Inconsistency in the digital era and the threat to the future

How the world is strange and twisted... I feel sorry for the new generation that have been bombarded by rules so often broken. It is not for no reason that there has been so much dissonance between generation now a days. 

The Greta Thunberg effect is one of the most recent example. We live in a moment where we’ve been trying to improve the human attitude; we want to leave a better world to the next generation, but we call vegans hypocrites and criticise Greta for her staged and cliché speech. Yes, I also found it a bit too much, but this is Greta’s style and it has been since she started the “Fridays for Future” movement, in 2018. So what if Greta has corporate sponsorship? Athletes have sponsors, the media has sponsors, artists have sponsors. If Greta has been forced to be someone she is not, exposing herself just to criticise the lack of concrete actions for the preservation of the Planet, it would be a different story, but this is not the case. Sponsorship is an agreement of mutual use of strengths, an exchange of commodities. 

What is the difference between Greta Thunberg and so many other activists? Her exaggeratedly serious (and scary) facial expressions? Greta is an idealist who lives in the digital times where a speech turns into a meme in seconds. And this is the difference between Greta and others activists who lived in the past. A society under a digital echo where bullies reveal themselves in a tweet away from the previous post where they supported the freedom of speech. Nowadays, anyone who is too intense becomes a joke online, a forever track of humiliation, different from back then when the bullying ended when we closed our bedroom door. 

By how Greta has shown herself to the world, I believe that although she is only 16 years old, she is strong enough to be indifferent to memes and attacks coming even from senior politicians. And, to be honest, I would like that more young people like Greta had the courage and determination to fight for their ideas, fight for the World and for the life without fearing the haters and memes to come. But this is too difficult nowadays, especially because they know, more than anyone, how powerful the social media is. “How dare” we label the generation Z alienated and weak whilst a bunch of adults reinforces the idea that express yourself is extremely dangerous?

Is that true that we have really lost the ability to interpret the facts? I get that Greta’s speech was a little off, but so what? What activist isn’t? They are indeed dramatic and apocalyptic; this is their goal. Call the attention to something catastrophic that could happen if we don’t do anything now. This is what Greta meant by “you stole my dreams” because it might not be a future for this Planet if we don’t respect the earth, the air, the water and each other. Maybe Greta is right. We are stealing a future where the human being is more human and healthier. 

Greta is the future of this Planet as is my 14-year old daughter who is too scared to speak up in public fearing what the others might think. A social extermination imposed by people like Greta’s haters who force the youth to a mental exile.

To Greta and my daughter – opposites in attitudes but not in ideas -: be curious, be activists, stand up for your ideas without fear of what the others will say because haters speak more about themselves than what they hate.