I've thought long and hard about this issue, and I have arrived at the following conclusion, however valid or flawed it may be:
This current generation (as well as any generation) is neither more cuddled nor more tough than any of the others. The cuddling is just different for each generation.
Younger generations today do not have to suffer as much physically. They don't have to be as tough, and someone will be there to assure them they don't have to be physically tough to be a worthy person (unlike, perhaps, in the past). Chances are, they may not even have to be as mentally tough, if, by "mentally tough," we mean capable of hiding our individual suffering and keeping it private. A just "deal with it" sort of thing.
Previous generations, however, were cuddled as well. We just don't tend to think of it this way. Previous generations constantly required everyone around them to constantly re-confirm their worldview. An attack, let's say, upon one's sense of gender or of patriotism or of how the races should mingle, would cause one to react like an overgrown child acting out with a temper tantrum because mommy didn't let him or her have the candy bar in the grocery line. It's like they need their understanding of the world echoed back to them for validation. Today's generations, no matter how pathetic, are much more comfortable with ambiguity than previous ones.
It's all the same thing. Just a little different. This difference we attribute to culture.
Humans are still humans. Always will be.
