I am encouraged by the land swell of young twenty-somethings who are growing restless and defiant to a corporate and government system they see as tyrannical, unsustainable, untruthful, and, ultimately, hopeless. The irony of this is that this generation was groomed to be the mea culpa of overt political correctness, multiculturalism, homogenized, homo-everything.
If you just happen to be one of the young and restless, I want to share four truths with you that I only wish I had known at your age. In my twenties, the world was a smaller place and government agendas were covert, subtle, and incremental. Today, the gloves are off, and I consider that a good thing. What is happening in our country and in our world should scare the proverbial poop out of you. Now you just need to know that the feeling you have in the pit of your stomach that all is not right in the world is spot on.
#1 BE YOUR OWN MAN OR WOMAN
Your education, your government, and your talent is not going to result in a fulfilling and satisfying life better than the previous generation, but you already know this. And let’s face it, your parents’ lives were not all that good anyway. As a young adult, you likely graduated high school with no education in real history or real science and absolutely no economic or financial wherewithal. Then either you or your parents signed you on as an indentured servant to the high cost of continuing education, which frankly, any degree you receive is not worth the piece of paper it is printed on and can’t buy you that “real” job you so desperately need.
Sorry Johnny, Sally, and Abdul, there are no jobs in America that will pay you a real wage. They got shipped off shore around the time your parents were building their 401ks in their twenties. And at the risk of being a smart aleck, you don’t need a college education to understand that everything you purchased, say in the last 48 hours, is manufactured somewhere else. So what, you say? I don’t want to work in a factory. Gotch ya, but it also takes accountants, business leaders, attorneys, constructions workers, and others to run a plant that actually produces something.
Ask yourself what skills, at age 18 or 25, you really have? Can you fix or grow something? Can you sew, work wood, cut hair, repair a vehicle, or take care of a number of small farm animals? Do you even know where your food comes from and in what season? People, we should know some of this.
#2 BE SELF-SUFFICIENT
So your hard work at school has paid off and, as a result, you find yourself on a snowy Monday at a desk, inside a gray cubicle, with a headset and a keyboard earning, on average, about $7 more per hour than minimum wage. Congratulations, you have arrived! Yet, you still can’t afford to live on your own or achieve the lifestyle you see on the internet, Netflix, or in the movies you download (gotta pay Ole Sallie Mae). Consequently, you feel depressed and cheated, but you are surviving on Prozac, the McDonald’s Value Menu, and the kindness of your aging parents. What the heck are you doing?
If life had a reset button, I’d say hit it and then stop paying for things you can make or do yourself. Work like an animal at two jobs and save every penny, then go buy yourself a place outside the city limits, a place where you can control the water in your well and grow your own food. You’re going to need to. Hyperinflation is coming, as is scarcity. Everything your sorry self consumes is loaded off of a truck. Do you really want to be that dependent? Do you really want to be in another gray cubby five years later for another $2.50 per hour? Heck no, you don’t! Learn to make and then sell your own cheese, bread, yogurt, flowers, produce, farm house tables, solar panels, medicinal herbs, whatever. Get a real education off the internet while it is still a free medium. Stop with the selfies and the partying and network with other young people who you can learn from and get encouragement. Learn from those who are actually doing something.
And those aging parents of yours? They’re going to need a place to live when their pensions get stolen and the unsustainable market fatally crashes and a new currency system like the North American Euro—think Greece austerity—gets implemented. And it is going to happen. Even if your parents own their own home, they don’t really own it if and when they can’t pay the taxes. A few years of unemployment, stolen savings, and no pension and before you can say, “jack rabbit,” the government will take your parent’s house along with everything else they can get their hands on.
#3 BE A REALIST
I know your mother told you everyone loves you, but it isn’t true. No one loves you but her. Just kidding, but I need you to stop believing in fairy tales. The government isn’t here to keep your world safe or protect you from germs, radical Islamists, or give you a job. Try turning off your phone and actually reading–on your own and not to pass a test–a few books about world history. It does repeat itself. This government, at this time and this place, seeks absolute power and control over you, your habits, and your entire life.
In fact, they already have power over where and how your food is grown, what news you see, what chemicals they dump in your water, whether you receive any health care, your “education,” and your speech and privacy. But this is just the beginning. Uncle Sam is coming for your internet, guns, cars, and your garden in the not so distant future, but you still have time to opt out of the game, prepare, and learn a few new tricks. I am hopeful that if you have read this far, you’re a smart little cookie who understands that when only the government is allowed to own firearms, because everyone knows guns kill people, we are in big trouble.
Just because you were taught that we have a free and democratic society since preschool, does not make it so. You must develop the skill of critical thinking, that is, thinking for yourself whether something is true or not. Information repeated on the internet, network news, or by professors is just information repeated. It is not a good harbinger of whether or not something is true. Finally, critical thinking isn’t just about mentally evaluating whether something is true or not, you must be able to discern whether the idea has merit and who stands to benefit and who will lose. Although you can create your own digital world, you don’t live in a vacuum. Just because something can be done, it doesn’t make it right.
#4 BE A BELIEVER
History, history, history, my young friend, is your best friend. You must shake off the tranquilizing affect of the propaganda machine and educate yourself. It is possible to unplug and renew your mind. Millions of Americans have and are doing it. If you can read, you can research and you can find the purpose of life—and your own life. God created you for a very specific purpose and it wasn’t to be a cog in the wheel of some overpaid CEO or government black-op that wants to send you to a third-world country to sacrificially slaughter as they play one regime off of another in some other-worldly game of Risk.
As long as you are thinking left, right, straight, gay, open, shut, black, white, you are completely neutered and have no power. So go out and get some power! The greatest piece of world knowledge is contained in the Bible. As a young adult, you need a road map and you need reliable, credible information to get you were you want to go. The Bible is historically the only book in all of creation that has prophetically outlined world history with dead-on accuracy. And there is still prophecy to be fulfilled, much of it happening right this moment.
Americans have been insulated from the hard realities of basic survival for several generations, including my own generation. Success is not a 30-year mortgage, a college career track, or even working for others. It is being free from financial tyranny, poisoned food, and gray cubicles. You and you alone are the only one who can choose to step off of the path that has been chosen for you. Don’t become just a drone like those depicted in the factions in Divergent. Now is the time that tries men’s souls, but you can be the one who sees the danger and not only runs for cover, but saves a few other souls in the process.
