Take a breath, Gen Z

Gen Z has created quite a whirlwind over the past couple of months, putting its foot down and announcing that it has just about 'had enough' of the old. As a member of this fascinating bunch, I'm incredibly proud of its irreverence, tech-savviness, and proclivity for political resistance. Unfortunately, these traits only represent a surface-level assessment. Gen Z seems to find itself in a peculiar kind of predicament. In the words of one of its idols, DJ Khaled, it is 'suffering from success'. All its strengths, which are many, unfortunately only lead to its own demise. Stay with me...

A fierce brand of independence runs through Gen Z blood. It loves everything to do with individuality and self-expression, and is solely to credit for the birth (and rise) of the 'influencer' in modern society. It was the first generation born into the 'postmodern' epoch, when all established norms, religio-cultural shibboleths, state/national symbols and historical traditions had been reframed as little more than social constructs generated on the basis of asymmetric power relations. When tribalism, deference to authority and vacuous romanticism had all gone out of vogue. In their stead, Gen Z embraced irreverence and self-reliance and chose to 'chart its own path' so to speak. While these traits have undoubtedly allowed for operating in an unencumbered manner, they have sadly only led to flippancy and narcissism.

Gen Z is the perfect embodiment of the 'progressive' in GK Chesterton's famous fence analogy: who, when encountering a fence in an open field, will immediately rush to remove it rather than pausing to ask why it may have been placed there to begin with. This default philosophical assumption of 'arbitrariness behind all things' kills its sense of curiosity which, in turn, prevents granular understanding of how the world works despite all its flaws. Linked to this is nonchalance. To be 'too interested' is treated as a sign of trying too hard and lacking a sense of taste. It is, as its members will all loudly proclaim: 'cringe'.

The most tragic consequence has been the loss of earnestness: a sincere, spontaneous pursuit of that which moves us regardless of the initial clumsiness. Instead, Gen Z is interested in dopamine hits and acquiring them at the least possible cost: in virtual chatrooms and not theaters and museums, scrolling reels rather than reading books, and playing video games instead of engaging in sporting activity. This love of ease and convenience has led to sluggishness, social isolation/ineptitude, and a slow deterioration of emotional, physical and cognitive ability.

Gen Z's independent proclivity is unfortunately not of the heroic variety either, but one rooted in vanity and self-indulgence. It is hyper-individualistic, inwardly directed and geared to seeking fame, wealth and status. The obsession with social media likes is perhaps the most obvious illustration, posts for which hundreds of billions are spent yearly in some of the most lucrative global markets such as fast fashion, casual dating, check-box tourism, mindless clubbing, on-demand streaming and other purely hedonistic pastimes for the sake of little besides impressing their online 'followers'.

Another area where Gen Z shines is technological aptitude. In Pakistan, this was seen in how PTI's support base (the vast majority of which constitutes Gen Z) was able to navigate the electoral symbol debacle in 2024: leveraging Imran Khan's official social media accounts to generate automated text messages in real time informing prospective voters of alternative symbols at their respective constituencies using CNIC details.

This was, of course, on the back of a decade-long struggle that specifically tapped into new media technologies such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to strategically build and mainstream a novel narrative centered around the 'corruption' of the two mainstream parties in Pakistan. It was a huge hit. Fast forward to today, and its leader is in jail, party leadership fragmented and supporters hardly visible. It goes without saying the heavy handedness of the state is responsible. To leave the story there though would be woefully misleading. The other side of this has to do with the party supporters' fall into complacency, which entailed accepting a series of decisions from leadership to 'win' the PM seat by any means necessary rather than holding them accountable and patiently building an internally democratic, grassroots party fueled by principled, working class interests and concerns.

At a fundamental level, this would have compelled party members — Gen Z workers and supporters — to develop, through careful study, a nuanced understanding of institutional structures, cultural norms and legal/historical intricacies that have shaped power relations and governance arrangements in Pakistan and engaging with policy research to establish clarity about intended structural reform interventions rather than outsourcing all thought and political planning to one messianic figure. It would have also required the party to move beyond urban centres and build genuine support in rural peripheries in a manner that took on big landlords (and other power centres) rather than opportunistically cutting deals with them in the name of 'pragmatic' politics.

The pattern is similar to other youth movements (led by Gen Z) in recent years, including in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka — grievances of which were primarily themed around perceptions of institutional opacity/inaccessibility. Where entrenched regimes were successfully toppled, however, the enthusiastic youth leaders were at a loss for ideas regarding what exactly their policy directions or reform proposals might look like. In a large number of cases where these 'resistance movements' have been seen, including in Pakistan, there is a tacit acceptance of the capitalist status quo and international financial order. 'If only these old, hackneyed politicians may be removed...' is the perceived pathway to course correction. This is a fundamental misreading of structural political-economic conditions in the 21st century: upward transfer of wealth (from poor to rich) is a feature of the system, not a bug. Failing to understand these details will mean business as usual i.e. plenty of noise but not much in terms of actual reform.

In the Global South, demographic breakups are such that Gen Z will play an increasingly central role in political affairs in the years ahead as a dying empire attempts to clutch onto its final vestiges of influence.

In order to make a substantive mark, however, it must get out of its own way.