Young is very strange, frankly speaking, a large part of the reason is not fully understand the world. Even in their teens and early twenties, the vast majority of children have not yet thought that enough life experience is considered secular, and it seems to be increasingly delayed. This is especially not the fault of Gen Z, but the generations before them want their children to live a better life.
“Better life” means less difficulty, and less difficulty means less life-shaping courses, but I digress.
Because of the many guide lights that appear in front of them, navigating this weirdness can sometimes be difficult, but it’s not entirely impossible. This can take the form of parents, mentors, books, culture, and heroes, to name a few. When one fails, the child can look for clues about what to do in any particular situation from other channels.
But this is not only the information age, but also the age of over-sharing. Even if you die and go away, it will not prevent the deepest secret of your life from being exposed to anyone who wants to know it. Knowing a person’s deepest secrets and greatest shame can minimize anyone, including the aforementioned heroes.
Generation Z was born after the rise of the Internet, drowning in thoughts, opinions, secrets, and revelations about people. You would think it would be a good thing to know so much about someone. With this information, you can avoid traps and know who to trust and who to abandon. Who should respect, who should ignore. Before you learn more about our culture and humanity, this sounds good on the surface. Pull back the lens, and you will find that we live in a very intolerant culture that only recognizes “perfection”. I put them in quotation marks because things that are considered good often change.
This creates a strange moral definition for Gen Z, who don’t know what it’s like to live outside the influence of the Internet. If parents don’t actively educate their children, they will get clues from online trends, and these “morals” look more and more like those of the people living in the “Capitol” in The Hunger Games. If you observe walking on the red carpet, these people are also dressing more and more like them.
This has led to what we call “cancellation culture”. Someone is faltering in some way, and the whole world seems to be hitting them, driving them out of the Internet, and forcing them to lose their jobs, money, etc. if possible. It is one of the biggest diseases in our modern culture, and it has infected generation Z like a pandemic.
I can continue to talk about how true morality is often underestimated, and this wisdom is often ridiculed in support of popular morality, but I would rather draw attention to the fact that the use of cancellation culture by Generation Z brings two very realistic problem.
First of all, its heroes are fake. Second, it constantly kills its heroes.
Looking back on my childhood, I have too many heroes to look up to. I remember sitting in front of the TV watching Captain Richard Winters leading Easy Company into battle in the “Brother Company” miniseries during World War II, and thinking of what a great man he was. Intellectually, on the issue of faith, CS Lewis is a hero in my mind. In the fantasy world, I don’t think you are cooler than Spike Spiegel by Cowboy Beebop (I still think).
Another hero is Bob Ross, a gentle-spoken PBS painter that everyone knows and loves. Not only does he teach you how to create beautiful works of art, but he is also a person who knows how to create great things with very few things, and encourages people to pursue their interests and turn them into talents. He is a positive force in the universe… Then the Netflix documentary about him was released. Here you will learn that when the camera is off, Rose has a darker side, especially for the ladies. He is a womanizer and deceived his wife.
Rose violated the rules, so Rose is somewhat less. The reaction of Generation Z is to abandon the painter. A person made a TikTok video about it, but a member of Gen Z called on her generation to solve their huge problem. Watch the video below.
Yes pic.twitter.com/cKp0lqmX1N
-Jules (@julesisjohnson) September 6, 2021
She is right.
Generation Z grew up in an era where image-building was the norm, and some of the best people portrayed themselves as selfless, caring, kind and uplifting images. Gen Z supports and loves them so much that their kind nature becomes worthy of a meme. A thing called “Stan culture” developed, where fanaticism became akin to worship. However, in the information age, the skeletons that people hide in the closet are about to come out. It turns out that this person is not as perfect as the public image they carefully crafted. There are varying degrees of cancellations, but cancellations still occur.
Generation Z deprived his hero, no matter what intent and purpose, this hero should be respected.
If someone revealed to me tomorrow that Major Winters had cheated on his wife and kicked a dog, I would be disappointed, but I really would not consider him a hero. I would consider him a flawed person…just like me. It’s easy to make mistakes, and I regret doing things later. Rose is similar. A flawed person has a very positive effect.
nobody is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes, and sometimes these mistakes are huge. People are more likely to fall into sins and vices than some people think. Many people in Generation Z, although young, have not yet experienced enough life experience to understand the full significance of this fact. At some point, they will also make major mistakes. They will hope that those around them will give grace and mercy. I hope they can get it.
Of all the courses that Gen Z should study now, there seems to be none, that’s it. No one is perfect, and forgiveness is one of the greatest virtues we have. The cancellation culture seems to stem from a lack of this understanding, but it will hit them like a ton of bricks. When they understand that perfection is impossible to achieve, it will be a difficult lesson.
Gen Z must learn to forgive, not only others, but also themselves. They should understand that perfection cannot be achieved, and their heroes are still heroes despite their flaws. Many people may even be more heroic because of their shortcomings. Some people have such a big defect but are still loved by those closest to them. This should give people the hope that forgiveness is not out of reach.
King David sent his best friend to fight and die so that he could cover up the fact that he let his wife Bathsheba become pregnant. He suffered serious consequences for this, but God still favors David.
Gen Z should choose heroes wisely, but when these heroes are inevitably proved to be flawed, they should not crucify them. Without a guide, you will find yourself easily lost in the woods, and by then you will trust anyone who claims to be able to lead you out of trouble.
