Sunday Smiles

David Strom 2:31 PM | November 19, 2023

I’m in a pretty good mood. I just made a bavette steak with sherry vinegar shallot pan sauce, parmesan-crusted potatoes, and a mixed greens salad. It took about 45 minutes to make and while not the best meal I have ever had, it was in the top 20%.

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It’s nice to live in the 21st century, a time when even Americans of modest means like me can make food fit for a king. Certainly, this is a better meal than almost anybody would have been able to consume in the 18th century.

It infuriates me that young people today have been cheated of an education that would give them an idea of how much better people in the West have it than any group of people at any time in human history. And while not everybody in the world has it as good as we do, outside of regions where war makes it impossible, almost nobody faces famine–a situation unique in human history. Until the past 50 years or so food insecurity was common.

Things have never been so good for humanity, yet the most privileged people in the world–Gen Z and in many cases Millennials–are overcome with dissatisfaction and angst.

I attribute this to a natural tendency for human beings to find fault with the world (material wealth does not equate to happiness, but we tend to look for material causes for unhappiness), and even more to a horrible failure of our education system, which is designed to foster anger and dissatisfaction with the world.

I don’t expect people to be in a state of perpetual bliss, nor to be perfectly satisfied with the state of the world or of society. There is much room for improvement in both, and it would be disappointing to live in a society where the young are taught to be complacent.

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But nobody can intelligently try to improve the world without first understanding it, and clearly the current generation has no idea at all what actually makes the world work and how much progress has been made. Generally speaking, Gen Z is simultaneously more intelligent than prior generations, and vastly more ignorant and without a good sense of perspective on what is possible.

This is a very dangerous combination. Intelligence unmoored from wisdom and knowledge is incredibly dangerous. You wind up with people who confidently move in the wrong direction.

And look around. There is a lot of that going around right now.

Enough ruminations. Time for the smiles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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