Gen z Sought to be Weaponised

Gen Z has been mobilised across the world for a variety of reasons and purposes. In Spain, it is the crisis in affordable housing that has brought Gen Z onto the streets. In France, anger at the aloofness of the government to matters of everyday concern to the citizenry. In the US, protests are against rising prices and effective joblessness. Unemployment rates in the US are purely technical, for over a third of young men and three-fourths of young women have been forced into low-paying jobs for which aptitude is not needed. The European Union once described itself as a “garden” in contrast to the “jungle” that the rest of the world was assumed to be. Now the “garden” is increasingly taking on the characteristic symptoms of the “jungle”, with poverty rates rising and discontent spirally upwards in what seems an irresponsible manner.

Across the world, Gen Z has become a potent political force for change, sometimes substantive but often superficial. In Japan, a backlash against non-Japanese has led to new restrictions on the entry of foreigners, new regulations that will hurt Japan and its economy almost immediately. Meanwhile, some countries have regimes which prioritize symbolism over substance. The regimes there put on a grand show at frequent intervals, but circuses are not enough, there needs to be bread, and of that there is little. This is a world awash in opportunities and resources, and yet is mired in pools of poverty, pools that have become stagnant because they have been around festering for a long while. 

There is of course a constant, which is that the very rich are getting ever richer while the rest languish, breeding anger at the regimes which foster such unequal development. Clearly, there is a need for development modes which understand and appreciate the need for new systems such as AI, which ought to be used for empowerment and not deprivation of livelihoods. The problem is that traditional structures of governance do not understand AI even while they use it. What is needed is a corps of young people who could be set to work to determine how AI can be a multiplier of welfare rather than a thief stealing jobs. Such people exist, but in a world where hierarchy is given prominence, they come nowhere near the inner councils of government.