The opening line from one of David Brooks’ essays is a sobering one. Brooks says, “There is some sort of hard-to-define spiritual crisis across the land, which shows up in rising depression rates, rising mental health problems.” I am willing to take for granted Brooks’ analysis. It is worth saying he bases that on a recent Pew Research Center study. I have often used information from the Pew Center and find it very reliable.
Brooks’ line reminds me of the famous one-liner from the nineteenth century observer of American culture, Henry David Thoreau. In his famous work, Civil Disobedience, Thoreau notes, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things…” I am sure Brooks has this quotation in mind, although he never cites or refers to it.
Instead, Brooks quotes a number of unnamed folks to illustrate his point. One of the most poignant ones laments, “I no longer find much of anything meaning, fulfilling or satisfying. Whatever used to keep me going has gone. I am currently struggling to find any motivation to keep going.” If I did not know better, I could imagine Brooks had been sitting in one of my classroom and listen to this comment from one of my students. Of course, this may not be representative of the American psyche, it is prevalent enough to take notice and, if possible, address. This is what I like about David Brooks. He does just that.
Brooks is extremely well read. He knows that philosophers and spiritual folks have centuries of thoughts about the meaning of life. For example, he says that these folks usually say meaning in life comes with “some version of serving a cause larger than self.” I would agree. That cause might be God or God’s will. It might be justice for the poor or similar kinds of ego-transcending causes. And now, Brooks throws a wrench into this centuries old logic. He claims, “But the meaning of meaning seems to have changed.” He elaborates. “When people in this survey describe meaning, they didn’t describe moral causes or serving their community, country or God. They described moments they felt loved, satisfied or good about themselves. They described positive personal emotions.”
Essentially, Brooks laments that people now have tended to lose a sense of the transcendent. It is often about me, rather than something beyond myself. I think his analysis is correct. I like the way Brooks articulates it. “Everything feels personalized and miniaturized…The best you can do is find a small haven in a heartless world.” Fortunately, Brooks offers a window on the future that might be brighter than we fear. And it rests with the younger folk---the kind who are indeed sitting in my classroom.
Brooks has just finished a lecture tour. He shares this thought. “…the big thing I encountered was the seismic generation gap. People my age rag on the younger generation for being entitled and emotionally fragile, etc. But this generation is also seething with moral passion and rebelling against the privatization of morality so prevalent in the Boomer and Gen-X generations.
In fact, Brooks shares one of his conversations with college students that gives me hope and that resonates with my own experience. He says, “I’ve also found that college students are eager to talk about a moral project entirely absent from the Pew survey: Doing inner work, growing in holiness. Many seem to have rediscovered the sense, buried for a few decades, that one calling in life is to become a better person. Your current self is not good enough. You have to be transformed through right action.”
I find it intriguing to see the language he uses about the Gen-Z gang. Doing inner work is a lovely phrase and describes very well what I think students in spiritual seeking modes are doing. This inner work does have to do with belonging and with identity issues. It does include a search for meaning and purpose. And typically it is a search for community, although this may be the most elusive for them. I would argue our whole obsession with social media works against the formation of authentic communities. But the obsession with social media does betray the search for community.
I would agree with Brooks that the ultimate answer for human beings is some form of spirituality---or religion. But it is not evident and it is not easy. We have to look for and be creative with the problems of our time. For in the problems we often find the opportunities. For example, if someone has concluded, there is no meaning, then we know meaning is the issue. That is the opportunity.
For those of us who think we know something spiritually, there is work to do because there are so many opportunities.
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