Chris Ward

Pelé was 17 when he won the world cup…

Like most people of a certain age, I sometimes feel compelled to share what I’ve learnt through life experience with other people, particularly younger people.

How ironic then, that one of the most important things I’ve learnt is to listen to younger people, and learn from them!

…Louis Braille was 15 when he invented his reading system…

I think I’ve broken my ‘echo chamber’! I’ve been deliberately subscribing to sources and clicking on articles which express wildly disparate points of view (I’m interested to hear what everyone has to say, not just people who I’m pre-disposed to agree with). As a result, I’ve been getting web articles, social media posts and short videos recommended to me ‘by the algorithm’ with titles such as ‘Millennials and Gen Z are going to wreck the economy’, ‘Gen Z don’t know how to make real friends’, and ‘Gen Z are proudly shirking from home’.

…Mozart wrote his first symphony at 8…

I have to say, alarm bells ring for me when I hear generalisations about any ‘groups’ within society. If there’s one thing we should have all learned from history, it’s that devising categories of people within society and assigning blanket attributes to them never ends well.

We would be well advised to therefore meet any blanket statement about any particular generation with a healthy dose of scepticism.

Having said that, age as a demographic is demonstrable, and history is littered with examples of young people achieving extraordinary things, made possible by a combination of factors including the physical attributes and mindset they possessed at the time which were related to their youthfulness.

…Malala Yousafzai Was 17 When She Won The Nobel Peace Prize…

The tendency for older people to roll their eyes and talk about ‘the youth of today’ in an exasperated tone stretches back for as long as recorded history (check out https://historyhustle.com/2500-years-of-people-complaining-about-the-younger-generation/)

…Mary Shelley published ‘Frankenstein’ at 20…

At this juncture in history, with an ageing population, prevalence of disinformation and widening inequalities, such rhetoric is serving as an obstacle to progress.

…Greta Thunberg was named Time’s Person of the Year aged 16…

If we want humanity to survive beyond a handful of further generations, we surely need to embrace some radical new ideas. The kind of ideas that are most likely to be voiced by people looking at the world from a relatively fresh perspective, unhindered by a resignation and weariness developed through decades of futile attempts.

“The power of youth is the common wealth of the entire world… No segment in society can match the power, idealism, enthusiasm and courage of young people.” Kailash Satyarthi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, 2018