On the Mind of Millennials: “How is America doing?”

“How is America doing?” We hear from so many middle-aged and older voices on this subject, sometimes, we hear it from too many of them. Today, while teaching a class at Southeastern University, the question came to me – “I wonder what this classroom of young Millennials (twenty-somethings) think about how America is doing?” The question was too important to miss the moment. I was interested to hear my students’ views on their country and the shape she is in today. So, I popped the question: “If America were a person with a soul, how would you say she is doing today?” Here are some of the fascinating answers I received:

A: “She is stressed out, because she’s been borrowing money from people, and she doesn’t know how to pay them back. So she is relieving that stress by going to the bar to forget about her problems. So at night it seems as though she’s having a great time, but when she wakes up the next day, the real world is there demanding things that she can’t deliver. She’s been pleasing herself for far too long and she doesn’t feel like doing what needs to be done.” – Robert R.

A: “I feel like America is a little stressed and conflicted. She has so many voices inside pulling her in different directions, all the while trying to maintain her reputation with the rest of the world. The internal division and struggle she is facing is making everything more difficult than it should be. If she could gather her thoughts under a unified motive, she could regain her focus and begin to move toward progress yet again. The different parts of her are all fighting solely for what benefits themselves rather than what would benefit her as a whole.” – Niana S.

A: “…I can’t say that America is doing well. American success is the result of corporate greed. The system is flawed. Big corporations build their empires on the backs of underpaid foreign workers in sweat shops. The workers are paid extremely little and live in terrible conditions. The products are sold to us at an inflated rate to pay greedy leaders. We then see issues of poverty around the world that have been caused by the top 10% of wealth in our nation.” – Chris C.

A: “She is worried and frustrated because money is tight right now, and she’s not sure what to do. She is divided, torn apart for silly reasons.” – Daniel S.

A: “She is dying behind a façade of denial because she refuses to admit that her weaknesses are beginning to overpower her strengths – and because she refuses to humble herself before God as a needy, broken, progressively-depraved nation.” – Kassie R.

A: “She is very stressed out and conflicted because she is having to make very large decisions – mainly about how to recover from all the financial debt she has. She also has two very different types of people influencing her and she feels like she can never make both sides happy. She is spiritually dry and searching for answers.” – Hannah P.

A: “I believe [she] is doing terrible in every sense of the word, because America has grown cold to the things of God. Our independent mindset has translated into our spiritual areas making us independent from God instead of dependent on him. Economically, our country is doing terrible as well because the government doesn’t understand that its role is [supposed to be] one of protection and order, not provision.” – Pablo S.