Understanding Y

CHAPTER 8 Political Y

David Burstein

What nobler employment, or more valuable to the state, than that of the man who instructs the rising generation?

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Nowadays, there seem to be crises everywhere we turn. Leaders around the globe have abdicated their responsibilities and, by most objective standards, there is a growing mess being left for my generation — the Millennial generation — to clean up. Yet despite the adversity that we face, we are ready to step up. There are countless examples of our eagerness to solve problems and address challenges in our communities, countries and around the world.

Politicians urge their colleagues to embrace change ‘for the young people’, but Millennials have already started acting. We're a generation of pragmatic idealists seeking to incite significant change, aware that we can only do so with a practical approach.

Millennials have been organising online and offline for years. But nowadays there are more instances of Gen Ys gathering specifically to tackle certain problems. They came together in this way just a few years ago at the second edition of a conference called One Young World in Zurich, Switzerland. Over 1200 young people from 170 countries — including often-underrepresented nations like Iran, Libya, Iraq, Egypt, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia — all congregated, ready to share, collaborate and problem-solve.

Did the conference end with solutions to all our world's problems? No, of course not. But two things made this ...