Should Gen-Z be optimistic?

As a young adult going into the world today, it’s both embarrassing and infuriating to behold the wondrously gormless government the British public have put into power for the past decade. With a Prime Minister that looks more genetically similar to a sodomised haystack than a human, it really shouldn’t be a surprise that he runs a government that chooses to spend a meek £100 per student during the pandemic to make up for the frequent and extended gaps in our education, but will happily splash the billions of taxpayer cash on a pitifully produced Track and Trace app ,and over £500m on contracts to Cummings’ friends. Well, ‘friends’ in the broadest sense of the word. However, nobody wanted to tell him that they aren’t his friend as he seems to have taken up permanent expression of a petrified orphan, locked away in a Tory MPs attic on the verge of tears. Come to think of it, that petrified-orphan look was probably acquired by studying his own collection of terrified tots in order to win favour with his Tory peers.

With the delay to COVID restrictions lifted being used as a lubed finger to gently prepare us for the inevitable third wave, a pattern seems to be emerging: Lockdown, restrictions lift, holiday, COVID stats begin to mysteriously rise, another lockdown, restrictions lift, holiday, COVID… Can you see my point? The general public don’t seem to. But how can anyone expect a general public that still thinks the empire was a good thing to see such a complicated and bewildering pattern.

COVID restrictions are any Conservative government’s wet dream. An excuse to control whether people can leave their houses, who is allowed to work ,and who will live or die will be held onto for as long as possible. New variants keep fear fresh and apparent within the population as so to help justify such control. I am not, however, saying that COVID restrictions should be waived and nor am I suggesting that the new variants are hoax, schemed up by the government. Restrictions do save lives and new variants are alarmingly severe. But the idea that a government that has historically abused its power and will do so again isn’t unimaginable.

In the recent G7 meeting in Cornwall, PM Boris Johnson announced that Britain would be donating 100 million vaccines to poorer countries. This was a promise that had previously been made… and not kept. So will our obese cauliflower of a PM keep to this one now? In a word, maybe. The US president Joe Biden has pledged 500 million to poorer countries and if this pledge is kept then Bojo will follow suit like a schoolboy copying his best friend’s swanky new haircut. However the chances are that Biden won’t keep this pledge. Not for any greedy, nefarious reasons. He’ll have confused the Kennedy cocaine closet for the White House stationary cupboard and got himself lost for six months.

I recently attended a sort of Question Time held by my sixth form in which a member from the Conservative, Labour, Extinction rebellion, Lib Dems, Communist party and ex-UKIP respectively were put in front of an audience of A level students and questioned. As a quick summary: the Tory thought it was all beneath him so didn’t really bother and left early, the communist was highly intelligent but had the enthusiasm of a stroke victim, the labour member was only just getting his big-boy hairs, extinction rebellion and Lib Dem both made valid and intellectual points and were all-in-all fantastic ,and the ex-UKIP member was funny but a total cock. The summary is kept brief since it isn’t my main point. Subjects like freedom of speech, protest laws, Brexit and education were discussed but what stood out to me the most was the final question of the event put forward by the brilliant Jack Millier. “Should this generation of young people be optimistic?”. I had sat and listened intently throughout the event, finding morbid intrigue in the utter bullshit spouted by the further right panelists. But that final question and their answers was what really sent a reality shockwave through me. They unanimously told us to be optimistic. And upon that I remembered that age old fact that seemed to have eluded me that afternoon: Never trust a politician. A pandemic that could potentially last a lifetime, a climate crisis at our doorstep and the death of capitalism. The death of capitalism may seem to be a good thing. But if the Bourgeois are going down, they will bring us with them. So what is there to be optimistic about? Time will tell.