OPINION:
Of all the concerning trends in American politics right now, the juvenile arrogance of today’s millennials and Gen Zers must rank near the top of anyone’s list.
Just look at any social media thread on any given day and the proof reveals itself in spades.
The junior high–ish attitude of, as Bill Maher calls them, “the kids,” is legion, and it exists on both the right and the left. Whether it’s the “Groypers” of Nick Fuentes or the addled acolytes of AOC, the valley-girl cattiness of our rising generation is pervasive.
It doesn’t matter what the topic is; they know more. Suggest that socialism has never worked and never will, and their response is, “OK, boomer.” Point out that no nation has ever taxed itself into prosperity, and yep, you guessed it: “OK, boomer.”
Argue that if you really want to follow the science, you might want to start with acknowledging the biological fact of what it means to be male and female: “OK, boomer.” Make clear that it might be a good idea to stop an Islamic regime hell-bent on your death and destruction from acquiring nuclear weapons: “OK, boomer.”
The list goes on and on. There literally seems to be no topic about which “the kids” don’t know more than anyone else. Whether it’s climate change, masking, vaccines, sexual identity, fiscal policy, education, the Electoral College, parenting, packing the courts, Charlie Kirk’s murder, Mossad, marriage or morality, the response is always the same: “OK, boomer.”
The thoughtlessness of the rejoinder is stunning. It’s as if an entire generation (or two) has been brainwashed to dismiss reality, logic and any semblance of rational thought and to simply respond with a flip of the hair, a roll of the eyes and, yes, the mindless and, oh so predictable, “OK, boomer.”
If you have a sense of deja vu here, you should. Stories of the pitfalls of youthful arrogance are as old as time.
Whether it be the medieval tale of the Pied Piper playing his music as all the children of Hamelin dance off to their death or the story of Robespierre rallying the know-it-all twentysomethings of France to cut off everyone’s heads, the moral is the same: A bunch of uninformed and poorly educated perpetual Peter Pans can be easily manipulated to do just about anything, even if the end result is their own neck in the guillotine.
Consider the cautionary tale of Mao’s Red Guard. Anyone who has even a mediocre public-school education should know it.
In 1966, Chairman Mao Zedong recognized that one of the best ways to bend his country to his political will was to exploit the idealism and ignorance of the Chinese youth. Mao knew that the poorly informed idealism of his own “Gen Z-ers” could be easily manipulated to consolidate his power and crush his opposition.
In other words, he understood very well that the analogy of “useful idiots” that Bogdan Raditsa coined in October 1946 was spot on and that he could easily use such fools to his advantage.
And that’s exactly what he did. Like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, Mao “played” his nation’s youth like a fiddle. He rallied Chinese teenagers and college students to foment chaos. As his young proteges worked feverishly to completely dismantle all that their parents had left them, he sat back and watched Rome burn.
This is the way one writer summarizes it. “Mao manipulated them, channeling their idealism [and ignorance] into a mass political weapon … He encouraged the students to attack traditions and weaken rivals … He used their sense of superiority. He amplified it through propaganda … and once mobilized, he pushed the youth to denounce teachers, party officials, intellectuals, and even their own parents.”
Mao was the master puppeteer of what was essentially the “OK, boomer” movement of his time, one that resulted in millions of people being killed and or imprisoned.
But here’s the take-home that today’s “smarter-than-thou” social media influencers seem to miss. Among the millions marched off to their deaths were the students themselves.
Why? Because Mao knew only too well how dangerous the untethered arrogance of the ignorant masses was — and so he used the power they had given him to forcibly “relocate” them to “reeducation camps” where they would either conform as obedient lemmings or die in hard labor.
George Santayana once warned, “He who doesn’t learn the lessons of history is doomed to repeat them,” and G.K. Chesterton chimed in: “The old man is always wrong, and the young people are always wrong about what is wrong with him.”
Oh, that our next generation takes a spoonful of humility and listens to the likes of Chesterton, Santayana and even their own parents and grandparents, for just two seconds before reflexively typing, “OK, boomer” to this article.
• Everett Piper (dreverettpiper.com, @dreverettpiper), a columnist for The Washington Times, is a former university president and radio host. He is the author of “Not a Day Care: The Devastating Consequences of Abandoning Truth” (Regnery). He can be reached at epiper@dreverettpiper.com.
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