Radically Privileged
Generation Z’s Obsession with Ideological Purity Will Get Them — and the Planet — Nowhere Fast
Disclaimer: NOT a Climate Denier
In fact, I recently went about 80% vegan — partly for my health, partly for sustainability. I believe that the climate is changing and that human decision-making plays a large part in these recorded changes. I do think an undue amount of emphasis is placed on the energy industry when the industry we should be watching is animal agriculture, but that position is, for some reason, wildly unpopular for all you meat and dairy consuming environmentalists out there. Shocker.
Enough with the disclaimers.
F*CKING GenZ — NOT to be Confused with Glorious GenY
After going to the bookstore in “the city” for the first time in over 2 weeks — we’ve been on lockdown here on the Rez due to the Rona, I had to flip through the latest Rolling Stone with the somber, ruggedly heroic image of Greta Thunberg on its cover. Unfortunately for the writer of the cover story, recent musings on the absolute uselessness of GenerationZ may have clouded my reaction to a potentially interesting piece of writing.
The main reason Generation Z is shit: Millennials tend to get blamed for all the lame shenanigans these assholes are currently engaging in— like going on Spring break in the midst of a global pandemic and spreading the Rona like it’s a fucking STD. No, Millennials were NOT on Spring break, we all have jobs to work and our parents’ basements to go home to at night.
Nothin’s Betta than Greta
Anyways, the author of this article is a shameless sycophant. Greta is described as “the unlikely and reluctant hero of the climate change crisis” and “an adolescent iron-willed truth teller.” That’s all well and good. Greta is the subject of a great deal of writing these days and I guess this author needs to set his piece apart with some obvious bootlicking.
Still more irritating is the author’s revelry in the observation that “Greta doesn’t do politics.” This is obvious from her inflammatory remarks about leaders who do not follow her prescriptions to reverse climate change “in time.” Greta’s disinterest in “politics” will get her nowhere in a world governed by politics. In the world of politics, compromise is necessary. I hope that the young people involved in these new and radical climate change organizations learn compromise, because the more uncompromising they become, the less I want to hear what they have to say. And I’m quite certain “the olds” would agree with me. (Or do I already qualify as an old?)
I never did get the hype surrounding Greta T. All she really does is stand around on the street with signs, preach at adults — or “the olds,” call people stupid, and remain ideologically pure. Oh, yeah. That must be it. But I would like to tell Greta, ideological purity usually comes at the cost of measurable results. What a privilege to be able to protest and lecture your elders for a living. Every time I see a privileged high school or college student protesting I think about how most of them don’t have to worry about providing for a family or how to spread out their retirement savings until they die. I guess that’s only a problem for “the olds.”
Questions the Author SHOULD Have Asked Greta
- What are you trying to accomplish?
- How are you measuring success?
- By your own metric, are you making meaningful, measurable progress?
- If you don’t succeed in your goal by 2028, does that mean that we give up on the planet since, by that year, it is “too late” to fix things?
- How does your privilege effect your ability to remain ideologically pure?
- What is so demonic about compromise?
