The Other Polarization

We love our kids, and we know that, for the most part, they love us. But there are signs that besides the great divide between and among the cultural fortresses of the Islamic, the Russian “muscle,” rising Asian Tiger, Latin American new society and the shrinking power of the mainstream developed Western worlds, there are other mega-chasms defining our future. Nowhere is more pronounced that in the change of perception of the young from the traditional views of their elders. For countries that are graying (Japan, the United States and several European nations) – where there are more new retirees than there are new workers to support the retirement system and concomitant healthcare demands – there is an ancillary antagonism in the mix.

For those exposed to hyper-accelerating change (very much articulated in the writings of thinkers like Singularity theorist, Ray Kurzweil), events and technology shifts moving at warp speed, the notion of what constitutes a generation brings the question of what is a meaningful cohort of people to use in understanding our demographic segments. Boomers? 20 years is peachy. But as you slide into younger age-groupings, that long time period just isn’t relevant anymore. In fact, there is a good case to be made that for those born today, the relevant cohort could easily be 3 to 5 years!

Think about ancient history: the Vietnam War, the first use of “mobile phones,” man’s first walk on the Moon, the formation of the European Union, the fall of the Soviet Union, the Gulf War, the ascent of China into hyper-modernity… and the near ancient history: 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, the beginning of the Iraqi and Afghani wars, etc. Add in the proficiency of the ultra-young in the technology that surrounds them and was developed in their lifetimes: Tablets, rich media capacity on smart phones, content without traditional televisions, loss of fax machines and landlines, Twitter, Instagram, and acronyms that parents cannot fathom.  The Arab Spring, protests and continued expression of revolution and dissatisfaction all over the world are spoon-fed by social media.

An intergenerational communications disconnect is nothing new in our experience. Teenagers rebel and define their “cool” away from parental values, only to grow into “older” traditional roles as the years pass, and as they too become parents. But where the older generation imposes a police state to crush the hope and aspirations of the young, perhaps this pattern might slowly be broken in more than one country on earth. Take modern Egypt for example, where the young are railing and openly protesting – and getting beaten, occasionally shot and more frequently arrested – against the government’s clampdown on personal freedoms.

“After attending three meetings about the issue at the presidential palace in recent weeks, Mr. Ghazaly Harb, a 35-year-old political organizer, rejected the latest invitation because, he said, the authorities have not heeded advice to stop arresting so many young people, or at least to alleviate the grim conditions in the jails where they are held. Instead, the police arrested scores more, including friends of his who were involved in organizing the Arab Spring uprising here.

“‘A lot of youth groups are saying, ‘We cannot come and sit with you like this while our colleagues are behind bars — we cannot find this ethical,’ ’ said Mr. Ghazaly Harb, who played a prominent role in the 2011 uprising against the rule of President Hosni Mubarak and then campaigned for the removal of Mr. Mubarak’s Islamist successor, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

“A growing number of young Egyptians say the government’s heavy-handed crackdown on any opposition is widening a generation gap, which poses a longer-term threat to stability.

“Three out of four Egyptians are under 40, and more than two out of three are under 35. With the government’s most important leader, Field Marshal Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, retracing the 60-year-old footsteps of former President Gamal Abdel Nasser — even flying to Moscow last week to try to restart arms deals that were last seen at the height of the Cold War — young bloggers and activists are complaining that they feel caught in a time warp.

“They are lashing out at their parents’ whole generation, which presided over three decades of economic, cultural and political stagnation and now seems to be repudiating the 2011 uprising for interrupting that stasis.” New York Times, February 16th. There are so many factors wedging us apart without this excessive use of violence, religious tolerance, climate change, redefining human rights… that we really need to find reasons why we need to hold together to meet the global challenges that will really impact our future lives. We need to stop crushing those we disagree with. There are other answers.

I’m Peter Dekom, and we are truly too focused on our differences and ignoring our common ground to make coping with the real challenges of the now and the future effective.