Sell out – To abandon one’s principles to seek profit or other personal advantage.
Being a Gen-X’er, when I was young, one of the worst things to be accused of was being a sell out. Selling out your principles for profit or gain was considered worthy of scorn. That has changed. More than a decade ago I watched a video of an interviewer randomly asking Millennials, “What is a sell-out?” Surprising, few knew what the term meant and when it was explained, many thought “selling out” was the objective. I conducted my own informal survey and concluded, that for Millennials, not only is selling out not consider bad, for many it is the goal. This generation, more than any other, was taught to pursue career (job titles), credentials (letters to go with the title), money, and materiel possession. They were taught to be envious and desire to be envied. They may be the first generation to grow up without a connection with something deeper, more meaningful, and purposeful. For many years it was common to praise Millennials for their greater focus on politics. Now we see this came at expense of their soul, deeper meaning, divine purpose, rich community and relationships. Instead they were taught to look to politicians and political movements to fill their god hole and give their lives meaning. This has set them up uniquely to be manipulated by demagogue.
While it may be okay for the young and dumb to wish for the opportunity to sell-out, it is altogether different when they move into positions of power, which they are now. The Millennials in their youth talked a good game, many were experts in hyperbole and rhetoric, sure to use the latest buzz term, and jump on the latest political bandwagon or trendy cause. Heck, they practically invented the virtue signal! It is a generation primed for conformity. As parents, they accelerate the indoctrination process in their children, filling the child with existential dread and anxiety that is then remedied with drugs, seemingly all to induce conformity in their offspring a soon as possible. Using a child for political expression and crippling them with trauma leading into adulthood is looked upon with favor. The nondescript free floating anxiety and shame resulting from “selling out” (focused on externals) is evidently causing parents to transfer this shame onto children. We as a Nation are sacrificing our young in myriad of ways, just not on a physical alter.
As Nietzsche said “God is dead, and we killed him.” He said we would be grappling with that for sometime, the consequences of this are more apparent by the day. Our arrogance as a species, our faith in academics, government bureaucracy, politicians, and scientists is proving to be poor replacements for doing the common good under a common god. Relativism and narcissism does not a content human make. Mainstream thought, in the West, encourages both to the extreme.
I dare anyone to find a large industry that has not been corrupted. Likely that corruption is either enabled or a direct result of government regulation and rules. We got here by selling out, for many it wasn’t a choice, it’s just what you do, right?
I pray that folks wake up and see the destruction their ideas are having on the young and the future. Doubly so for those working inside the D.C. beltway, a whole region comprise of sell outs and suck ups, where conformity has serious consequences.