Fareed Zakaria is wondering why trends towards entrepreneurship and business start-ups are declining.

It’s a good question with no definitive answers, even though there’s no shortage of studies addressing the issue.

Mr. Zakaria observes a less-noted factor:  generational concerns.

Young people today dress like Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, consume technology voraciously and talk about disruptive innovation. But they want to work at Goldman Sachs, McKinsey and Google. They are earnest, intelligent, accomplished — and risk-averse.

He goes on to discuss how the world of the 60’s – the hippies – was the seed of the informational start-up culture that is now mainstream.

It was a time that generated disruption, which lead to the individualistic, decentralizing revolution of the internet.

It’s a curious consideration.  The generations since the hippies benefit from the technology that allows for individualistic ventures, yet they lack the impetus to use it.  Being an entrepreneur requires a disruptive mode, but today’s would-be entrepreneurs are not inclined to be disruptive.

Perhaps the Gen-X/Milinnials have it too easy, living in a world that comes to them on a digital whim.  Moreover, it’s a world of more information but less centralization, leaving you to wonder where (and why) you should stake your claim.

Instead of the Vietnam War, drug-fueled counter-culture, and the political upheaval of the Sixties, today’s generations fear the undefined threats of terrorism, random gun violence, and identity theft.  Instead of having leaders that become the voice of their generation, they are a generation of individuals, each feeling entitled to their own voice, their own thought leadership.

Furthermore, it’s arguable that digital life makes people more conservative.  The web is developing into a culture of the like-minded.  It gives people the power to connect with their tribes and focus on their interests, which in turn provides the power to ignore everything else.

The hippies confronted issues and welcomed risks.  They couldn’t avoid viewpoints they disagreed with, so they stood-up against them.

The internet empowered generation has the option see only what they want to see.  Instead of expanding horizons, changing minds or confronting attitudes, the internet reinforces existing beliefs and intentions.  People know what they want and use the web to get it.  They also know what they don’t want, and use the web to avoid it.

Still, it may be that there is less “disruption” today because the very concept of authority is being reinvented.  The web decentralizes authority, blurs leadership, and takes the focus away from disruption.

Fareed Zakaria states:   “The question is, can we get disruption, but of a kind that is not, well, too disruptive?”

But perhaps this is not the question at all.  Disruption was the mode of the hippies, a product of the times.  Today, anyone can raise their voice on a digital platform, but there are so many amplified voices that the point of disruption – and likewise the vision – are decentralized.

How do you get attention today?  Why fight for it – as a start-up – in an environment that swings between big brands and personalized social media?  As experts and leaders influence less every year, where is the rebel’s energy focused?

Starting a business requires that you take a risk.  Today’s would be business start-ups don’t lack guts to take on the challenge or create the disruption, they just don’t see the point.

The internet connects the like-minded and let’s us express ourselves across the digital divide.  We take the lead with our own thinking, yet we as groups we are leaderless.  Alone and yet together, meaning is provided on a social media feed.  It’s isolated, yet cozy.

Why disrupt it?  As authority gives way to connection, the mindset for starting a new business shifts.  The solution may be an economic transformation where the idea of the individual business start-up is replaced by connections that allow for sharing and mutual growth.

It’s not a capitalistic notion, but indications suggest it’s a direction we’re heading.  The hippies, it seems, are still guiding things.

#Peaceout.