Someone tell me, where are the young people during all this? They

are really silent, which is too bad considering it's their future that these liars, killers, and thieves are destroying.

Is it because there's no draft? Do they think that they can pretend that the spying and illegal actions won't effect their future? Where is their outrage?

We need them to really weigh in on this. Why are the college campuses so silent?

This upsets me.

Are they so sold on the fact that this guy is flawless that they are OK?
I mean if I was a 17 yr old right now, I'd be SCREAMING!!!!

In the Sixties, young people made up a huge part of the population. They even gave them a name, the Baby Boomers.

Today, young people makes up a much smaller percentage and old people make up a much larger percentage.

Wonder if part of the difference might be plain arithmetic?

I would say the draft is the biggest difference though.

and many of them were raised conservative.

liberal and anti-war is anti-American. simple as that. Many of my students are liberals in their thinking, but outwardly espouse the 'conservative' ideology. Most of them are not yet mature enough to recognize in themselves the liberal direction of their thinking/actions. It becomes obvious when they are assigned controversial topics to evaluate, and the papers come back full of venom about the existing social structure. as I said though, they are afraid to admit their own real beliefs because of funding issues, peer group alliances, etc.

The 60's aren't coming back. I'm 28, so I'm not in that college world anymore, but it's 2005. The 60's were the one shot at maybe making a dent, and in some aspects that decade did. But since then, look at the Presidents we've had. Look at the money it takes to win an election. Look at corporatization of everything. No time to worry about making noise, kids must compete against billions of people around the world for their scraps. You have to figure out what you're going to do with your life earlier and earlier. If you don't, you're dead.

I'm not saying there aren't young people making that noise. But I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for something.

whining about the world that they've inherited. Because they are very good at whining.

Don't blame us because you haven't left us paradise on earth. And let's see some examples of that whining.

On edit:

Keep in mind the movements of your generation took over 5 years to end the Vietnam war and had little long-lasting results. From 1968 to 2005 there have only been 12 years of Democratic Presidents. Don't try to blame today's problems on those age 16-25, this mess has been a long time in coming, and the blame does not and cannot lie with those who weren't even born when its foundations were laid.

Wow, let's bash youth!!!!

NOT. I am 38 so not a teen or tween, but I work with them in a high school. They are not complacent at all. Most are very active. I love it when the older chastizes the younger. As someone else pointed out, if our youth are lost, it is because the collective WE allowed it to happen, not them. I love when those with the power knock those without power, it is comical, naive and unfair.

The don't read the newspapers.
If they watch tv news it is most likely the easily-digestible sound bites of Faux News.
They listen to ipods in lieu of local radio (and local news reports)

And I took an English class last spring. In the class were about 20 of us and except for myself, the rest were all in their teens or early 20's. One of the topics assigned was about reactions to a story called 'Blessings'. I wrote about how, as an athiest, that word has very negative connotations for me. Well, I was picked by the teacher to read aloud and by the end of my presentation the rest of the class was silent. For the rest of the quarter few would speak to me. There were little snippets said, such as 'jesus saved me' and 'Jon Stewart who?'. You get the idea.
Around that same time, a student in another class had a project that involved him placing posters all over a standing art form outside on the campus mall. The posters were of names, info and likenesses of soldiers who had died in Iraq. I walked out after the fact that someone had started a tussle with the student and began to dismantle the project. By now, there were two campus security guards protecting the work so that the rest of the students could be to see his results.
No, I don't think that the majority of today's youth are politically motivated either. As long as their mommy's and daddy's can provide them with the bare essentials, and then some, they are happily ignorant of most anything that does not affect their daily lives.

the same thing.

I can remember vividly how active we became in the 60s and the results achieved.

In college, I joined both the Young Dems and Young Repubs so I could hear all the speakers that were coming to campus. The Repubs cancelled my membership (but they were nice about it).

Again, excellent point and they do need to understand the stakes of not participating and how much you can learn by doing so.

If you tried to join the Young Repubs today they probably wouldn't be as nice when they booted you out.

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

in their 20s

One is a confirmed liberal. He listens, talks, and votes. Does not participate in politics otherwise, although he's been known to blast out a decent rendition of "Master's of War" on his guitar now and then. He plays some local venues as his "hobby."

One is more of an anarchist, who has never cast a vote and claims he never will. He pays attention, and can sum up current events pretty well. He sees all parties as corrupt, and believes the broken, corrupt system will eventually be replaced by revolution. He also believes, according to yesterday's conversation, that the pendulum has swung as far as it's going to to the right, and is ready to head back the other way.

Raised outside the mainstream by a mom who gave up on mainstream thought, ideas, and patterns a long time ago, I don't think either are "typical" young people.

It is amazing to me the amount of people who don't care.
:shrug:

can't name their governor! There was somebody I talked to recently when I said Donald Rumsfeld, they said, "Who?". What's even sadder is how many people in my state did not know who Proxmire was.

young airheads are glued to the TV as they watch that crap. I will not condemn them all, though there are some who care. Maybe the draft will wake them up.

There is no draft so all energy is going towards trying to get laid and conforming as best they can to ensure they can snag one of the handfull of good paying jobs that will be available.

They live in an I-pod bubble.. sometimes I think about joining them... just turn off the TV, lay down the paper and stop looking at DU and just curl up in my nice bubble and pretend nothing is happening.

The true opiates of the masses.

I know people who participate in fantasy football leagues. They study it. They LIVE it. They can't believe how 'dumb' some of the other participants in the league are. They don't vote either. See no need to do so. to them politics is bullshit, but who is someone who passed for a couple touchdowns last week, that no one in the fantasy league has picked up on their roster? That's IMPORTANT.

thoroughly socially lobotomized by narcissitic pursuits based on leisure, entertainment, and pleasure--they are grasshoppers as compared to the ants fable. What crises have they ever faced? What work ethic has ever challenged them? What adults have inspired them to know or to do better? Education is shitfaced dumbdowned nonsense; social responsibility is WTF not my gig--it's about getting mine, and getting it NOW! No Plans because they have led sheltered lives and someone has always been there to clear the way. American young are the warm-fuzzy generation--the unscrupulous Dr. Feelgoods we have to thank.

My OverGeneralized $0.02--now I feel reallly bad.

NoFederales

The self glorification of the boomer generation just needs to stop.

It was a big fucking party, the thing to do and something most boomers simply "grew out of".

And irony of ironies, this self important generation is the one that raised these apatheitc kids today.

are very aware of the political and religious scene. They are also not afraid of speaking their minds in front of confrontational adults. Not looking forward to their run-ins with authority figures, but that too will be a lesson, eh?

NoFederales

The average age of TV news watchers and newspaper readers is rising. It's we much-maligned baby boomers and oldsters who keep track of events. A distressingly large percentage of the younger people are all caught up in important stuff like the love lives of their favorite celebrities. They've never been acculturated to the idea that it's a good idea to keep track of what's going on in the world.

...overly materialistic.

The draft is what motivated people to be against the war, none of this glorifiaction of a generation as somehow being more righteous than those previous or afterwards.

So is the solution to bring back the draft?

Not in my opinion. I will not advocate someone being conscripted and sent into combat just because I want their age demographic to be more politically active.

As a boomer myself and Mom of 2 young adults in their early 20s, I think that it was something intrinsic in the times during the 60s - the cultural issues, civil rights, backlash of the 50s, etc. and certainly not necessarily something "better" in each person which made that generation more socially aware.

It was the lyrics of the MUSIC of the 60s which inspired me the most!

And having a fiery "socialist" sociology teacher in my senior year of highschool who opened my eyes to a lot of things.

I don't blame the young at all - certainly not for the state of things now - and feel that they care in a different way than we did in the 60s. It IS a different time, and time will tell if something stirs them to get active politically and socially to agitate against the powers that be.

:hi:

DemEx

WTF?? Retirement???? Ever notice that? I ran into a couple of my son's 25-year-old friends from his past high school days recently, who just started working career jobs for the first time, and both of them already knew how many years it would be when they could take early retirement from their jobs! THAT is all they cared about, and they planned accordingly while in college. Politics and corruption? What's that?

So many of these kids are just a little too comfy and way too one-dimensional. I guess, unfortunately, the only thing that would wake some of them up is a draft. That's the MTV generation for you.

I'm talking about study abroad (not just for the summer, but for a year, living on local living standards, not in an American ghetto) or extended work among the poor.

Too many of them go straight from a suburban upbringing (where they may have literally NEVER entered the city that their suburb grew up around, according to a friend who taught senior honors English at a public high schoolin an affluent suburb) to a college full of people like themselves.

my peers are pretty apathetic. I always bring up the subjects of this war, Patriot Act, ect, and I get told that I "get hung up" on these issues then they trash themselves while I'm blogging / listening to political podcasts. On some occasions I get called "un-American"! My family is political and always taught me to question the authority no matter what. There are a few youths that are interested but they are few and far between.

EDIT: How can anybody not get upset when they look around???

His backpack is littered with buttons, he talks "politics", among other things, enjoys debate, gets minimal or uninformed response. He and a few others are the odd ones, the Liberals with views. The rest of the school is focused on sports, dating, and playing Christian music from their trucks in the parking lot. Lots of kids are just trying to blend in. The ones who call you "un-American" know the least about what's going on. There's a prayer circle around the flagpole every morning. Yes, it's a public High School in California.
My 20 yr old is more cynical, sez nobody cares, but he votes. Working and going to school is haaaaard. And tuition is up all over the country. Competition is stiff.

I'm a boomer, present and accounted for. :)

We are the "OC Generation", in my opinion. No one wants to even hear an intelligent argument. My peers (HS) are extremely apathetic when it comes to politics. What's worse is that when many do try to summon an opinion, they regurgitate the reactionary crap that is all around them.

I totally agree with your summary (apathy, anti-intellectualism, ignorant nationalist reactionary mindsets), unfortunately.

I'm 19, and I hate to hear these falsehoods that we just don't care about the future, or that somehow we're ignorant. Let's not forget that the Baby Boomers, for all their 60's flair, have brought us Reagan, Bushes I and II, the "Republican Revolution" etc. etc.

Something about glass houses comes to mind, but I can't put my finger on it.

Did you ever think that perhaps all the pressure on young adults these days, to get into college, grad school, get a job, and so on might impinge on our time to be full-scale activists? Who put these pressures on us? Certainly not ourselves, but those who created the system, our parent's generation. Now I'm not saying that working hard on one's own life isn't important, or that it shouldn't matter, but there is a lot for us to do just to ensure our own individual futures.

:shrug:

Why did you do better than us?

than those on the young in the past....the world is definitely different and changing by the day.
In a way I can so imagine why young people don't/can't get activated politically at this time - so many issues to think about, growing complexities, uncertainties.....maybe living in a sort of bubble tuning out the faked news on TV and trying to have some fun is a good survival technique for now.....

But some social forces will be needed to swing the pendulum back the other way before too long IMO....

This conservative resurgence IS a backlash of the 60s IMO, and so it continues - hopefully eventually towards more stable 'enlightenment' in the (near) future.

DemEx

I think I should also point out that since so much goes on on the internet these days, it doesn't take a major march in Washington for youth to express themselves. I mean, your favorite blogger may be a teenager, after all.

Young enough? :P

And we were the only age group where the majority voted for Kerry.

Wouldn't know that from the antics going on in this thread.

If only the people under 30 voted, I saw that Kerry would have won with 330 votes, including Miss, Colorado, Nevada, Ohio and Florida.

Perhaps the old demonstrations were bigger, but other than that, I don't know how else the kiddies of today are supposed to be doing a better job.

seriously todays youth has been seriously commercialized...and the marketers have dones such a good job at reeling them in...even the boys like to shop now. My youngest is off to college next year, and is likewise appalled at the serious defecit in serious thinking and compassion visible in her very middle class high school.

filled with IPODS and their heads focused on school. Get out the vote on MTV was their motivation. I do not watch that station so I don't know how much political focus they have during non-election years. Surprisingly they do know more about what is going on than most people think thanks to John Stewart. They know that they really can't do a whole lot about it except vote at this young age, so it isn't a top priority. That may change if their future gets interrupted by a draft, but I don't see it happening before that.

and internet porn, baby! That's where all the young people are.

but the sixties already happened, and at any rate, political tactics have changed, IMHO. Mass protests are not the big thing, as evidenced by the complaining around here everytime the media fails to adequately cover one of them.

Measured by some of the standards suggested elsewhere (percentage of 18-25 voting for Kerry, for example), and not by the sixties, today's youth stack up just fine, and I say that as one of them, who can pick a political fight at the dinner table at college anytime I want one.

By the way, no offense to anyone, but the repeated mention of the Ipod as a reason for less political participation strikes these young ears as very curmudgeonly.

I mean, we hear on and on about how the youth during the 60s "ended the Vietnam war" and all that. But did they? Large-scale protests began in 1966 and 1967. The war lasted technically until 1975 - seems to me like the war only ended when popular opinion shifted against it, which had far more to do with America growing tired of casualities without results than it did with a bunch of protestors. The same thing is happening in Iraq - average people are getting fed up with the ever mounting death toll with nothing to show for it. Their opinion is not changing because of the umpteenth anti-war march or whatever.

Let's not forget that the 60s "idealists" brought us Richard Nixon because, like today, they managed to focus their disgust on the Democratic party instead of the Republican party. Whose convention did they disrupt in 1968? The Chicago riots (which yes, Daley bears most of the blame for, but Hayden, Hoffman, etc. made it very clear that they wanted to start shit) made the nation wary of the seeming discordance of the Democratic party and trust in the Republicans and Nixon. Oh, and the anti-war movement really came through for McGovern four years later.

I'm really damn tired of the lionizing of the hippie generation*, when they basically, through their irresponsible selfish "activism" in the 60s and their subsequent assumptions of their roles as upper middle class WASP elites, have set the stage for the neoliberal stranglehold over global economics and the neoconservative domination of foreign policy. Thanks so much, boomers.

* Disclaimer: not all hippies or 60s activists fall under this banner. Some, I'm sure, were aware, active liberals and remain so to this day. But these are not the people I speak of, but rather the Rennie Davises and the Abbie Hoffmans who furthered every negative stereotype of "liberals" that the right still milks.

Making videos

http://www.auraka.org/fallenheroes.php

:hi:

Thanks

The reason I have an activist mindset is because my mother took pride in what she had done for the ERA and told me about it.

Parents mold thier children. Or at least they used to. Now it is left up to TV, Dsiney, and Grand Theft Auto.

When/If I have children the only TV will be in my bedroom.

they never saw a FUTURE unlike this one in the first place?

People look on the Clinton years as some halcyon time... It wasn't, really. Clinton managed to fix a little of the damage from the Reagan/Bush years, and do a little damage of his own. But if you're 20 right now the country has always looked like a pile of shit: millions in prison, millions homeless, lying scum leaders and thugs ruling the streets. Put it in perspective and the relative apathy makes sense.

son born 1969 is EXTREMELY disillusioned by politics; he saw the 'great' results of his parents efforts ('do you guys ever vote for anyone who wins?')........he got very active in 2004 and saw all his worst suspicions confirmed

It's easier than getting informed about how fucked we are and trying to make some real changes. Also, many of them, especially those who were lucky enough to be able to get into and pay for college (of which, I confess, I am one) are too scared to start getting involved because, well, it might piss off their asshole Republican misogynist fathers and their enabling mothers. But mostly, they just don't have a clue--they were raised by families who didn't bother to get their children informed about the horrors of Reagan, and they didn't pay attention in history class. Trying to convince my friends, some of whom have post-graduate degrees, to get off their fat, lazy asses and register some voters is like pulling teeth. They've adopted a ridiculous "it's all going to be okay" apathetic attitude. Or they're too busy buying Howard Dean's nasty, ignorant, one-dimensional shtick about how to "fix" things, instead of thinking through the problems themselves in any meaningful way and searching for, let alone promoting VALID solutions. I just hate talking about this so much because I've given up trying to get through to my generation. As an informed, passionate liberal, I feel as if I am lost among a great, hearing-impaired heard of stupid cows (or maybe I should make that sheep). With even less self-esteem than I have. Who can't face their own problems, let alone the problems of this society. They wouldn't even know where to start. Fucking populists. Morons.