The kids are not alright

[T]he Prince case is not an administrative problem. It is the symptom of a larger cultural shift. The Boston Globe has urged the South Hadley superintendent to look into “what signals were missed and why”. But there were no signals missed. In a gossipy, vindictive culture that uses “snarky” as a term of praise, it was Prince who was supposed to adjust. One of the reasons anti-bullying must be taught as a set of skills is that we have a wider culture that, in many contexts, holds bullying in high esteem…

Americans are trying to legislate and sue their way out of the “liberation” they imposed on young people starting in the 1960s. This is a familiar pattern: The upshot of the “freedoms” we have won is a web of laws against things that no one ever thought to ban, and draconian penalties for activities that were once considered minor infractions.

Getting rid of the old punitive morality that surrounded sexuality seemed like it would do no one any harm, and relieve a lot of unnecessary anguish and guilt. But young people have not reacted to it as theorised. They will gladly skip the “morality” part. But in a world as socially competitive as that of teen dating, the “punitive” part is simply too useful a tool to do without. So people proclaim themselves free of moral hang-ups, and yet throw around words like “slut” and “whore” with an abandon that no previous generation ever did. It is unlikely there was any moral disapproval in the taunts to which Prince was allegedly exposed. It might have been better if there had been. Moral pretensions might have led her alleged tormenters to look at their own conduct, and reined them in. In place of moralism we have nothing but the will to power and the desire to ostracise – a values system that differs from the old one only in its arbitrariness.