Firstly, blogger is being weird and messing up my formatting. I'm working on this.
Secondly, I got a little defensive in
response to someone's commentary that the millennial generation is lazy and not
interested in reform and politics. Below is my rant:
Being of the
millennial generation that is so frequently criticized, I can promise you there
is a large body of people my age (I just turned 18) who are interested in
politics, voting and the future.
There was frequently passionate and heated
debate at my school about political and ethical issues, so I think it is unfair
to state that my generation is any worse than other generations when it comes
to political participation. I have a political blog, I keep up with current
events, I participated in a tele-town hall phone call lead by Leader Nancy
Pelosi and other liberal women in politics, I've been to an anti-war
demonstration, and I care greatly for the future.
That being
said, I have two theories as to why political participation in the United
States could be declining. One of my theories is humor complacency: I feel as
though political satire, a commodity great in small doses, increases cynicism,
and I feel people can get sucked into laughing at others' points of view and
simply criticizing without taking action themselves. I've written an entire
post on my blog about this called, "Critiquing Colbert."
My other
theory is a more widely shared one: apathetic complacency. People often don't
trust the government, and therefore they feel that even if they were to vote
and participate, their voice would not be heard. However, if you don't
participate because you have a defeatist and apathetic attitude, your voice
will definitely not be heard.
Take it or
leave it, these are my views and observation thus far.
End rant. I
don't think it's just the younger generation who is apathetic. I think we can
all be apathetic sometimes. It's easy to become discouraged. That being said,
awareness of apathy is the first step towards crushing it.
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