Long Live Youth, Down with Old Ways
Every sentence begins with ‘in our day’ and ends with ‘nothing will come of today's youth.’ Come on! It's not the youth, it's you! This old-fashioned crowd is still playing the same old tune.
The phrase, ‘In our day, it was like this, it was like that...’ has become the earwax, spiritual consolation, and ego polish of a certain generation. Every sentence begins with ‘in our day’ and ends with ‘nothing will come of today's youth.’ Come on! It's not the youth, it's you!
This old-fashioned crowd is still playing the same old tune: “Young people are lazy and know nothing.” Yeah, right, you know everything! You sat at the same table for thirty years, stirring tea without coming up with a single idea, and you thought that was an achievement. You say, ‘We used to hoe in the fields,’ but if you had hit yourselves over the head with that hoe once, you might have realised where this era is headed.
Today's youth may be ‘lazy’ by your standards. But you still think that the only thing that counts as work is sweating. Young people are after mental labour, not physical strength. They can find information with a Google search in 0.28 seconds. They write code, produce content, and think in sync with the world. But in your eyes, they're still ‘kids wasting time on the internet.’
Your minds are stuck on the phrase ‘read and become a man.’ But the problem is this: you only said ‘read,’ you never asked ‘what to read,’ ‘why read,’ or ‘how to become a man.’ When young people started asking questions, you became uncomfortable. Because you have always been afraid of questions with no answers.
Those who want examples from history, come on:
Napoleon Bonaparte was a general at 24. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk wrote an epic at 30 in Çanakkale and founded a republic at 38. It's embarrassing to ask, but were you still keeping accounts in your father's shop at that age?
Sanna Marin became Prime Minister of Finland at 34. Jacinda Ardern led a country at 37. They were shaping the world at that age, while here, doors are shut in their faces with the excuse, ‘They're just kids.’ Then people naively ask, ‘Why are young people leaving the country?’ Why? Because there is no tolerance for young ideas in this country.
Because of the mentality that says, ‘You can't bring new customs to an old village,’ that village still has no electricity. But the new generation is bypassing the old village and connecting to the world directly via satellite. While you boast, ‘In our day, we had our shoes repaired,’ the youth are designing a new world.
Old minds, you thought you could earn praise with age and respect with seniority. But the youth have shown you that every seat you occupy without producing value is actually a waste.
Sorry, but the era of “Young people should know their place” is over. Now it’s time for “old minds to know their place.”
Our ancestors said, ‘Wisdom comes not with age but with experience.’ But unfortunately, some minds have rusted not with age but from years of disuse. Despite those rusty minds, young people are charting their own course.
So step down from the stage. Put down the microphone and pick up the headphones. Listen to what the young are saying, do not interfere, but do not stand in their way either. For they are singing the song of this age; you are merely stuck on the chorus.
Remember:
Youth makes mistakes, but learns.
Old minds do not make mistakes, because they never try.
And history does not record those who do not try, but those who change the world.
