Opinion|Reader’s opinion
Towards the end of the pandemic, we are suddenly in a situation where there is a war going on in Europe launched by our border neighbor.
We know studies show that young people’s faith in a good future has declined significantly throughout the 2010s. In the last decade, concerns have been raised about, for example, job and economic insecurity, the polarization of well-being and, even more so, climate change.
What has happened since then? Young people have lived through a pandemic throughout the 2020s. Studies, hobbies, celebrations, social relations, and indeed all important aspects of youth have suffered from interest rate constraints and the future has looked even more uncertain.
Towards the end of the pandemic, we are suddenly in a situation where there is a war going on in Europe, launched by our border neighbor, with a very different potential impact than the corona. With many successive and overlapping crises, there is a danger that the faith in the future of young people will become even deeper.
Philosopher Ernst Bloch has stated that the most tragic form of loss is not the loss of a sense of security but the loss of the ability to imagine that things could be different. When dealing with major crises with young people, we must not underestimate the problems. At the same time, however, efforts must be made to create the hope that many young people had diminished before the corona because adults did not seem to be doing enough to solve global problems.
In recent days, the strong reactions and actions of people and states against Russia’s actions may make it seem to many young people that, for the first time ever, adults are really working together on big common issues. A great way to strengthen young people’s faith in the future is for us to continue on this path to building a fairer and better world.
Olli Alanen
executive director
Children and Youth Foundation
Reader opinions are speeches written by HS readers, selected and delivered by HS’s editorial staff. You can leave a comment or read the principles of writing at www.hs.fi/kirjtamielipidekirjoitus/.
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