Freedom is a burden that crushes all but the noble. The weakling detests his own freedom, for it reveals his own failings. He detests himself, and the prison he builds for himself is far worse than anything his master would have. Man was made to work. In work, he is freed. Take it away from him and he imprisons himself, and so miserably so. Consider the NEET. The life of "leisure" so envied by the masses has finally been obtained, and it's killing them.

This is a comment I made about how I see kids my age lacking the agency to do things with their time - and make the most of the opportunities that they have living in America in the 21st century. I’ve read takes on this such topic such as the essay “I am asking you to want something” by Gonzalo Nunez at Primer. He cites three distinct observations:

• The percentage of young adults in the US living at-home is higher than it’s ever been since The Great Depression (the pre-COVID trend here is already alarming enough)
• Degree inflation has utterly consumed higher education—an overwhelming number of our young adults end up saddled in debt, unable to get a job, and still viewing themselves as children/teenagers
• Global fertility rates have been falling for decades—making a sort of Malthusian doomsday prophecy here is also wrong and neither do we all need to be having babies at 23 years old, but at some point most of our adults do need to be adults, this is basic math

All of which are true and I agree with, but he comments that this lack of want stems from indecision. He says that “These are not bad decisions, they are non-decisions. They are what happens when you don’t decide. They are made passively, not actively. You can barely say they were even made at all. Decisions like these just are. They exist by default. In fact, they are usually a case of someone else making a decision for you. Without explicitly wanting, you cannot claim ownership over what you are doing—odds are you’re simply doing what somebody else wants you to do. Somebody, somewhere, is wanting and you better be sure that it’s you”.

As someone that was in high school 2 years ago, I can say that my perspective dives deeper into the psyche of why this is indecision or lack of ambition exists. I think the main factor is Coddling by parents.

With these new generations of Gen X and millennial parents raising children I believe that to some degree there has been an aversion to anything potentially challenging or negative in a child’s life. Whether that be language, bullying (physical or verbal), types of friends a child has, what they are physically allowed to do, and what they are obligated to do. Each factor could be its own essay, but read “The coddling of the American mind” by Jonathan Haidt for a broader reference.

A specific trend I’ve noticed in children of Indian and Asian immigrants is that the expectation of academic perfection — often results in hollow forms of success and people. These parents, while generous in providing resources like tutoring and technology, create intense pressure for their children to achieve. This parental love, however, often comes with implicit guilt, pushing children to fulfill their parents' dreams rather than their own. This can make a child's entire self-worth dependent on academic performance. This dynamic leads to varied outcomes: some students burn out before finishing high school, others during college, while those who persist often do so primarily to make their parents proud, neglecting their own desires. The burnout cases frequently turn to escapism through video games, drugs, or other diversions. Only a small fraction manage to reclaim their personal agency, eventually pursuing their own passions with genuine intent.