In Zimbabwe we have to introspect and ask ourselves honestly what we have done to the younger generations to mould them into what they are before we hide behind the finger of what those younger generations “are doing to us; to their lives; and to the country”.
If we pause and take stock of the social, political and economic environment we create for the younger generations in this country we will acknowledge that the youth are nothing but our reflection in the mirror— and the mirror is the environment of our creation.
I find it dishonest and hypocritical when we, the older people (generations) turn to new generations with comparative criticism, presenting ourselves as the paragons of virtue ignoring the unshakeable fact that we create the younger generations biologically from our loins, and we also create the types of environments that shape their lives.
Hypocritical and judgmental manoeuvres help us pretend that the younger generations are some things “out there” and virtuous as we are, we have nothing to do with what they are; it is like some kind of conscience laundering on our part.
We conveniently forget that we are their biological creators, teachers and role models.
We have taught our youth for instance, that the dignity of labour is a vile concept hence we have created an environment that rewards thieves, smugglers, tenderpreneurs, plunderers, and highly connected international criminals.
This type of environment not only relegates the honest worker and pensioner to the dustbins of poverty and humiliation, but it also eulogises the thieves, smugglers, tenderprenuers, plunderers and highly connected international criminals as national heroes.
We then miss the irony when we turn around to the youth of today and say they don’t want to work because they are lazy.
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Why should they value work when we have rendered it valueless and a domain for fools and failures?
We, the older generation, have destroyed all forms of industry.
We had thriving national assets we killed such as the Cold Storage Commission, which exported beef to Europe, Ziscosteel — one of the biggest, if not the biggest, steel manufacturer in southern Africa, David Whitehead, Kondozi Farm — they are too many to mention.
We were once touted as the breadbasket of Africa!
By destroying industry, we created 98% unemployment among the youth.
Again, we miss the irony when we turn around and say today’s younger generations do not want to work like us, or like what we did when we were their age; they are lazy.
When the same young, jobless people turn to illegal means for survival, we label them criminals.
We have socialised our young people into toxic, murderous thugs by creating a toxic, polarised environment.
We have created a culture of intolerance whose basis is that anyone who disagrees with you is an enemy who should be exterminated. One of the most prominent slogans in our country is “Pasi nanhingi” (down with so and so), a slogan that encourages the murder of those one disagrees with.
In most instances, the youth are trained or socialised into a culture of torturing, killing or beating up those we, the older generations, disagree with.
There is no need for debate, we teach the young ones, just bash them to death.
When the same youths turn this violent behaviour that we instil into them against us, we label them murderers who do not respect the elderly and the sanctity of human blood.
Corruption is so pervasive and entrenched in our society that the younger generations born into such a rotten environment as ours, now believe it is something normal.
We have created a culture where corruption is so ubiquitous that its absence anywhere is an enigma.
All our institutions have taught our youths that corruption is the way to go.
They have seen heroes of corruption getting rich, being corruptly promoted to positions of authority and being revered as role models.
The stink of corruption has been coated with the scent of privilege, money and power.
I have interacted with several young people who want to join the police, Zimra, Zinara, VID, councils, NPA etc for the purposes of corruption, for the quick buck and quick riches.
But still, we, the older generations then say today’s young people are unethical, greedy and want to get rich quickly forgetting that we teach them well and we also create the appropriate environments.
The younger generations have been accused of being unpatriotic.
We accuse them of not doing enough for our country; we urge or force them to be patriotic while our actions speak to the contrary.
We siphon the country’s wealth and invest in foreign countries and bank our monies in foreign lands.
We destroy local education systems and our children go to school abroad in the very same countries that we badmouth.
We destroy our health system and because we can afford it, we go and seek medical care abroad when the need arises. We mortgage the country’s resources to foreign crooks for personal benefit.
We invite our foreign friends who are crooks like us to come and plunder our resources, destroying the physical environment that our very own youths depend on for survival.
Our claim to patriotic fame is that we fought in the armed struggle and liberated this country.
Having done all this we chastise the younger generations for pointing out our unpatriotic behaviours.
In extreme circumstances we hound them out of the country, jail them or torture them for pointing out our unpatriotic behaviour.
The youth become so confused that they are not sure whether they should be coming or going and we label them unpatriotic young sell-outs who are influenced by foreign forces.
When it suits us, we introduce the younger generations to drug abuse and encourage them to openly abuse drugs and alcohol especially during the times when we want to use them as instruments of violence for political mileage and as foot soldiers to grab our rivals’ assets.
The inevitable happens; they get addicted.
They get into drug-related problems and we turn around and label them the good-for-nothing drug-infested generations.
We conveniently forget that it was us, the older generations, that made the drugs available to the youth and it was us who initiated them into using them.
In the eyes of the youth, we fornicate, littering children all over and when the youth follow suit, we accuse them of moral deficiency.
We often hear remarks such as. “The young people of today can hardly close their legs or zips,” but it is us who lack the moral compass and direct them to follow the wrong direction.
Love, we have shown the youth, is not important, what is important is false status and materialism.
But when the youth copy us, we stand on a high moral pedestal and announce to the world that the current generation is lost in immorality and lack of love and affection.
Instead of using technology for the development of the young people’s lives, we use it in toxic ways to promote disunity, tribalism, hate speech and polarisation.
For example, I don’t think there’s any nation on X with citizens that promote hate speech against each other like Zimbabweans as they go for each other’s throats publicly with the older generation in the lead, including prominent figures that hold offices requiring maturity, diplomacy and not childishness.
Zimbabweans, led by us the older generation unreasonably scold each other over our history, musicians from our own country, sportspersons, politics, the economy, propaganda etc on public forums such as X, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok among others.
What are we really teaching the younger generations when we do that; washing dirty linen in public?
We have created an environment where competition rather than collaboration reigns supreme.
And we are not talking about fair competition here; we are talking of winning at all costs.
We have seen people desperately competing against themselves and holding reward ceremonies where they award themselves accolades for doing the best against non-existent competitors.
We have entrenched the win-at-all- costs mentality so much that fair play is regarded as stupidity and a weakness of high proportions. As a result we have taught the youth to play dirty to win including using tactics such as violence, rigging, bribery, lawfare, false awards, propaganda etc.
We have taught our youths to prop up non-events and nonenties by celebrating mediocrity.
We have for example, celebrated the installation of an archaic borehole, a patched road, a new, but crumbling bridge, a fake PhD, a rigged election, a useless currency etc.
By doing this, aren’t we snuffing out development and creativity ambition in the younger generations?
Why then should we derogatively say these young people of today are not ambitious when they know that mediocrity carries the day?
Perhaps the famous, ancient Greek poet Hesiod sums up our hypocritical view of the young, “I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words.”
But what Hesiod and other older generations forget is that we, the older generations sire the youth, socialise them, teach them and provide them with the wrong role models.
Please let us not hypocritically blame the youth when they reflect what we are.
