Trae (Trey) Stephens

That is the powder keg of civilization.

And for centuries, we actually did a pretty good job with this in America.

There was always work, and we were doing a pretty good job with pushing the family.

But we're in this really weird window now where

You know, it is very common to see people disaffected, disengaged, unhappy in their 20s.

And I think any rise in political violence, activism, it's going to be out of that community by and large.

And so that doesn't mean that we need to police that community better.

It means we need to find ways to engage them

in things that they want to do, like employment-wise.

And we need to figure out ways to get them into productive, personal human relationships with other people.

I mean, you know, the really kind of cliche answer to this that sounds like a very me answer is go to church.

Just got to go to church.

Like, it's a great community.

There are people that you have values alignment with.

They're going to hold you accountable.

Like, you know, the church as an institution has been, you know, a bulwark for this for thousands of years.

And I don't think it's any different today than it was in 100 AD.

Right.

Well, there's a loss of personal agency where I feel like this isn't just true of America.

It's true of Western civilization writ large is that no one believes in the great man theory of history anymore.