off the curve

is protest culture collecting the lost children?

there was a surprisingly charming little documentary called “behind the curve” about a group of flat earthers. it features mark sargent, the “king of flat earth” a sort of awkward guy who lives with him mom and provides the center for a far flung group of folks. it’s obviously the first time in his life he’s been the center of attention. it becomes identity for him.

the movie has unrequited love, quirky characters, and an oddly engaging plot.

it’s worth a watch.

what shines through most in this exploration of a culture is not the belief that globes are a lie, though many of the folks portrayed seem to think so, but rather that this is a sort of community of people who are a bit lost and seeking belonging. not everyone at the “flat earth” conventions even seems that into earths or flatness. some make wooden motorcycles or other crafts. they just like being there and if the price for being there is saying “the world is flat,” then so be it.

they all get together and hang out and bond and feel affinity. it’s a peer group, a social club for the somewhat socially maladroit.

in the end, the beliefs come to seem harmless, another arbitrary collection of arbitrary concern like rooting for a sports team.

it seemed to me that they were desperate for fellowship. the globe refutation was incidental.

and i suspect more things than many realize work like this.

does it provide community? does it provide friends and a sense of purpose?

these are important questions.

they tend to be easier questions for “the cool kids” who are popular and smart, attractive and athletic, accomplished and extroverted.

but not everyone is that kid.

but that does not mean they do not want somewhere to feel wanted and seen too.

the problem is that many of these more alienated groups congeal around low identity people and woke seems like some sort of final form toxic manifestation of this.

between the munchausens by proxy of the guilt ridden and purposeless trust funders who seek to champion the “marginalized” because they themselves are so privileged and bland to the inescapable allure of ideals like “the marginalized should be lionized” to large groups of very marginal people it’s the perfect trap.

it snares the the “don’t quite belong here” or “not quite keeping up” parts of academia, the kids too awkward and weird to go to parties, the ones who got in on diversity and equity and whatever else and cannot hack engineering and get sucked into the “explorations of aggrievement through indigenous pottery” department and wind up radicalized not because they are radicals or wanted to be, but because it was the low energy path to feeling some sort of purpose and unity in a university environment that was simply too much for them. it sucks in rich kids furious at their own privilege and ready to stick it to mom and dad and their whole worldview.

it’s a big tent.

it happens to a meaningful (and seemingly increasing) percentage of people especially in college as the ranks of those enrolled have swelled and not it’s not all top decile, but top half and maybe even under.

college is their crucible. their first time alone. they wound up someplace they could not hack it socially, perhaps academically, and they grabbed any floating branch to stop from drowning.

(i doubt it’s a coincidence that these protests always seem to pop off right before finals…)

and like much of humanity and personal history, it’s written on their faces.

first it was climate, then BLM, now this. they love the masks that covid gave them and still wear them outside. anonymity, unanimity, performance. they are the wood behind the spear, the low identify troops looking for anyone who looks marginalized and confident to lead them or to profess to champion.

it’s always the same with these weaksauce ersatz intellectuals: you sprinkle a little marxism on them and they all think they are the vanguard ready to take their rightful place leading the benighted masses.

this is the dissertation topic of the protester leading the occupation of the columbia administration building.

you be the judge.

and it feels good. it feels like acceptance.

and narcissistic and pathological people are confident and radiant and will happily get crazier if you humor them.

they become the centers of the ice crystals that form.

they find attention and community.

and amusing, apparently “the revolution forgot to pack a lunch” as their fearless spokesfolks harangue the school administrators to feed them and bring them water. the people who just used hammers to smash windows and break into and occupy a building now want catering (or at least a right to go get takeout). (video link)

in her mind it comes down to “what kind of community and obligation columbia feels toward its students. do you want students to die of dehydration and starvation?”

hey, we paid for a meal plan!

yes, and the dining hall where we serve food is right over there. feel free to leave this building where you are trespassing and go get some.

are they starving for food or for some semblance of a sense of belonging that shimmies away every time they reach for it?

these are not stormtroopers, they’re awkward kids with sort of weird vibes and not overmuch maturity. they love the uniforms and the uniformity and the unity.

and honestly, a lot of them seem like they just wanted to be invited to a party.

leave the protest matter aside and just ponder the pattern: this seems such an odd and un-self-aware pose for students to strike.

you owe us community.

we owe you nothing.

we take your building.

you need to bring us snacks while we do it.

that’s not community, that’s entitlement. it’s the one sided ask of a child for accommodation. it’s the ask of a child because these ARE children.

for them, this is as much pantomime or LARP as protest.

this is not che guevara, it’s someone who’s sort of lost and looking for identity.

when asked basic questions, they struggle to even elucidate why they are here, what they are protesting, why this is useful, what it’s for.

and i think most of them really don’t know.

because i think that the “cause at hand” is not really why most of them are here.

they just kind of fell of the curve and want to get back on.

“i wish i was more educated!”

because i’m willing to wager she did not go home to read up on this.

just a hunch.

i’m sure there are sincere, informed advocates for DEI and global warming and BLM and palestine and whatever other “new new thing” has popped up in these protests. perhaps they have points, perhaps they don’t and we can agree or disagree with them, but that’s not really what i’m driving at.

the cause itself is incidental and irrelevant and there is always a new one.

the interesting bit is that it’s always the same people embracing it.

over and over.

the chants change, but it’s the same segment of the same lost generation of kids bereft of identity and seeking community but having no idea what community actually means, like they saw a picture of it once and they know how they want it to make them feel but that they have no idea how to actually join it as member and contribute.

they don’t know who they are, so they adopt tribal markers and identities and ideologies and mistake mass formation for civilization in hopes of finding acceptance of some sort. but it comes up short because there’s really nothing there and can be nothing there unless they themselves are present. you cannot be a productive and meaningful part of thing without first being a productive person with an internal sense of self-meaning. and this is what we stripped off these kids are they were raised to always get trophies and fetishize aggrievement, to eschew attainment and self governance in favor of performative demand.

it’s sort of a death spiral for them because each time they seek community and try really hard and still fail to find it because they are not fundamentally capable of being present in it, they will grow more frustrated and more alone, always apart and never a part, always comparing their empty internal landscapes to the happy and purposeful seeming external facades they see on #InstagramProtest.

it’s not a whole generation. of course it’s not. but it’s a meaningful enough part of it that i think we need to start taking a hard look at just what has gone so wrong here to leave so many children and young adults so bereft, bothersome, and bewildered. we have to ask how so many at college are clearly not ready for college.

because the simple fact is that you can have this:

or you can have this:

and there’s not really much middle. it’s time to get these kids some lawn darts and some benign neglect and let them build themselves through trial and consequence, growth and struggle. and protest glamping for cause you never quite grasped but feel a need to get overly intense about despite never having even hear of them last week ain’t it.

the best ones will always find a way out, but this is eating many of the others alive and turning them on themselves as they mistake “useful idiothood” for “meaning” and “community” and “purpose.”

social media just acts like an amplifier. you see it all, the surface looks so shiny. you compare that glossy photoshopped outside to your tattered grainy inside and you want to go and join. but external seeming is not internal meaning and mistaking the two is a serious and debilitating life-trap.

and we really need to start thinking about how to help these kids and young adults out.

and not filling their heads with any more garbage or congratulating them for having filled their own heads with such seems like a good start.

tough love is, well tough.

but sometimes the buttercups need toughening up.

we kind of owe it to them.

this is no way to go through life.