Joanna Gray
Joanna Gray is a writer and confidence coach.
It’s now generally agreed it was the Boomers, Gen X and the Millennials who messed up everything. The Boomers, for embracing the post-war Hobbesian doctrine that man’s true nature is savage and, without laws, all will be at war one with another: docility to the ‘international rules-based order’ followed. Gen X forgot to discipline their children, voted for Blair and messed up the Middle East. The Millennials confected the woke infrastructure we are still living under, and the Boomers and Gen X ‘simps’ (submissives) lapped it up. Expecting this lot to vote their way out of the mess is delusional. Instead, all hopes rest with Generations Z and Alpha, whom Angela Rayner plans to gift the vote to before the end of the current Parliament.
I am biased because my sons will be eligible, and they and their friends are ‘sound’ (sensible). Boys and girls all work out, go to the pub, have parties, wholesome hobbies, irreverent senses of humour, a sense of adventure, part-time jobs, an admiration for academic achievement and generally know how to have a good time. As digital natives, they know how to ‘whip ChatGPT’ (their expression) and see through the bullshit.
They never watch the BBC, think Andrew Tate is a sleazeball, listen to Frank Sinatra and make money from buying and selling on Vinted and Depop. They despise victim culture but would never dream of being unkind to anybody. They take people as they find them, can sniff out a ‘pick me’ or ‘a beg’ (keen to impress) a ‘simp’, a ‘rage baiter’ (a provocateur) or ‘unemployed’ (someone who just sits around, even if they have a job). Such definitions suggest that Gen Z are clear-eyed about how people are, rather than, as per the Millennial and Gen X fixation, what group they claim to belong to. These young people see through attempts at affectation and generally ‘don’t believe the hype’.
Racism or homophobia are genuinely anathema because the demographic and social mix they grew up in is such that nothing is unusual. It’s only Gen X that are getting ‘gassed’ (excited) about questions of ethnicity. For the Gen Zers, ‘it’s all about the ‘vibe’. Ethnicity, race, sexuality, politics, religion, do not matter – what is important is if an individual is ‘calm’, ‘sound’ or chill.’ A reversion to the Old English idea of ‘live and let live’ is playing out in this excellent new voting cohort.
Now, a caveat. There are large numbers of children who have already bottomed out of society: the over 800,000 16–24-year-olds who are currently not in work or education. But this maps on to older demographics too: nine million working people are currently economically inactive. They all have the vote. I remember visiting our local polling booth at the last election and watching a nonagenarian who was unable to hold his head up, being wheeled in by his granddaughter to vote. He is now dead. We have the universal franchise and cannot begin to quibble about the details. Employed, unemployed, very ancient, young, professional, non-professional, tax payer, tax imbiber: all are part of the body politic and all may have their say.
Whom would you trust with the future prosperity of this country: the 16-year-old sigma (alpha) who votes for Zia Yusuf or the octogenarian Unc (elderly) who votes for Ed Davey?
This article was originally published by the Daily Sceptic.
