To say that our youth are always young and dumb is to imply that wisdom is merely a human quality which can be obtained over a lifetime of trial and error. This is a gross misunderstanding of wisdom. True wisdom is a gift which cannot be obtained through purely human means. When we consistently preach the narrative that young people are necessarily inexperienced and unwise, we are doing them a serious injustice.
All too often the young and dumb narrative is used as an excuse to not hold young people accountable for their actions. It is this type of reasoning that has led to the deplorable behavior we see from our youth today. No matter the level of their ridiculous actions, older generations inevitably write them off as silly young people who have no way of knowing better. This is essentially an open invitation for young people to push the limits of their silly actions even farther.
Instead of trying to avoid the problem of unwise young people today by methods like raising the voting age as one conservative commentator recently suggested, we should instead tackle the problem head on. Young people cannot be given so much leeway, but must instead be held accountable for their actions. There is no reason why young people should be any less wise than their older counterparts. Wisdom is a gift, and it does not distinguish between young and old. We must stop making excuses by claiming the young and dumb narrative, and instead show our young how they must step up to the plate and start preparing to lead their country into the years beyond.
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