Gen Z? Those insane young people on Tik Tok? The ones who are all addicted to the internet and pornography? The overmedicated ones? The ones who talk funny? The ones who embrace far left idiots as heroes and manipulative villains as role models? The generation that never received a biblical education? (Was St Luke on X?)
Yes. Those people.
My name is Elias Ryan. I am a 24 year old Electrician. My wife and I live on the south side of Greenville, South Carolina. I work with my hands, I pray with my heart, and I read with my mind. I am not a lunatic leftist, nor a so-called “Neo-Nazi”. That which is born on the internet does not consume my life. That which is told to me is analyzed critically. Despite what geriatric centered media like Fox News might tell you, I am not rare. There are thousands, perhaps even millions of Zoomers just like me yearning to embrace a simpler and more wholesome life. We do not have the honor of appearing in a segment on the untalented Jesse Waters’ primetime show on Fox News where, without humility nor humor, he embarrasses young people unable to locate the capitol on a map, define communism, or describe who George Washington was. The quiet and hard working majority of Zoomers, despite the efforts of our Federal Government, are not nearly so simple nor cartoonish. This is not meant to be braggadocious. Quite the contrary, this is a cry for help. Generation Z is starving for sustenance that large corporations, a bloated federal government, and a superficial internet can not provide.
Gen Z or, “Zoomers” as we are called, need the wisdom of the Southern Tradition. The Southern Tradition, facing certain doom at the prospect of our elders dying out, needs Gen Z. I am proposing an arrangement between the ideology of my forefathers and the people of my age. It is time for the leaders of the Southern Tradition and the youth of today to link inextricably, such that we may endure the coming storms of tyranny.
When I refer to the Southern Tradition I am not just appealing to the surface level traits and interests of those who currently occupy the land beneath the Mason Dixon line. I love college football (War Damn) and pickup trucks as much as the next guy. I am instead referring to the cultural norms and practices of the Agrarian and Christian Southern United States. Generation Z has been spoon fed information at the speed of light for nearly our entire lives thanks to the invention of the smart phone. This has made us impatient, reliant on others, and easily propagandized. The Agrarian nature of the American South was a natural defense against these vices. The cycle of raising crops and livestock was a slow arduous process, especially considering the technological handicaps of yesteryear. Lack of patience was never a concern for the southerner. Their livelihoods left them no choice but to practice this virtue. Self reliance was also fundamental to the Southern way of life. That which you sowed in the planting season and nurtured in the growing season you harvested in the reaping season. This applied to both their physical and spiritual lives. The influence of tyrannical governments was intolerable to the southerner. The southerner understood his rights as a citizen of the Nation and as a child of God. Obviously this suspicion of corruptible authority culminated with South Carolina’s secession and the Northern States illegal warmongering. The tyranny of the presidential reigns of my lifetime (George Bush, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Donald Trump) have made the tyranny of Mr Lincoln look like charity. It is only by cultivating the virtues of the Southern Tradition can Generation Z, and the generations to follow, stand up to authoritarianism and conserve the America of Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry.
I have outlined why Generation Z needs the Southern Tradition. To continue my thesis, I will now elaborate on the Southern Tradition’s need for Generation Z. The Southern Tradition is naturally upheld by the elderly. We southerners have a deep and spiritual respect for our elders and rightfully so. However, not all elders are created equally. The generation that currently vanguards the Southern Tradition has largely failed to conserve it in any meaningful way. This is true of American Conservatism broadly. Generation Z is so incredibly thirsty for knowledge and wisdom of the past and those who hold the water of truth have dispensed very little of it. This has been a problem since the war between the North and South but is most obvious in more recent memory. Here in South Carolina, Confederate Flags have been taken down by a self hating government en mass. The last handful of generations have failed to instill in the youth the knowledge to defend the southern way of life. This may be jarring to some readers but it is nonetheless true; in the online world of Generation Z it is less controversial to heap praise and admiration on Hitler’s Nazi Regime than on the brave and distinguished soldiers who fought under General Robert E Lee’s leadership. The reason this is allowed to persist is because Nazi adjacent idiocy does nothing but discredit those on the political right and embolden radical leftists. The wisdom of the Southern Tradition, however, is a serious threat to establishment power. Should the youth get a hold of the wisdom in limited government and conservative social values, they would go on to be a threat to the Leviathan in Washington DC. The inevitable march of time brings with it the dying out of the small minority of wise and active elders who have worked tirelessly to defend the Southern Tradition. Without a commitment to educating and training the youth, the Southern Tradition of Christianity, Agrarianism, and Honorable Self Reliance will die. When Southern Wisdom and Identity is relegated only to the pages of books written by Southern Academics, they will be destroyed and replaced with an unholy curriculum teaching reliance on the government and abandonment of tradition. If you have any stake in the future of the American South, now is the time to impart wisdom and invest in Generation Z
Young people are scared. They are threatened with toxic food and water, a dying monetary system, and a bloated government that hates them. We are constantly bombarded with homosexual, atheist, and collectivist propaganda. Without the proper armor and weapons to fight this cultural battle, we lose many soldiers every day. The situation may seem grim, but as the title of this entry suggests, Generation Z might be exactly what America needs to defeat the forces of evil and defend a more wholesome way of life. The Zoomers, for all of their many flaws, have a righteous and fundamental distrust in our authoritarian institutions. In many ways, technology has been a plague on this nation. There is a silver lining. Technology in many ways has pulled away the veil that once hid the rot of American government and business. By having an eternal record, Zoomers have had the opportunity to examine the backstabs and betrayals of the elite institutions. When Donald Trump says “No New Wars” then immediately and unconstitutionally involves us in a new war, Generation Z can uniquely hold him accountable in ways that the older generations can not. Having grown up in the post 9/11 era, there is no Zoomer who has ever really lived in America. We have been trapped by an overbearing and evil bureaucracy from birth. While our lifelong resentment of our institutions creates many problems, it also gives us the perfect outlook to make effectual change. Empowered by technology, a hatred for our tyrannical system, and a youthful energy, Generation Z will change the world. The question that remains is this. Will the Zoomers embrace the failed and immoral ideas of Hellbound Leaders of the past such as Stalin, Hitler, or George W Bush? Or will the Zoomers, walking hand in hand with the leaders of the American South, embrace the ideology of Patrick Henry, Robert E Lee, and Thomas Jefferson? I come to you, a representative of Generation Z, humbly asking for you to put aside any (likely justified) prejudice or distaste you may have for my fellow Zoomers, and help us maintain the Southern Tradition. Help us resist Tyranny before it is too late. As the great Carolinian Ben Robertson once said “We in Carolina know that nothing lasts forever.”
The views expressed at AbbevilleInstitute.org are not necessarily those of the Abbeville Institute.
Robert E Lee, Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry were not ideologues.
I don’t think that’s what he meant.
Good for you Elias. Keep recruiting your fellow Zoomers by spreading the word about genuine federalism and our Southern ancestors. I have great hope for your generation because I have witnessed numerous Zoomers inclined as you are.
Thank you and God Bless
Here is an uplifting link that you might want to use to inspire your fellow gen ‘Z’ers. Advance to minute 5:30. Personally I love this song and rendition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dY9gtYeHhk&list=RD9dY9gtYeHhk&start_radio=1
Much obliged. Great tune and performance
Luke 9:30 “And, behold, there talked with Him two men, which were Moses and ELIAS:”
Elias, last week a Bible teacher from Alabama was talking about a recent visit he had with his doctor. The Bible teacher told the doctor he had three sons, like Noah. The pastor said the doctor didn’t know what he was talking about. The doctor asked, “Is this a TV show?” The pastor said, “You know, Noah and the ark, and his three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.” The doctor said he never heard of them.
A few years ago my wife and I stayed at the Garden Walk Inn on Lookout Mtn. In the Gideon’s Bible there, hand written above Genesis 1:1 were the words: “Once upon a time.”
My son told me when he me who is now my daughter in-law, he said she knew little to nothing about the Bible. She was in her early thirties at the time. She’s from Virginia, part of the “Bible belt.”
Do you know what you, Gen Z, and everybody else need, Elias? Salvation, AND, “to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4). By the way, that might benefit the South and its traditions as well. Getting saved and learning the truth is imperative. The Lord is reigning in grace right now, but when He returns in judgment, He is going to punish those “who know not God,” (2 Thess 1:8). Read that verse. Very sobering words.
When you, Gen Z, and everybody else gets saved (if you’re not Elias), get in the Book, and learn as quickly as possible how to understand the Book and what’s going on in it. 2 Tim 2:15 has the key. And if you use anything else besides the KJB, the key won’t be there for you. Don’t take my word for it. Look it up and see for yourself.
Mr. Yarbrough here, has a great name: PAUL. It’s Paul’s epistles we want to especially learn and understand. Paul explains what God is doing today, and why. The gospels and early Acts do not pertain to what the Lord is doing today. That was a different work. That different work will resume in the future. Hebrews thru Revelation covers that.
“Dispensationalism must be dispensed with.” Jonathan Newman.
“Dispensationalism is insane, and it is heretical…”. Kennedy Hall.
Yeah, sure guys, whatever you say.
“…Jesus Christ WAS a minister of the circumcision…” Rom. 15:8. That’s “time past,” “but now,” His work is DIFFERENT. That’s dispenationalism. Once again, Elias, the book one uses is critical. It must be the KJB. The NKJV has “Jesus Christ HAS become.”
Do what you can for the South and the southern tradition, Elias. I like both. But take great heed to the other matter.
“Generation Z needs the Southern Tradition.”
No. These people and every other generation need the Saviour and they need to read and study God’s word and BELIEVE it is God’s word’s.
Acts 17:24-25,28 “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;”
“Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; ”
“For in him we live, and move, and have our being…”
“Young people are scared.”
There can be no need of that if they get saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth:
2 Timothy 1:7 “…God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
“Young people are scared.”
So are old people.
But not for ourselves. We have learned through the many anti Southern campaigns through the past several generations that like those gentlemen who pressed forward with Pickett and Pettigrew that regardless of the task in front of them that they were on the right side regardless of what God had planned for them at the summit of the hill.
As Stonewall Jackson had said (in paraphrase): God had long ago decided his time of coming and of going.
When my time comes, and I am presented before Christ, I will still be humming Dixie before him. And I’ll bet you a nickel, He’ll smile. Maybe or not at me, but for sure at that beautiful tune. JMO
Deo Vindice
Well said
I’m a Gen-Xer, Elias, so I don’t have a TikTok account. Do you have an X account I can follow, or is that too geriatric?
I am on X at https://x.com/eliasjohnryan?s=11
I have only recently created my account but I will add any future projects to it. Thanks for reading
Refreshing, and nicely written.
Thank you very much. God bless you
Indeed, Elias, this is most encouraging! Thanks so much!
Thank you. God bless you and our homeland
Boomer here. You are spot on, Elias. Thank you for taking the time to organize your thoughts and put them in writing. I have given up on my generation (and the next). Somehow — in my time– rugged individualism has been replaced with collectivism and “fairness’ re-defined as “equal outcomes.” I have thought recently that Gen Z was perhaps the next best hope for normalcy and traditional values and you are reinforcing this hope. I would like add that, in addition to getting us back to traditional Southern values, Gen Z will need to eliminate (or at least severely rein in) the Federal Reserve. This boundless money printer has allowed politicians to buy votes, to make war, to manipulate the economy, all without having to impose direct taxes. Best of luck to you and your generation.
~Steve, Richmond, VA
Thank you for the kind words. You are absolutely spot on about the Federal Reserve. That institution is a hive of corrupt wasps who swarm our economic/political system and choke out efforts to reign in the warmongering government. They are doubtless one of the great hurdles between Americans and genuine liberty. I may expand more on this in the future. God bless you
Hi Elias,
This is a fellow Gen Z. I absolutely agree with all that you wrote, many fellow young right wing men I know are also very supportive of the Southern Cause more so than the Nazi one. I am frankly amazed at the amount of support my fellow Gen Z men have for the South as well as the amount of times I’ve heard them play ” Dixie” in the car. Thanks again! Deo Vindice!
Lots of young men like us are turning to the forbidden wisdom of our great ancestors. I appreciate you taking the time to read what I’ve written. There is much work for us to do! Deo Vindice
“Young people are scared.”
Do you know what the apostle Paul was “scared” of, Elias?
Galatians 4:11 “I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.” And that was because of this:
Galatians 4:9-10 “But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?”
“Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.”
That’s what Paul feared in the times of Herod, Caligula, and Nero.
“They are threatened with toxic food and water, a dying monetary system, and a bloated government that hates them. We are constantly bombarded with homosexual, atheist, and collectivist propaganda.”
In your replies, Elias, at least four times you say, “God bless you.” So then, you’re a Bible believer, correct?
Recall then what God says about “toxic food and water…dying monetary system…propaganda.”:
Romans 8:22 “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.”
And recall what else God said:
Galatians 1:4 “Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this PRESENT EVIL WORLD, according to the will of God and our Father:”
You remember, don’t you, that we live in a sin cursed world, among sinful men like the “homosexual,” and the “atheist,” AND the self righteous man?
1 Corinthians 5:9-10 “I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:”
“Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; FOR THEN MUST YE NEEDS GO OUT OF THE WORLD.”
Do you understand verse 10, Elias? That “homosexual,” that “atheist,” needs an ambassador. That’s you, Elias. You knew that, right?
2 Corinthians 5:18-20 “…hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;”
To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.”
“Now then we are AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST…”
And you recall, right, that God wants to SAVE that immoral “homosexual,” and that ignorant “atheist,” and that one too smart for his own good, the self righteous man:
1 Timothy 2:4 “Who will have ALL men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”
“Without the proper armor and weapons to fight this cultural battle…”
And what’s that “proper armor and weapons?” Is it what God said they are? I’m thinking you are not referring to what God said about the believer’s weapons and armor, and about what the REAL WAR IS. Here is what the Lord said:
Ephesians 6:12-13,17 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. ”
“Wherefore TAKE UNTO YOU THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD…”
“And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
“Lots of young men like us are turning to the forbidden wisdom of our great ancestors.”
NO. You, and the young men need to make sure you’re saved first, then you NEED to read Paul’s epistles and develop an intelligent understanding of God’s word rightly divided.
If “our great ancestors” didn’t talk and teach the Bible rightly divided, then you need to move on and take great heed to what the apostle Peter said. He had sense, if no one else does:
John 6:68 “Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.”
A man who was once my pastor, said that Billy Graham had said in an interview, that he had one regret: that he had read and studied the Bible more.
Job 23:12 “…I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.”
2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
I think that should read that Billy Graham’s regret was that he didn’t read and study the Bible more in his life.
Several years ago, a co-worker and I got to talking about heaven. I mentioned that there are three heaven’s. He replied in a cynical tone, “Where is that in the bible?”
Pretty sad. The man was a professing bible believer, a church going man in his fifties. And I liked him, we were friends. But he didn’t know there are three heaven’s.
2 Corinthians 12:2 “I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.”