u/Sensitive-Boot-7076

How are we wasting an entire generation and acting like this is normal? How are we at fault when the country has failed to provide the youth with any kind of opportunity for growth?

The previous generation loves lecturing us about hard work while conveniently ignoring the fact that many of them entered the workforce during one of the biggest economic and IT booms the country had seen. Today, even highly educated people struggle to find stable jobs, yet somehow Gen Z is still blamed for “not trying hard enough.”

The people in power find it easy to demean the youth of the country while making it harder for the youth to actually be able to make an impact. The people actually affected by the unemployment, education system and economic situation of the country are the ones with the least influence over their policies.

The ‘lazy’ youth in question spend their best years trapped in unemployment, endless exams, and a system that reduces them to statistics rather than potential. The same generation expected to “develop the nation” is barely allowed to participate in shaping it.

In fact, cognitive studies show that people between the ages of 20 - 30 are often at the peak of their processing and decision making capabilities. This is not about disrespecting older generations. Experience matters. But so does adaptability, urgency, creativity, and long-term vision.

A nation cannot keep calling its youth the “future” while refusing to give them influence in the present.

Lately, books and movies that have been banned due to various content restrictions have caught my eye and led me to think about the moral implications of banning media. Throughout history, revolutionary ideas and media have often been suppressed by those in power. Feminist literature, for example, was considered immoral or even criminal in many societies for centuries before social attitudes changed. So why do we still believe banning “inappropriate” content is always the right solution?

I would go as far as to say that ideas themselves should not be condemned, nor should the act of peacefully spreading one’s beliefs. Actions that directly disrupt the safety and well-being of society should be punished, but the expression of ideas is different from harmful action.

Maybe fifty years from now, future generations will view aspects of our current society as cruel or unfair in ways we cannot yet understand. If that happens, then banning media simply because it challenges social norms would make us no different from the generations before us who suppressed ideas we now consider valuable.

Now, I understand that banned media can also include things like doxxing, child exploitation material, leaked personal information, targeted harassment campaigns, or direct instructions for terrorism. I do not support content that violates consent, privacy, or directly endangers people, and restrictions on such material are justified.

However, I do not believe the same logic should apply to media whose purpose is simply to share ideas, perspectives, or knowledge, even if those ideas are controversial or offensive to some people.

Instead of banning such content outright, age ratings, content warnings, and informed choice should become the norm, allowing people to decide what they are willing to engage with rather than having authorities decide for them.

As a child I used to wonder why all the educated and learned people of the country never questioned the government. How information hidden in plain sight never reached the masses. A country that produced some of the world's most elite professionals, researchers, and tech leaders, never seemed to question the condition of the government.

We always whine about the corruption and malpractices that happen in the system. Yet we never seem to voice our problems where it matters. We suffer together in masses, yet continue to support the very people responsible for our problems — politicians who hide behind religion, division, and outrage while the real issues of the nation remain untouched.

This is not the uneducated, underprivileged community I'm talking about. I’m talking about the educated class. The people who have the access to information, and the ability to influence, and to question the system, yet rarely choose to do so. For years this behaviour made no sense to me. But as I progress in this education system, I'm starting to see where the problem lies.

Education just seems to be the ability to prattle — to repeat textbooks word for word, creating an environment where thinking becomes a waste of time. To question the text is really just useless. We learn not to understand, but simply to survive the system long enough to escape it. So somehow even the learned remain oblivious to their rights, to their ability to make a difference.

But I must also applaud the people controlling this system for being able to make it bullet proof. Let the poor remain uneducated and the educated remain oblivious. Perhaps that is what makes the system so effective. It is almost impressive how easily revolution can be silenced. A society does not need chains when conformity can be taught instead.

I once dreamt of being a revolutionary. Now I'm not so sure that dream will survive in the ‘grown up’ version of me. The vision I was once proud of now really just looks like a fairy tale dream.