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.
