“I am inimitable, I am an original.” GenZ and the Cult of Self-Actualization
“I am inimitable, I am an original.”
- Aaron Burr from Hamilton.“I am what I am. I am my own special creation.”
- Albin Mougeotte from La Cage aux Folles.
The two quotes above, both from musicals, depict the self not as something inherited, determined, or fixed. The self is no longer defined by static influences such as ethnicity, sexuality, religion, or nationality, but constructed from nothing by sheer will.
It has me wondering if the decline of religion in the west is umbilically connected to the radical rise of the cult of self-actualization. In fact, I wonder/worry if religion is being replaced by this cult of self-actualization, a kind of hyper-uber-mega-individualism!
Spending time in the USA, I spoke to friends from LA to Raleigh, about where their family was at, learning about the story of young adults today whose lives are a synthesis of piercings, pronouns, tattoos, and tiktok. I’ve seen similar things in Australia, even among my own kids to a degree, who want to break the mold as they move into adulthood.
Part of it reminded me of the British 1970s punk scene with its shock and subversion of quaint public mores. Kind of like David Bowie meets the Sex Pistols.
GenZ is casting off everything including morals, social expectations, career, college, faith, family, and taboos in order to become something, anything, as long as it is not “normal.”
This is not everyone, everywhere, and all the time. But, just like those “Choose your own adventure” novels, there is now a kind of choose your own identity from an eclectic mix of gender identities, sexual orientations, sub-cultures, social causes, and ethnic designations.
This self-actualization narrative is aided by the fact that these kids grew up watching Disney and Pixar movies where the answer to everybody’s problems was in effect “Be true to yourself,” “Find yourself,” or “Look inside your heart.” In addition, I gotta wonder what role growing up in a post-GFC economy, the Trump years (2016-20), drug liberalization, social media addiction, climate anxiety, the COVID pandemic, and the subsequent mental health pandemic, has had on the new generation of tweens, teens, and twenty-somethings.
Kids are looking for love, meaning, belonging, and purpose beyond the traditional structures of family, faith, and nationality, and looking to create themselves into something that is original, something noticeable, something indescribable.
I’ll leave it to sociologists and psychologists to explain the causes and consequences of this cult of self-creation. But I’m wondering how the gospel speaks into this moment. How does Jesus free us from the fear of not feeling “special”? How is Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, good news for a 19-year-old guy in Portland whose life revolves around cannabis and chitos, or a 16-year-old girl in Sydney worried that’s she’s too “vanilla” for her friends.
I think Christianity provides a story and a struggle that gives our lives a mixture of purpose and provision, i.e., goals and resources to live a life that leads to flourishing, fullness, and happiness even though the days can be evil. Plus, the church provides community, a place filled with the elderly and young, who can participate in and share in your life journey.
What do you think?
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I'm a high school teacher, and I think this is partially true and partially untrue.
There is, of course, the constant young person striving for identity and figuring one's self out, and I agree that things like social media have accelerated this. I also think that individualism, especially as driven by American Capitalism and branding, has become its own faith.
Where I disagree is that kids are doing this just to be different or primarily to be non-conformist; kids still respond to peer pressure and judgment and many kids do not try to push back. Many who do are taking advantage of a new, more permissive environment to assert themselves in ways they wouldn't before - like gender and sexuality. These things were always present, but are easier to bring forward now.
The issue, as I see it, for the Church is that especially in America many Evangelical Churches are part of this hyper individualism, which ironically makes them really tough on these kinds of kids because the hyper-individualism enables a open and withering disdain towards those on the margins.
Furthermore, since the Church itself should be a locus of community, connection, and healing, it should actually welcome these kids feeling disconnected by individualism; however, the decommunalized "personal savior" style of Christianity rampant in America cuts this approach off too.
You hit the nail Dr. Bird. The gospel of the crucified and risen Jesus provides identity and meaning, a sense of belonging to something extraordinary and bigger than life itself, to be part of an infinite plan that extends beyond the wildest imagination, and participation in a life changing hope for the future.
When I read Mark, for instance, I picture the original readers facing difficult political times, an amalgam of religious beliefs and philosophical ideas, social justice issues affecting the poor, the sick, and foreigners. The gospel that provided a radical answer to the ancients is the same gospel that provides a radical answer today because humans may have changed the way they do things, but those things are the same and human nature remains intact and unaffected by time.