As somebody who once had to take a year off work a quarter of a
century ago - unpaid - as a result of the stress of carrying too many heavy
projects on my back, it is a condition I understand better than
most.
The claims this week that 'huge numbers of young people are
suffering from disabling stress' are a condemnation of our decaying society and
the way in which it functions.
There has always been: 'being cool', exam pressure, peer pressure,
bullying, worries about the future et al to cause standard
stress.
(But then, what about my teenage Dad who had to go on a active
service for 11 months of brutal war in June 1944. Wasn't that a little more like
stress-filled?)
Our Godless, value-free, mock-moral, shallow, discipline-lacking,
facade-wearing, self-absorbed, grabbing, mindless, sex-obsessed, instant
gratification, sickening social media-riddled, porn-filled, bile-spewing
Internetting, celebrity-infatuated, responsibility-absent yoof culture
had to end up like this!
Exams have been dumbed down for them, but in fairness,
that only means that expectations on the non-academic have increased unfairly as
they are expected to target university.
Where real stress does assail our kids, it is when they can no
longer find jobs. (But, we are delighted to learn that immigration at
astronomical levels has not affected this in any way.)
