Gen Z is often celebrated as a rebellious generation, but public protest does not necessarily mean inner freedom. Beneath the slogans lie dependence on parents, superstition, social conditioning, consumerism, digital addiction, and fear of authority. Real rebellion begins by questioning one’s own conditioning, desires, fears, and borrowed beliefs. A generational label changes nothing; only self-education and freedom from the ego can bring genuine revolution.
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Originally published in The Pioneer on 22 August '26
Look at him on the road to Parliament. Twenty-two, hoarse from sloganeering, phone held high, live streaming his defiance to the nation, background music perfectly chosen. The country has decided he is a revolution.
Now look at the same phone an hour later, on the bus home. The astrology app is open, because a job interview is coming and the stars must be consulted. There are three messages from his mother about a girl his parents have shortlisted; he will oblige his mother. There is an EMI reminder for the phone itself, which he bought on credit he does not really have. And there is the spicy reel he is watching to recover from the protest, served to him by a machine that knows him better than he knows himself.
The youngster screaming at the police on Instagram, and the youngster enquiring how to enchant a reluctant girl on an astro app: both screens are real. The country has chosen to see only the first one and has begun garlanding it. I have spent more than twenty years looking at the second one, and I am writing this to say: withdraw the garland. The garland is the surest way to make certain the young man never changes.
