On the occasion of a visit to the US, Mother Teresa was heard to marvel at the poverty of New York compared to Calcutta. She wasn’t talking about material poverty. The US has some of the richest poor in the world, as the Mammon Mob loves to point out. Instead, what struck her even in the 80s and 90s was how spiritually poor America had become.
That spiritual destitution, in sharp contrast to historic material wealth, is a common touchstone in author David V. Stewart’s musings on Generation Y. That new lost generation came up under conditions that could be called swag rich, spirit poor. Inundated with more toys, snacks, and diversions than any prior generation, Gen Y was also the first to come of age in post-Christian America.
Another saint, John Henry Newman, ascribed nostalgia for childhood as guise under which we long for the divine. As Newman saw it, children have a natural closeness to God. So when we pine for the homes, entertainments, or even relationships of our youth, what we’re really longing for is closer relationship with our creator.
That childhood memory of a spiritual dimension to life is probably the reason Gen Y drives the Pop Cult. And their personal memories of the Cold War likely explain another major divide between Gen Y – along with all older generations – and Millennials.
Support for WWIII decreases by age, but the difference in opinion is starkest between Gen Y and Millennials. The former are old enough to not only remember jingoistic anti-Russkie agitprop, they’re old enough to have been propagandized by it. On the other side, twentieth century grievances against Russia have no meaning to Millennials living in perpetual Year Zero.
David discusses these and other generational dividing lines in his latest video. Watch it here:
Then get an exciting glimpse of the post-future in my hit mecha thriller.
