Generational Basis of Anti-Systemic Resistance

Scientific research, empirical evidence, and the clearly visible environmental devastation due to climate change/global warming are largely the consequences of the quest for profits of “fossil capital” that portends the greatest danger to human life. A nuclear war may kill half of the world, a sixth extinction would end all humanity. Can the wealth and political power of fossil capital be halted and reversed? Is a de-growth world society possible? Perhaps. A longer view of history has taught us that economic hegemons rise and fall, especially when people organize social movements to bring about change. But whom might be the agents of social change? And why would they act? It is at this point that we consider the importance of generations which, following Mannheim, may have as much impact as social class. It is evident that support for climate justice is most typical among the young—the Z generation. Why? Zoomers have grown up experiencing the adversities and precarities of capital, the 2008 crisis, school shootings, environmental disasters, the Covid-19 pandemic, and so on. By dint of age, education and psychological flexibility, Zoomers now spearhead several global justice movements that aim to end the use of fossil fuels, stop ecocide, and genocide.