ABU DHABI: Professor Dilip Menon, a renowned historian, argues that the older generation needs to rethink its dismissive attitude towards young people who are deeply committed to tackling pressing issues such as climate change.
Regarding the debate about whether some young people are only interested in entertaining content on social media, rather than serious issues, he says, ‘I think this question is important, because this is not a new attitude. The older generation has always been condescending and contemptuous of the younger generation.’
Cynicism towards youngsters
The younger generation engages with the world through new media and possesses a different understanding of it, Professor Menon tells the Emirates News Agency (WAM) in an interview during the recently held Global Media Congress in Abu Dhabi, where he was a speaker.
‘So, what is happening right now is that we have this kind of deep-seated cynicism towards young people.’ This cynicism stems from the perception that young people do not engage w
ith traditional media, reading and classical music as much as older people did, says Menon who is Mellon Chair of Indian Studies and the Director of the Centre for Indian Studies in Africa at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.
Rethinking engagement with youngsters
However, he calls for a change in such a cynical attitude towards the youngsters due to two reasons. ‘One, it is never an entire generation that rises to the call of the moment. Secondly, that the ways of engagement are very different.’
The historian notes young climate activists have reminded that the world is at a critical juncture with climate change, and we are not taking sufficient action.
Therefore, he suggests rethinking the older generation’s engagement with the younger generation.
Critics argue that the younger generation’s attention span is diminishing due to their consumption of brief content on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok and hence they do not have the energy and intelligence to focus on the urgency of the p
resent, the historian points out.
Both old and young have shorter attention span
‘But I think people’s lives are much more complex. This is one part of what they [youngsters] do. But the other part of what the younger generation is doing is also producing newer forms of information, engaging with new ways of creating a politics in the world.’
Menon points to direct political activism and engagement with the environment as examples of these new ways manifesting across the globe.
There are many individuals in their 50s who do not engage with new media. This explains the animosity towards new media, which stems from fear and ignorance, the scholar explains.
Moreover, he finds there are any number of the younger generation and the older generation whose attention span is limited. ‘Both the younger generation and the older generation want the dopamine rush.’
Learning from the new generation
Menon advocates learning from the younger generation, particularly in adapting to new media. He points out that the CO
VID pandemic helped us to get rid of the fear of technology and large numbers of people began using online meeting platforms when they were stuck at home. A lot of people, initially quite lethargic and resistant to technology, embraced it during the pandemic.
‘So, I think what we need is a more constructive engagement with the present and the young help us to do that.’
Does nature correct itself?
Regarding the debate on whether humans should protect the environment or leave it to nature, the professor says, ‘I think one of the things that people tend to take for granted is the fact that nature is a self-correcting mechanism.’
He cites the example of the white cypress trees in California that have moved 100 kilometres over 30 years in order to move away from the effects of ecological devastation, a manifestation of the worst impact of climate change.
Asked why some people say it is a proof that nature will correct itself, Menon answers that the idea of the Earth as a self-correcting mechanism comes from J
ames Lovelock’s Gaia theory.
Two different timescales
‘But what people forget is that the timescales of human history and the timescales of the planet are very different. So, if you think about carbon emissions over a few million years, the Earth will correct itself,’ Menon explains.
However, he further explains that the time of history and the time of the planet are two different times. ‘The planet regulates itself over a few million years but when we think about human time, we cannot think beyond 100 years in terms of personal autobiography, but in terms of history, we can think about probably 1000 or 2000 years.’
Therefore, the professor emphasises that there are two times that we live with. ‘So, when the climate-change naysayers say nature will correct itself, it is not going to happen in our lifetime. What we have to understand that our lives are fairly short.’
Responsibility of environmental awareness
The scholar emphasises that the responsibility for raising awareness about climate change is coll
ective, involving scientists, academics, artists, and the media.
Menon, who was educated at the Universities of Delhi and Oxford, earned his PhD from Cambridge. He won the prestigious international Falling Walls Award for his transnationalism research in 2021. Menon was among 10 internationally renowned scholars who were shortlisted in the Social Sciences and Humanities category in the 2021 Falling Walls Science Breakthrough of the Year hosted by the Falling Walls Foundation, Berlin.
The honour came to him for his work on transnational and oceanic histories in the Global South, which he has conducted over the last decade. His research has produced two published books, Capitalisms: Towards a Global History (Oxford 2020) and edited volume Changing Theory: Concepts from the Global South (Routledge 2022).
Global Media Congress
Menon was a prominent speaker at the second edition of the Global Media Congress (GMC) themed ‘Shaping the Future of the Media Industry, took place in November.
Under the patronage of
His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Presidential Court, the three-day international event was organised by ADNEC Group in strategic partnership with WAM at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.
The latest GMC saw a phenomenal increase in attendance, with 23924 visitors, compared to 13556 the previous year, showing a 76.48 percent increase. The number of participating countries also increased, with 172 countries, among them 31 new countries participating for the first time. Covering 32,000 square metres, the Congress’s footprint grew 78 percent from last year, attracting 160 overall speakers from 18 different countries.
Source: Emirates News Agency
