The young are conformists in denial
The reassuringly bourgeois values behind a rebellious generation.
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In France, protesters are demanding better-funded schools and then a smoother link to universities.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Janan Ganesh
This is what one Emmanuel (Macron) said to another (the acclaimed writer Carrere) in 2025: “I was never a teenager. I don’t like teenagers. I don’t understand them.”
But do teenagers understand themselves? Do Gen Z, or whatever is the arbitrary cohort of the moment? Young people have a left-wing image and perhaps self-image. For a while now, I have suspected that it is false, that some of the bolshiest among them are in fact capitalists or at least conformists who don’t know it yet.