People under age 35 are walking dead who live in a dystopian hell

Matt5

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Warning Young Folks: Silence When We Are All Gone [YouTube]

This is by Prof. Sam Vaknin who was preparing the syllabus curriculum for next year's first semester on the psychology of the young. In doing his research he ran into some big problems which he discusses in the video.

"I must say that I'm shaken to my foundations."

I edited some of the transcript below:

There are two possibilities, either everything we think we know in psychology is wrong or there's a new subspecies of humanity homo sapiens 2.0 that has nothing to do, psychologically speaking, with all previous generations going back to the time of abraham.

The people I talk to they have no emotions. They think they have emotions. They do emotions. They simulate emotions. They have no emotions.

The people I talk to, the people I read about, but the studies show these people have sex without commitment, without emotion, they openly admit that the sex is perfunctory, fast meaningless. In 20% of the cases they don't know the name of their sex sexual partner. They regard the partner's body as a masturbatory tool. Tool for masturbation a [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse] or a sex dog.

Pass each other like ships in the night. They don't really communicate. I went through a treasure trove, a database, a horde of chat transcripts. It's an abomination. There's no real communication at all [Just very short one-liners.]. So they have no emotions. Their sex is mechanical, short, brief, disappointing. Many of them abstain from sex altogether.

The rate of relationship failure in this group under age 35, the rate of relationships failure is mind-boggling. First of all they have an average of nine relationships before they reach 30. And what they call relationships is also in great doubt and question, but even these exact fake imitation relationships don't work. All of them fail with no exception.

The rate of marriage, which is a proxy for relationships, you don't have to get married to have a relationship of course but it's a good, it's a good proxy, it's a good kind of standard, good test. The rate of marriage has collapsed precipitously. Precipitously a huge portion of these people live as singles most of their lives. Actually there's a hookup culture. That is only on paper. They don't even hook up anymore.

It's a psychopathic landscape. Absolutely psychopathic landscape devoid of empathy. Devoid of connectiveness. Devoid of emotions. Devoid of meaningful sex. Devoid of meaning at all. Rates of anxiety and depression among these these age groups have quintupled, and this was three years before the pandemic. We know that the pandemic has tripled this rate. Addictions, 40 million people in the united states alone are constantly drunk. Constantly drunk in a state of inebriation as defined by the relevant psychological authorities. More than more than half of young people binge drink to the point of alcoholic blackout every single week.

They're aimless. None of them is excited by the future. They go through the motions. They're zombified. They're the walking dead. Of course, the recession didn't help. The great recession, the pandemic didn't help but previous generation had similar minor events like world war ii and the holocaust, you know.

[Watch the video for more.]
 

Tom 1

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Warning Young Folks: Silence When We Are All Gone [YouTube]

This is by Prof. Sam Vaknin who was preparing the syllabus curriculum for next year's first semester on the psychology of the young. In doing his research he ran into some big problems which he discusses in the video.

"I must say that I'm shaken to my foundations."

I edited some of the transcript below:

There are two possibilities, either everything we think we know in psychology is wrong or there's a new subspecies of humanity homo sapiens 2.0 that has nothing to do, psychologically speaking, with all previous generations going back to the time of abraham.

The people I talk to they have no emotions. They think they have emotions. They do emotions. They simulate emotions. They have no emotions.

The people I talk to, the people I read about, but the studies show these people have sex without commitment, without emotion, they openly admit that the sex is perfunctory, fast meaningless. In 20% of the cases they don't know the name of their sex sexual partner. They regard the partner's body as a masturbatory tool. Tool for masturbation a [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse] or a sex dog.

Pass each other like ships in the night. They don't really communicate. I went through a treasure trove, a database, a horde of chat transcripts. It's an abomination. There's no real communication at all [Just very short one-liners.]. So they have no emotions. Their sex is mechanical, short, brief, disappointing. Many of them abstain from sex altogether.

The rate of relationship failure in this group under age 35, the rate of relationships failure is mind-boggling. First of all they have an average of nine relationships before they reach 30. And what they call relationships is also in great doubt and question, but even these exact fake imitation relationships don't work. All of them fail with no exception.

The rate of marriage, which is a proxy for relationships, you don't have to get married to have a relationship of course but it's a good, it's a good proxy, it's a good kind of standard, good test. The rate of marriage has collapsed precipitously. Precipitously a huge portion of these people live as singles most of their lives. Actually there's a hookup culture. That is only on paper. They don't even hook up anymore.

It's a psychopathic landscape. Absolutely psychopathic landscape devoid of empathy. Devoid of connectiveness. Devoid of emotions. Devoid of meaningful sex. Devoid of meaning at all. Rates of anxiety and depression among these these age groups have quintupled, and this was three years before the pandemic. We know that the pandemic has tripled this rate. Addictions, 40 million people in the united states alone are constantly drunk. Constantly drunk in a state of inebriation as defined by the relevant psychological authorities. More than more than half of young people binge drink to the point of alcoholic blackout every single week.

They're aimless. None of them is excited by the future. They go through the motions. They're zombified. They're the walking dead. Of course, the recession didn't help. The great recession, the pandemic didn't help but previous generation had similar minor events like world war ii and the holocaust, you know.

[Watch the video for more.]

What leads you to think there is anything new about this? 'Nasty, brutish and short' isn't a quote from last week.
 
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Tom 1

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Wasn't modern life supposed to be less brutish? I guess not.

Well, in a lot of ways it is. How engaged people are in life varies from one person to the next, but in general the average person has a far better chance of living a rich and fulfilling life than at pretty much any other time in the past.
 
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Eftsoon

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Things are bad. Yes. Much of this is prophecy not cultural commentary however. Previous generations had tragic rates of domestic violence and mental health was simply undiagnosed. Functional alcoholism was also a reality - and went unreported since there were no support groups or 12 step programmes. It's nigh on impossible to compare generations due to the complex factors at play.

Yes, previous generations endured WWII with great equanimity, society was far more cohesive and communities hadn't been gutted by corporatism. At the same time, it's difficult to know the scale of mental health crises. We have to do this retrospectively.

I will say however that we are becoming more and more dissociated from reality. There is a widening gap between our souls and the world, so that we live a very mediated reality. Instead of experiencing the world in an open and authentic way, we are increasingly being driven into a way of being which is defined by technologies. This process started with mass media, but now, we are slowly being changed and manipulated by our technology. We are thinking and feeling with our tools. The medium is definitely the message.
 
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Eftsoon

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Also, Vaknin's commentary has been covered in detail by everyone from Debord to Baudrillard. Our reality is being substituted for signs and symbols, and everything is mediated through these things. It's been apparent since the 1950s. The global lockdown and internet culture have perhaps accelerated the inevitable however.
 
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Norbert L

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What leads you to think there is anything new about this? 'Nasty, brutish and short' isn't a quote from last week.
I agree, never mind the length of time the word hedonism has been with us. Not that I paid much attention when I first heard that word in the 70's.

Even back then the culture was re-interpreting the meaning of life from from Loretta Lynn singing "Wine, Women and Song" to Ian Dury's retake on that theme to "Sex and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll", with the very next line of that song which says, "Is all my brain and body need".

However in my view this trend has escalated as our society has become more materialistic in the sense we have more things now to be materialistic about.
 
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Paulomycin

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Going through this thread, you can immediately tell who actually watched the video vs. those who didn't--but still want to post as-if they did. There are some key distinctions the professor made very clear here. This isn't the same-old same-old "kids R more rotten these days" observation.
 
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Eftsoon

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There are some key distinctions the professor made very clear here. This isn't the same-old same-old "kids R more rotten these days" observation.

Well that's exactly what he's saying. He isn't particularly subtle:
I can't find a single point of light in this picture
40 percent of this generation cannot properly read a bottle a label on a bottle
one third of young people are unhedonic incapable of pleasure in anything

These statistics are very strange...

There are however some golden points in there. The action vs emotion distinction is excellent. The problem is that he is consumed by the idea that young people are brain dead and only capable of action without emotional conviction. He dismisses all the protest movements with a casual hand wave. I would argue that while they are far more sophisticated and diverse than the ones he cites in the 60s. Yes, there are some extremely concerning trends, and the overall picture is VERY bleak, but we live in fascinating times in the sense that we simultaneously have a young vanguard who show earth shattering potential.


As a slight aside, when I look through the music that's available today, I am also stunned. When you go a little way beyond the hyper-commercial fare, there is a seething and broiling foment of absolutely incredible music that's being created. The levels of complexity and the emotional maturity are jaw dropping. It challenges Vaknin's commentary.

It's just too one sided and rhetorical really. I admire our current young generation. I worry about them, but my despair is aimed more at the architecture of society. This is my main issue with the presentation. It needs to focus on the source of the issue. That would produce a far far more fruitful analysis.
 
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Eftsoon

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Well perhaps in his small sample, but there's no way that that sample is representative of western youth at large. 1/3 suffering from major depression? 40% can't read? It's clear that he is sensationalising. There are far more balanced portraits out there. Remember that this is a generation who are more socially engaged than most of their elders. To say that they are incapable of following through is not quite honest. I do agree that they are too maximal - too widely dispersed.

Vaknin's asssessment of this generation as psychopathic is also outlandish given their commitment to social engagement and equalty.
 
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Paulomycin

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Well perhaps in his small sample,

You call that a small sample?

but there's no way that that sample is representative of western youth at large. 1/3 suffering from major depression? 40% can't read? It's clear that he is sensationalising.

I don't think he is. He'd be threatening his reputation in multiple fields of expertise that are generally immune to hype (or at least they should be).

There are far more balanced portraits out there.

Such as?

Remember that this is a generation who are more socially engaged than most of their elders.

Social media is not social.
 
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Eftsoon

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You call that a small sample?



I don't think he is. He'd be threatening his reputation in multiple fields of expertise that are generally immune to hype (or at least they should be).



Such as?



Social media is not social.

His sample size is quite limited. The Twenge and Campbell study is called the Narcissism epidemic and appears to be a polemical piece as opposed to a formal study. The Ornstein book is, again, not a study. It's a commercial book. The methodology is not as rigorous. Who knows about the other studies.

The actual statistics don't bear him out. Illiteracy rates of 40% are wild unless he's saying that they don't understand the chemical composition of their food. Of course, that's not confined to Generation Z.


What We Know About Gen Z So Far is a neutral, unsensationalised portrait of Generation Z.

I am also not referring to social media. Look at the youth activism in generation Z.
 
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Paulomycin

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His sample size is quite limited. The Twenge and Campbell study is called the Narcissism epidemic and appears to be a polemical piece as opposed to a formal study. The Ornstein book is, again, not a study. It's a commercial book. The methodology is not as rigorous.

And yet you didn't state what the (minimum) sample size should be.

Who knows about the other studies.

Mmm-hmm. That, or we can just call this a case of editorial spin-doctoring.
 
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Eftsoon

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And yet you didn't state what the (minimum) sample size should be.



Mmm-hmm. That, or we can just call this a case of editorial spin-doctoring.

We don't know what his sample size was. He doesn't give this. That's a pretty bad sign.
I'm not sure what you mean by editorial spin. He states that he is basing his research on an unknown collection of papers. None of these are cited. He only names the popular books he referred to. We don't know anything about his methodology. He makes bold claims, so the onus is on him to be methodologically transparent.
 
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