We were naive enough to believe that Generation Z was just a social media phenomenon. That she would settle for hashtags, TikTok dances and meaningless slogans. But now she is taking to the streets, screaming, being gassed, beaten, humiliated — before our eyes, and sometimes with our complicit silence.
So let’s ask the real question: what will she do with us when she comes to power and we are old?
Will she judge us, as we judge today those who allowed yesterday’s dictatorships to take place? Will she blame us for obeying, or worse — for looking the other way? Will it turn its back on everything we represent, like getting rid of old, obsolete and corrupt software?
Time is already working for her. It is young, numerous, informed, connected. And while we despise her, she learns — she observes how power lies, how the gendarmerie strikes, how fear is organized.
She takes note!
Every tear gas grenade, every baton, every arbitrary arrest is a seed of resentment sown in the hearts of an entire generation.
And when these young people take charge, what will we do? Will we hide behind our age to ask for indulgence? Or will we understand too late that our silence today is already their anger tomorrow?
The relationship they will have with the gendarmerie will be the one they will have with memory: painful, but foundational. They won’t forget. And those who know how to remain human, even in uniform, will perhaps be the only ones spared from the great moral settlement that is coming.
This is not a prophecy. It’s a simple equation. Each generation ends up judging the one who betrayed it. And this one, which we call “Z”, will not need courts to do it. She will have the networks, the memory and the rage.
So yes, you have to ask yourself:
Not “what are we going to do with this youth?” “, but “what will she do with us? “.