Talk is cheap. Some talk is really cheap. Talk about political issues is among the cheapest talk of all, particularly when it is backed neither by personal commitment nor real conviction. It doesn’t cost a thing to be in favor of social justice, so long as you’re never called upon to pay a price for that opinion. It’s easy to support a war that neither you nor yours are called upon to fight.
Did you ever notice how the end of military conscription knocked the wind out of American anti-war sentiments? Maybe you can’t remember back that far. Vietnam and the draft were a long time ago.
I’m not calling any names, and I don’t want to point any fingers. I do, however, have an accusation to make and a challenge to issue. If you think the proverbial shoe might fit, you are invited to try it on. If it fits, you are invited to wear it.
Here’s my thesis. Today’s crop of young, upwardly mobile liberals and progressives lack the engagement, personal commitment and conviction that characterized my generation. I think they’re lazy and to a large extent self-absorbed. I’m beginning to suspect that their commitment to change in this country is just for show, their progressiveness and liberality nothing more than a fashionable hat. I think they talk a good game, but never bring it to the field. That’s the charge I am leveling. If you’re young and hold yourself out as a progressive, then I’m calling you out.
My generation was lousy at a lot of things. Back in the 1960s foresight and judgment weren’t our long suits. What we lacked in sophistication, though, we made up for in enthusiasm and the authenticity of our commitment to social justice. When a demonstration or protest rally was called, people showed up.
People who believed in the cause of civil rights took to the streets by the thousands, defied the entrenched forces of political power, and stood firm in the face of oppressive police action. They put their lives at risk, and not a few gave their lives for what was right.
Those who, in the Sixties, made a commitment to the principles of free speech took to heart the memorable words of Mario Savio, the recognized leader of UC Berkeley’s Free Speech Movement, and transformed those words into determined action. They are not words for the faint of heart. They are not words for those whose protest is limited to a Twitter tweet or Facebook status update posted via an iPhone from the comfort of an upscale coffee shop. They were serious words for serious people:
“There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious—makes you so sick at heart—that you can’t take part. You can’t even passively take part.
“And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop.
“And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.” – Mario Savio, University of California at Berkeley, Sproul Hall Steps, December 2, 1964
Is the operation of the capitalist machine run amok not so offensive to your nose that you can sit on the sidelines enjoying your latté while the American health insurance industry kills 45,000 people every year? Where have you been?
Over the past year those of us who are repulsed by the abuses of Cigna, Blue Cross and the other morally odious titans of the health insurance industry, those of us who are made so sick at heart by the needless suffering and death of the uninsured, have attended rallies, distributed literature, sat down with our elected congressional representatives, circulated petitions, written letters to Congress, posted blog articles and comments on blogs, and invested sweat and tears in bringing about meaningful health care reform in this Congress. We have been busy every day, and no setback has deterred us from persisting in our struggle.
As I have participated in these activities I have noticed the conspicuous absence of young people—those self-identified progressives in their twenties and thirties who always seem to be missing in action. What accounts for this? I hope I’ve got it wrong.
During the next couple of weeks the fate of our health care reform efforts will finally be known. Both the Senate and the House are in the process of merging competing bills and preparing the legislation upon which those bodies will vote in the next few weeks. The Public Option, without which no health care reform can be truly meaningful, may or may not make its way into the final bills.
The voices of liberals and progressives must be heard at this time more loudly and forcefully than the voices of the insurance lobby that is seeking to kill true reform. If ever there was a time to engage in some honest-to-God, real political activism—not the kind represented by a four dollar cup of coffee and the gift of some virtual carbon credits via a Facebook app—that time is now.
So, okay young hotshots, there it is. I’ve called you out. I’ve flipped your nose and called you a dirty name. What are you gonna do about it? I hope you’ll be offended, that you’ll get all worked up and and will come out working to prove me wrong. By your fruits shall you be known.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I was thinking about this same thing last night! I teach (college level) and encounter dozens of students every day who voice strong opinions about a range of political issues, including health care reform. Though I have attended several rallies in support of health care reform that were held in close proximity to campus, I would put the average age of those in attendance in the forty-five to sixty-five age range. There were some people who would have been in their thirties and forties, but only a couple of people in the twenties. I did meet two young women who were college students at a rally last month, but I don’t remember there being any other young people in the crowd of about three hundred.
After listening to my students talk in class I would expect them to turn out at rallies in large numbers. They talk passionately about the issues, but like you I am beginning to question their sincerity.
I think young activists have mostly rejected rallies and demonstrations as ineffective. Not sure I blame them. (I was among the youngest attending a rally this week in front of our Federal Building. The rally had been organized by a woman in her early 20s, though I got the feeling it was mostly done to please the oldsters.) To be fair to the young, they may have outdone you on the emails and phone calls to Congress, and they’re more likely to be replying promptly to their Member of Congress’s tweets. I don’t see you standing on the Twitter front, old man! Where’s your commitment? Would it be such a sacrifice to start a Twitter account and follow your Congressman? All kidding aside, I think the kids are alright, as somebody once said. At least compared to my 40-something generation, I find them generally brighter, more inquisitive, and less easily fooled. Also less prone to cynicism, which is a big plus. I do find many of their ways strange and savage, don’t get me wrong. But I don’t think the republic is likely to fall on their watch. Not after surviving my Reagan-loving contemporaries. (This country must be tougher than it looks.)
Rob makes some points, but not enough to persuade me that the young people are not lazy and, to borrow your word Prentice, self-absorbed. What I didn’t mention in my earlier comment is that I am myself in my twenties. I can say that I am, I know, a bit prone to cynicism. I cynically believe that most of the people of my generation, and most of the students I teach, are almost exclusively concerned with their own possessions, comforts and financial futures. They’re primary political concern is that they be thought progressive and engaged.
If you need any proof that Twittering and Facebooking and things young people may be doing online is not as effective as publicly demonstrating and making our voices heard in public forums all you have to do is take not of what the Tea Party protesters did back during the August congressional recess. They made national news almost every day with their loud protests and shouting at town hall meetings. While the young liberals were all texting the grown up protesters were changing the national health care discussion. If it had been a baseball game the score would have been old teabaggers 100, young liberals 0. There is no substitute for public demonstration and protest, and pieces of paper with thousands of signatures. Just my two cents.
Actually the Liberals of today were educated by the liberals in our colleges and institutes of higher learning. The liberals of today, have been brainwashed by former communists who migrated to the USA and wound up teaching on every campus. The liberals of today were misinformed and therefore impotent when it comes to the truth and non -revised American History. The liberals of today were duped by the same folks who became part of the “Green Movement” where many of the Marxists, Stalinits, Communits and you get the picture nits.
Yes I know some of those words were misspelled. It was intentional. See how easy they are taken in by BS? They elected Obama! ROFLMAO becaus the joke is on you.
Respectfully,
Jim Allen III
Their arguments do not hold water.