Next Generation Rising: A Heart to Heart to Young Adults
Young adults of America, lend me your attention. I do not underestimate you. You have certainly heard the cliché that the future of the world lies in the hands of the next generation. How cute! Yet when adults say this, they inadvertently fail to truly believe in you. They unconsciously keep in their minds small dreams and small expectations about this world, beaten down by the pessimism of the past and not even realizing it. Because they have failed to see certain things happen, they put from their minds that hopeful things are possible. But I am one adult who refuses to compromise on the possible, and I am challenging you to prove my hope.
. . .
This little book in all of its parts and under all of its unusual chapter headings constitute one, although small by book standards, gigantic letter, from my own heart to yours. Come and spend some time with me and you will see your own world in a new way. I’m not merely attempting to take you on some esoteric journey or some weird trip or anything like that. The whole of this book serves one practical end: coming up with a new conception of how you as the next generation can actually take concrete steps in renewing our world. This central idea is laid out in the chapter titled “The Social Program.”
From my personal story of origins in this country in “American Child,” to a profoundly different perspective of geo-politics in “Gods Eat Gods,” to an even spiritualized contemplation in “Our Spiritual Matrix,” I lead you on a conceptually colorful journey, showcasing a richness of sources from my educational background in the humanities. I then delve into deep, and I warn, intellectually heavy at times reflections about human nature and our contemporary American condition in “Our Adolescent Crisis,” and in “Our Grand, Salvific Formula” essays. Yet I have no doubt in your ability to follow me. If you are able to comprehend the fictional intricacies of Harry Potter, you are certainly capable of peering behind the real veil of our world, even if in the current state of this book we might only be perceiving the rough shadows of things as they are. For as I’ve said, I boast no absolute knowledge, only useful contemplation.
After my “Social Program” paper comes my “Founder’s Disclaimer” essay, intended to identify the main challenge, going forward, for its world changing agenda—the challenge of breaking through the classical complacency in human society. This is the place where you as the next generation must shine, where you must definitively break with the past, from within. Then in my “To Make a Difference” essay, I end the book with the personal story of my localized experience in seeking to initiate this program. Here you will come to appreciate that the social innovator is the true underdog and only the brightest and most worthy moral warriors will first join the noble struggle.
May this be you!
Young adults of America, lend me your attention. I do not underestimate you. You have certainly heard the cliché that the future of the world lies in the hands of the next generation. How cute! Yet when adults say this, they inadvertently fail to truly believe in you. They unconsciously keep in their minds small dreams and small expectations about this world, beaten down by the pessimism of the past and not even realizing it. Because they have failed to see certain things happen, they put from their minds that hopeful things are possible. But I am one adult who refuses to compromise on the possible, and I am challenging you to prove my hope.
. . .
This little book in all of its parts and under all of its unusual chapter headings constitute one, although small by book standards, gigantic letter, from my own heart to yours. Come and spend some time with me and you will see your own world in a new way. I’m not merely attempting to take you on some esoteric journey or some weird trip or anything like that. The whole of this book serves one practical end: coming up with a new conception of how you as the next generation can actually take concrete steps in renewing our world. This central idea is laid out in the chapter titled “The Social Program.”
From my personal story of origins in this country in “American Child,” to a profoundly different perspective of geo-politics in “Gods Eat Gods,” to an even spiritualized contemplation in “Our Spiritual Matrix,” I lead you on a conceptually colorful journey, showcasing a richness of sources from my educational background in the humanities. I then delve into deep, and I warn, intellectually heavy at times reflections about human nature and our contemporary American condition in “Our Adolescent Crisis,” and in “Our Grand, Salvific Formula” essays. Yet I have no doubt in your ability to follow me. If you are able to comprehend the fictional intricacies of Harry Potter, you are certainly capable of peering behind the real veil of our world, even if in the current state of this book we might only be perceiving the rough shadows of things as they are. For as I’ve said, I boast no absolute knowledge, only useful contemplation.
After my “Social Program” paper comes my “Founder’s Disclaimer” essay, intended to identify the main challenge, going forward, for its world changing agenda—the challenge of breaking through the classical complacency in human society. This is the place where you as the next generation must shine, where you must definitively break with the past, from within. Then in my “To Make a Difference” essay, I end the book with the personal story of my localized experience in seeking to initiate this program. Here you will come to appreciate that the social innovator is the true underdog and only the brightest and most worthy moral warriors will first join the noble struggle.
May this be you!