I still find myself thinking a lot about Charlie Kirk.
And clearly I’m not the only one. Vigils have been held across the world–from Europe to Australia, in London and South Korea, where he spoke days before he was killed.
Debate is raging over whose politics is responsible for more violence, with fingers pointing at rhetoric, higher education, social media algorithms and gaming culture. But there’s a deeper problem that makes all those things combustible: the infantilizing power of modern life. If functioning societies are built by citizens who are responsible and self-controlled, then our cultural incentives point the opposite way.
Generations have worried about young people frittering away their days in childish pursuits, but now the encouragement to embrace childish thinking comes wrapped in progressive political ideology, funded by elite programs, and endorsed from the top. And it’s not just the young.
Progressive ideology declares it perfectly acceptable for adults to display the emotional immaturity of an untrained child. It’s become a tactic. Histrionic meltdowns in the face of dissent. Fragility in the face of disagreement. Shouting, screaming, being obnoxious until you get your way. Ruining it for everyone if you can’t have what you want. Dividing the world into either/or. Deflecting blame, avoiding responsibility at all costs. And if you can’t win, then sticks and stones can break the bones of those whose words hurt you.
Kirk rattled such folks when he denounced the sexual revolution and promoted Christianity. But it wasn’t just his words–his life was an affront. As Kathleen Stock observed, “these young people hated…Kirk [because] he acted ostentatiously like an adult. He was not frightened of sexual maturity and responsibility; he embraced these things.” She continues:
“He actively told people not to give into every passing desire, but to be continent and restrained. He was also able to tolerate opposing viewpoints to his own, without feeling the threat of personal disintegration, or the need to get lost in defensive persecution complexes.”
Whether by design or by drift, the left has made a point of fostering immaturity. If you trace the through line from Marxism to feminism to identity politics to wokeness – some of the left’s most significant ideas – the foundation is the same: victimhood weaponized. Weakness as strength. Emotion as authority. Grievance as truth. And they hate those whose serious, contented goodness exposes their sin. As Peachy Keenan puts it, to be 31 and happily married with kids today requires “a lot of unpopular choices that your peers may mock”—yet it’s a picture of maturity and freedom that repudiates the power struggles Kirk’s detractors inhabit.
Is it any surprise that those who make gods of their emotions lose control of them? Those who make idols become like them—as the psalmist reminds us—capricious, demanding, indifferent to the suffering of those around them. There is no tolerance for failing, waiting, being wrong, being denied and being last; that is just an admission that you have no agency.
But we have better examples. St Stephen, who stood firm as the crowd of people covered their ears and rushed at him in fury. St Paul who endured insults as he patiently reasoned with pagans and kings. Christ, who refused to play Pilate’s game, calmly reminding him that he had no authority except what was given from above. This is what it means to be grown up in the Spirit: self-control under pressure, courage in the face of hatred, and faith that God remains sovereign even when the world throws its tantrums.
Other stuff you might like:
Empathy can kill:
Luigi Mangione and the illusion of agency:
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