Why Is This an ‘Insecure Generation’?

“THERE’S an undercurrent of fear, so people want to believe in some kind of controlling force which they hope will look after them.”

Reporting these words of an Oxford university student, London’s The Sunday Telegraph last April revealed an unexpected increase in religious participation among undergraduates. This trend, so out of keeping with extreme political involvement of previous years, reflects what the newspaper calls “the uncertainties of an insecure generation.”

In an age of unparalleled prosperity such a situation is something of a paradox. It is something like a house built of cards, bright and showy, yet delicately stacked and doomed to fall. People sense this instability. What makes this present generation feel so “insecure”? Is it possible to determine the source of this ‘undercurrent of fear’​—and to overcome it?

Value of Education

Ever since the end of the second world war, educational facilities have been greatly extended in most advanced countries. Yet it cannot be said that in itself education holds out security. As a means to an end, to what will it lead? That is the important question. Alas! For so many today the end of the educational road is a dead end, with no jobs and only bleak prospects​—in a word, insecurity.

Currently in the British Isles there are one and a half million unemployed and the figure seems set to rise. Already there are more young people out of work than at any time since the war. One young lad of 16, overcome by depression at being unable to secure employment despite a great deal of effort, hanged himself. A member of his local Educational Committee commented: “This was an extreme case, but it illustrates the anguish many youngsters go through.” To go straight from school into the ranks of the unemployed is the real fear of many young people, a fear directly linked with the feeling of insecurity.

Hong Kong also has a progressive society in which conditions put extreme pressure on young people. For the majority, education with a view to getting a high-paying job is what is looked to for security. Inevitably failure spells disaster. This leads not just to frustration but likewise to depression and tragedy.

A group calling itself the Hong Kong Samaritans is reported as having monitored 1,225 telephone calls from depressed students in a six-day period in August, 1977. The Hong Kong Standard of August 13, 1977, summed up the situation as follows: “Our education system, as well as the dollar-chasing materialistic attitude of our society which blinds us from seeing basic human values in their right merit, play a major part in driving the young people to suicide.” Yet, with an increasing number of students and a decreasing number of job opportunities, the pressure to get to the top of the tree can hardly diminish.

Modern Technology

What, though, of modern technology? Will this not open up new fields of endeavour and employment? Many have fondly thought so in past decades, but no longer. In fact, authorities are now sounding the warning of a dramatic increase in unemployment in the immediate years ahead. One group of Cambridge, England, economists recently went so far as to predict a figure of some five million unemployed in the British Isles, likely within the space of 10 years. Why this gloomy forecast?

Rapid developments in microelectronics have accelerated automation to a previously unsuspected degree. Heralded originally as the means of breaking the routine of repetitious work, it is now realized that computer technology can also effectively replace intellectual work. A skilled draughtsman, by way of example, may take 25 times as long on a project as a computer, programmed to design. With efficiency and profits in mind, it is not hard to guess what happens to the human element.

Various solutions have been put forward​—early retirement, shorter working weeks, more and longer holidays each year, as well as the inevitable raising of the school-leaving age. Yet all, or any one, of these cannot solve the problem, and the basic insecurity of employment remains.

In normal circumstances it is fair to say, as the Bible does, that “if anyone does not want to work, neither let him eat,” but what of a man who is eager to work and who is denied the opportunity? (2 Thess. 3:10) Sadly, today many fall into that category, and in countries where no social-aid system exists they are simply forced to eke out an existence in a state of perpetual insecurity.

Delinquency

“Work banishes those three great evils, boredom, vice and poverty.” So philosophized the 18th-century French writer Voltaire. If capable, trained men and women are unable to turn their hands to an honest day’s work, it is hardly to be wondered at when today many turn instead to a life of crime. Frustration has its outlet, as is seen in the British Isles where about 38 percent of all crimes are committed by unemployed people.

Even more alarming has been the related upsurge of violent terrorism throughout the world. Trouble in Italy has been fanned by an insecure and alienated younger generation (20 percent of Italy’s college graduates qualify for positions that simply do not exist) and mirrors the unhappy state of affairs in many European countries. Yet, seeking to change the “system” by force and intimidation can only breed its own insecurity.

Many authorities turn to larger and stronger police forces and stricter legislation to stem the tide of crime. Certainly such restraining steps may go a good way in containing criminal activity, but inevitably the people of decent society pay heavily for their security. Not only is the burden of the law to be borne in taxation, but also restrictions curtail the freedom of all society to some degree. There can be no substitute for honesty and integrity to restore the desired security.

International Tension

Will international problems get out of control? This fear affects those of the younger generation too as they seek to plan their lives. They know that their own fathers and grandfathers have lived through the insecurity created by war. Yet they see world leaders still unwilling to agree among themselves, and international deception and intrigue continue to put peace in peril.

The arms race goes on unabated and students are well aware that a quarter of all scientists spend their time on offensive weapons development. Perhaps less known is the fact that each year the average worker forfeits the equivalent of two weeks of his wages to pay for the arms race. The present generation may say that they wish to ‘Make Love​—Not War,’ but they realize that they are not the masters of their own destiny in the important matter of world international security.

Problems of Retirement

For those at the other end of man’s short life-span there is no letup on the feeling of insecurity. How many senior citizens worry as they see their life savings eroded away by continuous inflation? Thrift and saving seem no longer to be virtues meriting praise. As one advertiser succinctly put it in encouraging readers to go into debt and negotiate a loan: “The way prices are rising these days, it doesn’t pay to save for things you want.”

This philosophy of life may well suit the younger generation, but what of those whose retirement income is limited and who tend to rely on their savings? Even in countries where State aid is more readily available, despair among the elderly can still take its toll. In the United States one suicide in four involves a person over 65 years of age.

Living in this generation with all its problems and uncertainties, is there any stability? What can be secure? We invite you to consider the evidence as you ask yourself the question: