I don’t know about you, but I’m a little tired of clickbait articles that try to pit generations against each other — Gen Z wants to tell Millennials they hate their skinny jeans, Baby Boomers are to blame for why everything has gone to shit, and must be shamed for it. Gen X, of course, sits on the sidelines in their lawn chairs with their popcorn poking fun at the show. Those are the tropes being sold, and we’re all supposed to buy into it, because it’s entertaining and makes money for advertisers when you click those headlines and provide those coveted eyeballs.
There’s a species of it in the witch community too. I’ve talked before about it as I’ve worked out some of my initial (and unfounded) fears of Instagram witches, and how we need to get over some of the ways generations miss each other and stop calling new practitioners “Baby Witches.” Generational distrust and antagonism aren’t unusual things. The dynamic is pretty much as old as time itself. It works like this: a group of younglings come of age and begin to feel their power. They are the best and brightest because they are the newest, and have the benefit of all the latest technologies and recent knowledge, and all the neuroplasticity of youth to help them be facile with that technology and knowledge.
These younglings feel their power, and they crow their superiority. And they aren’t entirely wrong either…
