Who are the lovely dictators? You might find yourself wondering if generation Z has access to a historical cache of great guys who just didn’t want to waste their people’s ever-enriched time with stuff like democracy. The results of a study commissioned by Channel 4 this week found that 52% of gen Z, who are aged between 13 and 27, thought “the UK would be a better place if a strong leader was in charge who does not have to bother with parliament and elections”.
That feels … not great. And, of course, the reflexive tendency for many older generations is to resort immediately to ridicule of gen Z. You know the sort of thing. Oh, I guess they got bored halfway through the video summary of whichever dictator’s life, and just scrolled to the next thing. Or: this is why they have to put those captions on clips saying, “What happens at the end will blow your mind!!!!!” Short shrift would no doubt also be given to the finding that 33% of gen Z think the UK would be better off “if the army was in charge”. Ooh, the army’s going to need a lot more soldiers, then. Wait till these kids find out the age of the conscripts. You like the army? That’s great – you’re going to be the army!
