One could argue that mankind is in a second progressive era. From Black Lives Matter to Me Too to the Humane Society, there is an activist group for everything and anything that could be considered a problem. This is certainly nothing new, at least for the United States: the NAACP who dates back over a century, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union who fought for sobriety nearly 50 years before Prohibitions and the very Sons of Liberty who started this country all fight for what they believe is right. Despite all of this activism, it is fair to say that the human race has simply settled with the state of the world.
The United Nations has 17 Sustainable Development Goals, including “Zero Hunger,” “No Poverty” and “Gender Equality”. Making such lofty desires as core wishes is admirable to be sure, but also unreasonable and most people are aware of that.
Most people step outside and look around at the world they are in, at all of its problems, big and small, and simply shrug their shoulders. Be it a false sense of security with reformation groups or a sense of defeat from the global disasters that have so far defined the new millennium, people have given up. It is difficult to imagine a generation that grew up with one global disaster after another, being anything but pessimistic. It should surprise no one that this pessimism is persisting.
“That’s just the way it is” has risen in the level of catastrophe that the phrase can describe. It used to be that when someone complained about having to go to the DMV, one would respond, “That’s just the way it is.” Now that is said when another school shooter claims the lives of more innocent children.
This “new normal” is the gateway to a world in which people adapt to anything they are faced with. One could say this is admirable. One could also say this is foolish. In either case, the human race has rolled with the punches for a long time; long enough to leave the human race that just wants to see tomorrow.
Regardless of whether this passive observation, though littered with every activist group imaginable, is an act of courage or cowardice, the human race is acting passively. Freedom organizations can only truly be fighting for so long, especially when many of them are fighting against each other. When all is said and done, the human race is left with a generation that simply wants to survive. And who can blame them?
This is not the age of modernism. This is the age of nihilism.
