Katty Kay, a BBC host, recently conducted a largely misguided interview with Harvard professor Arthur Brooks regarding a growing crisis of purpose among young adults.
The interview was littered with a number of underlying misconceptions and faulty assumptions. What is stunning is the way the interviewer framed the context for the interview. Here is how she began the piece:
“Three out of five young people in America say their lives have little or no sense of purpose. Let that sink in for a moment. Three out of five. And a lot of this isn't young people's fault. They've been thrown into this brutal world of housing costs and algorithms and divisive politics. But what scares me is that this doesn't just seem like the normal adolescent angst that I went through in my 20s. Young people today who say they're struggling to find meaning also report much higher levels of mental health issues like anxiety and depression. So what do we do about it? And I say "we" deliberately here because I don't think the burden is all on young people. This is a problem we all helped create, and we all need to fix.”
Wrong. She is wrong on many counts.
First, it isn’t the young people’s fault? Who then? Their parents? Society? Everyone? No, it’s time to take agency and accept responsibility. They have been thrown into a “brutal world?” No. The world has been “brutal” for a while for some, and always will be. On the other hand, it is the best of times. According to humanist writer Stephen Pinker, technology is scaling new heights, and scientism reigns supreme.
Finding someone to blame, as Kay does, is part of the problem. No, it is time to take responsibility, to assume “agency.” A person can overcome and address challenges. Perhaps a dose of Jordan Peterson would be helpful.
Kay doesn’t address the most obvious counterbalances of lack of meaning—she simply notes the problem. Instead, the common sources of meaning, such as faith and religion, have been discredited and disregarded. There has been a decline in organized religion, and secular humanists have not come up with a good alternative.
In fact, many humanists would not want to think about how depressing the conclusion is of their intellectual position. There is no purpose. As Sean Carroll puts it, we are blobs of mud.
In addition, the family network has disintegrated for many. The family was, for many, and still remains so for many, a bulwark against the societal decay around them. Family support is very useful.
People no longer have confidence in Western civilization, but have been roundly denigrating and devaluing it. Although it built the prosperity of the modern world, largely with a Christian foundation, it has been devalued. So, what do people have confidence in? Apparently, very little.
Kay is too focused on her own life experience. She references the “normal adolescent angst that I went through in my 20s.” She doesn’t share exactly what she meant by that, other than that challenges for today’s young people are greater. Not sure, as a scroll through the past decades has brought us the Cold War, the arms race, nuclear treaties, 9/11, and so on.
So Kay is woefully misguided in her approach to the issue. Stop being focused on pessimism and who is to blame, and instead focus on the positive pursuit of meaning.
Her comments were a lead-in to her interview with Arthur Brooks and his recent book, The Meaning of Your Life. Interestingly, Brooks’ book addresses many of the misguided assumptions of Kay.
According to Brooks, the issue of a crisis of purpose is not simply external circumstances—it’s how people are living and thinking. Brook’s approach is that one of the most notable gaps in the broader cultural conversation is the lack of emphasis on:
- Family
- Faith or transcendence
- Personal responsibility (agency)
Instead, the narrative often shifts responsibility outward—toward systems, structures, or society at large (as Kay posited). But meaning is not something handed to us. It is something we must actively pursue.
Without a sense of agency, individuals become passive participants in their own lives—waiting for meaning to appear rather than building it.In his book, Brooks outlines practical steps to counter this crisis. Here are three.
- Ask Deeper Questions
- Choose Love—Actively
- Seek Transcendence
The BBC interview by Kay was more interesting for reflecting a typical secular worldview by a public broadcaster for which Brooks was a staging point, rather than illuminating the key insights of his book. The thinking—and by extension the institutions and people—that lead to a crisis of purpose are unlikely to help many get out of it.