WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Flyover Features: Should the Young Rule?

Episode Date: October 2, 2025

Emma and Sophia discuss whether young people should give the reigns of authority back to older folks.

Welcome back to Flyover Features on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.1.7 FM, a witty radio show where we discuss current events and culture through the lens of an article. I am Emma Verini, and I am here with Sophia Mant. Today, we will be discussing an article that appears in the Spring 2025 City Journal. This article is called The Wisdom of Youth by Rob Henderson. So let's just sort of describe what this article is about super simple concept here. And I should add that the title of the article is The Wisdom of Youth and the subhead is not so much. So basically this article advocates for a return to sort of a more traditional understanding of the role that young people and old people should play in a society. old people should sort of be the people that we go to for wisdom and advice and young people should sort of be, you know, relegated to the, you know, minor role of learning from elders

and waiting until they're older to assume, you know, leadership positions and stuff like that. I think that's how I would describe this. And it's in the context of sort of what's been going on in today's culture. You know, young people are political advocates. They're being told that they are the best ever and that they are going to change the world and that the youth are everything and that they are going to bring all the necessary changes to our society and turn it into this perfect utopia. So one of the examples that he gives is his studies at Yale, I believe, is what he's talking about. And for important context, he compares his studies at Yale and his experience to the near opposite experience he had in the military where, you know, he says in basic training, people are telling him, you know, I don't want you bleeping thinking you were doing anyone a favor, being here, you know, just insulting them. You don't even get respect until you earn it.

And then after he goes to college, and including a selective college, he learned where, you know, students hardly ever get expelled for being disrespectful to professors, whereas, you know, that's not something that's going to happen in the military with subordination problems or anything like that. So it's kind of shocking this, like, extreme, he even calls it whiplash that he said, well, forever linger in my mind. And it is kind of interesting to me because I definitely observe. this in my life, but it's sort of like, I think, with both how I've been raised and Hillsdale College, not to excessively shout the school out, but because I think this is true, uh, like versus the broader world. And by that I mean that I feel like at Hillsdale, um, the president, Dr. Arne has told us, you know, we don't want people just being activists or whatnot on campus, including even if there are four causes he would generally be inclined to agree with,

because he thinks, you know, the point is we want you to learn first these things, and right now you're here, your point is to learn. And this is a bit controversial, but that's part of where our school doesn't actually allow really protests or stuff in the student handbook. So that's very different than at a lot of other colleges where it seems like blatant, you know, arguing with the professor or protests if you don't like something is, it's not just that it's allowed, but it's more so that it seems socially tolerated or even encouraged. And it's also interesting, thinking of that contrast where, so I was an intern in D.C. last summer, and I think people generally respected me and were very nice, and I liked where I interned.

It was for journalism internship at Reason magazine. But at Reason, you know, I was able to join all the events, but there's a handful of things that I kind of wasn't really directly like, you know, invited to or able to do necessarily, because, you know, I'm still just an intern. I'm at a lower rank. I have less experience than other people. You know, I'm not writing the same articles that other people are. And that was a very big contrast to, I went to this event where it was learning about problems with the national debt. And it was a very interesting talk. And there was two people, a Democrat and Republican, one who worked on the Kamala Harris campaign and fundraising for her. And the other was the former House Speaker Kevin McCart. And they both said some very interesting things. And it was also hilarious because Kevin McCarthy said, you know, I got booted out because of one horrible member, which was, you know, Matt Gates because of his pretty corrupt crimes and issues. And everyone clapped. But what was kind of interesting is at the end, the organizer talked about how she thought, you are future leaders. I have hope for you and went on and on and on. And on the one hand, it's like, it's really cool that people are getting involved in civic service this young and wanting to learn. more about these issues. And I agree it's probably important to try and learn and figure out these things early, especially because there maybe can be some level of elder blame when, you know, we're in national debt because of, you know, politicians older than us. It's not 18-year-olds

that are causing the national debt or 20-year-olds. But at the same time, there's also this expectation, like, you will change the world, you're really smart, blah, blah, blah, when it's like, okay, yeah, but we are less experienced. We are just interns. We are still in a process where I think we should be learning. And I felt a little uncomfortable at the idea that these young people know everything or are the experts when there should and there will come something advantageous with wisdom. Like, I know that I'm going to be more wise and probably, hopefully even more intelligent the older I get. Yes, the quink thinking slows down, but it's still a bit concerning to have an excessive. focus on the youth when, you know, you're biologically, your emotions are more out of tune,

and you do have less experiences. I think the quote that he gives is actually worth reading off, where he's talking about his experience at Yale, and he says, I'll start reading now. I was at a breakfast with some fellow students. Our guest was a former governor and presidential candidate. He was gracious and spent most of his time answering questions from us. His answers were often variations of the same response. We screwed up, and it's up to you guys to fix it. I'm so happy to see how bright you all are and how sharp your questions have been, because you will fix the mistakes that my generation made. This mystified me. This guy was in his 60s with a lifetime of unique experience and leadership roles, and he was telling a bunch of 20-year-olds, though I was

slightly older, that older adults were relying on them. And I honestly, I will say this is definitely something that happens when you go onto college campuses, unlike Hillsdale. For instance, I did a program. It was a five-week, I want to say, residential program when I was in high school. And this is probably one of the best personal examples I can give of this matter. So basically, it's pretty selective. And you go and you take three different classes. for five weeks and focus on one concentration. And so when we went to one of our classes, there would be a teacher, and this happened with a lot of the instructors there,

they would tell us, you know, we're so smart. We're unlike other people. We're better off than, you know, even older people. And I just remember looking around and thinking, Are you sure about that? Because I don't know. So I will say this is definitely a trend. If you talk to anybody who's objective about this issue, who's been in this sort of circumstance, they're probably going to say something very similar with probably a couple exceptions. Yeah. What I also found interesting and disturbing because I didn't actually know this prior to reading the article. So I know it's known that, you know, younger people are more likely to engage in risky behavior. behaviors and the like, you know, when I think of shoplifting, I didn't necessarily know that, so there is this thing called the dark triad and its personality traits that, as the article mentions, encompasses three interrelated characteristics, which is psychopathic. Yeah, that word.

Yes. Characterized by callousness and a profound disregard for others, narcissism. and entitlement. And apparently, older age tends to more likely coincide with the light triad personality traits, which are the factors of faith in humanity, reflecting belief that others are good and worthy of trust, Kantianism, which is propensity to behave with integrity and honesty and humanism, which is an appreciation for the successes of others, kind of unnecessarily complicated. words, I think, to describe those things. But anyway.

Very, very, very loaded words to describe concepts that are not exactly synonymous, but yeah. Yeah, it's loaded words and it's like unnecessarily complicated in my opinion. But anyway, apparently younger professionals, according to studying the Journal of

Business Ethics, were way more inclined than their older counterparts to endure ethically questionable behaviors, like taking company office supplies for personal use. I'm heavily citing the article here, by the way, or diverting company funds for personal holidays. And this accounts even after controlling for socioeconomic status. And I actually had no idea that there was this big of a difference in one's morality based on these studies, depending on

age. I mean, I thought, you know, maybe there'd be a bit of a difference, but not as strongly. So I guess there's an age crime curve. So relative to a 60-year-old man, a 20-year-old man is six times likely to be arrested for a violent crime. So, and even older adults rate more violations more harshly. So, you know, some people never learn, but it seems like there is something to respecting our elders and learning from them and the wisdom they have. I mean, that's why we go to Gallus to learn from people older than us. I did find a problem with that section because while it's very apparent that younger people are just so much more likely to do these things, there are also some confounding variables here. Like, for instance, people who are, do something. Do

something heinous when they're young and they end up getting locked up for life, for instance. Those people are not factored into this because they're in jail, they're unable to go out and make those decisions again, whereas most of the older people, you'll notice older people are more pacifistic because think about if you're engaged in risk behaviors when you're younger, you're going to be more likely to die or go to jail. And so you're working with two different groups. So I think I, while I acknowledge that younger people do tend to behave more erratically, I think that citing those statistics is probably not the smartest idea here. You're listening to Flyover Features on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.

Well, I'm glad you pointed out flaws because I did read this and thought, ah, that seems kind of extreme. And there's probably some truth to it, but I'm going to. glad you pointed that out, especially because I always did kind of think that, like, this is a bit morbid, but it's true. If you're, like, extremely prone to deviant behavior, and you're going to naturally commit it, and then you are literally going to die or, you know, be in jail. Because, I mean, if you're like a severe alcoholic, you might not live till you're 65. Right. Everyone who's 75, 80 years old, not everyone, but a lot of people are generally, like, didn't live insane lifestyles. I mean, a lot of

the boomers that are still alive were not all, but probably a lot of them were not the ones that were doing all the drug use. Exactly. You're counting yourself out of the statistic by engaging in that sort of behavior. So it's no surprise that the older people who are alive are less likely to engage in that behavior. And that's not to say that testosterone levels don't go down when you get older or anything like that. But there is that confounding effect right there. Yeah. I mean, some of this does seem like there might be some truth though if it's like asking what older versus younger adults morally believe. But yeah, the personality traits seem a little bit deceptive because if you're still alive at 80, you probably weren't doing anything super insane. Yeah, because I mean like,

no shame and this wasn't horrible, but like, you know, even my, some older relatives I had, they weren't crazy, but they were like, for example, heavy smokers and they probably could have lived longer if they weren't, you know. You know, like the older adults, I know that it's still alive generally aren't doing that. But yeah, I mean, you know, the fact that older adults rate moral violations more harshly than younger adults as this author's research shows seems more believable. But, I mean, that there is a such thing as, you know, not blindly following authority, but I do really love the ending. paragraphs of this piece, which I'll just quote directly, which is near the end of their conversation, Bill Maher, the talk show host, responded to Drew Pinksy by stating, other cultures

figured out that older people are generally wiser. The more days you live, the more things you know. When you're young, you have beauty. I mean, you're old. You have wisdom. Which is interesting, because Bill Maher is certainly not exactly a traditional Christian conservative. And I'm also not the biggest fan of him, because it seems like he, well, you know, that's me the youth being mean to Bill Barr. But anyway, ha ha ha. That's actually a good thing for him to say. It closes by saying, if older adults keep chasing validation from the young, instead of reclaiming authority in their role as elders, they'll keep getting mocked and deservedly so. Wisdom isn't about being stuck in the past. It's about offering something steady and timeless in a world that feels increasingly on board. And

that last sentence, a world that feels increasingly unmoored, I do find valuable because I don't want to be all like liberal, ah, they just need help, but sometimes does feel like a little bit like a cry for help or just this anguish

at not having a strong leader or feeling like you have a strong leader and maybe in some cases that's true, so you're reaching out for something or some moral guidance, you know? I don't know. I think there's some truth to that. Can I be honest? I hated that quote from Bill Maher.

I'll just say it again. When you're young, you have beauty and when you're old, you have wisdom. I mean, the implicit statement here is that morality increases with loss of beauty, which is just so absurd to me. And that sort of is a good segue into what else I wanted to talk about, which is this idea of the rule of the old, which is a concept that underlies this entire piece. And I just fully wholeheartedly reject this idea.

I mean, look at the COVID-19 disaster, for instance. All of the policy decisions we were making were predicated on the idea of coddling the elderly to the detriment of younger people, particularly children in schools who were learning to read and speak and do math for the first time, people who were, you know, 18 to 22 trying to land their first position who had to stay at home for however long, people who are already dealing with having to be anti-social in an increasingly multicultural society. So I think that that was just such a disaster. And part of the reason is because we have so many old people making decisions for us. And that is going to scar a lot of people for a really long time. I personally don't feel as I was

super affected by COVID. But looking around, I did see other people. who definitely had to deal with the impact of the decisions that were made during that period. So I think the problem is I actually agree with that you're saying that there's a lot of cases in which we have rule of the older poor people. And I mean, you think of the example of Joe Biden and people questioning his ability to rule in others because of their old age. Those, I think, are fair criticisms, especially because it's now known obviously with him and even some worries with Trump who seems still not mentally slowed down but has had some physical issues because of his age.

You know, those are legitimate concerns, and there's the extreme where, you know, maybe that's not the best position for someone older when we know your brain tends to work slower. But I think there's a balance because I don't want to get all, you know, bringing Christianity into it, but I do think that scripture speaks of, and I would echo this, that we are to grow in our knowledge and faith of the Lord if we're faithfully following him. And we have a lot of bad elders over us. So I think, but I think it's almost like they seem to have, even as he says with, you know, older adults chasing validation from the young, it's almost like they're trying to be like the cool younger kids or they've kind of given up a good idea or sense of their role. So I wonder if this is kind of also like the rise of feminism where it's like weak elders or it's a reaction against that.

Because I don't think it's perfect. But like, I would think that, you know, if I know two people that are really, really good. people. And one of them has who like walks the walk of faith and everything. And I'm going to ask them like a deep question about life. Generally speaking, I'm going to more look towards the elder than the younger person. It's a very imperfect. But I mean, I do emphasize and probably even agree with some what you're saying too, especially because like a lot of the times the elders do not want what's good for our country, must like other people. So, yeah. Yeah, there's a bit of this struggle here with me where I see both sides, but I really like the

perspective of this piece, I mean, as a whole. It was very interesting. Yeah, I do believe that there is a balance like you were talking about. I think the balance is sort of between safetyism and risk behavior. The messaging in this piece is sort of that, you know, risk behavior is just inherently bad, or at least that's sort of what it seems to be. whereas the, you know, noble alternative, therefore, is safetyism or just being overly safe. And I actually think that there's probably a nice middle ground between those two, where you're not, you know, never going outside or, you know, constantly worrying about everything, but also willing to take some risky behaviors.

And a lot of the risky behaviors that people take are in their 20s. And a lot of times that actually pays off really, really well. So I just think it's stupid to take an all or nothing position on this issue. Yeah, but with that said, I do like the all or nothing position this issue takes. Even if I think it's flawed, I think it was an overall good defense in an interesting way of setting it forth. So with that, you've been listening to Flyover Features on Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7. FM. I'm Emma Vourini and I'm here with Sophia Mant.