One of the things that happens if you read widely is that you stop being a low information person You can be sucked into spending all your time flicking between the news channels, and that would be an error, for the deep trends are not there. And you can live within a bubble, and think that everything is perfectly fine, because you miss what is going on in the real world. So, after yesterday and the day before, when the text was about how societies perish without Christ, today Vanessa shared this chart over at TC in a combox.
Ireland has seen its youth unemployment rate drop for 10 of the last 11 months and has dropped to a ‘mere’ 26.6% – the lowest since July 2010 – in what is truly the only possible silver lining in today’s absolutely dreadful data release. All four of the other PIIGS nations now have broken the dismal Maginot Line of 40% youth unemployment with Italy finally joining the club (Italy 40.5%, Portugal 42.5%, Spain 58.2%, and Greece 62.5%). What is even more concerning is that not only are these rates extremely high but they are accelerating with all four of these dark nations seeing their rates rising faster than in recent months (this was the 2nd fastest rise in Greek youth unemployment ever). Overall, Europe’s youth unemployment rate continues to march higher (to 24.4%) having not fallen for 24 months, but it is Spain that is the ‘winner’ with 41 consecutive months without a drop in youth unemployment. With welfare benefits running dry, and Sweden and Switzerland already running hot, we fear this summer may bring the much-feared unrest so many have been concerned about.
In other news, Germany’s youth unemployment rate pushes on lower – now at 20 year lows…
Now, this is scary. A strong society keeps young men doing that which young men can do well — the physically demanding, the intellectually challenging, and the long hours required in crisis and emergency work. Being an obstetrician, emergency nurse, soldier, policeman or mathematician is a job for the young: by the time you are middle aged you know too much, have seen too many casualties, to put your brain and body on the line. It’s much better to get them working and let us old farts raise the grandchildren.
I find it amusing that you are now a youth until you are 25. By then, I had a kid and was treating people in isolated hospitals. Besides, it means they may be attractive to a young women, and the world remains peopled.
We are told to be wise and to have courage. But no one pretends that this will make us happy. Tim Ferris is happy with his low information diet — but that is in part because the 24 hour news cycle reports nothing but froth. We, however, find ourselves in pain, and requiring courage, for we see the dangers.
1 Be gracious to me, O God, for people trample on me; all day long foes oppress me;
2 my enemies trample on me all day long, for many fight against me. O Most High,
3 when I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
4 In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I am not afraid; what can flesh do to me?
5 All day long they seek to injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They stir up strife, they lurk, they watch my steps. As they hoped to have my life,
7 so repay them for their crime; in wrath cast down the peoples, O God!
8 You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your record?
9 Then my enemies will retreat in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me.
10 In God, whose word I praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise,
11 in God I trust; I am not afraid. What can a mere mortal do to me?
12 My vows to you I must perform, O God; I will render thank offerings to you.
13 For you have delivered my soul from death, and my feet from falling, so that I may walk before God in the light of life13But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture-“I believed, and so I spoke”-we also believe, and so we speak, 14because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. 15Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
16So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 17For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, 18because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.
1For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling-3if indeed, when we have taken it off we will not be found naked. 4For while we are still in this tent, we groan under our burden, because we wish not to be unclothed but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord-7for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil.
Us Christians are an odd bunch. We have a hope that we will be rewarded in the life everlasting. Yet, we are fully aware that we have sinned, that we have done evil. We are confident, in fact bold, not because of what we have done, but because of what Christ has done. Thus when the song (that I have put a youtube link to at the bottom) came up randomly I considered the words — Hillsong does manage to put correct theology into some of their songs — and how this world just does not get it.
So when it comes to information, what should we do? I find Tim Ferris low information diet remarkably good if I consider that being a self centred hedonist is the only goal in life. Heck, if that was the case, I would go completely low carb, which would help my weight and health, and ignore the boys, who need more calories that I do. (I can live on coffee and snark, but no one likes me when I do that). So what can we take and use? Here Alexandr Solzhenitsyn helps with his argument that we should shun that tells a lie. THat cuts out most news sources, and almost all public relations.
What do I do? Well I do read the local paper (the Otago Daily Times) and the National paper (The NZ Herald) about every second day, online. I generally buy the weekly business paper in NZ (the National Business Review) and the AUstralian Spectator. And I need to cut down the amount of time I get despondent by reading Mish, Zero Hedge nad the more bleak posts in the Orthosphere.
I have to read fairly extensively for work, but I use evidence based tools to systematically find papers — in part because one of the things I do is write systematic reviews. However, I do skim the main journals in my field.
We need to keep the information in our media diet high, and cutting out gossip masquerading as news helps here.
And we need to remember that God is in control. It is he who raises us: And as we rise out of the waters of baptism, so he will raise us to glory.