Our generation is constantly accused of apathy. We don't vote, we don't read the newspaper, we don't even call each other. We prefer to sit around IMing. Others label our generation apathetic like it's some kind of disease, and we can't even muster up the energy or interest to come to our own defense. But here's the question I want to put out there: Are we really apathetic, or are we in fact just biding our time until things get bad enough to merit action on a massive scale?
Let's take the Iraq War. People are comparing the situation there to Vietnam and asking why the youth today aren't mimicking the Flower Power revolution to try to end the war and change society. Instead of blowing up napalm factories, they ask why we aren't making good on the popular ""Death to Wal-Mart"" Facebook group. Apathy, it must be apathy.
But I have a different, and equally simple, answer: Vietnam had a draft. If Washington tries to institute a draft in this day and age, I guarantee you that we'll make the '60s youth look like a holiday parade. I mean really, how many UW-Madison students seriously considered getting on one of the Revolting Students buses down to D.C. for the protest on Saturday? How many people even knew about it? Now imagine how many students would have been there if Bush had just announced that his desired troop surge was going to come from forcibly enlisting university students. Do you see what I mean?
Hell, we know things are wrong in this country. We know most of the problems now are only going to get bigger as the years go by. But things have to get a whole lot worse before we will collectively rise up and commit to making them better.
We have the power to change things. We just haven't been pressed hard enough against the wall yet to make us feel like we need to. Sure, the economy's in shambles (except, of course, for those in the upper 1 percent), most of us aren't going to have health insurance when we graduate and Social Security looks like it might not even exist when we retire, but we are well-fed and there's plenty of beer, so why worry about it now? We'll have a yearly riot on Halloween to vent our general frustrations and call it a day. Now what's so wrong with that?
A lot, actually, but deep down everyone already knows it. We're not stupid—we're just not afraid and angry enough yet. And we might not ever even get there.
Let's say Barack Obama, a youth favorite, gets elected president in 2008. Are we going to end homelessness? Are we going to do anything to stop the next attempt at genocide? Are we even going to make it so that no kid goes hungry in the richest country in the world? No! We won't even kill Wal-Mart. We'll just bow our heads and feel glad someone's going to try to get us some universal health care, lower the cost of tuition and maybe start working on slowing down global warming. And who can blame us? It's an improvement, right?
So I almost hope another guy like Bush comes to power. I almost want the government to continue on its downward spiral of corruption and abuse of our freedoms, until finally we decide we've had enough and we give future generations a reason to remember ours. I almost wish it.
And yet, I also want to graduate in peace and relative comfort, find a job that I'll reasonably enjoy and remain in the ambivalent bubble called ""status-quo."" I don't want a revolution, I just want to believe we can truly make things better. So here I'll sit, encased in textbooks and student loans, waiting for the moment when this generation will make its choice. Because whatever it decides, I'm going to be right there.
