense of obligation in response to that, we can still ask: why are they being misled in this way? Why do they feel selfish entitlement instead responsible obligation? Surely it is something about the world they find themselves in, the world inherited from their parents. I don't know who else you can blame. You spent many decades voting, consuming, building the apps, creating the culture that kids find themselves in, the very same one where they arrive at the sentiments they do. It is still on you! You could also accept my initial conclusion and say: "yes the world is worse then when I was a kid, but it isn't my fault." But then, that troubles the conceit that individual obligation/responsibility is the operating variable there. And really, you are just hold the same pessimism as the kid, but through the filter of a lived life grasping for purpose. You are asking the kid to have more faith than yourself! At the end of the day, a life might just be a lesson in having faith in progress, but that is less a value to impose, less something to punish the kid for not realizing, as it is something we all must come to. To blame the kids is just not logical. Even if it turns out that the flouride in the water or whatever has caused this rash of irresponsibility in young people, that is still on the generations before them for putting it in the water! If its not on the generations before, if it was going to happen no matter what, then that is just reason to throw out the idea the kids lack anything at all, that something about their sentiments are their fault. So, either you are guilty (as presumably an older person), or you need to cut the kids some slack.

Perhaps, but I don't see how my point still stands. If individual responsibility and obligation are the things that make the difference, then by that logic, the responsibility and obligation of generations before have created a world that has instilled kids with the sentiment they have. Like... when you say this, who are you blaming? Who is to blame? You can say something like "Well, in fact, the world is doing fine, we are progressing, it is all just appearance, it is an epistemological problem for these kids, brainwashing"; and you might cite some NGO report about decreasing world hunger or the happiness index, or whatever, and say "these kids have nothing to complain about". I see this argument a lot. But I would just ask, OK, if thats true, it simply shifts the problem. If it is just about the kids perceptions, and their dwindling sense of obligation in response to that, we can still ask: why are they being misled in this way? Why do they feel selfish entitlement instead responsible obligation? Surely it is something about the world they find themselves in, the world inherited from their parents. I don't know who else you can blame. You spent many decades voting, consuming, building the apps, creating the culture that kids find themselves in, the very same one where they arrive at the sentiments they do. It is still on you! You could also accept my initial conclusion and say: "yes the world is worse then when I was a kid, but it isn't my fault." But then, that troubles the conceit that individual obligation/responsibility is the operating variable there. And really, you are just hold the same pessimism as the kid, but through the filter of a lived life grasping for purpose. You are asking the kid to have more faith than yourself! At the end of the day, a life might just be a lesson in having faith in progress, but that is less a value to impose, less something to punish the kid for not realizing, as it is something we all must come to. To blame the kids is just not logical. Even if it turns out that the flouride in the water or whatever has caused this rash of irresponsibility in young people, that is still on the generations before them for putting it in the water! If its not on the generations before, if it was going to happen no matter what, then that is just reason to throw out the idea the kids lack anything at all, that something about their sentiments are their fault. So, either you are guilty (as presumably an older person), or you need to cut the kids some slack.