Feelings of frustration and betrayal are prevalent in Gen Z (those born between the years 1996 and 2010), and this is understandable. Many of the institutions and ideals in which they were told to place their trust have not provided them what was promised.
The political system of Americanism – Voting in elections, supporting a political party, checks and balances, etc., are supposed to bring about a peaceful and stable social order. It has brought the opposite: polarization, anger, and instability.
Capitalism – The invisible hand of the free market is supposed to distribute goods and wealth in a way beneficial to all. All too often it allows them to concentrate in the hands of a few to the detriment of most.
Scientism – The Enlightenment trust in rationalism and the scientific method is supposed to dispel lies and usher in an era of human flourishing. Instead, it actually serves to advance lies (sophisticated propaganda/psychological operations), smother truth (AI to fight ‘misinformation’), and promote products that are harmful to living creatures in this world (mRNA shots, genetically modified crops, etc.).
Gen Z really has been brought into the world at a difficult time, when so many things are going awry. And yet, in their quest for solutions, many of them are doubling down on the very things that are causing them so much loneliness and anxiety in the first place: burying themselves more deeply in the ‘hyper reality’ of the digital online world, embracing faddish ideologies, and so forth.
The answers they are seeking lie in the opposite direction, in something that has been vilified for many years now in the West – in a word, tradition.
There are many aspects to it that will help give stability and meaning to Gen Z (and every other generation that is wise enough to embrace it).
Family – This is the primordial society, the most basic social unit. It is usually presented in a truncated form, as the nuclear family (mother and father + children), but it is much more than that. It extends horizontally to embrace all living relations (aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc.) and vertically to embrace all the departed generations. In the meaning of one’s last name, in the journey of ancestors from one place to another, in the knowledge of one’s country of origin; in inheriting family heirlooms, learning about the lives of one’s forebears, hearing the stories and jokes they told; walking in the old house of one’s relations – in all of these and similar things there is deep meaning and satisfaction. One will find practical help in the family also, such as a job or a gift or a loan when faced with financial hardships, care when sick, and so on.
Ethnos and Monarchy – All the extended families that share a common land, a common history, common speechways and other folkways, and a common religion form an ethnos. This is distinct from modern nations, which are usually artificial constructions based upon loyalty to a pseudo-religious ideology of some kind. The united States, China, France – these and others are examples of modern nations built upon ideas: the Declaration of Independence, socialism with Chinese characteristics, and Liberty-Equality-Fraternity, respectively. These are not organic ethnoi, the outgrowth of the family. There are places within them that meet this criteria, however. In France, Celtic Brittany is an authentic ethnos. In the uS, there are many, from the large cultural zones we have mentioned before (Pacific Coast, Spanish Southwest, Dixie, Great Plains, etc.), to the individual States, to the smaller subcultures within the larger ones (Ozarks, Acadiana, upper peninsula of Michigan, etc.). These are all authentic ethnoi in the uS.
And just as the father is the head of the little family, and the patriarch the head of the extended family, so too is the king the head of the great family, the ethnos. . . .
The rest is at https://orthodoxreflections.com/a-message-of-hope-for-gen-z/.
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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema to the Union!
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