As an elder, one of the things that I often find fascinating is hanging out with young people, some of whom could be my children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren.

Time and again I have been intrigued by their take on current events and especially how they view the future. Some are quite bright and articulate and engaged with the subjects at hand. It is interesting how their viewpoints often differ from mine, but then I realise that I could well be 40 or even 50 years older than them. They inspire me a lot, and I leave conversations feeling optimistic that the world, certainly Jamaica, couldn’t be in better hands.

It is often said that age should dictate wisdom, but this is often not the case when you observe the often-dumb things that people of senior years say and do. The passage of time should have advised them better. Interacting with the young gives a greater perspective to one’s thinking, notwithstanding the benefits of the many years of experience that one has.

There are peculiar challenges that face young people at every stage of the evolution of human society. Each stage is challenging in its own way. For those of my generation who grew up between the 1970s and 2000s, it was a time of ferment and, some would argue, upheaval, as the social, political, and economic difficulties of the day were on full display. We might have thought that there was no hope for Jamaica.

Many, especially the most pessimistic among us, were convinced that there was no real future to aspire to, to dream about, much less to make viable for our own future existence. There seemed to be no end to the internecine warfare between the political parties and certainly none to the unending privation caused by wrong economic decisions.

I have no doubt that there are many young people in Jamaica who still feel this way. Certainly, for those in the Opposition, the grass is always brown on the other side of the track, the sky is falling, and there are no real prospects to look forward to. Yet, an elderly person like myself, who lived through what were largely the depredations of the above-mentioned periods, cannot share that assessment of where we are now politically and economically. We have made strides, which both parties have contributed to when in Government. And if I were a young person living in Jamaica today, I would be very optimistic. With the advent of the Internet and now the development of artificial intelligence technology, there are so many revolutionary things that young people can bend their minds to.

One of the interesting things is how transactional young people have become in their political expectations. It is not that they necessarily want things for themselves, which they do, but because they have a more independent frame of reference, brought on by the technological revolution exploding around them. They have a greater sense of what they themselves can accomplish and so they become impatient with the beguiling entreaties of politicians who promise them a new Heaven and a new Earth. They see through the lies that are trumpeted in empty promises and they reject them vehemently.

They are feisty, and rightly so. Feistiness here does not mean that they subscribe to a lifestyle and attitude which elders would find repugnant. It means a boldness to be themselves, to be defiant of the obstacles that would seek to keep them in a box. This is not something that many in my generation wear too well. We elders must realise that the paradigm has shifted, the genie is out of the bottle, and the toothpaste refuses to be squeezed back into its tube.

In saying this, there are words of caution that the benefit of experience would want to commend to the young. I will pick this up in the second part of this discussion as I explore certain trends in the society of which the young ought to be mindful.

Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest, social commentator, and author of the books Finding Peace in the Midst of Life’s Storms; Your Self-esteem Guide to a Better Life; and Beyond Petulance: Republican Politics and the Future of America. He hosts a podcast — Mango Tree Dialogues — on his YouTube channel. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or stead6655@aol.com.

Raulston Nembhard