First of all, my best wishes for the new year. I wish you good health and also the necessary (mental) peace. It may be a cliché, but they exist for something.
I have read and written extensively in the past few weeks but not blogged. One of the things that struck me while reading was how there seems to be a shift in how we as a society seem to think about raising our children and young people. No, the reason is not the New Year’s riots – although they do fit into the picture – but the discussion that arose in the Trump camp between team Musk on the one hand and Trump’s MAGA supporters on the other. While the tech billionaires still want to see people enter the US to ensure the necessary employees, MAGA supporters like Laura Loomer absolutely did not like that.
Underneath this discussion, there was a whole section on raising children. For example, Vivek Ramaswamy described how he wants to move away from the American prom culture and pleas for a youth culture where excellence and innovation are central again.
Doesn’t this sound very familiar? You see similar ideas popping up in several countries, including ours. It also fits in with pleas from both the left and the right for a tougher hand, more rules, more control, more seriousness, more guidance.
Suppose there comes a bidding war between countries and regions in this way, with a discourse in which the youth are not only the future but must also actively help make the future possible with a hint of the importance of the higher good. In that case, we are more likely to return to the ideas of John Locke, and the influence of J.J. Rousseau seems to be waning further.
It also contrasts what is essential for the child now and what is necessary for the child later. Or how individual interest relates to collective interest.
Oh yes, at the same time I think that the children of tech billionaires themselves will not necessarily undergo this trend. There is often a difference between thinking about ‘the upbringing’ of ‘the youth’ and acting with one’s own child or children.