I wonder if many of our generation know the artist Joni Mitchell. I also wonder if many of them today have ever heard of this gem:
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got
'Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
That is a clip of one of Joni's most celebrated tunes, Big Yellow Taxi. It is also a fitting clip for this very damning story about our nation's future. I don't know whether to laugh or cry at that, but in this age of outrage fatigue, it's hard to get worked up over something you may have already expected anyway. But it is hard to feel confident about the future when those that are the future don't really care about the things that are responsible for their life, liberty and happiness.
I admit to originally being among those who were probably too young to fully understand all that our men and women fought for to give us the freedom we have today. I don't think I fully understood the Bill of Rights until middle school. What can you say - I was a kid, who was enjoying life around me, without really knowing that it would be my future responsibility to ensure that that joy I felt would be around for my children and others who followed me. But then again, we are in an age where responsibility and accountability are just two big words and nothing more.
And that, my friends, explains the poll results. Too much of our generation, from 20-29, grew up on television, video games, and endless play. Too much of our generation have abhorred work to where we avoid it at all costs. Our collective laziness would disgust our Depression-era elders, who had to fight for their right to live under incredibly bad circumstances. And now that laziness has included our apathy towards government, the laws, and the very freedoms so many generations have fought protecting against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
So much of these students are looking for the quick trip up the ladder of success. Having been born in an era where teen pop stars and actors quickly rose to fame and forture, and hearing stories of pre-30-aged CEOs and managers, we only care about the prize and not the work involved to get to it. We may know of the Bill of Rights, but we don't really know what incredible battles have been waged both for and against it.
I would even venture to say that some of this blame lies on the parents of these students. Parents are the first teachers of children. Parents choose whether to shelter their children from anything and everything, or to allow them to experience life and self-reliance. Though without solid proof, I would wager that among those, who expressed such apathy towards the very laws that give them the freedom they love, probably either still live off their parents, or grew up in very authoritarian environments to where control and power is all that matters now, freedom be damned.
Regardless of who's to blame, the bottom line is that we are in serious trouble if these results are in fact correct. For so many of our current and future generation to not even give a damn or much less respect what the Bill of Rights and our Constitution has given us, the rude awakening for them will be massive and tragic. Chances are, most of these people will go on living their lives not having contributed anything to the betterment of humankind. For them, as long as they have their car, their coffee, their television, their central heating, their wife, and their recreation (be it football, video games, poker, or what have you), they will be satisfied and choose to not do much. It may not have an effect on the rest of our freedom, but it could.
Nevertheless, our collective apathy is destructive to the future of this nation. Our collective apathy brought us the Iraq War. Our collective apathy brought us a bigger debacle for medicare that many of these apathetic young adults will be having to use years later (if they survive). Our collective apathy may just bring about the destruction of Social Security. Our collective apathy will cost us our jobs as they are outsourced to other countries. Our collective apathy will squeeze the freedoms we hold so dear and take for granted out of lives.
And our collective apathy, if this poll is accurate, is as strong as it has ever been.
Don't it always seem to go...