For years, Hong Kong residents worried about shrinking space for freedom. Today, they woke up to a law that appears to draw a line between what they have known and loved, and whatever lies ahead.
鈥淭hings aren鈥檛 going to go back to normal. The young are going to play an active part in either destroying or creating a new world. That鈥檚 kind of extraordinary.鈥
That鈥檚 a quote from , and it is displayed prominently atop on millennial and Generation Z attitudes by the consulting firm Deloitte. These groups have been called many things 鈥 social media-obsessed 鈥,鈥 for one. But to Deloitte, they are the 鈥渞esilient generations.鈥
According to the survey, coronavirus layoffs mean 30% of millennials are without a paying job. Half say climate change has irreparably damaged the planet. Yet the underlying tone is one of determination. 鈥淭hey know that a post-pandemic society can be better than the one that preceded it, and they鈥檙e tenacious enough to make it a reality,鈥 the survey states.
Today鈥檚 leaderless rebellions against climate change, sexual abuse, and institutionalized prejudice might look different from the organized activism of the 1960s. But they have shifted thought. Amid the protests for racial justice, one , 鈥淚n my 35 years of polling, I鈥檝e never seen opinion shift this fast or deeply. We are a different country today than just 30 days ago.鈥
Nearly 75% of those surveyed by Deloitte said they intended to turn the empathy fueled by the pandemic into community action. It appears that is already happening.