Take my hand, friend, as we steer our ship between Scylla and Charybdis, hoping to navigate the Sea of 2024. If your mind works anything like mine, one question more than any other is tormenting it: How the hell did we get into this godawful mess? I am no Christian, but if I were, I could make a pretty good case that we have entered the “end times.” These are the prophesied times that call forth the end of the world, and with it, Judgment Day. I’ll tell you what … Even though I am godless, I think I can convince you that the end times are indeed upon us, and you can tell me whether you tremble as I do.
Early America was the destination of choice for Christian emigrants. The idea of the end times was one of their most closely held beliefs. It would be no exaggeration to say there was a paradoxical element of enthusiasm in this belief. No one wants to die in waves of chaos and destruction, but an eternal afterlife in the bosom of Jesus was, and remains, their most cherished wish. Today, 39% of American adults believe the end times are coming.1, 2
After World War 2, much of the world had reason to believe it had seen a preview of the end times. Two horrific wars, a flu pandemic, a worldwide depression, the advent of nuclear weapons, and a nuclear confrontation in Cuba were pretty good evidence that humanity was close to a messy exit. But even though Bob Dylan sang, “a hard rain’s a-gonna fall,” it didn’t. At least, not right away. Instead, humanity diligently sought ways to make the end times more likely: nuclear proliferation, an Asian war against the spread of Communism, religious terrorism, a war against religious terrorism, drone warfare, the continuous modernization of weapon systems, experimentation with a plague virus3, and a proxy war between the nations with nuclear arsenals.
To further darken the future, class warfare in America and a self-absorbed youth culture threatened to make the country ungovernable.
Class warfare
During the Truman administration, a coalition in corporate America and Wall Street came together. Its aim was to create, for the third time in American history, a ruling oligarchy4. Its first targets were unions, whose power was growing immensely, and with it the size and prosperity of the middle class. The dream that each generation could live more comfortably than the earlier ones had become “The American Dream.” But in 1947 the Taft-Hartley Act was enacted, marking the start of three decades of restrictive legislation and political harassment against unions. Their ability to deliver worker benefits alongside rising corporate profits gradually evaporated. In their glory days, 1 in 3 American private sector workers belonged to a union. Today the number is 1 in 16.
By the time the Reagan administration arrived, wealthy American executives, under the guise of practicing vigorous capitalism, had devised a number of strategies to plunder the livelihoods of middle class and poor Americans. Big corporations began to globalize by building facilities in Mexico and Asia, where labor was cheap. Millions of Americans lost their jobs. Corporate raiders devised buyout schemes to take over healthy businesses, fire most of the work force, divide the businesses into units, and sell off the units at a substantial profit. The entire ethos of Big Business changed. Its focus turned to operating as leanly as possible to maximize profits. Executives who wielded the axe with the most zeal were glorified in the media 5. All this occurred during an era of deregulation. Government oversight waned, corruption grew.
The American middle class, which hadn’t worried about job security since the Depression, now looked to the future with deep concern. In 2000, the dotcom bubble burst, and a recession ensued. George W responded with a tax cut that chiefly benefited the wealthy. During his administration, financial corruption became so widespread that it could no longer be concealed. Mortgage lenders were recklessly stimulating the residential housing market by approving loans to borrowers with poor credit. They then bundled mortgages and sold them as a package — a derivative investment product — to other financial institutions. Many of the mortgagors defaulted simply because they lacked the money to carry their mortgages. Even more defaulted because they held adjustable rate mortgages whose rates increased. And, of course, the derivatives collapsed in value. The homeless population increased by 20,000 people. Unemployment went to 10.6%. 1.8 million small businesses went bankrupt.
This catastrophe was named the Great Recession. To deal with it, Congress appropriated $700 billion in taxpayer funds to buy toxic assets from failing banks. None of the corrupt executives went to jail. The public endured a trauma whose scars are still with us. The worst of these was a deep distrust of the Federal government. It had neglected its oversight obligations, bailed out all the large financial institutions, and failed to punish criminal behavior. It was clear to American workers that they couldn’t rely on the protection of their own government. The depth of the distrust was on display in 2016 with the election of Donald Trump and remained vigorous throughout the Covid pandemic. Today, that distrust is entrenched, and a large part of the American electorate is entertaining the idea of abandoning its country’s Constitutional foundation in favor of fascism.
A self-absorbed youth culture
Compulsory education can have bad as well as good consequences. Even as it informs children and builds vital skills, it necessarily segregates them from adults (teachers excepted). Inevitably, their close association creates a distinct culture, one that reflects the desires, dreads, and worldviews of developing minds.
The most representative segment of our youth culture is Gen Z6, which will soon become the most populous generation of all, surpassing the Millennials7. It has qualities that distinguish it from earlier generations and give us an insight into the future. For example, its members are more sensitive to racial and ethnic injustice. They are aware of and alarmed by the changing climate. They strongly favor social diversity. They are more attentive to their health and fitness. They are more likely to exercise, eat healthy meals, and stay hydrated.
They also demand and pay for more entertainment than any other generation. Most have seen more than 25 live concerts in their brief lives. They show their enthusiasm for the performers and their music by standing throughout the performance. A full view of the stage is rare, yet tickets go for an average of $250.
They spend 23% of their free time on social media and 17% on games. Mobile phones are the most popular way to interact with the world.
What I find most worrisome about Gen Z is their grasp of history. They don’t have one. I get the impression that Gen Zers believe time began when they were born. The “Black Lives Matter” movement occurred during their lifetimes, as did awareness of climate change, the Covid pandemic, and Israel-Hamas hostilities. These are real, worrying events. All the rest of history is a timeless jumble that has lost its connection with the present. They don’t know whether “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice” is true because there is no arc to see. Democracy has no roots or philosophical underpinning because nothing has roots or a philosophical underpinning. If I’m right about this, then where is the hand that will steer our ship through the perilous waters ahead?
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1A finding of the Pew Research Center in 2022.
239% also happens to be roughly the number of Americans who are diehard Trump supporters. Must be a coincidence.
3American investigators disagree over whether the Wuhan Institute of Virology released the Covid virus, but they have no doubt that the laboratory was experimenting with it.
4America’s first oligarchy was America’s founders and their families. They dominated national affairs until the Jackson administration. The second was the tycoons who ran the nation during the Gilded Age (Reconstruction until the Theodore Roosevelt administration).
5From 1978 to 2022, the best-paid CEOs saw their compensation grow by 1,209.2% while a typical worker’s income went up by only 15.3%.
6Generation Z, born in the years 1997 to 2012.
7Born in the years 1981 to 1996.
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