Opinion: Gen Z, The Political Zealots

When I think about the current political climate, I think of the ancient land of Canaan and the period of the Second Temple. For any ancient history fans out there, this was around 530 BCE to 70 CE. 

The Jews were not having a good time. They had just built their second temple–integral to their modes of worship– and right when they’re getting everything back on track while under mostly laissez-faire Persian rule, the Romans took Canaan. Then the Greeks took it from the Romans. Eventually, the Jews decided they’ve had enough and they split into four factions: the Pharisees, who just wanted to study religious texts in peace, the Sadducees, who also just wanted to study (but different texts), the Essenes, who thought Jerusalem was corrupt and wanted nothing to do with it, and the Zealots, a tiny faction who, in their passionate and uncompromising goal to worship exactly like they wanted, fought the Romans and were all but completely eliminated.

We, Generation Z, are like those Zealots: we are fanatical, enraged, inspired, and not willing to accept a single compromise when it comes to political change and our futures on this earth. However, while we share the same fire of the Zealots, we will not die out. 

According to the Pew Research center, Gen Z was on track for a pretty good run: We were supposed to reap the benefits of a strong economy and record-low unemployment after the economic recovery following the end of the Great Recession. All of this, however, came to a screeching halt in the wake of COVID-19. 

Now, in the midst of this virus, and in light of being renamed by some as the “COVID Generation,” political upheaval, international distrust, and economic ruin has shaped our formative years. 

We, as hormonal middle-schoolers to thoroughly angsty teenagers, were forced to sit and stew in rage as the poor decisions of generations before us came to light: the mounting crisis of climate change, the horrifying realizations of data mining, world leaders purposefully setting their rainforests ablaze, and old people in politics making decisions which oftentimes benefit themselves alone.

Social media, in part, has forced us to acknowledge these atrocities and gives us a platform in which to enact change. No matter personal opinions on the effectiveness of posting a black square or buying metal straws to save the turtles, those actions just scratch the tip of the iceberg. Last summer, a horde of Gen Z Tik Tokers reserved hundreds of tickets to a Trump political rally, leaving those seats embarrassingly empty and calling great media attention to our generation’s general distaste towards the now lame-duck president. 

Then there is Amariyanna Copeny, also known as “Little Miss Flint,” who through online social activism brought national attention to the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, and raised over half a million dollars to aid the cause. 

As a generation, we are incredibly capable and incredibly willing to enact change– or at least call attention to the flaws in our society we wish to see fixed. We see this through the actions of Greta Thunberg and climate change, Emma González and gun control, Joshua Wong and democracy in Hong Kong, and the 17-year-old girl who captured the event which led to George Floyd’s death on her phone.  

This is evident in the most recent Presidential Election– the first Presidential Election in which a  majority of us could vote for the first time, myself included. Some of the first ballots we ever cast were cast during one of the largest voter turnouts our country has seen since the year 1900, according to the Washington Post. We don’t yet have all the answers concerning this election, but there is not a doubt in my mind that this increase in voter turnout is due in part to the efforts of us: Gen Z– the political zealots who are demanding a change and taking the steps that generations before us were so unwilling to take.

Be overzealous, Gen Z. It’s the only way… and we are pretty good at it.