A new generation is growing up in a world where the deep-seated problems of society are at their most severe and most prevalent. Thousands are thrown in jail for victimless “crimes” by a police state which has been emboldened by an aging and desperate aristocracy who seem hell-bent on protecting the social order. Even more are killed in the crossfire of western nations bringing “democracy” to oil-rich nations too small to protect themselves. And society is plagued by a collective sense of emptiness.
Indeed, the world seems to be in a constant state of chaos and lingering unfulfillment. These problems aren’t new of course, but we are becoming wise to them – and that’s a significant distinction.
Generation Z is the new generation of people born roughly between the mid 90’s and early 2000’s. This is the first generation to really grow up with the internet, an invention which has already significantly changed the course of history in the short decades since it’s conception. On the surface level, popular culture may seem random and vapid, but when observed with a critical lens, we can see a generation collectively resisting the core tenets of the society before them is blossoming. The internet has transformed those growing up with it into something wholly unique and revolutionary. A generation which utilizes its own brand of humor to question the kings who still rule our world today in the guise of oil companies and corrupt governments.
Gen Z is darkly cynical, and this trait has subconsciously embedded us with a more honest view of the world. We see the governments of the world as the laughably oppressive authority it always has been. No longer do we just accept the shooting of innocent black men and incarceration of people with cannabis with the complacency of those before us. Instead, we use the power of the internet to transform minds in a way not done before. We carry the spirit of the change makers before us whether many know it or not. We aren’t satisfied with the middling lives office jobs scrape up for us, we know we can be more than that. The dozens of memes ironically expressing the deep troubles inside us all turns emotional dissatisfaction into subconscious but acutely present rebellion against the ruling class who keep us stagnant. It is this special mix of cynical hope and blunt reality that can guide us into the significant societal change that has not been felt since the civil rights movement.
While the millennial generation has begun to spin the wheels of change, it will be the final generation of the alphabet which will be the first to take full advantage of it, just as they have been the first to take full advantage of the power of the internet. We live in an almost satirical world which has been allowed to exist unchallenged for far too long, and only a generation which can make fun of the world they live in can begin to truly change it. There is a new hope, and that hope is Generation Z.
