SLMUN 2021: Restless for Change
View(s):For years, millennials (people born from 1980 to 1995) were attacked by Generation X (born 1965 – 1980) and Baby Boomers (born 1946 – 1964) for being spoiled and entitled “youngsters” who spent all their time on Facebook and trying to be trendy.
Now the criticism from these older generations has shifted to Generation Z. Gen Zs are called aggressive and preachy “woke people” who find everything offensive and blindly follow everything they see on Instagram. Young people being attacked by their elders has become a common trend in today’s society.
Being woke, by definition, is being alert to injustice in society.
Unfortunately, older generations have decided to give this word negative connotations and instead use it to refer to people whose desire to appear righteous makes them intolerant of other views.
Clearly, being alert to injustice in society is an inherently positive character trait and one that has been lacking in society.
Gen Z is fighting for what is right and fighting for people to be accepted for who they are, despite this incessant attack.
Older generations believe that Gen Z should be able to take things as a joke and not get so offended by everything. But boomers making racist and sexist jokes and Gen X laughing about how society is becoming too inclusive and how they can’t say anything any more or how they think the introduction of pronouns to conform to all genders is “over the top” is not exactly funny.
And the fact of the matter is that it is not a case of making everything offensive but rather a case of finally fighting against things that were always offensive.
Older generations also have the view that Gen Zs overuse social media, follow everything they see on it and steal their opinions from other “trendy people” on Instagram.
However, social media actually provides a plethora of unbiased news and information.
Both sides of every story are always available for people to make informed decisions on what they think about a certain topic. The idea that the only place you can actually find out what’s happening in the world is in a newspaper should be in the past.
While it may be true that on Instagram and other social media platforms there is a higher proportion of views on the more liberal side and that Gen Zs usually have similar views, this is not necessarily a bad thing.
In fact, it is a good thing that people are tolerant and those with discriminatory views are not actively expressing them as much.
Admittedly, sometimes Gen Zs do express their views too aggressively rather than educating older generations properly.
After all, older generations act the way they do because they were brought up in a society that was more prejudiced and it can be difficult to adjust.
This is why the Sri Lanka Model United Nations is a great platform to give young people the opportunity to express and debate their views in a diplomatic way.
Young people are so often silenced, and their views not taken seriously. Even very influential members of this generation are patronised by older people.
For example, after 18-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg was made Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, former US President Donald Trump tweeted – “So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old-fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!” Thunberg was 16 at the time and this comment was particularly offensive as it directly attacked the fact that she has been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. But as Greta said: “you are never too small to make a difference”.
This is why the theme for SLMUN this year is “Restless for Change”. We think it is essential for young people to speak up, voice their opinions and fight against injustice.
Being part of SLMUN will be one of the best experiences of your school career whether you are a delegate debating issues in committees or a journalist writing articles on the topics discussed at the conference. Additionally, after so many months stuck in lockdown and doing online school, it will be great to attend SLMUN as it will be an in – person conference.
Here is an open invitation to all change makers out there to join SLMUN 2021 for an experience like no other.
Registrations for delegates, admins and IPC delegates are now open until the 30th of November 2021.
For further details, head on over to our website on www.slmun.org , or please contact us
via:Email –
cda@slmun.org /
pr@slmun.org
Telephone –
+94 71 801 3722 /
+94 71 444 9694 /
+94 76 898 9763
- Anna Shearer (News and Media Team 2021)