My mom recently sent me an interesting article about the Tytler Cycle. According to this societies go through a cycle before they fall apart. After doing a little research there is some discrepancy on whether or not Alexander Tytler did in fact write the following…but none the less I found it interesting.
The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
- From bondage to spiritual faith;
- From spiritual faith to great courage;
- From courage to liberty;
- From liberty to abundance;
- From abundance to complacency;
- From complacency to apathy;
- From apathy to dependence;
- From dependence back into bondage.
According to this where would you say America is today? I spend a lot of time with teenagers. I would say that the overall description of teens today would be apathetic. I think though there could easily be an argument made for the saying that the next generation will be dependent.
I think most people would agree with Aerosmith when they sang, “There’s somethin’ wrong with the world today. I don’t know what it is.”
If you have a teenager, work with teenagers, or even know a teenager I think you’ll be inspired by the following quote. “How radically different would modern American youth culture be if we stopped raising our kids to survive their world and started empowering them with a vision to change it?” – Steven Furtick (Sun Stand Still).
It doesn’t do any good to complain about the world. Instead I think we should try to change it.
Interesting post today. Make you really appreciate the duration of the Roman empire, some 900+ years long. I suspect that the US is in some sort of complacent mindset. I don't get a sense of apathy, but I am not really all that well connected into the world.
I think the idea that there has EVER been a golden age is ludicrous…there are a total of 2 chapters in the Bible that show a golden age, the rest is where we screw it up…in regards to teenagers, they don't have a "junior" Holy Spirit…they have the real deal and He is able to do what He wants through them…what changes apathy is showing them the preeminence of Jesus…He ain't the powder puff they make him out to be in the media or most churches but He is ferocious in love and power…apathy sets in because our idols have to power and never satisfy for any length of time…so the Sunday school answer is always right…JESUS!
As long as things are going well in our own personal world, people often settle into apathy. It is when a freedom, a privilege, a right is taken, that apathy often turns into action. Young people of each generation have a buffer, known as parents (previous generation) who often feel the impact of political or global erosion before teens do.
I couldn't agree with you any more… I truly love the quote of Steven Furtick and it really hits home… I would even go as far as saying that instead of empowering our teens with a vision to change things we as the adults need to get our tails in gear and do just that… we have been complacent far too long and need to take it back… ask a military person what happens when they're deployed in the war zone and get complacent~ it leads to death… we are too great a nation to allow anything or anyone to cause us death! Let us lead by example and involve our youth in those same avenues!
Apathy, we're already there. As a whole I think we lack the fortitude to do anything great.
I think that it's easy as adults to want to change the world, our world, through our children. What I find funny is that we are constantly looking to change it through the next generation and not through ourselves.
I think we should empower our youth with a vision to change their world, and I think the best way to do that is to work to change it ourselves and to engage them in our work.
But what do I know… I'm apathetic.
Funny I posted mine before reading Kristy… Guess I'm just a parrot.
Good point Kristy.