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“2024 America: The Upside Down” an Excerpt from The End of the Alphabet

Today, it’s inarguable that we live in the most advanced society in the world. The rise of political progressivism, technological innovation, commonality of higher education, and “enlightened” relationships makes it easy for us (at first blush) to believe that we are living in the best time in human history. After all, no generation before us could have ever dreamed of “having it all” the way we do, so it stands to reason that we should be the happiest and most joyful generation of all time. Right? In case the picture I painted for you isn’t clear enough throughout this chapter, the perfect, progressive, allegedly utopian society the last few generations have carefully built step-by-step has not translated to happiness, fulfillment, or even hope. Gen Z instead is facing the single greatest mental health crisis any generation has ever encountered in human history. The world my generation has grown up and is coming into adulthood in has proved to be so at odds with human flourishing that we are setting records for mass anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and even suicide. The American Psychological Association reported in 2022 that 90% of my generation experienced physical or psychological symptoms as a result of stress within the prior year, and 70% of us report anxiety and depression to be major problems among our peers. Furthermore, according to their findings, Gen Z adults are “more likely than some other generations to report they have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder (18%) and more likely than all other generations to report they have been diagnosed with depression (23%).”

The National Institute on Drug Abuse is raising concerns about our higher likelihood to develop addiction, reporting that nearly 25% of twelfth graders used illicit drugs in 2015 (the year I graduated from high school). The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism recently found more than 4.2 million people between the ages of 12 and 20 confessed to binge-drinking. TWELVE. YEARS. OLD. Most recently (and most devastatingly), the CDC shared new data in early 2023 finding teen girls are facing record levels of hopelessness and persistent sadness—so much so that one in three teenage girls in America seriously considered suicide in 2021. One in three. In that same year, 13% of teenage girls actually attempted to take their own life. Those who didn’t act. on their feelings aren’t doing much better, either—three in five teenage girls felt persistently sad and hopeless, a figure that increased 60% from a decade earlier.16 Influencers, politicians, and celebrities continue echoing the shallow narrative that we “aren’t alone,” but no one in any substantial position of power seems to want to acknowledge just how much we’re struggling, let alone begin creating meaningful solutions.

That perfect future world our grandparents and parents so carefully built, where we’d inevitably have flying cars and world peace, really looks a lot more dystopian than anyone ever expected it would. With the exception of George Orwell, I suppose, who I am still convinced is a time traveler, it often feels like no one could have seen this chapter of history coming—2024 America feels eerily similar to an Orwellian 1984, hallmarked by censorship, authoritarianism, and indoctrination. The same inversion of reality where truth is propaganda, love is war, and groupthink is freedom has come for modern America—and we barely even noticed it quietly taking hold of our society over the last several decades. As those with quiet positions of power have played the long game over the past several decades, slowly changing the fabric of American culture as we know it through every pillar of our society, we’ve suddenly “woken up” in the 2020s flabbergasted as to how we got here and looking for someone to blame. It’s so much easier to point the finger at Gen Z for the source of today’s problems. After all, it’s painful to look in the mirror and admit complacency—that your wildest dreams for how bad society could become would eventually come true because you, and America at large, simply weren’t paying attention. Sadly, though, as we’ve slowly watched our schools, entertainment, media, politics, churches, and corporations transform into vehicles for the Left’s authoritarian agenda, it’s been Gen Z who has had to pay the price…and it’s Gen Z who will be left to clean up the mess after everyone else is gone.

When I give speeches about the unique cultural identity of my generation to political fundraisers, conferences, and large events across America, I always like to start with the foundational concepts of this very chapter. I often hear baby boomers and Gen Xers say, “Well, when I was that age, I dealt with stress. I figured it out. I got through it. Once these kids grow up and enter the ‘real world,’ they’ll get it.” In a chapter of history where the “real world” did mean hoisting yourself up by your bootstraps and “figuring it out,” come hell or high water, I’m sure that sentiment was helpful for young people seeking meaning and a purpose-driven path forward. Today, though, everything you’ve read in this chapter is the “real world” for Gen Z. In 2024 America, our day-to-day life could not be more fundamentally juxtaposed to anything our parents experienced at our same age. The easiest way to explain it is to borrow a phrase from one of my favorite TV shows of all time, Stranger Things: we are quite literally living in the upside down, in an inverted reality from what should be recognizable and familiar. Right is wrong and wrong is right. Men are women and women are men. Those who disagree with us aren’t just different—they’re evil. We’re rewriting history to fit today’s political agendas, giving no thought to how that will impact the future. Sexual liberation pushing us to sleep with whoever we want has resulted in people not seeking out relationships at all. It’s become considered morally superior to expose children to adult sexual conversations in elementary school than to shield them and protect their innocence.

In fact, you’re a “better person” today if you tell a struggling 12-year-old to undergo genital mutilation surgery and hormone “therapy” rather than to seek mental health treatment if she suddenly comes home with no history of gender dysphoria and says she no longer wants to be a girl (which, let’s face it, if one in three of them are genuinely considering suicide, who would want to be one?). Rather than building the future Martin Luther King Jr. so eloquently dreamed of, where we’d be judged by the content of our character instead of the color of our skin, we’re segregating our dorm rooms and implementing the debunked 1619 Project curriculum claiming the basis of America’s foundation was slavery. For goodness’ sake, our new food pyramid literally tells us that Lucky Charms marshmallows are healthier than steak. In 2024 America, nothing is authentic. We truly live in an artificial reality, where my generation has no way to parse through the noise and chaos to even determine truth to begin with. We’ve spent the past several years hiding—hiding our smiles behind masks, hiding our eyes behind VR headsets, and hiding our lives behind screens and social media profiles. In 2024 America, it’s time to break free of the spiral into insanity we’ve been wrapped up in throughout our entire generational lifetime. Gen Z is nostalgic for a time we don’t even remember and weren’t ever (or at the very least, barely) around for. Our fashion trends, music choices, and favorite television shows scream decades past as we attempt to resurrect any semblance of a chapter in American history where people could exist without all hell breaking loose. We recycle clothing trends from every decade, from bell-bottom jeans to Crocs and everything in between, sometimes all at the same time. We blare music from our parents’ young adult years (conveniently also the soundtrack hits to modern-day Guardians of the Galaxy), savoring the simplicity of a real guitar and clean vocals. We binge Friends and The Office over and over again, wishing we could have friends we actually spent time with out from behind a screen or laugh with our coworkers in the break room rather than be forced to work through Zoom.

Through every passing moment, Gen Z is desperately longing for a return to reality. It may not look like the early twenties of our grandparents and parents, but we’re taking back the cultural driver’s seat to build our own American dream. It goes without saying from what you’ve read in these past few pages that we are different, given our upbringing—so, as we grow into adulthood in the upside down, who are we really?

Isabel Brown

About the Author

Isabel Brown is a full-time live-streamer and independent content creator, giving a voice to Generation Z breaking down culture’s most important topics to thousands of viewers in a real-time, authentic format. Isabel’s streams and other content reach millions of people around the world daily. She published her first book, Frontlines: Finding My Voice on an American College Campus, in February 2021, and regularly speaks on high school and college campuses and to activism organizations worldwide. You may recognize her from the cover of Newsweek magazine or her regular appearances on national and international television and radio! Isabel lives in Miami and loves adventure with her fiancé and Corgi, Liberty.

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