I found a very interesting this morning that discussion on Facebook when people were talking about an article that had been written about today's youth, specifically people in their 20's to people that are 34.http://www.alternet.org/vision/151850/8_reasons_young_americans_don%27t_fight_back%3A_how_the_us_crushed_youth_resistance/?page=entire All of the people that were discussing this were in the 50s and 60s. So, since I was in the age range that the article was discussing I decided to chime in. Specifically, the article was discussing the American youth's lack of the willingness to be defiant and protest. It stated that the youth had been battered into submissiveness. The article stated that large school loans, responsibilities, TV, psychiatric drugs, and poor diet choices were the reasons that youth didn't have any motivation to create change or stand up for themselves.
I have many bits of this article to reflect on one was I did have school loans when I graduated college and pick up for them to or is that I've never found protests actually get anything done I recalled a protest that it happened when I was in high school and how many of the students in our county got suspended many of the students had a harder time getting into college because of the suspensions on the records and many of Sindbads zeros on tests that day hurting their GPAs. the parents were furious! it caused more division between youth and the people in charge running the school board running our government. there was no understanding or change that resulted. Protest is not my way. I mentioned that building rapport understanding remaining calm builds more true dialogue and understanding.
I find it funny that the responses I caught where that I I wasn't approaching things the way they did in the 60s that I didn't understand the meaning of protested I wasn't protesting correctly and a.com world with social networking blogging no company loyalty, the world where what was is no longer,why would methods from 50 years ago work now?
What works now is going viral online. don't you remember the campaign right after all of this gay suicides. Then everyone started standing up and speaking for those people to give them solidarity. How many states since then have passed marriage laws for gays? that's what works.
Politicians at this point don't have any sense of honor or nobility. the people in charge are there because they have so much money they have all the power. My hope is that we can build ideologies we believe in so much the people start to take responsibility in themselves and each other that we can build a new way to think, and a new way to live. We cannot go back to old ways, butmust move into a more useful, healthier paradigm at this down of the new era.
I am 32. My two cents:
ReplyDeleteI don't think our generation or the younger generations are submissive. If you can generalize us at all, I'd say we are passive agressive. We will do and think what we want, regardless of what we are told. We may even act submissive. If you want to be technical, a great deal of social change has happened since the 50s/60s. It was just done in a more insular fashion. In a different way.
And I will agree. I've rarely seen an old-fashioned "protest" do anything other than cause trouble for those protesting. In the US, where we have more to lose, it's not the most effective means of creating change.
NOT TO mention, the people who are protesting these days are people like Westboro church. A bunch of crazies we've all decided to tune out other than the occasional WTF and hack off.
Also, politicians = ha. Writing to politicians = Ha ha. I've done it. That's a whole 'nuther can o' worms.
(Rhonda C, came from Facebook)