Space Management

by poputonian

In a course called, “From Reform to Revolution: Youth Culture in the 1960s,” a Harvard professor and his students study something they call the New Leftists:

Some of my students suggested that they might not even be capable of experiencing the kind of indignation and disillusionment that spurred many baby boomers toward activism. In the Vietnam era, the shameful dissembling of American politicians provoked outrage. But living in the shadow of Vietnam and Watergate, and weaned on “The Simpsons” and “The Daily Show,” today’s youth greet the Bush administration’s spin and ever-evolving rationale for war with ironic world-weariness and bemused laughter. “The Iraq war turned out to be a hoax from the beginning? Figures!”

The students who took my seminar were a particularly serious-minded and delightful bunch. Most of them came to admire the pluck and panache of the New Leftists we studied, and they were quick to recognize how frequently the concerns of Vietnam-era protesters dovetailed with their own complaints against the Iraq war. Some even wistfully remarked that they would like to be part of a generational rebellion.

But they doubt that this is likely to happen. “Just like [in] the 1960s, we have an unjust war, a lying president, and dead American soldiers sent home everyday,” one student wrote me in an e-mail. “But rather than fight the administration or demand a forum to express our unhappiness, we accept the status quo and focus on our own problems.”

Interesting article, and certainly some valid points. No mention, though, of the changes in communication technology and the radically different outlets for expression, such as the internets. Nor is there any mention of the extended reach one can accomplish with blogs, YouTube, MySpace, text messaging … whatever. My kids aren’t protesters, but they do feel utter contempt for the president, and they talk about it around school and through their own communication venues.