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VOLUME 2 ISSUE I‌

EDITOR’S NOTE Cedar Publications proudly presents the first edition of The Compass for the academic year!

With the Compass, we aim to stimulate the intellectual abilities of our students and give them a platform to publish their work. The Compass will be published once a month and showcase the unique outlooks of the Knights on a broad range of topics that include, but are not limited to - arts and culture, philosophy, literature, and global issues.

The theme for our first edition is ‘Gen Z” where we depict the changes Gen Z has brought about globally. With every piece, we aim not only to broaden your intellectual horizons, but also our own. We warmly encourage all of you to submit your contributions for future editions. We hope you enjoy reading The Compass as much as we enjoyed bringing it to life! And we look forward to your contributions for the next edition.

Fatima Editor In Chief

TABLE OF CONTENTS Social Aristotle’s Eudaimonia vs. Gen Z’s Pursuit of Happiness - Fatima Does Authenticity Truly Exist? - Ayoosh Perchani The Romanticization of Detachment - Minha Jatoi Parasocial Society and its Implications - Rania Zahid

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Arts & Culture The Dorian Gray Mirror - Eman Mustafa

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Pride, Prejudice, And The Present - Fatima

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AI as the New Frankenstein - Iman Mooraj

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Beyond the Algorithm: Reading in Gen Z - Muhammad Mehdi

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Politics & Science Voice of Reason - Hashaam Baig The Foreign Policy Generation Gap - Aimen Mengal Baraye Freedom - Anoosha Hassan The Science Behind Sleep - Muhammad Mehdi

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E u d s ’ aim e l t

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Gen Z’s pursuit of happiness

Re-examining the Good Life in the 21st Century

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In a world where immediate gratification overshadows fulfillment and strips away the essence of true happiness, the age-old question circles back: what does it mean to be truly happy?

For Aristotle, the answer was “Eudaimonia” which labels happiness as not a feeling, but as a way of being. A state that was achieved through virtue, patience, and discipline. It was not a fleeting moment of joy – but a soothing clarity that settled deep within your soul. In the digital age, Gen Z’s contentment lies within the folds of “living in the moment” and freedom.

But when the two concepts of happiness collide, it is called into question: are we enhancing the good life or simply reusing it by diluting it?

“Eudaimonia’ is often misinterpreted as happiness, but it reaches far deeper than mere contentment. Aristotle argued that true happiness emerges when one learns to live in accordance with polished values that cultivate excellence – values of virtue, honesty, and justice.

It was not a short-lived lapse of joy but a reward to be achieved by fulfilling one’s unique potential and disciplining oneself. Gen Z’s contrasting pursuit of happiness was something Aristotle would have perceived to be deceptive.

The good life, in his view, was a commitment to excellence, not a mood that comes and goes as it pleases.

Quite contrary to Aristotle’s views, Gen Z’s relationship with happiness is molded by carefully curated digital personas, socioeconomic class, and the desire to be the best.

Happiness is less of a private state of being and more of a public performance. Growing up in the age of digital media blurs the line between looking happy and being happy. Social media promotes a dopamine-driven form of happiness, built on likes and highlights, but this joy is momentary - and its fallout often devastating.

This illusion of constant perfection creates pressures to “always look happy and act perfect” even when reality sings another tune.

The question remains: has Gen Z lost the plot or are we evolving in ways more complex than Aristotle could have conjured up?

Many young people reject traditional meanings of success and adopt more meaningful careers that promote inner contentment and are more sustainable. Movements in support of mental health awareness, community care and climate change grow larger every day. The idea of “originality” in this generation is considered more of what truly brings us happiness, and not succumbing to by-the-dictionary meaning of the word.

What remains absent is Aristotle’s insistence on purpose through discipline, which is one thing found lacking in this generation. Flourishing means more than vibes and moods – it is a commitment to a state of being and investing in growth even when it’s uncomfortable. Perhaps, a modern definition of eudaimonia could be formed by blending Aristotelian values with Gen Z’s emotional awareness and commitment to experience all the good things that life has to offer.

Aristotle reminds us that the good life is not found in moments but in the choices we make over a lifetime, may they be good or bad. The true challenge is for Gen Z to look beyond the aesthetic of happiness and invest in the betterment of character and the quality of commitment and discipline. Flourishing in life True happiness - is not a passing TikTok trend but a slow, deliberate project.

In an era where joy feels fleeting and trends vanish as quick as they appear, perhaps the most radical thing we can do is follow Henry David Thoreau’s wisdom: slow down, and live deliberately.

FATIMA 5

Does Authenticity Truly Exist? ...or is our entire life a performance

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In a world where every step feels predetermined, every action already performed, every belief borrowed, what does it mean to be authentic? To be authentic would mean vulnerability, an active choice of allowing yourself to be naked before judgement, losing control over how you are perceived. But can we truly free ourselves from the agonising pain of fitting in, or are we doomed to conform to society's unattainable standards?

In such a context, authenticity acts as a form of resistance, a way of rejecting societal norms and a disobedience of the roles we are expected to carry.

Authenticity would mean being sincere to yourself, acknowledging your limits and wounds, and the harsh reality of being judged for who you truly are. It means choosing not to please but simply to be.

There is a thin margin dividing performance and authenticity, which is often left open to misinterpretation.

This presents a kind of dilemma where every action can be labelled as performative, and we start second-guessing whether anything we do is representative of who we are.

We hide behind masks and choreograph our moves, trying to appease the people around us. Latching onto trends, using Gen Z slang even if you do not understand them, drinking matcha just because everyone around you can not stop raving about how good it tastes.

We trail through life trying to cater to an audience, trying to say the right words, finding the perfect moment to land a joke, making the niche reference that no one understands. We behave like a kaleidoscope, showing different patterns and arrangements depending on the person viewing it.

We offer less of who we are and more of what we appear to be. We reflect like light, bending at each corner, trying to light up every room, showing up in different colours just to blend in. However, the cost of performing is accompanied by a lack of connection, and we mistake fitting in for belonging. In our attempt to appeal to our spectators, we often forget who we truly are and what remains is not false, just not whole. We offer curated fragments, carefully arranged to make ourselves palatable, easy to carry, but difficult to hold. How we present ourselves across roles and relationships becomes adaptive, rehearsed even, until this version cracks and you realise there is no singular self to return to.

The question arises, who are we when no one is watching? Even in solitude, we recite the words we might speak, read the books that make us look intellectual, and curate our personality to prey on certain social subcultures. One can make a stark comparison of this phenomenon with that of a panopticon, a metaphorical prison designed so that the inmates are constantly under the impression that they are being watched. This perceived gaze leads to the self-monitoring and selfregulation of behaviours, often causing the inmates to internalise expectations and strive to meet them. We, too, are held prisoners under societal conditioning, even when we’re not being surveilled.

AYOOSH PERCHANI

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Romanticization

OF DETACHMENT

why do we idiolize having no feelings?

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The world as we know it has progressed in many ways, but it has also regressed in some.

We may look up to the image of someone who feels nothing, someone who stays unaffected by chaos, who goes through life with a calm demeanor which borders on indifference, and they are admired for their ability to stay unbothered, as if detachment is a sign of strength.

But people mistake this image as a modern invention. Long before it became a trend, stoics spoke of mastering the self, Eastern philosophies pictured detachment as a gateway to peace, and Victorian society perfected the art of emotional restraint. Back then, it was discipline and a deliberate way of living created by reflection and belief. Today, detachment has been reduced to aesthetics and made into short clips and curated feeds.

For a lot of people, this serves as a protection from a society that does all it can to examine, screenshot, record, and dissect every detail of a person’s life. This sort of behavior strips a person of their humanity and, as such, showing no emotion and letting no one else see beneath the surface feels far safer. For some, it is a form of rebellion. When the world is full of absolute demands, inaction becomes a form of refusal to show that the person is free and not subject to control. In both situations, the appeal is the same: seeming completely untouchable.

But detachment does not come without consequences; it may help you avoid heartbreak, avoidance, the pain of betrayal and rejection. That said, the price you pay is slow and insidious: fleeting connections, happiness that is shallow and momentary, sorrow that is perpetually masked but never fully fades.

When you live without suffering, you also live without much of anything else.

Maybe the question we should start with is are we protecting ourselves from hurt or from life itself? The ability to emotionally detach ourselves from a painful situation can be an advantage but it can also be a prison, a gradual withdrawal from the aspects of life that make us human.

We tend to talk about how our generation does not live or love the way people once did but we rarely turn that question inward and yet the answer has been within us all along.

And maybe strength is not about staying on the sidelines, untouched. Maybe it is about stepping in, letting yourself be seen, even if it means you will get hurt. Because no one writes stories about the person who never felt anything.

MINHA FATIMA JATOI

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PARASOCIAL SOCIETY so e w e d r e t a s why l ly inve a e n w o i s t e i t i r emo b ? e l w e o n k in c en v e ’t n o d

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It was not always like this, celebrities were untouchable. Away from our everyday lives, on red carpets, large movie screens, and in glossy magazines.

Nothing could be more different today. From what's their favorite color to where they are out to eat, it all has been accessible to us with a simple swipe on our phones. It seems casual, almost private.

Social media's rise has elevated this to a new level.

Influencers today willingly show their "messy" aspects of life. Whereas in the past, all you saw of them were bits on the television screen. A creator now goes live to talk with fans in the comfort of their own home, or might casually show their unmade bed. Our brains are fooled by these glimpses into believing that we relate to them. It feels like friendship even when it's not.

As humans, we are wired for connection. Familiarity has a powerful effect on our brains. When we frequently see someone on the internet laughing, crying, or simply discussing their day, they start to blend into the background of our own lives.

Parasocial relationships can mask feelings of loneliness like band-aids. These relationships fill emotional gaps.

In times of loneliness or stress, a lot of people turn to celebrities or influencers. During the covid pandemic, when everything else felt uncertain, watching a favourite creator became like having a familiar voice in the room. It was consoling, even though the bond was never real.

Today’s celebrity culture thrives on selling themself.

They market their habits, personalities, and lifestyles.

Modern marketing says, "Here's what I use, and if you trust me, you should too," compared to an old TV ad that might only try to sell you shampoo. If you follow a fitness influencer, you are not only buying their workout plan, you are buying into the dream of looking like them. If a beauty vlogger suggests a product, it feels less like an advertisement and more like advice from a best friend. Even if those "recommendations" are actually sponsored advertisements.

But what does this mean for us as a society? Are these bonds harmless, or are they risky?

On the bright side, there are some real advantages to parasocial relationships. Particularly for those who might feel invisible in their own social circles, they offer solace and a sense of belonging. For instance, a lot of people found support from celebrities who publicly talked about their struggles with mental health or from online creators who spoke out during the BLM movement.

However, there are drawbacks. The idea of connection is the main problem. Even though we may think we know these people well, they have no idea who we are. It feels like personal betrayal when they behave in unexpected ways, such as when a scandal occurs. Although the relationship never existed, the sting is real.

Additionally, there is a chance of losing your balance. It can be time consuming and draining to spend hours watching the lives of influencers rather than fostering relationships in real life. This can eventually lead to a vicious cycle in which your dependence on parasocial bonds makes you feel more alone in real life, which then encourages you to get back to those same bonds. Furthermore, this is not going to slow down anytime soon. Parasocial ties will likely strengthen as a result of new technology. Virtual reality and AI driven influencers are already here, which tailor interactions. Consider an influencer who uses artificial intelligence to have a personalised conversation with you rather than merely posting a video for everyone to see. These connections may become nearly irresistible.

So what are our options in this parasocial society?

Balance and awareness are crucial. As long as we keep in mind that the relationship is one-sided, it's acceptable, even healthy, to enjoy following influencers or celebrities. Our foundation needs to be relationships in the real world. At the same time, we can take a step back and make better decisions if we learn media literacy and how intimacy is marketed.

This explains human nature perfectly, our need for connection and belonging. Even though they may not know us personally, influencers and celebrities frequently address needs that are occasionally unmet in real life. The challenge is to appreciate what they give us without confusing it with genuine reciprocity. We can enjoy the intimacy while remaining grounded in the relationships that really matter, the ones where the other person knows our true selves.

RANIA ZAHID 11

T H E D O R I AN G R AY MIRROR: how our image consumes us 12

Oscar Wilde’s renowned novel, known as “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” was written in 1890, a philosophical fiction and Gothic horror that would eerily become a prophecy for the future generation. In today’s age, we do not need cursed paintings; instead, our portraits remain on glowing screens, immortal, forever curating an unattainably flawless image that removes any trace of time However, Wilde’s warnings grow ever louder: if we worship the image, it will eventually consume us. While in Dorian Grey, the painting reveals his sins while he remains outwardly beautiful, in our world today, our obsession with digital images, which covers any flaw with a blurring filter, eradicates imperfections, which show any individualisations to the point we are more fantasy than reality. It creates the sin of vanity; modern beauty culture often values flawlessness at the expense of mental health, promoting toxic rituals of unhealthy dieting, cosmetic procedures to achieve validation from others.

Wilde often warned us about the dangers of valuing appearance before character. Dorian’s desire to stay young and beautiful eventually becomes his demise in a similar way, the constant grapple for perfection that does not exist erodes our self-esteem and authenticity into a hollow version of ourselves that doesn’t exist beyond the prison of our screens.

While Dorian sold his soul for eternal youth, in modern times, we have sold our privacy, time for the validation of our peers, a cyclic nature which continues, in the newest beauty trend, being slimmer, being blond, not being blond enough, having porcelain white skin without a blemish, a nonstop cycle ruled by likes and follows in an endless pursuit to be noticed and seen in a tangle of algorithms until we are no more than a pixel on the screen.

A new beauty trend emerges, and the cycle continues, never enough.

EMAN MUSTAFA

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PRIDE & PREJUDICE and it’s relevance to modern society

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When Jane Austen published her second novel ever in 1813, she probably did not envision the reality of its success that still precedes over two centuries later. At first glance, the entire plot seems superficial. How could a novel that prattles on about dowry, marriage, balls, and corsets be so relevant to this day? Well, it is not a wonder considering how Austen wrote about things that never seem to go out of style – love, pride, a judgement society, and most importantly, money.

Back in Austen’s time, social hierarchies were preordained. Your life choices and your freedom were purely dependent on how many pennies weighed down your pockets. The Bennet family was not doomed to poverty, but their lives were far from peaceful. On the other hand, Mr. Darcy, with his estate and earnings that could rival the Buckingham palace and earrings that could have probably solved the poverty of half of England, was living a life completely opposite to that of Lizzie’s.

While we might claim social mobility is now possible, our class and privilege still determine most of our life – education, the people we associate ourselves with, who we choose to marry.

Even for the simplest things, we still find ourselves torn between the social plausibility of the people we circle around. While time progresses, the facts displayed in the novel remain steadfast.

Not only does Austen reflect on still impending class differences, but she recognizes the complexities of the human heart. The main plot of the entire book is pride and prejudice – and how our pride leads us to misjudgment that eventually builds up. Elizabeth’s first impression of Darcy is shaped entirely by his frigid disposition and Mr. Wickham’s deceitful lies about his character.These mistaken impressions and prejudices nearly ruined their chance at finding happiness.

In modern society, it is so easy to get caught up in the misleading lies that gossip creates. And it’s even easier to pass our judgment by merely viewing a story for just a second and then claiming to understand the person. Austen reminds us that first impressions may be powerful but they’re not necessarily accurate. Mr. Darcy was the proof of that.

What makes Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth so reletable is that they both act human. They make mistakes but they change. Change not because they’re “in love” and that love is the magic elixir that solved all their issues. But they grow into people who can mutually understand one another. Elizabeth learns to challenge her biases and grudges and Darcy learns to put aside his pride and appreciate her for who she truly is. They both reject the nonsensical idea of how love magically changes you and work to become better versions of themselves. Immediate gratification dominates the minds of the today’s society, but Austen emphasizes that good things come to those who are open to change.

The reason why Pride and Prejudice still resonates is because it is more than a love story.

It's a story about how people can often surprise us when we truly see them clearly without the hurdles of gossip and muddled lenses that shine a bad light upon them. It’s about having the courage to realise where you went wrong and trying to change.

The carriages and gowns might be from another era, but the feelings of love and pride remain as human as they were then. If there’s one thing that can surpass the adamant movement of time, it is human nature. Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth got their happily ever after because they earned it. Class divides gave birth to pride and money bred arrogance. Through it all, the willingness to change and grow overthrew it all. That is why Austen’s work is relevant to us today, and will continue to mirror our society two hundred years from now.

FATIMA

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IS AI THE NEW

FRANKENSTEIN?

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Mary Shelley is widely regarded as the mother of the scientific fiction genre, but even she could not predict the sudden rise of the Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Interestingly enough, the philosophies that make up Frankenstein manage to intertwine themselves with the contemporary valid controversies surrounding AI, its ethics and the concept of AI turning into an ‘uncontrollable monster’, much like Shelley’s Creature.

It is no surprise that there has been discourse constantly surrounding AI ever since its inception into the global limelight, but in order to fully judge AI for what it has become, you must first examine the intentions of its creation.

For the sake of argument, we will focus on the modern definition of AI, which is ‘computer systems that are fully able to complete human tasks independent of human intervention,’ such. as speech recognition or creating ‘art’. It is then that the timeline for the creation of AI becomes clearer. In the 1960’s, the world's first successful industrial robot was introduced; ‘Unimate’.

This robot was a breath of fresh air for all the people it saved from the dangerous risks that came along with working with cars on an industrial level.

Victor Frankenstein’s motivations were not as noble.

On the contrary, the Creature was born entirely for the sake of satisfying Frankenstein’s hubris - to prove that he could create life out of nothing but human scraps and remains. But, is that the Creature’s fault? Although the Unimate ended up having positive effects on society as a whole, we can not claim to understand what exactly motivated its creators, unlike the perspective we have on Frankenstein.

Then with similar beginnings, should we not take a closer look at the rest of the story? Scorned by who he thinks of as a father, the Creature evolves from the naive and new being that it was into one that wreaked havoc and violence everywhere it went. Similarly, we are finally able to see first hand the effects that the massive server warehouses for AI are having on the environment, affecting populations that largely had no hand in its creation nor the anger with which it so fervently attacks them with.

We don’t know yet how things will progress with AI. Famously, Victor Frankenstein’s story ends in doom. He dies of exhaustion, unable to keep up with the increasingly difficult demands of what he himself has created. If we follow the obvious parallels between the Creature and AI, it spells out a sad ending, where innocent lives are affected to no particular end and the implementers of the science (who only did so for personal gain) could be interpreted as the ‘real’ monsters.

If there is anything to be taken away from this comparison, it is that Mary Shelly unknowingly created a cautionary tale for the twenty-first century. The rebirth of the Creature - its transformation from flesh and bone to gears and rust all may be a marker for incredible scientific progress at an unprecedented level of evolution, but maybe the creation of both the Creature and AI is inherently icarian, because the book doesn’t end with the creation of the Creature, it is simply the first chapter.

IMAN MOORAJ 17

Literature as an Escape What role does literature play in a culture of immediate gratification?

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In an age where notifications tussle for our attention and doomscrolling provides an instant IV of dopamine, books provide the antithesis: quiet, peace and engagement.

Reading is a haven for us Gen Z adolescents – an escape where we can disengage ourselves from our chaotic world. It is rebellion againts a culture based on immediacy and impertinence.

Skeptics argue that the chokehold of technology and media has suffocated the room for literature in young lives – that it’s already too late for the teenagers of today and tomorrow to recalibrate themselves. And in a way, they’re not entirely mistaken. Social media is no longer just a playground, but a status symbol. Influencers, crypto course sellers, and meme heroes usually elicit more respect than scientists, artists or intellectuals – the very pioneers of society. So when a teenager reaches for a book instead of a screen, it may seem like singing out of tune with the worldly chorus playing around them, sometimes provoking ridicule.

Yet in spite of all that, prose lives on – and better yet, it’s thriving. Post COVID-19 reports show that Gen Z, during its long spells of solitude, rediscovered the beauty of reading. Book sales surged, online reading communities like ReadersOfInstagram and BookTok flourished, and novels ended up in the hands of new readers.

So why the drastic change?

The stark contrast between the two mediums of entertainment is part of the answer. Social media, on one hand wins with speed, but it’s hollow – an eternal loop where hours vanish in seconds holding no meaning. Reading, however, slows down time. Each page stimulates your imagination, channels your feelings. A character develops not in seconds but in chapters; their tale unfolds with the gravity of consequence. Unlike the fleeting memory of a reel or a post, the written word lingers. A single line of poetry, a dialogue in a novel, or even a haunting metaphor may entertain the mind of a reader for much longer than a thousand mindless scrolls.

The following reason is a quest for raw veracity.

Gen Z, perhaps more than any preceding generation, has been immersed in socially engineered lies — filters, edits, and gossip. In novels, flaws are not masked with fake smiles; they are the very pulse of the story. The protagonist isn’t described as a saint who never did wrong, like we paint ourselves in social media.

Katniss Everdeen wasn’t adorned with a perfect persona and neither was Bilbo Baggins. They each had their downsides, but that didn’t make them worthless. Hence, the act of reading becomes a way to reconnect with genuine emotion, to temporarily breathe into unkempt secrets and to experience harsh truths, something which the deceptive environment of today can’t portray.

At its core, literature also offers us something that pixelated drugs can’t. Meaning. Algorithms feed us what we already like, a compilation of cat videos or funk edits. You can’t completely control the algorithm; it chooses for you. Books challenge us with what we never expected to find. They allow us ${pageNumberOnly} to explore, to anticipate, to understand. They expand the horizons of our minds rather than contracting them into echo chambers. In an era defined by overstimulation, choosing to read is not just entertainment — it is intellectual nourishment.

Ultimately, the survival of literature in an age of digital devices does not depend upon its capacity to compete with them, but to outlive them. Trends on social media, may come and go like the tide, but inked words have been around for millennia.

They’re as old as time itself. All in all, for Generation Z, I believe reading is not just nostalgia – it’s a refuge and movement, evidence that even in an era fixated on rapidly shedding its old skin, the slow embers of literature still glow. Like always, slow and steady wins the race.

MUHAMMAD MEHDI

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E C I O V OF N O S A RE

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“When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty”. A quote attributed to one of the founding fathers of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, remains as relevant today as it was three centuries ago. The advent of humanity has introduced us to countless stories that report or inspire efforts to resist tyrannical rule. History is not scarce when it comes to sharing events that revolve around mankind’s repeated attempts to liberate itself from those who suppress it. Nor will it ever lack in recording such incidents in the future; however, books and witness recalls alone do not echo the voices of freedom anymore. The dawn of social media and rising globalisation has allowed for a new form of resistance to settle in.

Referred to as an archive by some, the internet is a powerful tool in conveying news and keeping people connected. Coupled with a generation of children being raised in the presence of iPads, computers and phones, it is no surprise that today almost anyone can be kept informed of what occurs on the other corner of the globe. Such a phenomenon has paved the way for all kinds of innovative plans to occur in any matter that arises. Such a change has allowed for one of mankind's longest traditions to take on numerous forms. The ability to protest has only expanded ever since the social media boom came into place.

The Generation Z’ method to protest has borrowed ideas from both the past and the present as it continues to challenge what it deems morally unlawful. Global climate change has remained a concerning issue since the late 20th Century. The likes of Greta Thunberg and David Attenbourgh have fought for climate activism for decades now, inspiring thousands of people to start looking after what we call our only home. Countless campaigns on social media, ranging from fundraising for endangered species to limitless petitions to local governments, continue to show how the new generations take on a decades-old predicament. Not only is there a shared sense to put an end to the destruction of our planet, there is also camaraderie amongst the younger generation who feel for their less privileged fellows when they encounter a climate-borne problem.

The concern for their fellow people does not end at climate activism as young people continue to actively monitor and voice their opinions in armed conflicts around the world. From Sudan to Bangladesh and Congo to Palestine, Gen Z continues to ally itself with the humanitarian cause.

The persecution following the student protests in Bangladesh only backfired on the country’s authoritarian leader, following widespread media coverage of the suppression of protests in the country being available on social media. Such acts garnered support for the students protesting against the autocratic rule of Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh. On the ground, innumerable students laid down their lives for what became an obligatory act for them. The price of freedom was immense, as almost a thousand deaths were reported, many of them being students.

They organised uprisings and ran campaigns on Twitter and other platforms, which piled up pressure on the government from international organisations.

A similar case presented itself in Palestine. Another decades old issue now being resolved using Gen z’s own terms. The people flocked to introduce boycotts of Israeli affiliated services and producers whilst humanitarian aid was pooled together by fundraisers and campaigns. The people gathered outside the embassies of nations defending the Israeli actions in Gaza to stage protests and organise sit-ins.

The efforts made by them allowed for incidents like the March for Humanity in Australia and the Freedom Flotilla.

On the ground, teenagers and young adults continue to broadcast the worsening situation in Gaza as they appeal for aid from the international community, emblematic of their boldness in the face of tyranny. Their voice crosses continents to support the affected people of Sudan and Congo who face the same unfortunate situation as Gaza.

The urge to fight for one's rights and self determination will always remain embedded in the soul. Humanity’s eternal struggle with itself is not a nascent story and will continue for generations after ours return to the dust. All of their efforts and the efforts of their forefathers bear witness to the fact that injustice afflicts both its imposers and its victims.

What Generation Z has undertaken to fight its period’s injustice is something beyond noteworthy as it has brought major corporations like Starbucks to its knees. In the end, the question remains the same: how long can the oppressors continue in this war of attrition against those who seek justice, and how far can the upholders of the law remain steadfast in their goals?

HASHAAM BAIG 21

THE FOREIGN POLICY GENERATION GAP

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American foreign policy has often proceeded from the assumption that U.S. leadership would remain stable and broadly recognized. But for my generation, Gen Z, that narrative no longer lands the same way it did for people before us. Recent global surveys point to something Washington policymakers are reluctant to admit: Gen Z is skeptical of U.S. hegemony, and the frustration toward a U.S.-centric world order is no longer just fringe talk, I am afraid.

From the outside, America does not look like a superpower but rather looks conflicted. It calls itself a defender of democracy yet stands with authoritarian allies, spends trillions on foreign wars while its own youth can’t pay debt or find housing.

“America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.” — Oscar Wilde

If older generations saw U.S. power as the anchor of world order, we see it as one part of the problem. We’ve seen too much to just accept things quietly. Whether Washington likes it or not, a new political demographic is forming, one that questions the mythology of American exceptionalism and demands a foreign policy that actually reflects the world we’re living in, not the one policymakers are still romanticizing. And the more pressing question is: what does that mean for America’s role in the world going forward?

What it means is simple: legitimacy. For much of the late 20th century, U.S. foreign policy leaned on the idea of America as the ‘indispensable nation.’ It was not just rhetoric, it shaped how Washington acted abroad and how allies came to rely on it. But that kind of legitimacy doesn’t last forever. The more it’s taken for granted, the shakier it becomes. It cannot exist simply because Washington insists on it, nor because it once held unchallenged influence. Legitimacy isn’t permanent. It has to be renewed, not by speeches in D.C., but by how policies land in real lives. Right now, that trust feels shaky.

And if Wilde was alive today, he would probably add ‘...and somehow still thinks it’s the world’s moral compass.’ True to that Oscar.

One need only look at the aftermath of America’s wars in the Middle East. Younger generations have grown up with The surveys confirm it. Majorities of Gen Z respondents this contradiction as their baseline understanding of across multiple countries doubt the sustainability of an America’s role in the world. They didn’t grow up with American-led world. Instead, they lean toward stories of the Marshall Plan or the Berlin Wall coming multipolarity, imagining a balance where power isn’t down. What they know is Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza and the hoarded by Washington alone jokes aside. And it’s not uneven way some allies are protected while others are left because Gen Z is starry eyed about geopolitics; we know exposed.

Russia and China come with their own shadows but because the US keeps breaking its own rules while The world, too, has moved on. Multipolarity is not a lecturing others. prediction anymore but a fact. Power is diffused across continents: China’s economic reach, India’s demographic If you can not hold your own house together, why should weight, the European Union’s regulatory authority, and anyone trust you to police the neighborhood? the assertiveness of middle powers like Turkey, Brazil, and South Africa. Even non-state actors like tech corporations, climate activists, and transnational Politics is already colliding with this shift. Younger voters movements hold influence that cannot be dismissed and are turning out in bigger numbers, and within a decade, America’s unshakable insistence on being “indispensable” Millennials and Gen Z together will make up most of the feels outdated, almost naïve. electorate. That matters. We’re not yearning for some imagined return to Pax Americana; we’ve grown up seeing how fragile that U.S.-led order really is, and how The United States now faces the task of positioning itself within an evolving global order. Its influence will depend often it leaves behind instability and disappointment. less on claims of centrality and more on its capacity to work with others, engage in negotiation, and adapt to We’ve inherited a world shaped by choices we never changing circumstances. voted on, choices that prioritize military dominance over climate agreements, weapons sales over human rights, and oil security over actual security. It’s about time we start asking uncomfortable questions: Why should U.S. interests always come first? And my favorite question, one I’d love a real answer to: Why is dissent labeled unpatriotic, even criminalized, when in reality it’s about wanting a fairer, more sustainable global system? Just look at how ICE treats protestors and immigrants as if demanding justice is a crime.

AIMAN MENGAL

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Baraye Freedom

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‫ خواهرامون‬،‫ خواهرت‬،‫برای خواهرم‬ Because of our sisters, mine, and yours Imagine getting arrested because your outfit wasn't modest enough according to your local police's standards. Indeed, this is not such a farfetched scenario for the women of Iran, who will often get detained for something as minor as wearing sandals out in the open.

Mahsa Amini was one such woman, a 22 year old who was arrested by the morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly. Two hours later she was rushed to the hospital while in a coma and died the next day. Although law enforcement claimed she had suffered a heart attack while in custody, eye witnesses who had been arrested with Mahsa said her death had been the result of police brutality.

Her death sparked widespread outrage both within and outside of Iran. On twitter in particular, many Iranian people began a thread that started with the word "baraye" (Persian for "because of" or "for the sake of").

Hajipour had been arrested for promoting antinationalist propaganda, and his song was deleted from instagram, but by then it had already gone viral. downloaded and streamed multiple times by individuals online.

It was out there in the world, a voice for all Iranians who felt wronged at the hands of their own homeland.

These words are no longer tweets on the Internet, but have materialized into an anthem for revolution. They are words chanted during street protests, phrases left on the walls of public buildings, or printed on posters that float about neighbourhoods. A glimpse into Iranian society, and the people that feel wronged by it. As such, it is not just a song, but the sound of a social movement led by Iranians that demand freedom for the sake of a laughing face ... for this list that goes on and on.

‫برای حسرت یک زندگی معمولی‬ For longing to have an ordinary life

Millions of people tweeted various reasons for protesting, all prefaced with the word "baraye". These reasons started out as more general, such as "because of all the political prisoners", or "for the sake of justice", but gradually, these reasons became sharper. Less general; more pointed, personal and contextual. For example, “because of the trees that are dying,” and, “for the Afghan (refugee) kids.”

25 year old Shervin Hajipour chose 29 tweets out of millions posted online and turned them into the songs’ lyrics. A musical plea for freedom. A song that voiced the suffering of millions of people was sung by him in his room and posted on his Instagram page. The song is called ‘Baraye’. It was viewed 40 million times on his instagram page alone, and in February 2023, it was the first ever to win a Grammy for the new category “Best Song for Social Change”

ANOOSHA HASSAN

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The Science

Behind Sleep

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“Sleep is the golden chain that ties health and our bodies together,” wrote the English dramatist Thomas Dekker four centuries ago, in his book The Guls Horne. Today, scientists reverberate the same truth with words grounded in neuroscience and physiology rather than poetry. Sleep is no mere pause button on life nor a passive drift into darkness, as common perception suggests. It's rather an essential biological process that allows us to recalibrate ourselves; to renew our mind and body. To borrow the words of Matthew Walker, neuroscientist and author of Why We Sleep, “Sleep is the single most effective thing we can do to reset our brain and body health each day.”

The National Sleep Foundation recommends that teenagers aim for a minimum of eight to ten hours of sleep per night, yet surveys consistently show that the majority fall short.

The modern teenage rebellion to sacrifice sleep, albeit for academic deadlines, doom scrolling on social media, or even mental pressures - may feel like gaining time, but it comes at a huge cost. During sleep, the brain consolidates our memory, clears harmful proteins and polishes our very neurons that support cognition, creativity and focus. Without it, the ability to learn, recall and regulate emotions plummets sharply. For adolescents like you and me, whose developing brains are still establishing such neural pathways, consistent sleep is not just restorative - it's transformative.

In the end, the common misconception that sleep is a waste of time is completely fabricated. To sleep well is to give the brain permission to file away memories, repair its circuits, and prepare for the challenges of tomorrow. For teenagers, the choice between an all-nighter and a full night’s rest is not merely about passing an exam but about nurturing the very organ that makes learning possible.

To continue, the drawbacks of skipping sleep extend beyond the classroom. “The shorter your sleep, the shorter your life,” Walker bluntly warns. Chronic sleep loss in adolescence has been linked to weakened immune function, impaired hormonal growth, and increased risks of anxiety and depression.

“We are, as a society, profoundly sleep deprived,” notes William C. Dement, one of the fathers of modern sleep research, in his book The Promise of Sleep. His warning resonates most with young people who often mistake exhaustion for productivity. This includes and is not limited to; deliberately over exerting yourself in face of seeping assignments and/or upcoming exams.

However, it is imperative to note that this doesn’t mean you should abandon your grade if it means to save your sleep. You should be conversant with the deadline and prepare beforehand as to save yourself from the arduous decision of sacrificing your sleep or academia on the last night. I can confide with personal experience that pulling an allnighter won’t save your exam, for your mind will collapse as you sit in the exam hall.

A study published in Nature Neuroscience revealed Science, it seems, leaves little room for argument: that sleep-deprived individuals showed heightened to flourish, we must sleep. amygdala activity, the part of the brain responsible for fear and stress responses, while losing the stabilizing influence of the prefrontal cortex. All which, in short, are contributing factors to the sharp decline in global attention spans.

The alluring myth of the all-nighter as a badge of honor crumbles under scientific scrutiny. While one might manage to push through a deadline on caffeine and prayers, the longer-term repercussions of this venture erode both health and academic success.

MUHAMMAD MEHDI

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THE TEAM

Editor-In-Chief Fatima

Graphic Designers Aleena Mukhtiar Fatima Rania Zahid Eman Mustafa

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