I advise young people that they are, in fact, living in a dystopian YAF novel, and yes, their own parents and teachers and ministers are (often without conscious self-awareness) setting them up to be disposable, replaceable components (soldiers and laborers) in the vanity projects of plutocrats, and the path of least resistance will lead them to this fate of being worked until they’re worn out, and then cast aside.

Their story is how they escape this path. If they take too long, it’s how they secretly serve the resistance while not alerting the authorities, but that’s hard mode.