Skip to content

Dear Young People, You Terrify Me

2018-02-23 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:58 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Everyday life (also: Science & nature) · mode: Personal essay

Using mutagenesis as an analogy, Hank argues that young people are cultural mutagens built to create change; though middle-aged and frightened by the pace of change, he says society without change is doomed, cultural evolution can be done with intent, and 12-to-24-year-olds are in some ways at their most powerful.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Mutagenesis: mutations, cancer, beneficial changes, mutagens, and evolution selecting for some mutation

  • ★★ Hank explains that mutagenesis is a new change introduced to an organism's genome, and that by far the most common effect of a mutation is nothing. — 00:00:06
  • ★★ Occasionally a mutation lets a cell divide uncontrolled, which is cancer. — 00:00:21 · cancer
  • ★★ Even more rarely the change is good: it lets an organism digest a new food, or makes it bigger, smaller, hairier or less hairy as conditions need. — 00:00:27
  • ★★★ Hank says mutagenesis is on average really bad for individuals, yet without it there would be no life on Earth, or only one kind of single-celled sludge. — 00:00:40 · Earth
  • ★ Genetic mutagens include sunlight, other radiation, certain oxidizing compounds and various hydrocarbons. — 00:00:56
  • ★★ Hank says evolution seems to select for a certain amount of mutagenesis: there is a balance, with external and apparently internal, intentional mutagenesis. (hedged) — 00:01:07

00:01:16 — Young people as cultural mutagens; culture evolves and must; middle-aged Hank's fear of the pace of change (Jimmy Buffett aside)

  • ★★★ Hank says he started thinking of young people as cultural mutagens back when he was still young himself; it sounds bad, but it isn't. — 00:01:21

    “young people as cultural mutagens”

  • ★★ Hank says culture can be understood evolutionarily: what works sticks around, good or bad, from institutions like marriage or fast-food restaurants to ideas like human rights or tribalism. — 00:01:29

  • ★★ Hank says culture mutates extremely quickly from a biologist's perspective, and it needs to. — 00:01:45
  • ★★ Hank, now middle-aged, says he is frightened by the pace of change he witnesses. — 00:01:52
  • ★ Hank often wishes people would get used to the revolution in human communication before revolutionizing global finance with cryptocurrency and just slow down, then notes this makes him Jimmy Buffett. (playful) — 00:02:03

00:02:30 — Young people are built to create change; cultural evolution with intent; messages to educators and 12-to-24-year-olds

  • ★★★ Hank says young people, for physiological, practical, cultural and psychological reasons, are built to create change, take risks, avoid stability, mutate culture and imagine a very different world. (hedged) — 00:02:30
  • ★★ Hank worries about what happens to individuals and to culture at large when the wrong change takes hold. — 00:02:50
  • ★★★ But, being old, Hank recognizes that a society without change is destined for a sorry, sad end. — 00:03:02
  • ★★★ Hank says that, unlike genetic evolution, cultural evolution can be done with intent, carefully and thoughtfully. (hedged) — 00:03:08
  • ★★ Hank tells people who talk to young people for a living that their job is extremely important: society may not value them correctly, but they are still creating that value. — 00:03:17
  • ★★★ Hank tells 12-to-24-year-olds that they may feel powerless but are in some ways the most powerful they will ever be, because they can imagine the world in a way he no longer can. (hedged) — 00:03:29
  • ★★ Hank says this is not an indictment of getting older but a recognition that different life stages serve different roles in culture. — 00:03:45
  • ★★ Hank urges young people to use their fuel wisely and often, and thanks them for inspiring old folks. — 00:03:50

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says watching a Logan Paul video or reading about Tide Pod challenges makes an older adult's natural response overwhelming anxiety for the next generation. — video description · Tide Pod challenge
  • ★★ Hank worries about people who capture young people's energy for their own gain without considering the responsibility their power brings, or who think they are righteous while leaning into culturally destructive ideas. — video description
  • ★★★ Hank says he and John have both been shying away from cultural criticism on the channel, as he feels drawn to stability and to compassion for people who are intolerant without knowing it. — video description · John Green, Vlogbrothers
  • ★★ Hank calls the video a surface-level take on something deeper that is pushing him away from four-minute explorations of culture: he doesn't know if he has the guts to stake himself on things he might be wrong about, or whether echo-chamber internet discussion helps. — video description
  • ★★ Just as genetic mutations usually do nothing, Hank believes people can freak out about cultural changes that have no real effect, though sometimes the changes are absolutely negative. — video description
  • ★★★ Hank says the brain between the new dopamine channels of puberty and the frontal cortex finishing in the mid-20s is a recipe for indulging bad ideas, harming individuals and culture, but it can also mean great change and action, which is how he feels now. — video description

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: cumulative culture · Mutagenesis · Youth

Also: People: Jimmy Buffett

Concepts: cancer · Cryptocurrency · evolution · Fast food · Human rights · Marriage · Middle age · tribalism

Places: Earth

Only in the description or credits: adolescence · Logan Paul · Tide Pod challenge

Also centred on cumulative culture: I Gotta Go: Signing Off and Thinking about Inspiration · Redefining What it Means to Matter · 5 Songs You've Never Heard That You've Heard 1000 Times · What a Concept!! · On Immunity, Inoculation, and Individuals · The Weirdest Post-Chemo Symptoms

Also centred on Youth: Young People and the COVID Vaccine

← Previous: When Your Friend Runs for Governor · Next → Ode to a Dog