The Atlantic Report: Why Millennials &%#@! Love Science

I keep talking about Walker Percy's concept of the autonomous self because I keep seeing examples of it in modern culture. Alexandra Ossola's examination of Millenials' love of science is yet another good example.

This is how most Millennials feel about science—curious and awestruck. And they can’t get enough of it. They’re reading about science at their jobs and in their free time, in peer-reviewed journals or on Wikipedia. But what makes Millennials’ interests different from the scientific interests of every previous generation?

Well, for one, other generations didn't get cohort-stroking pieces in The Atlantic. But another is that science is the only avenue of truth allowed in the West.

Even a light presence on the Web will prove that Millenials' championing of science is shallow. Sagan and Tyson hero-worship and "Cool beans!" snapshots. And I don't get the impression that they understand the difference between science and technology--they know the difference when they talk about their iPhones, but not when there's a breakthrough in carbon fiber manufacturing or something.

Most importantly, there's a real lack of understanding of the disconnection between reality as the universe outside ourselves and science as our knowledge of that universe and the method of determining that knowledge. It may make atheists roll their eyes when I say this, but the rah-rah science fans make science a faith. (Here is another term I thought I made up before I encountered it on the alt-right:  scientism.)

When historians--and God help them--dig into the piles of chatter the modern era has produces, they'll have to take a Straussian perspective; everything that the mainstream media discusses is not what they're really discussing. This "love for science" is really the cult of the scientist. To really love science, I think, is to love the rigor of it--the strict rules of what is considered proof, the reluctance to promote definite conclusions, the process of eliminating possibilities rather than proving theories. The modern perspective is that the white-coated sage emerges from his laboratory and pronounces, "I bring you Truth!"

I wonder what will be the event that will shatter the Millenials' faith. As I said above, the spiritual perspective is that science is an abstract description of a reality that is separate from that description--a description that strives for accuracy but a description nonetheless. But the broader right wing also sees that science has become politicized.

Millennials have a greater need for things that transcend old boundaries and ideologies. Science has become a universal language, a form of information that is available almost instantly and can be shared among people who have nothing else in common.
...
"Obviously one issue that Millennials will put their talents toward solving is climate change," [Neil] Howe said.

Sadly, the end of Millenials' love of science probably won't be because of any single event. It will be because the excitement will slowly leak out of it. It's nice to be 22 years old and thrilled about the advances in space exploration or nanotechnology--or that Tarantino is coming out with a new movie or your favorite comic writer is taking over your favorite comic character or they've discovered a lost Salinger novel or Hulk Hogan is returning to the WWE. But time will tell you that these things rarely work out the way you think they will and you're left back in your home, wondering how to handle a Wednesday afternoon.