We live in rapidly shifting times and it’s frequently mysterious for us more advanced citizens to monitor the metamorphosis of our younger compatriots from dummy-sucking infants to shrewd academics – or at least that’s how they see themselves. They appear to access an infinite amount of knowledge, filtered through some global spirit, which has the potential to drive them into a routine civic frenzy. Analogous to that they seem to acquire titanic amounts of cash, to sponsor their every whim, without actually funding it themselves. Obviously, «Chez Mama» is a bounteous source of enrichment, for those who have not yet succumbed to the rigours of the working world. All this, coupled with unconfined autonomy seems to be the ace component towards a prevailing feeling of entitlement by many of our young snowflakes.

For those young spirits who are prone to chant mantras about senior citizens having ruined the planet for them, while they enjoyed heavenly conditions for decades, think again! There are enough counter claims from said «fogies» that don’t need repeating. I won’t elaborate on the frugal and frustrating post-war conditions, lack of prospects, and the sheer effort to live without the aid of electrical appliances as we know them today.

However, back to the present, where we vintage fossils crack open our piggy banks each year to pay our taxes to (among other things) finance schools, teachers and all educational obligations for our astute youngsters. It has become a mystery, how whole throngs of students, apprentices and other privileged souls can take to the streets in droves to avoid school on Fridays, screaming for their right to a CO2-free globe. I’m not quite clear, what they think would happen in the total destruction of their favourite chemical compound. Without it, our greenery would simply wither and die, leaving us without the vital oxygen that our plants exude. But never mind, who worries about facts that you could learn in school, if you didn’t have every Friday free, with the full approval of teachers and politicians. I’m not sure if this is a deliberate dumbing down of young people, to contain them more effectively at a later stage. They certainly are not being contained now, in fact we can only look on with intense amusement at their jolly Friday jaunts into imbecility.

And then there’s the little 16-year-old Greta, in the clutches of her many and varied sponsors, global concerns and not least, her own parents. This unfortunate trend has seen them amass an astonishing $46 million in just twelve months, leading up to September 2019. That is not only astounding but frightening too. Our politicians are using this fortunate «Green» cause to capitalise on their declining popularity by focussing their entire legislation around the mantra of this deluded Swedish girl, with special needs. If we didn’t already have serious concerns about our politicians, it seems appropriate to start questioning the genuine focus of their political interest. Curiously enough, the elite at the head of the global movement, and who support this outbreak of «faux» alarm with regard to the planet, would do well to look similarly for global answers to pollution. In case they really needed a «Greta» to make them aware of climate change, it might be opportune to look globally for answers. We all do our best – well, the oldies are very conscientious to separate their refuse in stark contrast to the demonstration brigade who create more rubbish in public than could possibly be right. But couldn’t our more youthful citizens, clear up garbage, plant trees and be an enlightening beacon of «Greenness» instead of evangelising to the fossils?

Still, there’s nothing quite akin to regular demonstrations, where you can huddle till your heart’s content with multitudes of “others”, all tarred with the same brush and not yet accountable for anything further than getting their crisp young bodies out of bed in the morning .

Photo: Pexels.com / Harrison Haines