By Evelyn Fernandez-Jarvis
Deputy Editor-in-Chief
LA has been burning now for nine consecutive days, accounting for twenty-seven deaths, with at least forty-seven lootings and twelve thousand structures destroyed in the fires’ wake. And yet when opening my social media, the most accounts about these ongoing fires is Gen Z lip-syncing to the all notorious and well known quote that came from the Hunger Games films.
“If we burn, you burn with us”
Is this okay? This quote is the statement that fuelled a fictional political rebellion, and yet generation Z are using it as a statement for the LA fires. One of the many beliefs that is circulating is that the rich and famous that live amongst Hollywood can fend for themselves. On the notion that they have millions to spend. It is clear that they are not labelled as people that are in need for help or even sympathy.
This political debate online is really fueled by people that are upset about the disparity between the rich and the poor, not believing that the rich are worthy of help. This animosity, to me at least, shows the critical rhetoric being spread about the ease in which the wealthy can overcome these tragic events, leaving the working class neglected.
We have already seen insurance firms intending to raise rates of insurance and increase the rates to recover homes that are lost during the blaze. I suppose this is okay for people that have enough money in the bank to simply just buy another property.
Many people are looking at the LA fires as a satire of revenge for the toxic Hollywood culture that has been permeated for years, however is this appropriate with the loss of life that has been endured in these nine days. There is no doubt that the amount of money that many public figures have gained from Hollywood, can be overwhelming to comprehend, with many of us never even being able to earn half as much in our whole lifetime.
Coming to this distinct difference in reactions in accordance to the generations that the public were born in. Online, at least , generation Z have been found to make humorous videos in this time of crisis. Is this a coping mechanism response that we have created to not take into account the full severity of the situations that are presented before us? From talking about this with others in my generation, the consensus belief behind this was that all events that we have seen in our life so far have occurred without our input, thus we are not responsible for.
A lot of us now are turning into an age where we are becoming increasingly more aware of the issues that are happening around us. In the case of the war that is taking place between Israel and Palestine, there is a noticeable difference to put forward views about what generation Z believes in. The coverage from Paris Hilton’s house in LA burning down gained so much feedback by the media. And yet in this singular post we saw people asking about the destruction that was taking place in the middle east. Whilst I am not discounting the aftermath of the LA fires, the amount of destruction that has been happening for years and years in these countries is not spoken about, and seems to be forgotten with many people in society.
The question is, are we as a generation picking and choosing what issues to speak about correctly? Surely if we have the right to talk about one issue, we now need to take a stand about talking about all issues. The answer is how exactly we are making ourselves heard and if what we are projecting is appropriate for us to be stating. With the generation that was introduced to social media as we were growing up, we can see how one post can circulate online within a matter of minutes. This means that there can be no room for mistakes online and if we decide to make a political statement that could be seen by millions of people, it needs to be backed up with evidence and not simply hate speech.
We see in this one singular event that we are taking a stance to make our voices more heard in our society, but in the case of the LA fires are we doing the right thing? Are the rest of our generation sitting at our screens and laughing along with the sound of “if we burn you, you burn with us” or are we scrolling past it because it is disrespectful?
I will let you decide.
Image: Unsplash, by Guido Jansen