This tribalism is damaging to children. Young people long to belong to something bigger than themselves (and this means bigger than their own generation). Children need community, structure, guidance, and history. In short, they need to belong to a culture instead of being left to form their own. When we adults are unwilling to take responsibility for our natural influence over the next generation (whether through modesty, fear, or laziness) we demonstrate cowardice. Of course, no matter what our modern entertainment portrays, children are still raised in families by parents. No one really turns five-year-olds loose with instructions to save the world.
—Anna Mussmann, “Millennials Think Authority Figures Are Untrustworthy Idiots, And Modern Culture Is To Blame”
I agree, but wholeheartedly.
However, I do recall that way back when I was only slightly more than 5, some grownups shoved a sign saying “Jim Crow Must Go!” into my hands and had me join others in picketing our then-segregated amusement park. Of course, we did have parental supervision (mothers, chiefly).
Guess I’ve revealed both my age and the sort of community in which I was raised.