When the likes of a dried up pedantic mummy such as George Will arises from his crypt long enough to wag his desiccated tongue at a movement he disapproves of. If this young generation wasn’t a potential threat to the established order, they would simply be ignored. Seems the powers that be have decided to move from the “ignore them” or offer empty prayers stage to sneering and laughing at them mode.
And as a man in his mid fifties, I believe I can properly critique Will’s and mine generation. And I have found them wanting, to say the least.
Will’s generation has brought us multiple eternal wars, a financial crisis on the level of the Great Depression, massive income inequality, the hollowing out of the middle class, a looming environmental crisis, and mass death at home from a country awash in guns.
And my generation has been helping Will’s generation. Most in my generation came of age during the late 70’s, and they embraced all the BS that Reagan and Will pushed as the answers to stagflation. I remember that all the kids going to college just wanted to make money. Period. It was OK if the Great Society and New Deal programs were rolled back because they were going to get good jobs and not need any of those handouts from the government.
So when people like Will sneer that “teenagers should not be making laws,” I say, “Why not?” They can’t do much worse than the laws I’ve seen passed in the last 37 years. Will the country be so worse off if people do not have access to weapons of war? I seem to recall an age when AR-15’s were not handed out like cans of Coca-Cola, and people seemed free to me.
What we have is simple corruption. Our leaders have taken money from death dealers. And when you get enough corruption, people end up dead. Young people haven’t lived long enough to be bribed and sell out their fellow students, and they are tired of being used as target practice for nothing.
It doesn’t take a lot of thinking to figure that out.