culture & society, children & youth
Why youth have to serve as a scapegoat for Corona
Ines Imdahl
Germany likes to find a scapegoat. Unfortunately and still. Fortunately, many Germans are aware of this and are less likely to believe that certain religious affiliations or nationalities are suitable per se to be blamed for something.
We still carry many clichés and prejudices with us. Without noticing it and perhaps without wanting to. Because unconsciously in our everyday life we often put certain groups under "general suspicion." Without realizing it, we almost all have a guilty party in the back of our minds when it comes to one topic or another. A “secret” or at least private scapegoat.
Celebrating, Drinking, Rowdy
This also applies to Corona. Of course, there are the conspiracy theorists. However, these are not meant here. However, very few people blame themselves for the spread of the virus. You can already see this when you politely ask someone to wear their mask, pull it up properly or keep a little more distance at the checkout. We don't consider ourselves guilty. Because we generally don't consider ourselves contagious in the first place. The others are contagious. The young people, for example. Especially them. They celebrate, drink, are rowdy (apologies for this formulation, which is not at all in the language of young people!), follow their desires and, above all, don't have themselves under control at all.
We think. Or at least many. At least sometimes. A new study by social researcher Hurrelmann now shows again that this is not true. The student representatives had already been fighting against this general suspicion for months. They achieved little. At least not in people's minds. The latest findings now state that the vast majority of young people – around 66% – adhere very closely to the measures. Only 4% say “No” to mandatory masks and distance. That is less than in the general population – less than those who still believe that Corona does not exist or that the virus is no worse than the flu. (The tendency of general conspirators is increasing!). But even this new study will probably not be enough to cleanse the young people “from their sins.”
Young people as scapegoats
Although the rules are not broken by young people in a special or above-average way in the big cities, in the villages, in the schools or through private celebrations, something in us wants the root of the evil to lie here. If not the cause, then the reason for the difficulties in containing the virus.
Why is that? There are psychologically describable reasons for this. First of all: blaming someone else relieves you of your own responsibility. Clear. You can be angry with others, settle in well in the role of victim and in the fact that you have done nothing wrong. Fate and the “evil” others are to blame.
Classically, however, this means a “shift”: the felt or actually existing “sins” are blamed on someone or something else. On the buck. And in ancient Jerusalem he was sent into the desert with his sins. Most people may have at least a little guilty conscience: maybe a little Corona misbehavior here and there. In the city, while shopping, with the one friend you met? It would be nice if nothing had happened there. Nothing will have happened. Because the others are to blame for the spread. The youth. The scapegoats.
But why exactly the young people? On the one hand, because we rarely send bucks into the desert anymore and therefore need an alternative. On the other hand, because the image of youth in our culture is still characterized by coma drinking and rampage. Before our inner eye, young people are constantly overshooting the mark: in their rude expressions, in their inappropriate behavior, in their nocturnal activity, in their alcohol and possibly drug consumption, in their ego-shooter addiction. They are constantly at latent risk of breaking the law and sliding into criminality. Why else do parents constantly emphasize that they are proud of how well their child is doing? That's right, because the concern of slipping away, the secret fears of the limitless, resonate. The word Halbstarker is already synonymous with criminalization for many older people.
Fear of the uncontrollable
Our depth psychological-representative studies, which we have carried out in recent years with the IKW, on the other hand, provide the basis for the latest findings mentioned above: The youth of today long for security and control like no generation before. She always wants to have her life, her hormones, her appearance, her emotional life under control. They drink and smoke less than previous generations, they prefer friends to “dates”. Nothing scares them more than the uncontrollable (and love would also be uncontrollable). Adaptation is the new rebellion.
In this sense, this also applies to Corona. Corona is scary and unpredictable. A nightmare for the control Gen Z. Today's youth are not partying. They are also not to blame for the renewed spread, the containment that is not really succeeding – and also not for our Corona anger. An anger that is understandable. Because we ourselves are helpless and at the mercy of others and have to go somewhere with our feelings. However, it is not fair to unload this anger and our bad feelings on young people as scapegoats. Let's go jogging (cycling, walking, etc.), that helps better against the anger. And perhaps also in the event of an infection, because our immune system is somewhat stronger. The physical and perhaps also psychological, which in Germany is still susceptible to a scapegoat mentality.
Unfortunately, there is a small group of young people who completely correspond to the prejudices: young men with an often rather low level of education from small towns with difficult family circumstances. They are even more cut off by the Corona crisis than before – in school, at work, financially and with a view to their perspectives. They have nothing to lose – not even through an infection…
