For Millennials and Gen Z Quality of Life Trump’s Democracy
A storm continues to rage within Millennial and Gen Z generations making me wonder if anyone in leadership is paying attention. Pro-Palestinian protests, though calmed during the holidays, offer a glimpse of a societal rift that’s likely to shape U.S. politics in 2024. Great reason for believing that Harvard Youth Poll’s (Fall 2023) prediction that, “Young Americans appear less likely to vote in 2024 than they did in 2020…” https://iop.harvard.edu/youth-poll/46th-edition-fall-2023 has it wrong.
Believing that the energy behind Millennials and Gen Z show of force in 2020 and the extent to which they drove the mid-term surprises keeping Democrat's in the Congressional majority will go away misses the reasons why many young people will remain engaged. Born into a near global economic collapse and recession; mass shootings taking the lives of defenseless students; skyrocketing post secondary education and training costs leaving many of them in massive and growing debt; stand your ground laws increasing race based violence; police abuses of power, the killing unarmed citizens; and environmental catastrophes, both Millennials and Gen Z are inheriting a world where their prosperity, and potentially their existence, for many is in question.
Further, the president’s unkept campaign promises (student debt relief, pathways to citizenship for “dreamers,” addressing climate change) have underscored an existential reality manifesting itself, for many, as mental health concerns. “Only 41% of Gen Z members aged 18 to 26 are thriving, according to the study, while millennials at the same age were thriving at a rate of about 60%.” according to a CNN , September (2023). https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/14/health/gen-z-mental-health-gallup-wellness-cec/index.html
Now they’re being asked to support Israel’s, by any means necessary, war against Hamas. Instead, however, their response has been to take to the streets in protest. Which should serve as another reason to not think Millennials and Gen Z will stay at home. Israel’s murderous rampage throughout Gaza has resonated with many as a symbol of the structural inequalities today’s youth have been forced to suffer.
Their Rejection Should Be No Surprise
As a country, the U.S. is built around deconstructivism. A doctrine built upon tearing down norms, constructs, ways of being. Such was the case of western migration. Conquest of nations and cultures that thrived in belief of Manifest Destiny, a doctrine colonists believed anointed them with the right to appropriate Native lands, destroy Native culture and act with genocidal impunity. Not dissimilar from Netanyahu’s Israel's regard for Palestinian Gaza. I wonder if Millennials and Gen Z has not seen too much exploitation of the earth’s resources and peoples, without regard for consequences. Is there not a straight line from Manifest Destiny to the climate change crisis we face, just might be the question.
In Anti-Intellectualism Draws Blood, Again! https://medium.com/our-human-family/anti-intellectualism-draws-blood-again-d3fbea5dce20, I offered that Millennials and Gen Z, the most diverse generations the country has ever known, might empathize significantly with those suffering under the tyranny of global imperialism. That reigns of terror upon peoples of various tribes and nations give them cause to seek to defend individual freedoms and rights to self determination. The exploitation of people and nations with impunity is for many a straight line to their experiences of workplaces in a capitalist country like the U.S.
Think of it as seeing Walt Disney’s Concert Hall by Frank Gehry (architect) for the first time. Maybe you’re attracted by the appearance. Maybe the architecture’s attraction is enticing even. However, it’s disorienting. Your mind needs to adjust to a new way of being. Such is the case for Millennials and Gen Z.
Each successive generation in the U.S. prospered in ways better than their parents. Until Millennials were born. Then the rules changed. Instead of symmetry, continuity, and harmony, they encountered chaos. Instead of opportunity they found profound political shifts and wealth transfers. The results of which destabilized the country’s social order and led to near financial ruin. Still, however, wealth disparities have increased markedly during both generation’s lifetimes.
“Deconstructivism is characterized by the use of fragmentation, manipulation of ideas of a structure’s surface or skin, redefinition of shapes and forms, and radical manifestation of complexity in a building.” (Deconstructivism in Architecture and Its 10 Most Amazing Buildings, by Bob Lansroth, Widewalls Magazine, Dec. 7, 2015)
A Case In Point
“Not every eye closed is sleep!” a friend once recalled her grandmother saying. The same applies to Millennials and Gen Z. Though they are often characterized as “quiet quitters,” their mastery of social media and the internet make them aware, connected and quite capable. They see that life has been made uncertain for us all. They know deconstructivism does not work. That if the earth can be made a profit center what is to be believed about a nation or a company protecting their own interests.
Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people has become a symbol, like that of George Floyd, to many. A symbol of murderous oppression. Perhaps unexpectedly Israel has pulled back the curtain on its decades long intent: abandoning a “Two State Solution.” A deconstructivist agenda that many argue led to Hamas’ terrorists attacks of October 7. Tearing down, instead of building up! Eliminating, instead of promoting! a belief in Manifest Destiny prevailing over God’s grace.
Al Fin
For many reasons, democracy’s value is perhaps what’s really on the 2024 ballot for Millennials and Gen Z. They’ve been told they should fight for and uphold democracy’s principles while watching districts being gerrymandered to the exclusion of the opposition’s voice; witnessing three state legislatures removed from the Tennessee legislative floor for fighting for gun control after a mass shooting, two Black members expelled while the lone White legislator was not; and quality of life advances revoked, like the reversal of Roe v Wade, by political agenda not their own. The country’s deconstructionist nature is a yoke around its neck.
They also see tangible, easy to achieve, solutions to quality of life problems being ignored by Boomers because they, we, away from a deconstructionist mindset. The redistribution of wealth and power towards the middle and lower middle class has become the third rail of U.S. politics. Their support for the 2023 autoworkers’ labor union strikes with U.S. automakers and the Writers Guild strike should indicate their response to such a stance: quality of life is everything!
Finally, Netanyahu’s my way or the highway posture has left the country with few, if any, off-ramps. He and his newly formed coalitions have conditioned support for Jews with a unilateral support for Israel. Their public positions equate support for Palestinians with anti-Semitism. Both portend a porous and untenable stance many, especially Millennials and Gen Z, are unwilling to occupy. And even if Israel pulls out of Gaza militarily, the U.S. is now indelibly linked with what many see as a genocidal action. An image causing many to question democracy’s value.
