A student faces armed police at the University of Texas (Source: here)
It is extremely encouraging to see young people finally taking a stand! In recent days, major student protests have erupted at many US universities, including:
Columbia University
New York University
University of California Los Angeles
Yale University
University of Connecticut
University of Florida
California State Polytechnic University
Humboldt
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Emerson College
Tufts University
The New School
University of Michigan
University of New Mexico.
There have also been protests at universities in Canada (McGill, Concordia) and Australia (University of Sydney). Young people have also taken to the streets in large numbers in many European capitals.
The immediate catalyst for these protests is the ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, orchestrated by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. As such, the protests echo the great university demonstrations of the 1960s, which were also motivated by outrage over war, notably the grotesque losses of civilian lives at the hands of the US military in the Vietnam War.
The protests today also resemble the 1960s in other ways. Like now, there were broader issues at play. In the 1960s, young people were fed up with the conservative values of the 1950s. They strongly opposed the excesses of McCarthyism and were concerned about the potential for the Cold War to erupt into a new global conflagration. The Civil Rights Movement also resonated strongly with many young people, who were far more tolerant and worldly than their parents’ generation. Helping things along, incomes were rising quickly in the 1960, so there was more opportunity for young people to seek education and to become enlightened.
The young of today have at least as much to protest about as the kids in the 1960s. In fact, the very futures of the today’s young are at stake. The environment is probably the single greatest concern. At no time in history has so much environment destruction happened in such a short time. Global temperatures are rising faster than the worst predictions and already posing real-time existential threats to many human communities, especially in developing countries. Non-human life is in even greater trouble. Since 1970, global biodiversity has dropped by a shocking 69%, easily the worst and most rapid mass extinction event in earth’s history. The natural world is completely unable to cope with the relentless pace of human resource use, but there is little evidence that nation states are taking the action required to turn things around, or that they are even capable of such action. The world of tomorrow – that is, the world of the today’s young – is in very grave danger.
As if that was not enough, the current economic situation is not anything to cheer about either, especially for the young, who are on track to inherit an economy that will be heavily indebted and laden with formidable contingent liabilities due to the unfunded pension and healthcare liabilities associated with ageing populations. To make matters worse, the difficulty of mobilising the resources required to meet these obligations in the future will increase, because many Western governments are turning away from free trade and globalisation. We know from abundant economic empirical evidence that such economic policies are associated with much slower economic growth, and hence lower tax revenues. In short, the young of today will have to work harder and pay higher taxes than previous generations. At the same time, their political influence will be less because they will be outnumbered by much larger older generations. Not a good combination.
The burden for the young is formidable (Source: here)
Aside from political marginalisation due to demographics, the young are currently facing a resurgence in Far-Right populism with zero respect for the rule of law, democracy, or even basic human rights. Former US President Donald Trump attempted to overthrow the legitimately elected US government on 6 January 2021 after losing the election. If he regains the presidency later this year, it will truly be bedtime for democracy (see here).
Meanwhile, other countries are also becoming more authoritarian. In Britain, the Sunak government has recently passed new laws that limit rights to protest and deport asylum seekers in direct contravention of human rights conventions. Fascists are already in power in Russia, Hungary, and Italy. France and Germany may head the same way soon. These development should greatly worry the young, especially since the polls consistently show that young people disagree with Far-Right politics. Yet, the young have so far not voted in significant numbers in elections, let alone stepped forward as candidates, so they can only blame themselves for the current situation. Going forward, will the young wake up and realise that it is their own futures at stake? If not, Britain offers a timely and sobering warning of the consequences. The reluctance of the young to participate in the democratic process in Britain was a major factor that led to Brexit, which now confines British youth to their cold wet little North Atlantic island, when previously they had the freedom to live, travel, study, and work in the entire European Union. So much has been lost due to youthful lethargy.
Too few of her (Source: here)
The international order also poses serious threats to the young. The global political order is currently in total disarray. International relations are the worst they have been since the rise of fascism in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. Indeed, today there are worryingly many parallels with that time. Just like in run-up to World War II, the political centre has lost credibility after a major economic crisis. Global governance institutions too, such as the United Nations, are extremely weak. Nationalist governments are already taking advantage of this situation by pursuing expansionist aims in contravention of international law. Bullies are doing all the running, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s completely immoral destruction of Gaza being the most blatant examples. The really worrying thing, however, is that history shows that things will get much worse before they get better unless early action is taken to stop dictators (See here). When weak democracies fail to stand up to bullies, the eventual cost of stopping them rises manyfold. And, the young, for sure, will foot the bill.
The last area where the young ought to find common cause against the status quo is social values. In the 1960, there was a huge gulf between the values of those in power and most young people. The same is true today. Young people today are highly globalised. Many are completely bilingual, because their own cultures have become enmeshed with a global culture, where idols – influencers, musicians, DJs, entrepreneurs, artists – are drawn from a global pool with English as the predominant language. Unlike their parents’ generation, the young have grown up with kids from different ethnic groups and many racial backgrounds. The young of today, like in the 1960s, are far, far more open-minded and tolerant than the generations before them. The only remaining question is: are they also less selfish?
TikTok. Another thing the old will take away from the young (Source: here)
The question of selfishness is important, because with a few notable exceptions, such as British environmental activist group ‘Just Stop Oil’ and the loose alliance of Far-Left anti-fascists known as ‘Antifa’, there is very little evidence of broad-based youth mobilisation in the Western world. The interests of the young are being frontally assaulted, yet only Greta Thunberg has been close to mobilising a truly global mass movement of young people.
There is no telling yet whether the protests taking place on American university campuses are a sign that the young are finally waking up. If they are, surely it is a good thing and not a moment too late. However, the tasks facing the young are formidable. Quite apart from organising themselves, which seems to be a big ask, the young face a huge challenge in reframing today’s political structures to become fit for purpose.
In my humble opinion, there are two urgent sets of reforms that ought to be given top priority by the young:
First, more powers must be transferred from nation states to federations of nation states. As I have discussed elsewhere, the four biggest political issues of our time – cross-border migration, climate change, financial contagion, and terrorism – are all global problems which simply cannot be fixed under the old nation state model (see here). Closer unions of many nation states are therefore the only viable way forward.
Second, elected governments must be made far more effective in dealing with society’s ills. The big structural challenge in achieving this is that politicians – the most powerful people in the world – are free to lie and deceive with absolute impunity. If policy effectiveness is to improve, the jobs of running governments should be entrusted not to charlatans, but rather to serious and capable managers. The best way to make this happen is to make it illegal for politicians to lie, at the pain of fines or even prison (for more details on how such a reform would work see here).
My final point is simple, but extremely important. Radical reforms will naturally be fiercely opposed by the current political establishment, much of which will be the Far-Right. To effect change, the young must therefore face the ugly reality that they can no longer wear kid gloves. The fight ahead, if it is to be won, will be hard and possibly bloody.
The End