I am impressed because they are so much more optimistic and idealistic than they should be. I am baffled because they are so much less radical and politically engaged than they need to be…
It’s for all these reasons that I’ve been calling them “Generation Q” — the Quiet Americans, in the best sense of that term, quietly pursuing their idealism, at home and abroad.
But Generation Q may be too quiet, too online, for its own good, and for the country’s own good. When I think of the huge budget deficit, Social Security deficit and ecological deficit that our generation is leaving this generation, if they are not spitting mad, well, then they’re just not paying attention…
…“Courage.” That is what real activism looks like. There is no substitute. ”
I feel the same about Indian university students. They have turned so conformist. Didn’t J Krishnamurti say: “To be young means to be bold”?
I am too young to forget and too old not to have seen Jayaprakash Narayan’s second independence movement, peopled by university students across the country, during 1975-76.
Today’s youth, at least those in public domain, are largely sons, daughters, nephews and nieces of established, wealthy politicians. How can they rebel? They need to be rebelled against!
In another scathing essay “The Fakebook Generation” ( NYT October 6, 2007), ALICE MATHIAS writes: “…Facebook purports to be a place for human connectivity, but it’s made us more wary of real human confrontation…
...For young people, Facebook is yet another form of escapism; we can turn our lives into stage dramas and relationships into comedy routines….”
Generation pretending to be active but essentially numb!
Artist: Perry Barlow The New Yorker 9 October 1948
I couldn't agree More. Everyone is sleep walking...but perhaps its a defence mechanism against the futility of fighting and losing. Unfortunately they probably realise that change requires self sacrifice and the willingness to engage with uncomfortable truths. This is a generation of comfort. When the world explodes they will all be eating hamburgers and surfing channels...
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