'The absence of ultimate religious hope may darken the shadows of despair over young-progressive souls,' writes Ross Douthat.
The absence of ultimate religious hope may darken the shadows of despair over young-progressive souls.
First, since I noticed some incredulous reactions from conservatives on Twitter, I can testify that the anxiety that Klein describes is real enough. I probably hear about the issue less frequently than he does — he lives in the Bay Area, after all — but frequently enough, especially from liberal baby boomer parents discussing their still-more-liberal millennial offspring’s delay in having kids.
But the cycle also seems possibly connected to trends in religious adherence and belief.
Global warming is clearly the sharpener, the memento mori; like wartime or a pandemic, it forces a focus on a reality that might otherwise stay out of mind. But the reality itself — that all suffer, all die — seems more fundamental. In worrying about hypothetical kids faring badly under climate change, the secular imagination is letting itself be steered toward the harsh analysis of Blaise Pascal:
I am not suggesting that secularization is the only factor in, say, rising rates of anxiety and unhappiness and suicidality among American teenagers. Explanations for the recent surge in teenage misery that focus on the effects of social media, the impact of the pandemic, overprotective parenting and other factors all make a lot of sense.