Beautiful essay on the media environment that Gen Z faces, a lack of shared culture and language, and why this creates a level of nihilism and apathy among their generation. I will admit, faced with the news of the day any given day, it is not hard to understand why apathy is setting in.
You can see this with the riots in France. I would imagine that the youth looting these stores, burning town halls that are centuries old, etc., don’t actually think of themselves as destroyers of property or thieves. I would imagine – tied to this essay – that there is a feeling among them that this is just another thing that doesn’t matter. That if our elders and our politicians and our elites act with a certain air of nihilism in their politics, their finances (their pillaging of the treasury), and their corruption then what is it for us to come out from the margins and burn the center?
It is all quite sad. I am motivated to teach the kids that effort, trying hard, and caring deeply about how you are in the world and what you do is (i.e., integrity), even in the face of your elders forgetting about you and pulling up the ladder, so important.