The young generation, worldwide, is rebelling against not only the imposition of corporate feudalism, but also against the haze of lies and propaganda being produced from all across the political spectrum to obscure the reality of this project. From Democrats to Republicans, from the Labor party to the Tories, from Islamists to secularists, and from Jihadis to moderates; no one is addressing the real issues that are affecting our lives. We are given an assortment of decoy reasons for our misery; immigration, racism, Islamophobia, terrorism, etc, etc. But neoliberalism, austerity, corporate greed, and class warfare are never discussed. Whatever problems are completely ignored in official public discourse, you should know, are the real problems.
This is why someone like Donald Trump has been able to gain support in the US. Not because he addresses substantive issues, but because he is perceived as being, at least, sincere in what he says. He isn’t of course; but that is the perception, and that indicates the extent to which people are sick of being manipulated and lied to. They would rather support a heartless maniac like Trump because he seems to be honest, rather than supporting a heartless maniac like Hillary Clinton who is incapable of honesty.
And, by and large, our Islamist politicians are no better. They are shallow, ambitious, greedy, and ignorant people using the religion to carve out a political niche for themselves; without ever addressing any of the real causes of our suffering, and without ever providing meaningful solutions to this suffering. They will promote extremism when it can boost their popularity, and promote moderation when it can ingratiate them to power. They try to distract us with emotional rhetoric and religious slogans, with flags and symbolic but meaningless gestures, thumping the drums of jihad when it suits them and slandering their colleagues with viscous disregard for Islamic brotherhood when their competitors for influence are getting too many ‘likes’ on Facebook.
If we do not live as our people live, share their plight, understand their problems, and tell the plain truth, we will lose the young. We will lose our people. They will leave us; and they should.