Neal Shusterman's Unwind and The Old Cannibalizing the Young
This article originally appeared in Pop Culture Heretic: Morality Through a Screen.
I’m not sure there’s ever been a society with such pervasive animus between the old and their progeny. Traditionally, the goal of every generation has been to make a world better for their children, to teach, toil, and sacrifice to give the youth a leg up. But no more.
Scroll through social media and you'll find countless examples of older Americans – particularly Baby Boomers – expressing open disdain for younger generations while simultaneously hoarding the very resources that could help them succeed.
The statistics are staggering: many older Americans are sitting on millions in home equity while their adult children struggle to afford rent. They're refusing to retire from jobs that could provide career advancement for younger workers. They're spending lavishly on luxury cruises and expensive hobbies while their adult children ask for help with student loans or down payments, only to be told they need to "work harder" and "stop being entitled."
Most disturbing of all, surveys show that many older Americans are intentionally spending down their wealth to avoid leaving inheritances. “I earned my way in this world; they can do the same.”
This isn't universal, of course. Many boomers have always and continue to sacrifice for their kids and grandkids. But on the wider scale, boomers have created a system where young people can't afford homes, can't save for retirement, can't start families, and then they mock those same young people for failing to achieve traditional markers of success.
It all leads to yet another piece of dystopian fiction that is starting to look strangely prescient. 1984 and Brave New World get cited all the time as being true to life, but it wasn’t until the last few years I ever thought Neal Schusterman’s Unwind could ever become reality.
Society can’t agree on whether it’s okay to kill children in utero. How could they ever unite behind the idea that it’s okay to kill teenagers and scrape them for parts? Well, I’ll tell you.
