While reading the comments for Julia Rain's excellent diary
"Why the Young Aren't Protesting in the Streets", I noticed a common theme pop up repeatedly: the idea that we needed a military draft, with no college deferments and mandatory community service even for conscientious objectors.
As a 22-year-old who is actively involved in politics and frustrated with the lack of concern among many in my generation, I respectfully disagree. A draft, implemented as many Kos readers would have it, would be, quite possibly, one of the worst options. It would only reinforce what is the true root of the problem.
The problem as I see it is not that young people are apathetic, lazy, self-centered, and so caught up with XBoxes and Facebook that they think of nothing else. The problem is fear and powerlessness. They want to care and to do something, but the power structure is such that they are either ignored or actively penalized for wanting change.
Let me illustrate with a few examples from my own experience in middle school, high school, college, and beyond.
- September 1997: I am an eighth grade student required to take a typing/computer literacy class. OK, fine, I understand the need for that. No complaints with the concept.
Here's the problem: I could type 75+ words per minute, had been doing so since age 9 or so, and was writing computer programs. (Yes, I was a little geek.) There were other classes I would've preferred to take, namely Spanish.
The teacher for the computer class immediately recognized my proficiency and acknowledged that there was nothing she could teach me. But did she appeal to the administration to give me credit based on a proficiency test, like colleges sometimes do with the CLEP program? No. She told me to "pretend I knew nothing and follow along with the rest of the class."
- Fall 2001, post-9/11: I am in college, having gotten utterly fed up with similar incidents at my high school. I will turn 18 before the end of the calendar year, and by the end of this academic year I will be halfway through my degree. I have signed up with the career office and let them float my name and credentials to employers for summer internships.
Career office employee: So you're 17, I see. Early graduate?
Me: Not exactly, as you'll see on my record there's no diploma. I just left.
Employee: Yes, I do see. Why did you do that?
Me: The school was not providing enough challenges and was not encouraging creative thought.
Employee: Hmm, I wouldn't tell that to anyone in an interview. From their point of view it would look disloyal, and they wouldn't want that risk. Is there any way to make it sound better?
- Spring 2003: Although I'm pursuing a computer science degree, I'm taking a mandatory business class. One day there is a guest lecturer from a large engineering-oriented firm. Her topic is interviewing. She proceeds to ask the class some hypothetical questions:
- Should we consent to a personality test in an interview? Apparently the correct answer is that while it's reprehensible and may be illegal in some cases, if we want the job, we should go along with it.
- If the interviewer asks us whether a supervisor/manager is responsible for failures, what is the correct response? "Of course not, it's not the manager's fault if the workers screw up." That's a direct quote, not embellished. No liberal forgets crap like that.
- What's the right answer to give if we're asked about whether we like to think creatively? "Yes, for the good of the company." She warned us that many HR people are told to be wary of "overly independent" types in interviews.
- Late 2005: My mother, a teacher, related this story to me. She was with other faculty in the lounge, having coffee and chatting, when the subject of an exceptionally bright student came up. This guy was a freshman or sophomore who wanted to take Advanced Placement classes earlier than the district usually permitted, and the faculty were arguing about it. Here's a conversation between my mom and another teacher, as she related it to me:
Other teacher: He shouldn't be allowed to do that!
Mom: Why not? He is wasting his time in the regular classes and his scores show that. What does it hurt?
OT: The school has its rules and it shouldn't make an exception for him! If we make an exception for one person, we'd have to make it for anyone like him.
Mom: Yes, your point...?
OT: They should have to stay on the level of the rest of their classmates.
Mom: You know, my daughter left high school early to go to college, because the schools weren't providing enough opportunities just like this for her. Would you want to force this bright student out of school?
OT: That shouldn't be allowed either! He should have to stay here and work on his grade level, and your daughter should have too.
Mom: I did the same thing as a teenager, you know. I don't have a high school diploma either.
OT: ...
This type of crap is why young people are not as active as we'd like.
They are bullied, intimidated, and squashed by a system that seeks to stifle whatever independent initiative they harbor, because it is a threat. They--no, we--are told, starting at age 13 or earlier, that if we want to amount to anything in life, the way to do it is to sit down, shut up, produce on demand, and above all don't make a stir. With the decline in union power, when we enter the workforce, we still have our employers holding that over our heads. "Step out of line and we'll cut off your livelihood."
Twentysomethings don't even have the modicum of financial cushion that their middle-aged counterparts may have. We haven't even been in the workforce long enough to build it up, and we certainly haven't seen any economic conditions that would permit us to save any money.
I am extremely grateful, in retrospect, that I did not do what my degree might suggest, and enter the computer software industry. Instead I entered politics and am now working in an office filled with people in their 20s and 30s, people who also made an unusual choice and stuck with it despite questioning and possible ridicule.
The problem is not materialism and obsession with the inconsequential. It's fear, a feeling of powerlessness (which would breed cynicism), and the intense pressure--and threats--to conform, or else. The culture of the haves vs. the have-nots is once again culpable, this time for the decline in young people's participation in politics. It's the corporate culture, pure and simple.