All the urgency and energy
Have turned into complacency.
Now the schools and universities
are turning out a brand new breed of young conservatives.
-The Kinks, over thirty years ago
I gotta say, Martian Bigfoot, I work at a university and none of what you describe generally applies to the students on this campus, at least. What segment of the youngster population are you speaking of?
Those on Mars, apparently.
To me today’s young people seem very nice in general, though my perspective may be clouded by also being a university employee. Definitely smart, maybe a little smug about it (but what generation wasn’t?), pragmatic rather than ideological. Socially adept and mostly thoughtful of others but maybe a little light on philosophical introspection and fairly dismissive of history as a basis for why things are the way they are.
I actually have pretty high hopes for them as they mature.
Which was/is all-ages.
One word: Furries