GENERATION Z IS CROWDING THE ROAD MOST TRAVELLED, AND IT AIN’T PRETTY

The best way out is always through - Robert Frost

The doctor told my elderly uncle to walk every day to help the circulation in his legs. “Walk through the pain,” the doc added, “it will be better on the other side.”

That’s good advice for many things.

Like marriage.

When problems infect a marriage, it’s easy to throw in the towel. Disillusioned when the honeymoon is over, some are unwilling or unable to confront uncomfortable issues. Problems can be worked out, relationships can mend. As the doctor said, it will be better on the other side.

How about school?

How many kids blow off their educations and their futures because classes are too hard or require too much effort? Struggling through tough courses can be stressful, but for those who are willing to put out the effort, the rewards are enormous. From the third grader who hates math and refuses to deal with it, to the college freshman who drops out when the first bad grades come in, the world of education is strewn with the bodies of those who were not willing to hang tough. They lack grit, they lack determination; when the going gets tough the tough get going; others retreat.

Ditto for parenting.

While there is much joy in raising children, the road can be painful. The father of a teenage girl told me he doesn’t want to know what she does at night. He doesn’t want confrontations and uncomfortable discussions. But when parents and children struggle together, the children (sometimes) recognize that their parents care. Walking through the pain of those horrible scenes may result in a better parent-child relationship.

How about jobs?

Some quit at the first sign of trouble. The new job is stressful and difficult. The boss is overbearing. The job is boring. Coworkers are unfriendly. Instead of working harder or putting in extra hours they quit. Those with tenacity and grit walk through the pain, master the job, get a promotion, make new friends, and as a result, feel better about themselves and their place in life.

“The Road Less Travelled,” by M. Scott Peck, begins with the words, Life is difficult. Peck’s book was on the bestseller list for an extraordinary fifteen years, from 1978 to 1993, a remarkable feat. The road less traveled – the one we tend to avoid – is the road on which we actively confront problems; the road most travelled is the is the road of avoidance.

Peck’s message is this: “Most do not fully see this truth that life is difficult. They moan, more or less incessantly – about the enormity of their problems, their burdens and their difficulties.” We need, writes Peck, to stop whining about our problems and start taking action to solve them.

Those who are willing to tackle problems have more meaningful lives. We learn through facing problems. We grow. We Improve. We gain confidence and courage. Maybe even wisdom. Peck quotes Benjamin Franklin who said, “Those things that hurt, instruct.”

But not always.

Realistically, some of life’s problems are intractable; there are no solutions; they can’t be solved; walking through the pain gets you nowhere. That’s why marriages end with “irreconcilable differences.” That’s why parents of difficult children give up after many years of trying and failing. Nothing more can be done.

Walking through the pain doesn’t always work.

The current generation, Generation Z, is not into “things that hurt.” The Road Most Travelled today is crowded with the younger generation. Roughly 45% of people ages 18 to 29 are still living at home with their families. They are dragging along the road, living with mom and dad, hooking-up, collecting unemployment, unfocused. Meanwhile, the road is littered with hundreds of thousands of annual fatal Fentanyl deaths.

A recent survey by Intelligent.com revealed that a growing number of employers are frustrated with Gen Z's lack of readiness for the workforce. The study, which surveyed 966 business leaders involved in hiring decisions, revealed that approximately 75 percent of companies found some or all of the recent Gen Z college graduates—aged 27 and under—to be "unsatisfactory" workers.

Six in 10 companies reported firing Gen Z hires due to performance issues, a lack of motivation, inadequate communication skills and unprofessional behavior. About half of employers cited a lack of initiative and professionalism as key reasons these hires didn't work out. One in five hiring reported that Gen Z employees often fail to manage workloads, arrive late to work or exhibit unprofessional behavior like using inappropriate language and missing deadlines.

Generation Z is a cohort having trouble growing-up. Or more to the point, they don’t want to grow-up.

The U.S. has a major issue of prime-age men permanently exiting the labor force. Abigail Shrier, author of the informative and eye-opening book, Bad Therapy: Why The Kids Aren’t Growing Up, blames this generational malaise on the trend of mental health professionals and parents who use therapy and understanding, instead of punishing and holding children accountable.

CONCLUSION

The effort we expend working through pain is the toll we pay on the road less traveled. That toll gets us across the bridge to better times and keeps individuals and families strong.

The causes of the current crisis in the United States that has been developing for seventy-five years is multifaceted. The decline in the value of work is one example. The lack of tenacity and ambition is another. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society enabled the current inability or unwillingness to struggle when necessary. These programs were well-intentioned and did their share of good, but these social safety nets - unemployment insurance, welfare payments, food stamps, social security, Medicare, Medicaid, and workmen’s comp, took the fear out of unemployment. My dad told me that during the Depression, men would awaken in a sweat in the middle of the night, thinking, “My God, how will I support my family.” The social safety nets have helped negate those fears, but among the unintended consequences are avoidance of dealing with issues, because mom and dad, along with a paternalistic government, will take care of them.

Pursuing happiness does not only mean chasing after life’s goodies but also means pursuing solutions and working through difficult times. When an entire generation, supported by a deaying and corrupt zeitgeist, detours around the road of responsible behavior, the only road left is over a cliff.