We Might Teach Young People to Affirm Life, Not Just Cope

There's a troubling pattern emerging among young people today. Rising levels of anxiety, depression, and disengagement are often attributed to academic pressure, digital overload, or a spike in mental health diagnoses. But what if these explanations only scratch the surface? What if, beneath them, lies something more profound—a more bottomless existential void? A lack of joy, meaning, and affirmation of life itself?

If this is the case, philosophy may offer something that reforms, measurements, and mental health campaigns cannot: a different language and, more importantly, a new way of being in the world.

In his reading of Nietzsche, the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze once wrote that we always have the feelings we deserve based on our lives. It's a confronting idea, but also a liberating one. If our lives are ruled by fear, conformity, and constant self-monitoring, our emotions will mirror that, not because we're flawed but because we're caught in systems that stunt our growth.

Deleuze speaks of ressentiment—a passive, gnawing frustration that arises when our deepest desires are suppressed by external ideals. Instead of affirming life, we are taught to endure it. We measure ourselves against standards that aren't our own—whether about appearance, achievement, gender, or career.

Have we lost our joy—and, with it, our ability to act freely? Some have, I think so. Not because we are weak but because we've been trained to comply. Desire has been framed as something to be managed, medicated, or mistrusted. Yet, desire is not dangerous—it is vital. It is the lifeblood of creativity, connection, and transformation. Something productive.

Many young people today feel reduced to roles and identities they never chose. They are expected to perform, fit in, and take responsibility—and simultaneously stand out as unique. This paradox is exhausting and cannot be solved with another productivity app or mental health awareness week.

We live in what Deleuze called a society of control—where everything is constantly optimized, calculated, and measured. Young people are navigating a landscape of algorithms, performance metrics, and branding, where the goal is never simply to be but constantly to improve. We've created a culture in which life must be defended or justified—never simply lived.

Speaking in St. Peter's Basilica in 2022, even Pope Francis warned that "we are often chained like Peter in the prison of habit... scared by change and tied to the chain of our customs." His words, though aimed at the Church, echo a broader truth: The structures we've built—whether religious, educational, political, or digital—often resist transformation, even when change is vital.

But what if we reversed the premise?

What if well-being were not about fitting in but about breaking free? Imagine the possibilities, the freedom, the joy that could come from such a shift in perspective.

What if utopia weren't a distant dream but something we practice daily—how we live, play, create, and connect? Are we doing what truly matters?

Deleuze speaks of the nomadic subject—a person in motion, not tethered to fixed identities but open to change. This kind of life is not rootless but alive, not without direction but without captivity.

It moves toward what gives it life.

Young people don't need more self-help mantras or motivational slogans. They need spaces where they can think for themselves, where their desires aren't pathologized but explored. They need to feel their vitality—not as a problem to manage, but as a force to live by. They need poetry, not performance goals. They need existence, not branding. Perhaps they need the spirit of five Woodstock festivals to remember what it feels like to be free.

We need a different kind of education that doesn't just teach coping strategies but encourages a deeper encounter with beauty, connection, and freedom. An education that doesn't just focus on symptoms but speaks to what truly sustains us.

We've created a world where everything seems possible, yet little feels meaningful.

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Young people don't need to learn how to merely survive life.

They need to learn how to affirm it.

And that begins with us—when we dare to embrace the vulnerability of existence and live it with open arms.