DOOM! Magazine

Posted by newageamazon on Saturday, April 17th, 2010

riot grrrls @ gay rights march april 1993 ©1993 Allison Acosta CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Hole is putting out a new album.  Flannel is back in style.  It seems that we’ve begun to rotate out of the 1908′s revival in culture and are moving into the 1990′s again.

Oh, but only in the whole “fashion and music” thing.  The political activism?  That’s just stupid.

Every four years during the presidential election we hear about the declining number of 18 to 24 year old voters.  Generally, less than 50% will cast a vote at all during the Presidential election.  The numbers peaked in 1972 (the first year 18 to 20 year olds has the right to vote) and again in 1992 (when President Bill Clinton was elected over incumbent George Bush).  While numbers did soar again in 2008 with the election of President Barack Obama, the number is still saddening: only about 48% of young people in the country voted.

Prop 8 Protest ©2008 MiseryXchord. All Rights Reserved

It’s not just in elections that we see the political apathy of young people.  Maybe I’m looking at the 1990′s through rose-colored glasses, but I seem to remember much more activism back then.  Environmental activism, women’s rights, AIDS awareness, these weren’t just causes famous people championed, they were something every day people and it seemed to me especially young people were very passionate about.  The 1990′s were when Queercore music is regarded as going mainstream, and when Riot Grrrl started and exploded as well.

And now, when the invention of the Internet should make it easier for activism to spread, where it should be more simple than ever to research and support a cause, I see generations beneath me drenched in pure political and social apathy.

Between young people ranting about their favorite celebrities involving themselves in politics (apparently, liberal musicians who heavily endorsed Obama were just supposed to keep their influential mouths closed and play their singles), young people saying that they don’t “care if the world burns” so long as they can look at attractive pictures of celebrities and young people flat out stating there’s no reason to get involved and stand for something because “you can’t change the world,” it’s a scary, scary place to be.

Most frightening is that idea of “you can’t change the world, so just shut up.”  Because while it’s true, it’s very difficult for one person to change the world, if nobody tries, how the hell are we going to get change?  Of course it’s an uphill battle, of course there is a huge chance of failure (look at how groups rallied against the Stupak Amendment to the recent health care bill, and how they failed in spite of it all), but if you don’t try, well, what have you gained?

Get Rid of Bush ©2006 Danny Hammontree CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

It’s actually something I trace back to the 2000 election, actually.  When you see a candidate win the popular election but lose because, shucks, he didn’t win in the RIGHT states, it makes you feel powerless.  When the candidate who won, despite getting fewer votes, spends years starting wars, cutting taxes for his friends and cronies and fear mongering to stay in power, it makes you wonder what you can do to change anything.  If every vote really counted, if every voice was important, how could something like this happen?

It was defeating.  It was demotivating.  And I can see where it could lead to the idea of “I don’t care.”  And when politics end up seeming not to care about you or your future, unless that future involves you knee deep in sand shooting at people over oil?  Yeah, that’s not going to make you want to run out and get involved, necessecarily.

But defeat is a part of life.  And that’s in the past.

Thanks in part to young voter turn out, we have a President in office who does seem to at least pay lip service to the future of the country, who has talked about ending wars and making it easier to pay for an education and has even fought to ensure young people have access to health care.  Is this perfect?  No, far from it.  President Obama’s election doesn’t mean people can sit back and wait for the world to change.  It means that now we have someone in office who will listen to what we have to say, so it’s time to raise our voices even louder.  It’s time to hold him to those promises he made us during his campaign.  An election isn’t an end, it’s a beginning.

So I encourage all those young people out there, disillusioned as they might be, to raise their voices in support of SOMETHING.  Sites like Do Something.org and Rock the Vote have information on how you can get involved and help to change things.  Because I think we all agree that some change is due.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, April 17th, 2010 at 3:02 PM. It is filed under Blog, Commentary, New Age Amazon and tagged with Activism, dosomething.org, Rock The Vote. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.