Much of our issues stem from how self obsessed we have become. The US has always had a more individualistic culture but even in the collectivist movements people love today it's mostly self centered self actualizing that is valued.

I think this explains much of the sexual and identity confusion as well as depression. Humans seem to self destruct when we don't have a higher purpose. Something bigger than ourselves. Even though I do believe in individual libery and the ideals of libertarian and anarchist philosopy there does need to be some grounding in a cultural heritage. A religious tradition, something outside of one's self.

It seems to me that when we reject religion and we reject nation, something has to fill in the void, and that something might very well be Marxism, socialism, communism. The appeal of socialism is not hard to understand, what's hard to understand is how bad we have been at explaining why we have everything we have due to free markets.

My theory is that far too many leaders actually haven't rejected the ideas of Marx fully and therefore they cannot refute socialism because they themselves adopt many of its methods and ideologies. Young people are right to question corporatism. They are wrong to question free markets, but the idea that crony capitalism is causing most of our problems isn't 100% wrong.

One of the best one-liners I've heard from the left wing is socialism for corporations and capitalism for the poor.