I can’t help but cringe when I hear someone make the argument that a person cannot make well-thought out decisions about their life or their public livelihood until they are 25 because that’s when the brain is fully developed. Not only is this ‘brain stops developing at 25’ belief a complete scientific lie that has been propelled into popularity by people who misunderstand neuroscience, but it’s only ever used to propogate hypocracy.
I was 23 when I commit my crime which lead me to serve 3 years in prison followed by many years of parole and probation. I will forever be associated with my crime and suffer the unfair hand of prejudice toward felons. While I wasn’t 25, I was viewed as an adult who ‘knew better’ and therefore was fit to suffer a proportional consequence. But when thousands of teenagers and young adults storm the streets, storm state congressional halls and hold protests demanding that common sense gun reform laws be passed, they are told that they are too young and underdeveloped to know what they are talking about. They are treated as though they don’t have the mental capacity to adequately reason the pros and cons of their desires.
I will be the first to admit that when I commit my crime, I was not yet fully developed. I still had a lot of life to live and even more lessons to learn. I will always wish that I could have had the growth I’ve undergone since my twenties without having commit the crimes or suffering the consequences, but that’s not how it shaped out. Yet I never once had someone stand there and fight for me to be given a first-offense treatment and rehabilitation sentence since I wasn’t old enough to know what I had done. Instead I had a prosecutor fighting tooth and nail for me to receive the harshest sentence and a considerate judge who decided to be lenient on me. This wasn’t due to my age, but rather my lack of criminal history and my ernest desire to become a better person.
Quite frankly, its appalling and offensive to be told that you aren’t of sound mind simply because you disagree with an older person’s viewpoint. It’s a level of self-righteousness and self-importance that truly should be viewed as a disqualifier from ever sitting in a position of power. Personally, I have very stongly held beliefs and I can feel in my bones that I am right and anyone who disagrees is wrong. Yet, instead of telling those misguided many that they just haven’t developed enough, I take the stance that they either havent been shown the correct viewpoints or that they are simply wired to believe something differently than me. I can believe they are wrong, yet they are more than capable of being wrong with their own incorrect reasoning. Not because their biology hasn’t developed as far as mine, but because they have a well thought out opinion that just so happens to be incorrect.
I might suggest that if you hope to ever change someone’s mind about any particular topic, adopt my mentality. Make it your own, to be sure. But if you treat others as adults capable of making their own decisions, you might be surprised at how much more respect you treat them with. This level of respect will often be reciprocated and you could very well change people’s minds with a simple debate.
If Gen Z has shown the rest of the country anything, if you treat people like children, don’t be surprised when they show up at your door with picket signs and megaphones and make life very difficult for you.
Galvanic Ink 