In a recent post in the Corner, Luther Ray Abel masterfully details the loss of teenage independence and risk-taking thanks to an era of overprotective parents. Teens today are less likely to be licensed to drive, as opposed to a historic American trend of “getting a car as soon as possible,” largely for the sake of “escaping the prying eyes of parents and neighbors” with the ultimate goal of sexual encounters in the back seat.
Today, we are left with teens who are “sequestered in homes with unmetered access to mankind’s filth on a bottomless upward scroll” who cannot participate in the “risk business” that defines the nation.
It is true that social media and access to explicit content online only serve to weaken real-life interactions. But can we truly reduce the fruits of independence to precipitating one’s own shotgun wedding? I should hope not.
Leading an independent adolescent life, such as working a job to acquire a car, merits its own sense of personal reward. Sex should not be a necessary incentive for independence, which is an accomplishment in and of itself. A meaningful life requires wholesome intentions, and the era of internet obscenities proves this all the more so.
Sex as an incentive for, well, anything, is no longer an option for youths. They can find that easily online. Many may respond that internet escapades are different from in-person automobile romances, yet this does not change the fact that many a teenager will opt for the easy way out when seeking primal satisfaction. Luther is right about that.
But why don’t we teach that life has more meaning than physical urges? That getting a car isn’t the first step to “necking,” but the first step to eventually supporting a family (an accomplishment that surpasses sex in itself by a long shot)? That young people can simply explore the world around them with that car, in all its glorious beauty?
In an era of relativism and obscenity, we shouldn’t fight fire with fire. We should teach the basic truth that what is unique to human life is meaning beyond our physical instincts. Healthy independence ought to convey this transformative message.