The often-unrecognised strand and dynamic of top-down politics is the reality that the people we currently have at the top are usually at the end of their career (or beyond), and that those even in the lower stages of this perverse hierarchy are themselves in or approaching middle age.
Yes, there are exceptions as there are in anything. But when you have a system that maintains itself and functions by using the same thinking continuously – and that thinking reflects only the selfish wants and needs and outlooks of the older people who are at the top, it stands to reason that there is a massive gap not only in policy, but also within the messaging that makes sense to or can be identified with by the young.
The issue of life experience and the impractical idealism of the young will always run contrary to policies and practical solutions that consider everything and work as they should for all. But that doesn’t mean that the outcomes and aims that Younger People have in mind shouldn’t be heard, or indeed incorporated into wider policies that reflect practical reality and therefore become solutions that can and do actually work.
Just as power must be restored to the level of government and decision making that is most relevant to the collective voice, Young People must be considered within that process too, with youth or young people’s councils meeting as part of and feeding into each tier of government and being used as an effective tool to influence and inform.
Levelling Level 