The Millenial Manifesto
Introduction Part 1
This is the first part of a brand new manifesto, created for our generation and our country. It is designed as an optimistic rallying call in support of all those who believe that, as a generation, we have the ability to change the fundamental purpose of politics, economics and society for ourselves and our children.
We have arrived at a fork in the road. We can choose to take the road adjacent to the well-trodden path that our parents forged; sticking closely to the cairns, never quite reaching the mountaintop, conquered by generations before us. Our deviations will be novel. We will add our rocks to the guideposts, but the path and its destiny will never be ours.
Our parents embarked on their journey without the faintest idea of their route, or even whether the view from the summit was agreeable. Theirs was a random walk full of missteps and unintended consequences; a geriatric’s limp towards our crossroads. As our parents’ pace slows, their journey complete, they have brought us to the fork in the road, arming us with little more than a patchwork of lessons learned from a lifetime’s journey.
Who could blame us for being angry? Instead of handing over the baton at the summit, looking out to a golden sunset, with birds punctuating our view, our parents have left us in the thickest of forests; surrounded by hostile trees, shrouded in mist; our feet covered by the heavy forest floor. We could blame our parents. However, as much as we probed and questioned during the long walk, we cannot put ourselves in their shoes; responding to the changes in weather; the decisions that needed to be taken; the influence of others who share in their journey. To blame our parents would be to set ourselves up for an almighty fall, where our technicolour expectations are met with painful realities; like a stone in a hiking boot.
We must remember that our parents were born into the great post-war liberation of our society, our morals, and our economy. When faced with their fork in the road, our parents, consciously or other, took the path towards unconstrained liberty and unfettered individualism. They chose this radical new road as a rejection of what came before: the disciplinarian, rigidly moral, abstemious and intolerably boring world of their parents. Who, therefore, can blame them for picking a path that diverged so drastically from their parents?
And weren’t their intentions good? Without the early energies of our parents, we would have endured decades more civil rights abuses, institutionalised sexism, an unpalatable intolerance to Others, a rigid societal hierarchy. We can learn from our parents’ choices and their unintended consequences, however, we cannot use these outcomes as an excuse for inaction or replication. The path that we choose will be fraught and complex; we will move at a snail’s pace, regress, and then be catapulted forward. Our summit will change as new facts become available and time presents a bridge between our journey and that of our parents.
In addition to the parroting of our parents, a new and dangerous path has appeared for us in recent years. This path is one of populism, intolerance and anomie. This path has fomented movements and energised election campaigns. This path sees us reject the tolerance and global citizenry of our parents, replacing it with nothing of substance or meaning. This regressive fork sees us walking deeper into the forest; our compass malfunctioning as bracken and branches crowd around us. This fork is destined to be nasty, brutish and short.
Thankfully, another path is appearing. One that presents a clear alternative to that of our parents. One that seeks to learn the lessons of our parents’ journey, building on the positive foundations left for us. This path isn’t reactionary, however, neither is it incremental. Our new path is progressive and radical; optimistic and holistic. To forge this path, we must remove much of the ideological baggage that our parents carried with them. Our new path will not be determined by left or right; blue or red. These guidebooks are out of date and restrict our forward movement. Our path acknowledges that what has come before is no longer fit for purpose in a world where the great evils of our time appear both constant and universal. Our path learns from the prevailing economic, political and cultural movements of past generations, acknowledging their successes and their failures. Our path is contextualised by economic, medical and environmental crises that threaten the very nature of our shared existence.
What, then, is the principle that will form the opening entries in our new guidebook? Our generation, so disaffected by the anachronistic notions of left and right; so alienated by infectious globalisation and pervasive neoliberalism; so scared by the monopolistic power of the great technology companies, is searching for a new principle and language to face the evils of our modern times. Our generation isn’t standing still. We are speaking out against inequality, protesting against authoritarianism, exposing institutional sexism, marching in defence of our planet, railing against the lack of political options available to us. Our generation rarely meets without a discussion of a new social contract; one that acknowledges the necessity and potential of good and effective governance; one that builds upon the foundations of our parents whilst also looking forward. One that acknowledges that, as a generation, we feel untethered from our planet, country, community and jobs; one that works for the 21st Century.
Our generation is not passive; stuck between the power and wealth of the generation before us, without the anger and disaffection of the generation that comes after. We will not become a shell generation; hibernating against meaningful change, grudgingly playing by the rules of our parent’s game. Our generation has the unique ability to translate the anger and energy of our younger brothers and sisters into a system where we have a growing voice at our parent’s boardroom table. However, without a unified, coherent and practical ideology, there is a danger that, by representing and translating the feeling of the generation that follows, we become mere mouthpieces of a more emboldened, reckless generation, who see the inevitability of a declining world.
A new section of the Millenial Manifesto will be launched periodically during this year.
