Youth, seize the moment

As ancient adversaries fight 20th century battles, know that you inhabit a different world, one in which they are struggling on the sidelines. In this new world, both the battle and ammunition are different. Old strategies are destined to fail. It is like flying an internal combustion engine in space.

What gives me, a middle-aged man, any credentials to address the youth? Growing old is inevitable, but growing up is an option I didn’t take it.

You have a right to seek your economic future, wherever that journey may take you on this planet. But you must also do other things at this momentous time. After all, you know how to walk and chew gum. You have been placed at the forefront of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You must seize the moment.

Today, national borders are falling away. Even our planetary border is not going to limit the eventual colonisation of space. Do you really think that only local force dynamics are going to decide your nation’s destiny? Our destiny is contested on an international canvas. It is the real-world equivalent of a programmer’s “wicked problem”, only solvable through a non-linear and complex approach, and you hold the edge there.

Technology leads, and rules and regulations always lag. You reign in the world of technology. Think within this world. What is important? What are the levers that must be pulled? How must the game be reinvented, continuously, relentlessly, so that you always stay a step ahead of your adversaries? For if you reinvent the game, you will play by your own rules. It’s already happening. You just need to accelerate, like a snowball hurtling down the slope, amassing size and picking up momentum. Eventually, unstoppable.

Use the world of technology to the max. It’s the world you inhabit. Only you can truly use it. It’s not a world that everyone understands. The challenges came in the physical world. You retaliated in the metaverse. The virtual world is the clay in your hands. Mold it and deploy it. The physical world is no match for it. The game has been won before it began. If only your adversaries had the foresight to see that.

Obstacles that are being thrown at you are the ones that would have stuck in a traditional world. This is not a traditional world. It has new rules. It has a different structure. These obstacles are not going to stick in this world. You have tools, channels, avenues, strategies that only you know. And you can make them work to counter the challenges that face you.

Today, deep fakes make truth murky, but truth is also harder to blot out. Crimes are harder to hide. Millions can record evidence and disseminate it before it can be suppressed. Social media, powered by individuals, is too vast and diverse to be controlled. Whatever technology is used to block it will be overcome by other technologies that override the blocks. Your toolbox is extensive, and continuously morphing. You are always a step ahead. In our history, persecution has been fierce. For the first time, you have the tools within your reach to stare it down.

Today, the demographic profile empowered to shape our country’s future is unlike any that existed earlier. Pages from old playbooks will simply not smother it. Today’s warriors are spread out all over the world. They engage in the battle of winning over hearts and minds, reaching out through the virtual world, using multiple channels and tools.

This is not a one-act play. It is like a chess game, where every move can be countered. You play one day at a time. You wargame multiple scenarios and are ready with their antidotes. Force as a weapon is overrated. Power is overrated. Stealth, surprise, contrarian approaches are underrated. And they are the ammunition that you are armed with.

As Steve Jobs had said, the dots never connect looking forward. But they always do when you look back. So, all the adversities that you have encountered in these recent traumatic years are trials that have strengthened you for the hard work ahead. Work such as eliminating poverty, reducing inequality and strengthening education. Reinventing true democracy and achieving true freedom for your country.

Of course, nobody knows the length of the battle, or what lies ahead. While countries are not made in a day, our country has laboured long, and has little to show for its toils. What is certain is that political consciousness once attained cannot be obliterated. With every challenge, it only grows stronger. It’s like gym-training, where the heavier the weights, and the longer the exercise, the greater the strength developed.

In the heat of the battle, know that persecuting personal animosities must never be the goal. Higher principles and national aspirations must always be the objective. Demonising adversaries weakens our country. We are all citizens, stakeholders. If we don’t give each other that claim, outsiders will infiltrate our ranks and shred our national fabric. All stakeholders in our democracy must talk to each other, reason with each other, and jointly fashion solutions to our national challenges.

It is time to unify our country. All manner of divisions, be they ethnic, religious, sectarian, socio-economic or civil/military, must be rendered powerless. These divisions only weaken us and embolden our external adversaries. They are cracks in our national defence. We must repair them and present a solid and resolute wall to the world.

Gen Z (ages 12-27) and Millennials (ages 28-43), you hold the key to our national future. Gen X (ages 44-59), your time may have passed, but the trauma that you have experienced holds precious lessons that must be learnt if it is not to be re-lived. The present moment may be dark but let us hope for a positive future. Today, madness may prevail, but let us strive towards sanity. We can never lose because that only happens if we give up trying. So, persevere we must, and one day at a time, one step at a time, we will get through this storm.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 12^th, 2024.

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