The Brave New World Order

“A young person not embraced by the community will burn it down to feel its warmth.”

This African proverb captures the reality of today’s youth: without guidance, mentorship, or meaningful opportunity, disconnection breeds frustration, disengagement, and even despair.

We are living through what global leaders have called a restructuring of the global economic order. Supply chains are shifting. Geopolitics is reshaping markets. Capital is consolidating. AI is accelerating change. The net zero transition is redefining industry.

But while economists debate monetary systems and global finance, something far more immediate is happening. Young people are quietly realizing that the old pathway no longer works. And many are disengaging because of it.

The Promise That Expired

For decades, the formula was simple:

Graduate high school. Go to university or college. Get a stable job. Climb steadily upward.

That promise created a middle class.

But that was an industrial and early knowledge economy model built on stable corporations, expanding clerical roles, and employers who trained and retained workers long term.

That world is gone. Entry-level office jobs are shrinking. AI replaces routine cognitive work. Corporate consolidation reduces small business opportunity. Gig work fragments stability.

Young people are not lazy. They are responding rationally to structural displacement. 

“Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensations for misery.” Aldous Huxley

Today’s credential-heavy, compliance-driven education often overcompensates for a world that no longer guarantees real opportunity.

University Is No Longer the Universal Equalizer

University used to function as an escalator into security. Now:

• Tuition is high

• Debt is heavy 

• Many degrees lack direct employment pathways

• Employers increasingly value adaptability and experience over credentials

Most young people will not attend university. Many cannot afford it. Many do not thrive in compliance-driven systems built around memorization and grades.

Huxley warned of systems that pre-determine roles: “We also predestine and condition. We decant our babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or Epsilons, as future waste material.” Our schools still sort, often unintentionally, creating winners and losers before opportunity is even offered.

When higher education becomes the domain of the privileged, social mobility declines. Disengagement, dropout culture, and criminalization follow.

Corporate Consolidation and the Vanishing Entry Point

As global markets fragment, multinational corporations grow more powerful. Local entrepreneurs struggle to compete. Entry-level work often means minimum wage roles that extract value upward rather than build ownership locally.

Young people see conglomerates growing richer while their own pathways narrow. If wages stagnate while profits expand, faith in the system erodes.

A sustainable economy must offer:

• Livable wages

• Real advancement

• Ownership pathways

• Protection for small and mid-sized enterprises

Without this, disengagement becomes rational.

The Net Zero Shift and Starting From Nothing

The transition to a net zero economy will create opportunity. But opportunity is not self-executing.

If you are a young person starting with limited networks, limited capital, and limited confidence, how do you access emerging industries?

Not everyone can simply return to school. Young people need:

• Paid apprenticeships

• Trades exposure

• On- the-job training

• Entrepreneurial literacy

• Financial literacy

• AI fluency

Building from nothing requires access, guidance, and practical scaffolding.

Mentorship as Resistance

The deeper issue is not unemployment. It is disorientation. The old roadmap is gone. The new one is unclear.

Mentorship is not sentimental. It is structural.

Young people need adults who can:

• Interpret economic change

• Teach adaptability

• Build transferable skills

• Develop identity beyond grades

• Encourage independent learning

Huxley imagined a world of control: “Everyone belongs to everyone else.” In our world, mentorship can ensure that youth belong to themselves first, learning to navigate opportunity, not just survive compliance.

The Workforce of the Future

Resumes are weakening as the primary signal of competence. What matters now is:

• Ability to learn quickly

• Ability to adapt

• Proof of skill

• Problem solving

• Entrepreneurial thinking

• Understanding how value is created

Trades, apprenticeships, and hybrid skill paths are strategic assets. AI is not an enemy. It is a tool. But young people must learn to use it intentionally, not be consumed by it passively.

The future belongs to independent learners.

Schools at a Crossroads

If schools continue to prioritize:

• Memorization

• Standardized sorting

• Compliance over curiosity

They risk becoming disconnected from economic reality. If they pivot toward:

• Mentorship

• Career navigation

• Real-world exposure

• Entrepreneurial education

• AI literacy

• Transferable skill development

They become launch platforms instead of sorting mechanisms.

Democracy and Generational Agency

If democracy functions as intended, the generation most affected by this transition will shape what comes next. Young people must be positioned not just as workers, but as architects. Civic literacy and economic literacy matter as much as academic literacy.

The next working class may not be defined by factories. It may be defined by adaptability, trades competence, digital fluency, and entrepreneurial capability. Young people want real opportunity, real agency, and a chance to shape their world.

A Manifesto for the New Working Generation

The old world rewarded credentials. The emerging order rewards adaptability, skill, networks, and initiative. If we fail to build mentoring ecosystems, trades pipelines, and on-the-job pathways, we risk losing a generation to disengagement. If we succeed, we unlock the most adaptable workforce in history.

The new world order is already here. The only question is whether we embrace it, whether we give our young people the guidance, tools, and mentorship to lead within it.

-Barry Smith

#mentoring