Why Childhood Suffering Has Gone Stratospheric.What might be this year's most powerful blog:

3 min read

Opening

We like to believe we've left the darkness of the past behind — that we've escaped the soot, the hunger, the cold floors and empty bowls of Dickens' world. But the Oliver Twist Syndrome didn't die in Victorian England. It followed us. It put on modern clothes, stepped into our warm homes, and quietly climbed into the stratosphere of our so-called progress.

Now it stands on the peak of Everest, looking down at us.

Because children today aren't suffering the way they once did.
They're suffering in new ways — silent, polished, digital, invisible.
They have more than any generation before them, yet they lack the one thing every generation has depended on:

Meaning — and the adults who provide it.

Materialism filled our homes.
Technology filled our hours.
Comfort filled our senses.

But something else emptied out completely:

Direction.
Presence.
Identity.
Character.
Resilience.
Belonging.

That is why the Oliver Twist Syndrome has gone stratospheric:
Suffering didn't disappear — it merely changed shape.

7 Reasons the Oliver Twist Syndrome Has Reached New Heights

1. Materialism filled their rooms but emptied their souls.

We gave children things but not meaning.
We gave them entertainment but not guidance.
We gave them comfort but not character.

They have everything — except what actually builds a human being:

• boundaries
• direction
• mentorship
• belief in something larger than themselves

You can't buy meaning.
You can't stream identity.
You can't decorate away loneliness.

2. They used to compare themselves to five kids on their street — now they compare themselves to two million strangers online.

One of the biggest psychological shifts in human history.

Comparison used to be local.
Now it's global.

A child's self-worth collapses under:

• filtered perfection
• impossible standards
• curated lives
• digital competition from sunrise to midnight

Every insecurity becomes a failure.
Every flaw becomes shame.
Every young person is measured against the unreal.

Dickens never imagined a world where children would feel inadequate before they even knew who they were.

3. We live in one of the richest, safest societies on earth — and still suicide rises. Why?

Because suffering today is not physical — it's existential.

Norway is safe, stable, wealthy… and yet suicide keeps rising.
Even in small towns — especially in small towns — tragedy arrives again and again.

Why?

Because comfort does not protect the soul.
Silence does not heal the mind.
Material wealth does not create meaning.

Shame is Norway's silent epidemic.
It says nothing, but it strangles everything.

People are surrounded by others yet feel unseen.
Connected digitally yet disconnected emotionally.
Safe in their bodies yet lost in their souls.

In this country, people often die quietly.
They carry everything alone, until they can't.

4. Everest psychology: the higher we climb, the thinner the air becomes.

Modern life is oxygen-poor.

Achievement, stimulation, freedom, comfort — all of it creates altitude.
But no one taught children how to breathe at these heights.

• Anxiety is altitude sickness.
• Depression is oxygen depletion.
• Addiction is searching for warmth in a snowstorm.
• Perfectionism is the panic of slipping on thin ice.

We climbed without training.
And now we're losing consciousness.

5. Emotional neglect is the new orphanhood — silent, soft, invisible.

Today's children are not abandoned physically.
Their parents are alive. They live at home. They care.

But emotionally?

Many children grow up alongside adults who:

• are in the room but not in the moment
• see but don't register
• hear but don't listen
• love but do not lead

Oliver Twist slept in cold beds.
Today's children sleep in warm beds — with cold hearts.

The new orphanhood hides in plain sight.

6. Adults are collapsing — and children inherit the ruins.

A generation cannot rise higher than the adults raising it.

But adults today are:

• overworked
• overstimulated
• exhausted
• addicted
• anxious
• numb
• directionless

Drowning people do not save others.

And here is the hardest truth:

We have given children kindness, but not direction.
Goodness without strength helps no one.

This hits boys especially hard.

A society without present fathers creates sons without gravity.
When men do not learn to stand, boys fall.

7. We mistook "not suffering" for "being well."

Yes — children today are not starving.
They are not freezing.
They are not sleeping in workhouses.

But:

Comfort is not strength.
Protection is not preparation.
Happiness is not purpose.

Children of the past fought to survive.
Children of today fight to feel anything at all.

Numbness is the new danger.
Silence is the new storm.

Conclusion: The Descent

The Oliver Twist Syndrome didn't return from the past —
we carried it into the future.

We polished it, disguised it, ignored it, and called it progress.

But the truth remains:

Children do not need more comfort.
They do not need more technology.
They do not need more freedom.

They need adults who show up.
Adults who speak truth.
Adults who build spine.
Adults who teach them how to breathe.
Adults who hold them until they stand.

No one can live on Everest.
You can climb it — but you cannot stay there.

Neither can a generation.

The question is not how high the Oliver Twist Syndrome will climb —
but when we will finally bring our children back down to where the air is human again.

Thanks for reading, hope you got something out of it.

Best wishes, Raymond and Ken