The New Sincerity + Gen Z are awesome

let's start this new year with a non-ironic, caring and pragmatic elan!

Welcome back Y’all.

I had a break over Christmas and it was fruitful. I mostly did nothing, suspended as we are in this listless pandemical abyss, clouded over with a La Nina non-summer non-starter malaise. (Here on the east coast of Australia we’re having a torrentially wet summer, after a Covid lockdown summer, which followed a bushfires summer.)

I used the moment in history to work through and down into my listlessness, which has buzzed at my core for most of my life, a repsonse, I believe, to the absurdity of the hedonistic neoliberal world we live in.

It was a process that forced me to sit a few rows back in the proverbial cinema.

And to get a more expansive view of things. We are all, I think, sitting way too close to the screen right now. We think the story is real, that we are in the story, instead of being mere observers. We forget that we can sit back and watch with bemusement and, indeed, walk out at any time.

Listlessness. A spiritual practice if you choose to make it so.

That said, some of you might have seen on my socials that I did get to Tasmania for a few days and did some mountain biking in Derby. I wroth that it was possibly the best holiday I’ve had. If you feel like living brightly for a bit, just go.

I rode the Blue Derby trails and stayed in these awesome pods, off-grid, zero-waste. You can get more details here.

But the point of this long-ish lead-in is this: On the trip I met a 23-year-old Taswegian.

We’ll call him Tim.

Tim drove me down to Hobart after the bike extravaganza and we chatted about the point of life, the climate clusterfuck and about humans. He has big ideas and untold smarts and care. It was a Gen Z x Gen X meeting of hearts and minds. (Currently, Gen Z are aged 12 to 26. Gen X are aged 42 to 57. Them Millennials sit in-between).

We like each other, we Xs and Zs. Zs like our music. Xs like Z’s fresh earnestness. We both find hedonism cringe. We’re activist.

Alors. I’ll pull out two things Tim shared with me on our road trip.

1.     Rage. He doesn’t experience the emotion himself. But added that he could well do one day. (I offered to hand over some of mine…I have a surfeit.)

2.     Is he worried/pissed off about the state of the planet that previous generations have left him with? No. Well, yes, but…he chooses to see only opportunities to make things better (and has a climate project he is throwing everything at).

!! No rage. Pumped about opportunities to fix the planet. 

!! Informed. But no snarky irony.

!! A shit-ton of sincerity and care. And wholly pragmatic.

The ability to be concerned and enthused, ironic and sincere defines Gen Z (and not just young people broadly, mind).  I’m not entirely sure yet what to make of it, where it comes from, etc. But I love it and want to learn a lot from it.

I will be writing more about this within the framework of a new school of thinking/philosophy/economics that is exciting me to bits. It’s called metamodernism. MTK. (Did I mentioned I’m excited???)

For now, as we start a fresh new year, I’ll share a few related reads, thoughts and listens pertaining to such a joyeous, fresh mode. We need joyeous and fresh, don’t you think?

And thank you Tim for taking me there. Hobart and beyond.

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but invite you to pay for a subscription… if you want…if you can

This is a Substack newsletter. And the deal with Substack is that it’s designed to allow writers and journalists to write as they feel best for their readers, without the prescriptions of a limited old-school masthead or bully publishers. It doesn’t do ads. But it asks folk to pay for a subscription. I personally have chosen, for now, not to run things behind a paywall, as most Substackers do. I prefer to invite gently. So. If you felt inclined to pay a monthly fee of $5, it would allow me to keep going. I have lots of things in store for this year. If you want, click below.

Behold! The New Sincerity

and why Ted Lasso is the new David Brent

I figured this was a trend you might like to know about.

Sociologists are pointing to a new paradigm that favours sincerity over irony (but can embrace both). It listens but doesn’t cancel. It’s irreverent but solid-gold moral. The New Sincerity, as it’s called, is at the core of Metamodernism, a worldview that’s post-post-modernist (as above, I’ll go into it more soon… if you like?)

This piece by a New York Times critic drew out the gist of the movement by arguing that The Office’s cutting sarcasm doesn’t, well, cut it anymore. Ted Lasso’s sincerity and moral fibre does:

“Two decades ago, TV’s most distinctive stories were defined by a tone of dark or acerbic detachment. Today, they’re more likely to be earnest and direct.”

The article doesn’t quite get to why, and why now. But it suggests this:

“You could chalk the shift …to exhaustion with the cultural weaponization of irony.”

I have way more to say on the whole movement, but I want to plant this thought:

Perhaps we are aware that cutting, deep-cover irony and detachment isn’t getting anything done. I mean, the world is burning, we need straight talk and to focus on what matters (like other humans, moral grit, sweet human moments). Yes?

I observed this shift from sarcasm to smart-sweet in myself. I flat out can’t watch HBO’s hit Succession, for instance. I tried two eps. Then three more. And it’s just too nasty and dystopian…and it solves nothing, nor does it inspire my spirit or my fight an iota.

PS. The New Sincerity, as a cultural movement - largely reflecting Gen Z mindset -is said to include Miranda July, Conor Oberst,  Sufjan Stevens and Cat Power (who just turned 50 this week), Dave Eggers, Jonathan Franzen,  Zadie Smith. Which is funny. They are all Gen Xers. Boom!

I found a World Building Contest!

And there’s $100,000 of prizes. You should enter.

The Future of Life Institute has a legit competition going asking all us sincere types to design a better world that is aspirational and plausible, using story-telling. In keeping with the new worldview I’m talking about in this ‘letter, it’s not about make-believe nor ironic dystopian models. The worlds built need to be believable. Hopeful.

Here are some of the groundrules (note the pragmatic positivity):

• The year is 2045.

• AGI has existed for at least 5 years.

• Technology is advancing rapidly and AI is transforming the world sector by sector.

• The US, EU and China have managed a steady, if uneasy, power equilibrium.

• India, Africa and South America are quickly on the ride as major players.

• Despite ongoing challenges, there have been no major wars or other global catastrophes.

• The world is not dystopian and the future is looking bright.

The deadline is April 15, 2022. Skates on.

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You might want to tune into my chat with Abbie Chatfield

We podcasted recently and we talk through Gen Z v Millennials v Gen X and who likes who and why. Abbie is on the cusp of Z and Millennial, but identifies as Z. Millennials and Boomers troll her. What about Gen Xers, I ask? “No, you guys are too busy, getting shit done,” she told me.

Is cool dead for Gen Z?

You might like this Vox podcast about how different generations spit out or spit at cool.

I did.

I learned that Gen Z dig Kate Bush.

And I learned how Millennials got their cool from the The OC (obscure bands were intro’d on the show…but intro’d via big marketing executives who worked with the music agencies, thusly manufactured). I was editor of Cosmopolitan magazine during this era - a 29-year-old Gen Xer peddling The OC to Millennials, which in turn peddled cool (I cringe a touch).

Today, Gen Z have given up on cool being something scarce or original or even…cool. I mean, that guy Tim has Horses by Daryl Braithwaite on his playlist! Is this cuttingly ironic? Nope. It’s sincere.

(Afternote: The commentators I mention above and I are obviously applying broad brushstrokes to this generational categorising. I have no issue with this if it’s furthering understanding and can allow for many exceptions and blurrings.)

Thich Nhat Hanh…a moment

The activist and Vietnamese Buddhist monk died this week, aged 95.

When I was 21, going through a rough time (I was diagnosed with both Graves and bipolar diseases in that year), a stranger gave me a copy of his book The Miracle of Mindfulness. It calmed me tremendously and it taught me how to do walking meditation. I quote Thich Nhat Hanh in First, We Make the Beast Beautiful:

“You want to find something, but you don’t know what to search for. In everyone there’s a continuous desire and expectation; deep inside, you still expect something better to happen. That is why you check your email many times a day!

This quote continues to stop me in my tracks. Deep inside you still except something better to happen. It’s true. I do. And so I check and check and look for dopamine hits from my phone and stimulus. And miss the awesomeness of just sitting in the muck and the mire and the discomfort of Right. This. Instant.

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So. Over coming weeks I have lots of exciting things to share - projects, approaches, shifts. I’ll do some of the announcements as VMs on this platform. Suit? Me, I’m a stick rather than a carrot kind of girl, so please let me know where this ‘letter goes wrong or what you want more of.

Sincerely (like, not ironic at all),

Sarah x