Delayed Gratification

The transition from childhood to adulthood is in no small part the emergence of a forebrain that understands and embraces delayed gratification. Adults do things for the future, rather than the now. Children live by “now” instincts - feed me now, give me that toy now, play now, sleep now, do as I want now or I will throw a tantrum.

Comedian Jimmy Carr distilled the entirety of the self-help messaging that has become a business (and racket, per Eric Hoffer’s aphorism about the life cycle of movements) down to the same notion:

Prioritize “later.”
You sacrifice something now for a better future.

Work itself is, as he pointed out, just that: work now for a better future, instead of just living in the moment without any concern for where, say, tomorrow’s meals will come from.

As adults, we inherently understand this, so much so that we don’t really give it much conscious thought. Each of us engages in a balancing at, trading the instant gratification of lazing around or stuffing our faces or spending all our money on toys or entertainment for the ability to do such things at a later date. We know everything is a tradeoff.

This premise is fundamental to every major political system humans have contemplated. The theories behind capitalism, socialism, and communism are attempts to best structure delayed gratification on a large scale.

The problem that the collectivist system runs into is human nature. Theoretically, individuals in a socialist system work for the future benefit of the collective, rather than just themselves. Traditional socialism sought to inculcate that idea, teaching people that they should put their best efforts in for the common good, that they should work at what they do best so that everyone would benefit.

Thus, the everywhere failures of socialism to deliver what it promised.

Today, we have “democratic socialism” rising in popularity among young people. Cynics and realists see this iteration as just the same old in a new package, and I’ve long numbered myself among them. Unfortunately, it’s not actually the same-old. It’s worse. It deletes presumption of everyone working for the collective good - the “adult” aspect of socialism - in favor of the child’s instant gratification from without. The message is “the system will give you all you desire by taking from someone else.” It is not a thinking man’s ideology, it is that of an impulsive and reckless child.

This is why it has taken root among the young. This is why its proponents want to lower the voting age to 16. It is an even bigger abandonment of responsibility (hat tip to David Mamet) than old-school socialism.

The social democracies of Europe are often pointed at - vaguely - by democratic socialism’s advocates, but the heavy taxation of the middle and working classes, the expectation and demand that people work, and the rest of “contribute to the system that provides for you” are absent from the democratic socialists’ messaging.

Societal success in terms of wealth creation and advancement of living standards has enabled young people to delay their entry into full adulthood. Young adults go to college to party and earn useless degrees rather than entering the workforce after high school. Young adults live with their parents longer and longer. The dividing line between youth and adulthood, codified as the “age of majority,” gets blurred and delayed. You can vote and serve in the military at 18, but you can’t smoke or drink (or buy a gun in some jurisdictions) until 21. You can stay on your parents’ health insurance plan until 26.

It should come as no surprise that the demographic most likely to lean into socialism are people with advanced degrees but low incomes. That combination is a telltale of poor life choices. Those poor life choices are themselves rooted in the child’s mind. Choose a degree that you think is fun rather than one that will bring you a better future, then get upset when you find yourself unable to live the lifestyle you want. Worse than upset - anxious. That anxiety is fertile ground for those who seek power by sowing resentment and shifting blame onto others, so the anxious can rationalize the taking (by force) of the wealth others created for themselves.

Can a society dominated by childish thinking survive?

You know the answer.