It is not the young people that degenerate; they are not spoiled till those of mature age are already sunk into corruption.

Adults set the blueprint first

We love blaming young people for everything—their phones, their lack of work ethic, their supposed entitlement. But Montesquieu points at something we'd rather not see: kids don't become corrupt in a vacuum. They inherit the world adults have already compromised.

Think about it in smaller ways. A teenager learns to cut corners because they watched a parent lie on taxes. A young professional becomes jaded about ethics because she's seen the boss reward dishonesty. We model the corruption we then criticize in the next generation. It's not that young people are inherently worse; they're just following the blueprint they've been shown. The real question isn't what's wrong with kids—it's what have we already accepted as normal?

This matters because it shifts responsibility exactly where it belongs. Instead of wringing our hands about youth degeneracy, we might ask what compromises we've quietly made and are now unconsciously teaching. The good news is it also means change doesn't require waiting for a new generation to spontaneously become better. It requires adults deciding to be better first.