Sabina Kadić-Mackenzie
Everywhere you look, there is a reason to despair. The economy feels broken. Wars rage on. The planet appears to be on fire.
It’s easy to conclude that nothing we do matters.
If you’re anything like me, you’ll go through this doom loop from time to time. The perpetual cycle of thinking the world’s gone to the proverbial – not least this week with news reports of riots, division and intolerance on our doorsteps.
It can be all-consuming.
Where and when does it end? And whose job is it to convince us that change is still possible?
These questions have been front of mind lately, as I travelled the length of Scotland on a tour of speaking engagements. From Glasgow to Aberfeldy to Aberdeen and beyond, as part of volunteer work, I met folk, young and old, who gathered in solidarity against hate speech, intolerance and prejudice in our society.
They came to hear the lessons of past atrocities like those in my homeland of Bosnia. Horrors which were caused by bullets, but whose origins came from words and alarmist rhetoric.
Against the current backdrop of riots and unease, I expected to find more reason to despair. Instead, what I found was hope. Lots of it.
What I encountered were rooms of young people who chose to spend their free time learning about the past to inform a better future. Ten- to 18-year-olds fulfilling their duty to promote tolerance and stop division in its tracks.
They were thoughtful, confident, inquisitive and engaged. In fact, the exact opposite of the caricature so often painted of their generation.
They felt the weight on their shoulders, too.
One 15-year-old girl in Aberdeen told me she feels responsible not only for herself, but for her younger sister too. Like many young people today, she carries the anxiety of the course we’re on as a society.
Nevertheless, if the young people I met are anything to go by, the future’s bright.
But is that enough?
The real question, surely, is whether the rest of us are willing to do our part in making it so.
Cynicism is easy. It asks nothing of us. Generativity – the pledge to leave things better than we found them – is much harder.
What I realised is that young people can’t – and shouldn’t – carry the responsibility of shaping a better society alone. It must be a pact between generations.
So, what’s to be done?
There are steps, big and small, we can all take. Ultimately, they all start with words. Words to correct misinformation. Words that call out hate and prevent harm. Words that educate and deliver comfort. Words that offer hope.
If there is an antidote to the despair we’re experiencing, it is choosing to do something. Anything.
Anything but the silence of indifference.
The young people I met understand that. That’s why they showed up.
In an age fuelled by cynicism, one of the most radical things we can do is to do just that – one thing.
And hope that collectively our efforts add up and leave things better than we found them for generations to come.