>Gen Z and Gen Alpha don’t cow to authority for authority’s sake. They simply won’t do things they don’t want to do, and I actually kinda love that.
This, in response to a story about Gen Z and Gen Alpha at elite universities. Why are they attending the elites, then, if not to become part of the power apparatus?
As all the past symbols of rebellion are becoming co-opted and its wearers are assimilating and become "The Them™" (formerly known as, "The Man™"). It doesn't help that there is a dearth of "new" ideologies or trends that the younger generation can discover and iterate over. The continuity of history that is enabled by technologies like the internet and the collective knowledge of older generations, has almost ossified the innovative properties of the kind of rebellion that a hip academic would find quaint and nostalgic of the period of youth that was the springboard to their own assimilation.
All that remains for most people is to reach for absurdity. Which itself is absurd.
Sorry what does this mean?
I would have gone to an elite university if I had the option to. Not to become part of the "power apparatus" but because I would have a higher chance of making enough money to purchase luxuries like a place to live.
It is de facto evidence of being a part of the power apparatus, regardless of your intent in using it.
An apparent conflation of "cow", v.t.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cow
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kowtow
> And that’s a good thing, since Gen Z and Gen Alpha don’t cow to authority for authority’s sake.
As used by this definition: https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/eng....
Is correct. Maybe grab a mirror and stop pointing fingers?
Gen Z and Gen Alpha are not doing the cowing. If you cow, you intimidate someone else. That is not what is happening in the excerpted sentence.
Rather, they are the intended targets of the cowing, which would require the use of "be," for example:
> Gen Z and Gen Alpha won't be cowed by authority for authority's sake.
Not only did I read the link, I understood it, which seems to have evaded you.
"My life turned up-side down when I realized that those fighting the power were actually just fighting for the power."
I am suggesting that kids at specifically elite universities aspire to be the power, and therefore question the author's contention that this has anything to do with disrespect for authority.
It is still a perfectly valid argument to analyze whether disrespect for authority has increased or decreased over the years; or whether the disrespect has reached the point it threatens their ability to become functioning adults.
Society changes, you're old, young people are doing things differently. The wheel keeps on turning.
Why did they fail? Obviously, famine, wars, etc had a part; but as the saying goes:
Hard times create strong men.
Strong men create good times.
Good times create weak men.
Weak men create hard times.
I do agree with your broader point though that it's worth asking if society is getting more illiberal and intolerant of opposing views. It's not just a "young people these days" kind of thing.
https://acoup.blog/2020/01/17/collections-the-fremen-mirage-...
That saying is ahistorical and Bret goes to great lengths to show where it fails.
Fascists seen empathy and niceness as weakness and something bad. They were also something that emerged from hard times and created misery and pain. Lets not promote their ideology.
The German people after World War I were suffering. Significant reparation burdens had been placed upon them. They were starving and angry. These should have been the "hard times that create strong men," yes?
It created the Nazis and they were defeated militarily. Seems something went off in step 2 there; nobody considers Germany during World War II "Good times."