Why Are Young People So Frightened?

The mental health crisis among America’s young people is well documented and frequently commented upon. The New York Post reports on a recent psychological study:

Gen Z perceives the world to be more dangerous than any previous generation in modern history, according to a new study.
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“Despite risk analysis research demonstrating that we live in one of the safest times ever, Gen Z experiences a disparity in risk assessment from their older counterparts, essentially having the perception that risk is everywhere they turn,” lead researcher Professor Gabriel Rubin, of Montclair State University in New Jersey said in a statement.
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The research has shown that Gen Z is presented with a world in which things are either safe or dangerous but have failed to understand that the many risks in life can be weighed.

“This research has so far revealed that the disparity in risk assessment has led many young people to feel anxious, depressed and even suicidal — especially young girls and women,” Rubin explained.

Why are young people so frightened, compared with prior generations? I speculate that there are several reasons.

First, the hysterical nature of contemporary news coverage. Children are told that the world is coming to an end due to global warming, and they suffered through the absurdly over-hyped covid epidemic. When a kid is forced to stay home and, when he ventures out, go around wearing a mask, no wonder he concludes that the world is a dangerous place.

Second, the feminization of our society and in particular our schools. Women have pretty much taken over our country, and especially the education of the young. It is a biological fact that women tend to emphasize security and men are more oriented to risk-taking. But most kids don’t have a lot to do with men. The institutions that historically have exposed them to men, like, for example, the Boy Scouts, tend to be in decline.

Third, the philosophy of Safetyism. This is, I think, closely linked to feminization, but the ubiquity of this emphasis on safety above all, the attempted exclusion of all risk–as though one could get up in the morning without taking numerous risks–stands as a causal factor on its own.

Fourth, financial incentives for mental health diagnoses. An unbelievable percentage of American kids are now being classified as “special needs.” Why is that? Because money follows the diagnosis. When I was growing up, sure, some kids were a little odd in various ways. (You could argue that most of us were.) But most of those kids grew up to live normal lives, and some of them got rich. But money changes everything, and the more “special needs” children a school has, the more money it gets. QED. Having been diagnosed and stereotyped, it is no wonder that this vast army of the allegedly impaired don’t approach life with a sense of confidence.

No doubt there are other factors, but those are some that occur to me. The consequences of raising a fearful generation are unknown, but perhaps catastrophic. Our country and our civilization were built by people who took risks. Sometimes they paid with their lives, but sometimes, too, they achieved extraordinary things. We can only hope that the venturesome traditions that have animated our culture for centuries have not entirely died out.