Helping Youth

 

I wonder how I can dedicate my life to being creatively subversive. Hmmmmmm. What do I mean?

Many young people have great ideas. I could be an excellent sounding board. I could be supportive when they face opposition from older conservatives. I could help them find ways of getting their agendas accomplished without even coming onto conservative radar. Conservatives often live in their own faux news delusional world. (I know many such folks.) All I need to do is to help progressives not encounter the right wing nuts.

I know how young people think, having gone to school most of my adult life and being surrounded by energetic youth. I know what they care about.

On the other hand, I have spent much of my life surrounded by right wing nuts. My parents are flat-earthers (deniers of global warming). I spent about a decade in an extremely conservative Protestant church and then converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, which is so conservative it makes most Protestant churches look like lesbian covens. I know how they think and am watching the disintegration of conservative America. Finally!

Many conservative organizations and churches are dissolving from within, lacking the energy of and relevance to youth. I would like to accelerate the dissolution by providing the very things churches and conservative organizations promise, but are incapable of delivering: compassion, acceptance, encouragement, a listening ear, etc. I could help young people think for themselves and recover from the guilt- and shame inducing behaviors of so many conservative authority figures.

I want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. To resist and fight something is to strengthen it. I want to immunize youth so that they are not tempted to spend their adulthoods seeking the approval of people whose very jobs depend upon them being easily emotionally manipulated. Like I was, for so long. I know what motivated me as I went through various phases and it would be nice to help some vulnerable person to simply avoid all the drama I put myself through. If I can help just one young person avoid wasting as many years as I did, it will all be worth it.