Much is expected”
It’s an old saying
The kind of wisdom nugget
That used to get handed down
From father to son
Mother to daughter
Headmaster to student
Master to apprentice
It would not surprise us
If you’d never heard it
It’s too simple to trend on Twitter
Too basic for Facebook conversations
And given your desire for independence
Coupled with society’s growing disdain
For things religious and non-rational
As well as traditional relationship structures
It’s unlikely you are an apprentice
Or a student in awe of their headmaster
And no
We won’t talk about your child-parent relationships!
Dear Ys and Zs
You have been given much
Much more than you seem to realise
For example
Universal suffrage, regardless of
Gender, race, land ownership
Keep in mind
Women couldn't vote in Liechtenstein
(One of the richest countries in the world)
Till as recently as 1984
You have the internet
And its multitude of social media channels
You live in an increasingly global world
That allows you to experience
Different cultures
And work in different countries
You have tools to influence your governments
From leaking stories on government excesses
To taking to the streets to ask for change
We your parents could only dream of these!
You have received much
And we have expected much from you
And in some cases, you have delivered
But there is so much left to do...
You tell your personal stories
On Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus
But you refuse to truly listen to others’
And think you know all about them
Even before they speak
You build barriers between yourselves
It seems any excuse would do
Class, race, economic background
It's the human way, you say
But somehow, we thought you would
You could, find ways around that
Because we know
And you know
That you know more, much more
About the sciences
Physical and social
Than we ever did
You are smarter than us
So be wiser than us
Don’t make the mistakes we made
Like starting wars and arms races
That whoever won
Would eventually end up losing
In other ways
Dear Ys and Zs
These are just some observations
On how you
And all your “friends” and “followers”
Can do much better
There are a myriad other ways
But you’re smarter than us
We’ll leave it to you to figure them out!
So be wiser than us
Don’t make the mistakes we made
Like starting wars and arms races
That whoever won
Would eventually end up losing
In other ways
Dear Ys and Zs
These are just some observations
On how you
And all your “friends” and “followers”
Can do much better
There are a myriad other ways
But you’re smarter than us
We’ll leave it to you to figure them out!
