‘The Vibes Are Not Good’

Two college students discuss America’s broadest challenges.

At a recent dinner with conservative college students, the conversation turned quickly to their generation’s disillusionment with not only the nation’s politics, but also its prospects for the future and their own prospects within it. They were admirably frank about the broader culture’s maladies, the dysfunction within their own subculture, and the difficulties that they and their peers faced in trying to build anything better.

I asked two of the students who had especially thoughtful and distinctive perspectives, Wyatt Olson and Bennett Gorman, if they would participate in a longer conversation for public consumption and I’m grateful they agreed. What follows is a consolidated and lightly edited transcript of our conversation in late May.

Oren Cass: Let’s start with what I understand the kids these days call a vibe check. How are you feeling about the state of the union today and your places within it?

Wyatt Olson: The vibes are not good amongst young Americans. Many of us feel disillusioned with the United States today and its trajectory: the high unemployment rate for recent college graduates, the obstacles to building a family or owning a home, and the divisive state of the political and social discourse. We have these unfavorable macro trends pressing down from above and then also the sudden emergence of many competing, trivial interests bubbling up from below.

There’s so much easy access to these dopamine-driven vices that have become socially acceptable. We have unfettered access to gambling, pornography, marijuana, nicotine, processed foods… and we are chronically online. It’s all dopamine-driven, short-term gratification in place of pursuing genuine fulfillment. The line between what is perceived as commonplace human behavior and outright addiction has been blurred tremendously.

Bennett Gorman: I agree that the vices have replaced more fulfilling pursuits, but they’re pushing on an open door, or filling a void. Coming of age in America today, there is limited optimism about what American means in our lives and how the future looks. Many of us are detached from the purpose, identity, and project of the nation.

One issue is that we’ve lost the worthy national enterprises that once inspired Americans with the confidence that they were part of something larger than themselves, some noble trajectory that we were aiming toward together. Even once-common phrases that captured some kind of collective ambition—worthy undertaking, noble endeavor, national enterprise, or even national life—have vanished from the American lexicon. Rather than an idea and an aspirational project, our sense is that the nation is just a flawed and floundering political system. Why would anyone want to put their love and faith in that?

Another issue is that many schools and universities and much of politics seem determined to cut down what makes this country special and valuable in the first place. Beyond just our national history, America represents the culmination of a three-thousand-year intellectual tradition that has improved the lives and knowledge of all humankind. Our nation has deep, rich, robust roots, but our education teaches that we were, and still are, oppressive and ignorant.

So we’re left with neither identity nor purpose. We can’t see that we are the vanguard of Western Civilization, that our nation embodies a set of doctrines and ideals that millions of people over thousands of years have fought and died for. When you take this all away, America is nothing but politics. And then people say we’re supposed to embrace the emptiness because dismantling power structures and a commitment to achieving equity in the form of equal outcomes are ends in themselves. But they’re not, and they cannot provide a basis for human flourishing.

OC: Of course, young people have always gotten caught up in vices. What do you see as most troubling today, and perhaps different from the typical boys-being-boys?

WO: I am most frustrated with the sudden emergence of widespread gambling and its societal acceptance. This particular vice is far easier to mask than others—a gambling addict doesn’t wear his choices on his sleeve as perhaps a drug addict or alcoholic would.

While growing up, I was an avid sports fan and would tune in to SportsCenter each morning before school. The reporters would offer insight into the games played the night before, an array of the best highlights were shown, and the relevant stats appeared on the screen. Now, I cannot tune into any game without immediately knowing the betting lines, spreads, and player props. Entire segments deliver the most up-to-date betting information.

It’s a direct conflict of interest for the same sports news corporations to also facilitate gambling on their affiliated sites, and it has normalized the act of sports betting. Live in-game betting options keep bettors hooked. Advertisements during breaks reinforce this. Your favorite athletes and commentators represent casinos and sportsbook companies in partnership deals, effectively integrating gambling into sports culture. Gambling is also permeating American culture more broadly, especially with prediction markets like Kalshi providing a platform for users to bet on the outcomes of virtually any event.

BG: I agree on the gambling issue, and would also focus on substance addictions—particularly marijuana. Even the shift from alcohol to marijuana amongst students our age is a reflection of the broader purposelessness. Say what you will about alcohol, but it makes people get out of their comfort zone and meet new people. Lower inhibitions encourage exploration and adventure. Weed tracks more toward complacency, causing some people (more so than with alcohol) to lie on the couch when they could be out in the world. In these cases, marijuana serves as a filler activity since the world doesn’t seem to offer much of interest anyway. With the loss of this drive to be active and to try new things in life, poor substitutes can come into play.

This is where you get the popularization of “goy slop” as a social media buzzword. It refers to something that people believe is unworthy or pathetic but do or use or watch anyway. It’s ironic that the phrase itself is emblematic of a generation that bandies about language without thoughtfully evaluating how dangerous it actually is—in this case, the casual use of a harmful antisemitic trope. But aside from the phrase itself, it’s an acknowledgment of the fact that some people believe the things they or others are pursuing lack substance and continue to do them anyway.

OC: How serious is the problem of radicalization and how much is just searching for the rebellious thing that will get the adults’ attention versus a growing and genuine hatred?

BG: It looks to me like a genuine shift in people’s beliefs, starting from a lack of grounding. People are searching for some set of beliefs that will provide substance and purpose and they go off in search of it on social media and with biased news that becomes a vicious cycle. They open themselves to more extreme perspectives, looking for something to invest in, and get pulled down the rabbit hole. And then it becomes a badge of pride, and I’ve seen friends reach this point where they expand their political views to something widely considered ridiculous and then announce that they have decided to become more extreme. They suddenly have genuine conviction in ideas that they themselves would have regarded as laughable a month prior.

The most worrying direction that I have seen people go, both online and people I know, is explicitly embracing racial and ethnic supremacism. When there’s no healthy identity to commit to, people will choose a perverse one. The idea that one racial or religious group is best and some other one is responsible for our problems is all over social media; that the thing to be defending and preserving is not the nation or the civilization but rather some sense of group purity. I saw a picture of soldiers from World War II—Americans, Brits, Italians, Germans, Russians, etc.—and it asked this question of why they were fighting each other, implying that the real enemies were people of different races within the respective nations. This is what happens when you devalue the idea that Americans as Americans had something to fight for.

OC: You’ve both touched on the idea that you and others around you feel pessimistic, unmoored, blocked from achieving what you might want to. Someone might say: “What’s wrong with these people? Here they are at one of the best educational institutions in the world in the wealthiest country in the world at the best time in human history to be alive... Maybe they should stop whining, get their act together, and go make what they want of their lives.” What is that person missing?

WO: If you’re looking at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, then yes, many young Americans, myself included, have been blessed with remarkably strong and consistent physiological protection, safety, and security. We do not know any other life. In that sense, we have no business being pessimistic and casting doubt on the very institutions that provide for those needs. But it’s called a “hierarchy” for a reason. There are three higher levels, and as a proud citizen of the United States, I know there were times when we did far better at fulfilling those needs. The notion of belonging is evaporating. Self-esteem is certainly lost. Self-actualization, or the life-long pursuit of virtuous fulfillment, in turn rests upon those more communal values. Material comfort may be a prerequisite for concentrating on the higher-order concerns, but it certainly doesn’t guarantee that they can be met.

BG: There’s a saying that if a person has a “why” they can bear any “how.” But even if the how isn’t particularly difficult, there’s little motivation to achieve it without any real sense of the why. There’s a simple lack of motivation amongst many people of our generation. And then of course when you can’t fill your life with purpose you’re bound to fill it with other things. The kind of radicalization I mentioned earlier is one way. Indulgence in useless distractions or vices is another. Because when people see there aren’t bigger things than themselves to pursue, why would they want to do otherwise?

Making what we feel we want of our lives is not the same as living a good life. To do that you need projects bigger than yourself to identify with and right now our country doesn’t provide any. I’m not advocating for some kind of victim culture here. I think many of us are on standby to work hard for something substantive, we just need that substantive thing, and it’s not fair to ask people to invent it themselves—the whole point is that it has to be bigger than a personal project.

OC: Let’s shift at least a bit toward the positive, though depending on how you answer I suppose we might just end up more depressed... What is to be done? as Lenin asked. And in particular, starting smaller, what have you already seen that gives you any hope? Are there any helpful messages, messengers, technologies, institutions out there?

BG: I am actually optimistic. First, in my liberal arts college, I have been encouraged by the free exchange of thought and the possibility for good ideas to arise. On the national level, there is the opportunity to find something that will restore our country’s purpose and identity, reminding us of what the enterprise of America entails. One thing that I know has been talked about a fair bit is the idea of the frontier. The frontier in the abstract sense, not just the American West, has always been critical for us. Whether it was fully realizing Enlightenment ideas of dignity and freedom, westward expansion itself, spreading civilization and democracy abroad, pushing back against the forces of tyranny, innovating to economic prosperity, or planting the flag on the moon.

I think all of us long to participate in a kind of frontier, to make our mark in whatever small way and push the boundaries of civilization toward some good. We have options here, we just haven’t chosen one: scientific knowledge, medical advancement, continued exploration in space. We need some way to express our national character, some outlet for the American purpose to shine through. Honesty, there are so many advancements we are achieving, they just need to be consolidated into an American vision that draws a line from our past through the present to the future. I truly feel that with something like this we can have what our grandfathers did when they put up the flag and knew they were a part of an American project and destiny that was worthy and good.

WO: For me, the frustration is the motivation. Knowing what I perceive to be a fulfilling life, yet facing many roadblocks to achieving it, leaves me with an innate desire to build, or rebuild, this not only for myself, but also for the communities I belong to. Tackling the issues of AI, social media, personal devices and our relationship with the internet is of paramount importance. Equipping the American public with the proper skills for navigating a healthy personal life in the face of a rapidly changing, hyper-integrated world is the first step to harnessing purpose and patriotism in the United States.

Seek out communities that help develop your interests and identity. Take radical accountability for the actions in your life. Put yourself in “winning positions.” In my personal life, I often feel the most optimistic after having invested in human interaction and connection. Make small talk with the person sitting next to you at the cafe. File into the grocery store line with the cashier as opposed to the self-checkout. Ask them how their day was. I believe relationship-building is the best remedy to the current social and political landscape.

OC: This is all good advice, but I can’t help feeling you’ve both avoided the question to spare us all the despair. Most of what you’ve described is things we have to ask each individual to do, and that’s important, but there’s also a “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” problem in solving purposelessness with “go find a purpose.” Have you seen anything out there from leaders or institutions in any part of our society that makes you think, “yes, please, more of that”? It could be just a phrase, an organization you’ve seen someone else get involved with, a policy proposal you thought really made sense?

Or if not that, what’s one thing you’d at least ask leaders to consider doing differently, that you think would help?

WO: I struggle to find a national leader or institution that has truly inspired me. I think that sentiment would probably be shared by many young Americans. The contemporary political and social climate has a negative feedback loop that seems mainly to consolidate political power. MAGA Republicans and Democrats both have special interest in serving a concentrated portion of their base.

BG: I’ve heard Trump invoke the idea of a “golden age” for America’s future. I think there was something to that idea that at least there is a vision to be achieved. But I haven’t seen that messaging translate into action or diffuse into our national life. There are also interesting ideas from other leaders, such as the emphasis on restoring fractured communities that I think is important to help revitalize our country. However, I believe that there is much more needed than a focus on prosperity alone. Most importantly, we need leaders that bring us together as a nation by reinvigorating a set of common values, ideas for a collective trajectory, and shared aspirations for the future.

The general malaise that my generation seems to be facing could be rooted in a lack of hope. We need leadership that understands that purpose shines through most clearly when there is coherence, shared responsibility, and nationalism. Much of politics is detached hopes and possibilities, but I think we need a more refined effort from national leaders to lay out a vision for America’s purpose, how individual citizens fit into that, then lay out a strategy for how it is pursued and brand it as such. Also, more about our history, more about our future, more about why we are doing the things that we are doing and how they fit into a shared identity and purpose.