Sunday, January 21, 2007

When our young become angry, change will most certainly come.

I know it is a Sunday and news is perhaps a tad on the slow side, so I'll take this post by Glenn Greenwald with a little grain of salt.

It's rather ironic (and almost certainly not coincidental) that neoconservatives love, more than anything else, to strut around spewing tough-guy Churchill warrior rhetoric and to sermonize on the virtues of self-reliance -- and are characterized in their political views by a total lack of empathy for the plight of others - even though they have chosen extremely coddled, privileged lives feeding off the accomplishments and directives of their mothers and fathers. And quite significantly, the political Leader they found to represent their belief system, to personify their contrived warrior pose, and to implement their radical agenda -- George W. Bush -- is the most extreme version of that coddled and father-dependent personality one can find.

I see the point, but I don't believe this is an exclusive province of the neoconservative segment of society. There was a statistic I read recently (when I can find the link, I'll post it) that indicated an enormous shift in the trend of adults who still live off the largesse of their parents. It also stated there was an increase in the number of adults who also decide to live off the government at a certain age (mid-50's) after being laid off or lost their job in some fashion or another, rather than attempt to get a new job, more than likely at a lower pay than they were used to, and most certainly with little to no benefits.

We're in a time where the majority of people refuse to take responsibility for most everything about their lives. There's been an overall change that is not confined by a generation gap, of where responsibility lies everywhere else but at one's own feet. There is tremendous apathy toward anything global, and major disinterest in most things local. Lack of accomplishments are rationalized by many as society being against whatever their particular failure to act was. There is a great disconnect with individuals and their responsibility to those around them.

Education is the only avenue out of this banal belief, but I am discouraged by this country's educational system. Colleges, once the bastion of creative thought and new ideas, are being hampered by conservatives who believe in control of, rather than diversity of expression. The power to disseminate "opinion" as "news" is controlled such that outright factually incorrect ideas are made homogeneous, and any cry of "foul play" is labeled radical, fanatical and out of step with mainstream "thought."

I am encouraged, however, by the netroots and the ability to interact on the college level via the internet. When radicalism is encouraged, the push against the complacent prevalent attitudes results.

Radical:
1. of or going to the root or origin; fundamental: a radical
difference.
2. thoroughgoing or extreme, esp. as regards change from accepted or traditional forms: a radical change in the policy of a company.
3. favoring drastic political, economic, or social reforms: radical ideas; radical and anarchistic ideologues.
4. forming a basis or foundation.
5. existing inherently in a thing or person: radical defects of character.

When our young become angry, change will most certainly come.

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