Shortly after the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom, I made a prediction about the upcoming American election:
I noted that young people have to wake up and take charge, that this was not a left/right split but a demographic battle, and eventually the young will win it because the boomers and seniors are, to put it bluntly, a dying breed.
Of course we all now know what happened in the U.S. on Nov. 9, and the demographic battle has been raging every since. It’s a battle of generations; the giant tax cuts create deficits that the young will be stuck with. The unleashing of the fossil fuel industry creates wealth now, while the young are stuck with the effects of climate change. Obamacare gets gutted bit by bit, but somehow changes to Medicare — which affect the over 65 crowd — are put off for a few years.
I thought it would be the millennials who would show up and change things, but after seeing the young students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in action, I wonder now if it’s not the post-millennials, the kids born in this century, who will truly make a difference.
‘We will outlive you’
No truer words were ever said. I will take no position on the issue of guns in the U.S.; I left the States when I was 2 and don’t think it appropriate to comment. But I do want to look at what seems to be the awakening of a generation that’s finally showing up and being heard.
David Hogg, the teenager who said those words has been under attack; he has been called a “crisis actor” or it’s said that he was coached, that he’s being led around by George Soros (code for Jews). His full statement in an interview gives insight on his thoughts about those criticizing him:
Why are these kids so articulate? For one thing, Stoneman Douglas is apparently a pretty good school. According to Dahlia Lithwick, writing in Slate, “the students of Stoneman Douglas have been the beneficiaries of the kind of 1950s-style public education that has all but vanished in America and that is being dismantled with great deliberation as funding for things like the arts, civics, and enrichment are zeroed out.” It just happens to have a “system-wide debate program that teaches extemporaneous speaking from an early age.”
This is a new generation; they are really post-millennials, and have also been wired all their lives, they just own these media. They are totally digital and just kill it on Twitter, like this simple response to someone who said we shouldn’t listen to sophomores:
Blunt words for tough times
Personally, I’m happy for Sarah and David’s generation to vote, to take their place in society, as we recognize John Kennedy’s words from his inaugural address. As you can verify in the video below, they work in this century as well as they did in his: “The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans … born in this century.” This election is probably the first ever that people born in this century can vote, and they’re going to make a difference.
Writing in the New York Times, Tim Kreider uses far stronger language. He’s not happy just to pass the torch; he wants young people to take the torch and burn the place down.
He’s as excited as I am at what these kids have been saying.
His conclusion is powerful, controversial, a bit lefty but seriously attention-getting as he tells millennials and those coming after them:
That is perhaps a bit harsh, and I for one am not in such a hurry to be gone. But I do know that my generation has failed our children; we are squandering our resources and burning the furniture and leaving these kids nothing but scorched earth, if they don’t get killed or blown up first. No wonder they’re angry.
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