Protests Fill a Purpose Void for Students

0:01 when we talk about these this this Revolt of the public one of the things that attracts me to to try to under grapple with it as a parent is I don't want my kid to go running out in the street burning Starbucks because of a desire to have a transcendental experience like that's not a productive thing to do I don't think but it's clearly really alluring to a lot of kids to a lot of young people they feel this

0:30 draw that that there's something wrong and and and and I think some of it goes back to some of these things these crises that they're presented from a lot of different angles climate change being one of the big ones right now so help me I think I think actually I would put cost and effect to be completely the opposite oh okay I think the these people are great thunberg perfect example she wrote she she clearly as

0:56 somebody who had certain um personality I don't know what to call them she she forget the words she used but clearly she was somebody who had no friends didn't feel like she had a purpose in life and then she started the school strike movement against global warming that is to me something that somebody who has something missing inside of them that they want to latch on to as go get a catastrophe the whole world look just like me you know we're

1:24 all going to blow up in 12 years I think anybody who has a strong sense of themselves would do the normal thing which to say okay how is that going to happen don't just tell me it's the end of the world tell me what are the stages to get there who has been predicting it for how long how true has it been from then and where do I fit in at and you may become a climate change activist but

1:45 you're not going to become greater thunberg because you have a sense of you didn't have a need to fill to begin with that that those crazy ideas those extreme ideas placing what may be you know geys phenomenon global warming into an apocalyptic model right of of the end of the world you're not going to fall for that you're going to see it us what it is it's it's it's something that's happening on the earth how do we deal

2:10 with it what's the rational way to look at it I I think meaning can be had in many different ways and I am not an expert in that and so I'm not going to talk about it but I think the family is a great producer of meaning because there's a lot of affirmation right there's a lot of affirmation and so you know you you and you have to affirm the things you disagree with sometimes and sometimes the things you you wish you

2:35 could force them towards um but in the end to the extent that the family can be a source of affirmation and meaning to a young person I think that person is going to confront all of that in a very different model from the great a thunberg is like I'm missing something in my life therefore hooray this G to be an end of the world and I'm going to be the jonar of the end of the world I mean

2:58 that's such an important big guard rail against getting sucked into nihilism yes is there other things that strike you as being important in in in you know armor you know I don't know whether to say I don't know what the metaphor is for the you know it might be a diving suit in the in the in the tsunami so you can breathe while you're under under the water but um are there other things that uh you know we we can

3:27 consciously do to I think what need is a really really big surfboard you can't wear armor you got to sink to the bottom you can't wear a suit you just got to roll around you need to be able to Surf it and I yes I don't have a cosmic answer because it's such a complicated landscape but you every one of us in the end find sources that they find credible you know I have people like Barry Wise that I find very

3:54 credible and I can name you a few others so you start by building an informational world around people that in the past you have felt you know had integrity and uh and were articulate and more or less presented a picture of reality that seemed to coincide with what you understood to be the case and then you can it's always good to have others that are kind of over here ranting and raving and you kind of look

4:21 at them and go so is there anything to that there's a little bit of um inoculation that needs to happen other words you can't keep people away from crazy crazy messages online because 90% of them are crazy right in some in some sense right even if it's only the tone is crazy even if the content you know the actual substance is not so you need to be able to navigate through the crazy to the substance uh and if you have C

4:47 certain anchors that help you do that you know the the the very wises of the world uh then you can venture out you know into the more turbulent areas and and you can you at least have a point of reference but you need always a point of reference and the only way you have a point of reference is with an authority that you trust I trust Barry Wise she is an authority to me okay so she has

5:12 Authority she has what the what the old institutions have lost um and you need to find people like that that's that's it's as simple as that if you like this clip we've got more where that came from be sure to watch the full video and don't forget to subscribe to the channel so you won't miss our new videos as they come out each week [Music]