This was written in (belated) response to Georgia10's "A Generation in Waiting" diary. After posting, I read her "last" diary, so I have revised this intro and the tags. I hope others may still respond to my proposal.
Let me start by saying that I too am an admirer of Georgia10's writing as well as her activism. She is not only a reporter of much of what moves (or does not move) her generation, she is also an articulate breath of fresh air. And perhaps she is thus well-equipped to answer a somewhat banal question: Is this "Generation Q" label strictly a Friedman invention, or was it coined previously? Whatever, unless you wholeheartedly agree with it, reject it in no uncertain terms by replacing it with something of your own choosing.
Okay, first allow me a little personal perspective in order to put my question and proposal to you. . .well, in perspective. Kindly read on. . .
Georgia10, I found much food for thought in your piece. Here's my take. (And honest, there is a serious, concrete proposal to follow.)
I'm a tail-end baby boomer--graduated high school in 1974--and I don't think many my age "believed in politics" either. I was perhaps more aware of and into (as we used to say) politics and national issues than some my age, due in great part to the fact that my brother was ten years older and very engaged politically. (He was a poli-sci major and worked for the Eugene McCarthy campaign, among other things.) He was also a prime candidate for the draft. He and my WW II-era father, by then a Republican, used to regularly have at it over dinner and during Packer's games, and I took it all in. (My mom pretty much agreed with my brother and was increasingly dismayed that her once Democrat husband had turned.)
Also, my consciousness was raised (another quaint phrase!) by my brother's taste in music: when all my 11-year-old friends were concentrating mostly on Bobby Sherman and The Monkees and who was the cutest Beatle (as was I), he quite deliberately had me listening to Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Joan Baez, Janis Ian, Phil Ochs, Arlo Guthrie, and yes, Country Joe and the Fish, to name a few. (If you've ever heard "Alice's Restaurant" or "The Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag," you've heard some prime examples of making fun of the government.)
But by the time we got to high school in 1970, it was, in many many middle-class houses, a lot like "The Wonder Years." Families watched Walter Cronkite (mostly) at dinnertime, and those with teenage sons (and college-age daughters) talked about the options of enlisting vs. outwaiting the draft, whether or not to get married and apply for grad school and try for deferment, whether to make a run for the Canadian border. And many watched their sons (in those days, we watched everyone's sons) come home in bodybags or forever altered by VietNam.
And then came Kent State (and Jackson State, which is usually forgotten.) If anyone thinks for a minute that being fired on by your own "troops" on your way to class wasn't a galvanizing moment for a generation. . . .
But yes, the 60 and 70s are over. People will never stop arguing over how influential the anti-war movement, and student protests in particular, were in ending that war and in effecting social change. One thing that is painfully obvious is that most of that generation soon abdicated whatever potential political power they had gained as a movement in favor of falling back into the status quo. (And propelling it into status quo on steroids.) Settle down, have kids, get a job you quite possibly despise so you can get a mortgage and health "benefits," trade in the hippie van for a nice station wagon---oh wait---maybe some did return to their ideals by buying all those minivans---invest in the stock market, and settle into an ugly dog-eat-dog complacency.
So yes, I get many of your points, and I think the connections made and the organizing and activism done online are extremely important. But there is definitely a lot to be said for the energy and hopefulness of youth, which, dare I say, must not be squandered. Yeah, you grew up understandably cynical of govt.--so did I. I watched the Watergate hearings and knew the truth about Nixon et al at the tender age of sixteen--big difference tho: at least then the impeachment process was a very grave matter, not the fucking farce that your generation was treated to.
But even after that, I still naively believed that America was going to progress politically, and that the ideals of the 60s would continue to grow and eventually prevail. Unlike many of my contemporaries, I grew more leftist in my twenties, and considered myself an independent more than a Democrat. I began yearning then for a strong, viable third party to emerge. Which (finally!) brings me to my question for you and others your age posting here: What exactly are you "waiting" for? The system is clearly broken and in need of a major overhaul. Personally, I think we need The Second American Revolution and, perhaps, a Constitutional Convention down the line; but I'm tired, so I'd settle for a successful Third Party as a good start.
Why not: Take all the highly valuable netroots on- and off-campus networkers, all the volunteer activists, all the FaceBook (and other) online progressive/lefty communities, all the peer-driven "get-out-the-vote" people, all of Al Gore's "Live Earth" signees, all of the celebrity-identified "One" action group--Bono's followers alone must constitute millions--and the individual thousands (?) of disengaged, disenfranchised youth (god, I sound so old) who can be reached in non-traditional ways.
Begin a fresh "Movement for Real Progressive Change" and I guarantee you will attract millions of disengaged, disenfranchised, and utterly disillusioned (not to mention tired!) boomers, Greatest Generationers, debt-ridden three-job-working Gen-X'ers and Gen-Y'ers, ex-"welfare mothers" struggling on minimum wage, formerly-middle-class folks losing their health care and their homes, maybe some of the homeless--and even some former die-hard Republicans who'd like to see the rule of law reestablished and applied to the criminals who are now in charge.
Persuade the few already-elected progressive politicians who have demonstrated their integrity by their voting records and who continue to lead--my WI Senator Russ Feingold comes to mind--along with those who have served the interests of the people well in the past--Bill Bradley, Robert Reich, Donna Shalala, John Dean (!), Jimmy Carter, Joycelyn (sp?) Elders, just a very few who come to mind--persuade them to mix in the old left of the Democrat party, sprinkle with some true Dem centrists, and frost with all the young new activists out there, and maybe we'll end up with a big, fat "Progressive Party" cake, as it were.
So there's my proposal. I'm asking you. I'm telling you. I'm imploring you--don't wait on anything or anyone. Take your energy and your ideals and your cynicism and your innovations and your connections and seize the moment. Refresh and then reinvent the process and the rules. Reinvent the status quo. Allow and then empower yourselves with the forbidden luxury of informed anger and outrage. Don't settle for the old models--create new ones. Go out and find your own leaders, while at the same time reforming and/or reinventing the entire election process. Start now and aim for steady yet rapid and aggressive growth--the planet won't likely survive anything else. Beat the system down before it beats you down. (And trust me, if things don't change drastically, it WILL beat you down eventually.)
Build on the best of past progressive movements; seek out the counsel and participation of some of those already inside the system, including leaders of Social Democratic countries; look to fresh sources and agents-for-positive-change in other disciplines: artists of every genre, writers, scientists, integrative medicine practitioners, environmentalists, engineers, architects, socially progressive economists (if such an animal exists). . .reinvent Congress altogether. And reinvent and invigorate a truly free and unbiased "press"--another quaint-sounding term--take over and take back the "mainstream" media from the corporate conglomerates. Save the Internet! And the list goes on. . .
I don't care whether I end up on the front page or not---I just hope enough folks will read and comment on this and come up with more ideas. If you've made it this far, thanks for sticking with me.