04-25-2022, 12:09 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-25-2022, 12:11 PM by Eric the Green.)
(04-25-2022, 09:15 AM)David Horn Wrote:(04-24-2022, 05:56 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Young voters "who are not engaged" need to see this video.
https://youtu.be/7hZgg_KjvDQ?t=3277
I fully agree, but the real issue is, will they? In fact, it's worse, because they don't even know that such arguments exist and, even worse still, that it matters in any way to them personally. I wish it was otherwise.
The Millennials, it appears, do need to be aroused to get engaged. They will have to arouse themselves, though. Obama alone can't do it, nor can Biden. I'm not so sure that lack of engagement was true of the "Greatest" Generation GIs. Maybe. But once aroused, millennials have the cohesion and collegiality to get things done together, just as the GIs did. Involvement in politics has been denigrated, and I don't think this was entirely generational, but perhaps a consequence of prevalent free-market ideologies which are stronger today even than the similar ideology prevalent in the 1920s. But arousal can still happen. It may be harder, as during the pre-civil war era, to arouse people to look to change their own society, rather than meet an external enemy, and to have the courage and critical-thinking capacity to act to change it.
This capacity has been weakened by this prevalent neoliberal ideology of free-market uber alles, because civics education has been stripped away and democracy has been weakened by this ideology. Perhaps fatally-- or perhaps the consequences will be increasing so rapidly, as they are now, that people of all our current generations, empowered by the millennial generation's youth and cohesion, will say that they are mad as hell and won't take it anymore, and finally realize that this ideology will not be effective to create a better society, and they will now be willing to support a government as well as movements that change society.
The Millennial Generation has the unique role of reconstructing the approach to life and society the lack of which they themselves are the victims, which has resulted in their cynicism and lack of engagement, but which they are called to restore by the demands of the times. Each generation is called to restore the qualities lacking in the society in which they grew up. Now is the time for the Millennials to realize this. I thought 2022 would be the year, but perhaps the ingrown tendency established that midterms remove support from the president, this may have to wait until 2024. The more Millennials put off realizing their destiny though, the harder it will be to act it out.