JOEL KOTKIN: The Greatest Generational Conflict of All: Youth Alienation Isn’t Confined to the West. “The adoption of green “de-growth” philosophy impacts both on the youth of the West, who face a consciously scaled-down quality of life, as well as a new generation in developing countries desperate for growth. . . . Evidence of a ‘great resignation’ is also emerging in East Asia. In Japan, young adults, according to David Pilling, are ‘pioneering a new sort of high-quality, low-energy, low-growth existence.’ In China, meanwhile, the children of largely upwardly mobile parents face an increasingly fraught economic future. Xi Jinping may hope for a generation that will follow the path of devoted Stalinist Stakhonovites or Maoist Red Guards, but confronts a generation more concerned with 20% unemployment and limited options than ideological fervour. As in Japan and the West, China now sees a generation — including an increasingly underemployed surplus of educated people — who eschew their parents’ work ethic, embracing instead a desire to ‘lay flat’ as they essentially avoid the congestion and stresses of urban life.”

Related: “Mediocrity, after all, Matt, is the safest place to be, especially when the cops are out, you know?”