Is this not restating the old-as-humanity trope of "these kids today"? Shit is bad. It is worse than it ever has been before. But that is ALWAYS the case. Nothing ever improves, materially. It all gets worse. And every generation bemoans the fact that shit is worse than when they were a kid. I know, it sounds like I'm being flip. Like I don't fully appreciate the moment or the gravity of the situation. The thing is, I have seen bad situations only get worse throughout my entire life. The crash and hangover from radical freedom and hippie culture, into the 1970's worship of plastic, and materialism, and disco. The absolutely catastrophic explosion of the legal profession - and, totally coincidentally, cocaine - in the 1980's, that led to tort law and slip-and-fall and the methodical picking at the seams of the legal code by freshly minted lawyers with no moral code or experience, that has led directly to our overly litigious society of today. Ronald Reagan defunding and closing mental health care across the nation, and the explosion of psychotic homelessness as a direct result. George Bush, ex-head of the CIA as President. Then his moron kid. Fucking twice! The great liberal savior Obama being completely cuckolded and his every effort stifled by a Republican Senate with no goal or policy other than obstruction. Obama's ramping up of our overseas war follies to unprecedented levels, even under Republican war-mongers, and his total dereliction of duty toward immigrants; a people that this country is founded upon. Nothing gets "better". Ever. There are minor wins here and there, but they are offset by the absolute avalanche of destruction and moral turpitude of the Rugged American Individual... who cashes their government check every week while on disability funded by Medicaid and bemoans the demon spectre of socialism. Women get the right to vote. But the ERA fails to pass. For DECADES, thereby reinforcing the unspoken agreement that a woman is 3/4 of a Real American Man. Is shit bad? Yes. But it always is. And it doesn't get better. Ever. The bird asked the fish, "How's the water?" And the fish replied, "What's water?" We complain that the current rainstorm is making the surface choppy ... while living in the unfathomable deep.
But chaos is fun only when you are young and know it all. When you are married and have a mortgage and kids, donning the black and going out and rioting every night just isn't in the cards. It is neither fun nor productive. So isn't the author really just indirectly using the "these kids today" trope? Can't we restate his whole article as, "For these kids to affect real change, they need to stop burning stuff up, and start going to City Council meetings. Here's a recipe for how to make them do that..." Which is just, "hey kids, grow up. This isn't how Things Get Done." Or is there more nuance I am missing here...?