“Gen Z”; the generation succeeding the Millennials, the future of human civilization, and the bane of Facebook mom groups. The next generation has been a hot topic as of recently, especially within the United States. Whether you’ve encountered it with a minimum wage worker, a Twitter user, or even in your own family, we’ve all developed a somewhat similar image of the next generation; they’re lazy, entitled, fragile, dissociated teenagers with an aggressive superiority complex.
However, the preceding generations are so quick to point fingers at the youth alone for their problems that we often fail to understand what might have caused these issues in the first place. While Gen Z may suffer from a variety of inherent weaknesses, many of the generation’s faults are the result of one thing – parenting.
Allow me to provide some background:
Parents of the past had much greater influence over the children and knew how to better steward that authority. Submission to both governing and parental authority was socially accepted and, in fact, heavily encouraged. Kids obeyed their parents because the culture told them to and, in most situations, it led to their own prosperity. However, beginning around the 60’s and 70’s, a cultural phenomenon took place wherein the questioning of authority became popular and encouraged. This was a result of the polarizing political climate of the time, as the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, the Nixon impeachment, and other events caused many Americans to lose faith in their government, and subsequently, lessened Baby Boomers’ faith in their parental figures. The music of the time, specifically rock and roll, reflected this general distaste many held for their superiors at the time and, in many cases, perpetuated the hatred of authority onto the youth.
This rebellion flowed over into the generation of teenagers growing up in the 80’s and 90’s, where the movement became even more radicalized; the Cold War, the Middle Eastern conflicts, and the increasing divergence between political parties continued to put doubt in the hearts of Americans, and the popular culture continued to reflect that. Rock bands and musicians such as Rage Against The Machine, Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, and Motley Crue (as well as recently emerging hip-hop and rap artists) all had parents at the time concerned about what their children were listening to, as many of the songs contained incredibly vulgar lyrics and negative messaging, glorifying sex, drugs, crime, and “sticking it to the man”. Public messaging and advertising became more so targeted towards the youth, looking to fulfill their desires and coax them into patronage. Even products as mature as pornographic magazines and cigarettes began ending up in the hands of teenagers, and, more often than not, they were encouraged to acquire these things by the “rebel” culture.
As this cultural phenomenon continued into the following decades, Gen X found themselves in a compromising situation: they had to raise children while lacking a solid basis for parenting. Considering that Gen Xers were socially conditioned with a lack of respect for parental authority, they had trouble communicating that control when in the specific role. This has led to ineffective and sometimes damaging parenting techniques that don’t properly convey healthy paternal authority to children; While some are complacent in providing needed boundaries and jurisdiction as to not be too “domineering”, others are overly domineering and high-strung, as they hope they can force their children to exceed their own achievements and avoid the mistakes they made in the past. Think about how some parents allow their children unlimited access to the internet and phone usage as soon as they can hold a mobile device while others ground and berate their kids for the slightest mistake or shortcoming. Both situations create distrust and aggression between the two parties.
As the current generation has struggled with its contempt and lack of direction due to these faulty parenting techniques, the political affiliations of our country have capitalized on the youth’s naivety and susceptibility to social influence. The young adults of today will have great political effect in the coming elections, and many are still searching for an ethical framework to cling to. Therefore, the organizations and parties have looked to sway the future voters to their cause via moral indoctrination. By filling their minds with false doctrine on the basis of governing and authoritarian roles in the country, and comparing modern societal tensions with the civil plights of generations past, the powers that be are able to make political pawns out of the next generation.
Due to this indoctrination, many from Gen Z come to the false understanding that they are perpetually and systemically oppressed due to a number of factors, whether it be based upon race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, or governing technique. All that oppose their ideology are declared morally abhorrent and the oppressors themselves, and the only solution to the oppression they enable is, of course, the influencing party’s agenda. While not every individual in Gen Z has fallen victim to this influence, those who have are sadly becoming the stereotype.
And yet, despite the uproar, nothing is being done. While the Facebook parent groups complain and call for change, the next generation continues to be coddled. With how much cultural influence the generation has over the institutions in this country, the collective agenda of the youth (created by the controlling party) will always be fulfilled, leaving no individual, group, or opposing ideology to stand in their way. Whether it’s doxing and cancelling an individual for an off-color joke from years past, defacing and removing historical structures, or reintroducing segregation in college campuses under the alias of “ethnic safe spaces”, the political machine moves forward with little resistance.
The solution to this issue is not by any means simple, as it would call for systemic societal changes and immediate action. Better boundaries on in-home authority and media intake at specific ages would help children to understand the importance of differing roles in society and form a concrete perspective on authority. Instructing the youth on the cultural issues and negative influence would allow for them to better understand their generation’s flaws and come to their own conclusions on the problem. Less complacency in our communities in relation to political or cultural sway would disrupt the agenda and allow for better decisions to be made.
However, these solutions have existed for decades now, and yet we continue to allow our societal issues to go unresolved. With every day that we remain stagnant, the controlling parties gain more control over the generations and further extend their agenda. The solution to this rising threat, as well as the solution to a number of Gen Z’s inherent faults, depends upon one thing: Will the intellectually independent remain complacent and allow for the social agenda to continue in enveloping our institutions? Or will we finally begin working towards the right solutions?
