Yup. It's true. 20 percent of NYU students polled said they would actually sell their right to vote in the next presidential election for..... an iPod Touch! As soon as I heard this, I knew I had to write about it. I'm just not sure where to start. The poll almost speaks for itself.
www.politico.com/news/stories/1107/6892.html
I'm sure there are different ways of looking at this. Does this reflect a consumeristic generation's apathy when it comes to their participation in the political system? (yes!) Or, as some of those surveyed said, a lack of candidates that generate excitement or interest in the electoral process (kind of but not really).
And that's not all the respondents said. Two Thirds said they would sell their 2008 vote for full tuition to NYU, and a precentage also agreed that for $1,000,000 they would forfeit all future rights to voting in any election, ever. Wow, think of how many iPods you could buy with THAT kind of money!
Maybe there is a trend here. For instance, would you sell your freedom of speech for.... hmmm....lifetime season tickets, box seats, to the NY METS (if you're from NY of course, and actually like the mets, or the favorite team of your choice). Presidential elections are covered more as sport than substance, so that wouldnt' be a stretch. Or would you sell your 4th amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure for say... one night with Scarlett Johannsen? (obviously I thought about that one, but it would have to be more than one night, and the person perpetrating the unresonable search and seizure would have to be Scarlett Johannsen).
It is sad, however, that 1 in 5 NYU students, who , one would correctly assume, are supposed to be among their generation's best and brightest, would actually give up their ability to particpate in chosing the future course of our nation for an mp3 player. But, I'm not surprised. Consumerism is the religion of the United States. We are referred to by the media and often by politician's as consumers. Constantly. Never citizens, always consumers.
I think the challenge of this generation, if there is to be a democracy left for our children, is to fight the citizenship vs. consumer war, and win it. Consumers, by definition, are "objects". They are known and acted upon (see Paolo Freire "Pedagogy of the Oppressed") www.marxists.org/subject/education/freire/pedagogy/ch01.htm
Consumers do not create or produce. They consume. This is very good if you are say, the CEO of Walmart, but very bad if you are hoping to keep a participatory democracy alive. Citizens on the other hand, are subjects. They know and act up on their world. They participate. They are active partners in the governing of their nation. They vote, yes, and they do more. They organize. They speak their minds. They offer their opinions into the rich gumbo of socio-political debate (did I just say "rich gumbo of socio-political debate? Yes, I think I did. I'm probably hungry. Yes, I think I am).
So the question is, what can we do to change this? What can we do to convince people that their votes are worth more than an iPod? I'm not sure I have answers. I've always been a participator. People often ask why. When I went to Nashville last year to be trained by Al Gore as a presentor of his climate crisis presentation, there were some people that got it. They were happy and excited for me. Then there were some who asked "how much money are you getting for that?". I'm sorry. I'm trying to save the planet from turning into a giant baked potato (food reference number two!), isn't that reason enough?
As I see it, many in our government, and definitely the current administration, are probably very happy with the results of this survey. They like it when we don't vote. They like it when we don't participate. They want us to be annoyed, frustrated, and apathetic to the point of not participating. It allows them to continue their work of deconstructing democracy, and it sets up a system where the elite few can rule the many.
It has been pointed out many times that so many have shed blood for our basic rights, including our right to vote. I know not all wars have been about this, but at its core, when a soldier takes an oath to protect and defend the constitution of the united states, that is one of the things she's defending. I was in Washington D.C. a little over a week ago, and I took a walk down to the WWII memorial, and then on up to the Lincoln Memorial - right about dusk, the lights just begninning to shine on his heavy visage (wow, poetic, but no food reference). I had never been to the WWII memorial before, I'ts pretty amazing.
They are called the "Greatest Generation". Because they defeated global fascism. It was a daunting task. And they did it on 3 continents. Pretty impressive. There is a quote, one among many, at the memorial. It reads "They fought together as brothers-in-arms. They died together, and now they sleep side by side. To them, we have a solemn obligation..." ..... to..... ensure that every american has an iPod? Maybe that's the part they left out.
How fitting. Maybe we could have used this in Iraq. Instead of almost 4,000 and counting dead american troops, and countless innocent Iraqis, maybe we could have just dropped a couple of million iPods from airplanes and be done with it. Actually, I would have prefered that in the case of Iraq.
Back to NYU. We've got a choice. We can chose to see a survey like this as writing on the wall, and further evidence that our democracy is dying, or, we can see it as a challenge. If a generation could defeat Hitler, Mussolini, and Emperor Hirohito simultaneously, might we be able to convince a few thousand college students that their right to vote, and their ability to participate in the democratic process, are sacred things? We might have to shout really loud though....they may not be able to hear over their little white earphones.