July 21, 2026
The news is in and the vibes are horrendous everywhere. At the Neoliberal Action Summit, youth hopelessness was cited as a major contributor to America’s political situation; while this is true, it is not unique to America nor its particular economic style. If you read younger posters on Chinese forums, the exact same hopelessness & lack of excitement for the future sound much like our own. A commonality between the two is that these are both internet-based observations, though this remains outside the internet if you ask the average young adult at a bar. Malaise is the theme of our era and its particular universalism is new.
Being a political forum, NLAS attempts policy solutions to this problem. There are some which may work; decreasing the cost of housing and providing access to resources ought to at least provide a sense of stability for younger voters. Precarity does not make people feel secure. Though, I doubt that policy-based solutions are enough. Sufficiency does not mean that one is thriving. If everyone were to be provided basic necessities such that they didn’t have to worry about base levels of survival, the world would be happier than the status quo. But not enough!
Rather, the cause of this hopelessness may be made worse by the lack of struggle. We prefer not to struggle; struggle causes pain, but it also provides an outlet for extra energy. This excess is otherwise used for unproductive thoughts & anxiety. A more literal example is the relation between physical exercise and mental health; I believe that the ability to filter through thoughts during exercise & lower energy after prevents rumination and other thought patterns which indicate a general malaise. Additionally, having been through times of upheaval, there comes a point when one is standing in a freshly-rebuilt life with the thought “now what?”; the answer to this question perhaps setting off a new struggle if one is predisposed to action.
Thus, this hopelessness seems to require an existentialist treatment that all be given a burden to carry. There is not a lack of levers for the government to pull here - a public works program among others - but in these the actor still receives instruction & meaning from a higher power. We could hope that each finds their own rock to push; looking around, though, I doubt it. More or less, malaise is a symptom of having all one needs! No policy will fix this. Housing & costs & alienation are important, but the issue with them lies in the difference between want and desire. I fear that our collective appetites may always grow.
Blessed be the ones whose chosen tasks align with the needs of the many, for their challenges are more real than most. For the rest, let us pick up boulders such that we may grow in a positive direction; perhaps some may find a greater contentment such that they do not have to struggle. Politics and policy alone cannot bridge the gap between basic necessity and our ever-growing desire. The game of hopelessness can only be solved on the individual level. Here, neoliberalism (and other utopian projects) will fail. There is no top-down solution for our gluttony.