Tuesday, January 18, 2011
The Aversion to Public Life and its Controversies
Our discussion tonight about the large and growing portion of the younger generation's aversion to public life, particularly when the prospect of conflicting viewpoint beckons, is a huge unsolved mystery to me. So is the notion, so clearly expressed by several seminar members, that remaining "insulated" from contact via news sources from public life requires no special effort by young people today; indeed, it's easy -- apparently given the wide range of gadgets (XBOX, Facebook, cells, etc.) that provide alterative sources of attraction or distraction. Also disturbing is the virtual disappearance of diads composed of individuals holding differing political views, as in the day when Don Canfield and I would look forward to mixing it up and learning from one another over coffee before he moved on to St. Olaf and the political environment changed. I talk about the value of learning from those who see the world differently; Wartburg promotes the idea of diversity in part for its educational benefits: we might have our opinions validated by others who think like us, but John Stuart Mill had a good point when argued that individuals who'd not had their opinions challenged by those with differing views could not be said to truly know what they actually believed or why. I can't be sure, but I'm inclined to suspect that in this group of a dozen people, counting me, there is a reasonably wide range of attitudes present. The common denominator, presumably, is an untypically strong interest in public affairs; beyond that, I suspect, we adhere to different political-economic-international worldviews. Hopefully future class sessions will provide ample opportunites for probing and exploiting these differences, as sources for learnings and/or sources of inquiry projects later this term. And, speaking of later this term, it's not too early to float a trial balloon for a topic or book for our post-Ricci sessions.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree with you, DT, but I still think part of the problem is that, at least in the area of politics and government, the arena has grown so much to a point that it's hard to keep up with everything. Sure, it's easy to go to CNN.com or any other news site and read, but I think most young people are intimidated by the mere tonnage of information available. I know, you're going to say that young people are lazy, and generally speaking, yes, we are. But perhaps the better question is, then, how do we get our states' delegations to come speak to young people and engage them in the political discourse without thinking it's a "waste of time" because "young people don't vote!" It seems like a circular problem, and one possible way to cure the dilemma is for our delegates to engage in the youth, even if it's not the best use of their time.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I should get back to my trial brief...have a great semester, everyone!
Welcome back to Obamadogs, Mr. Nadipuram. It's cool that post-Wartburgers still grab a moment and weigh in with a thought despite the fact that PS460 is an ancient memory. Good on ya, along with Mr. Muldoon.
ReplyDeleteNo, I'm not going to say "you're lazy" or any other such thing. But neither do I find that the sheer volume of information available offers a persuasive explanation for Gen Y's aversion to public life. Now if you were to say "the prodigious volume of alternative ways to spend your time" -- and by that refer to doing Facebook, iPad, texting, surfing the web, downloading music or otherwise utilizing the social network without so much as referring to headlines about our commonwealth -- then I might agree with you. But we find time for that which is meaningful to us, even as first-year Law students! If it floats your vote to weigh in with your take on an observation about your generation's seeming indifference to public life, you'll weigh in. Floating your boat, here, may not mean the same thing for all who post comments on Obamadogs. You might be seeking feedback on a hypothesis about which you are not sure; you might be seeking to broaden your own already immense social network by standing up for your fellow young people as if my post was intended to put them down and blame them for their political indifference. You might be just taking delight in take exception with a former professor in a public forum. It really doesn't matter; what matters is that you chose to enter a dialogue about GenY's antipathy to things political when you had a brief to do and a ton of alternative choices as escape from the brief--from going to Facebook to texting to watching TV to checking out the coffee houses in IA City. Kapiche?
I don't think you can blame the delegates on this one. The problem is with our generation's inability to have a passion about anything except facebook. They have chosen not to be a voice in the conversation and debate so naturally they have been ignored by their own delegates. If our generation just learned how to engage others in a thoughtful manner, things would be different. They want everything to be handed to them instead of going out and getting it themselves. If you build it (a passionate youth who care about things that are happening around them) they will come (the delegates because they have no other choice).
ReplyDeleteI aGrEE wItH c0-$eNat0R CorBIn (why do I use such unconventional typing? Of course, I am trying to attract more young people to this blog). I'm just gonna go ahead and say it, young people are lazy. But so are other age groups as well. I don't want to get into an argument on which generation is the laziest one. In my generation, apathy is the new cool. Now, that is a long-shot claim, but lets look at what kind of music we listen to for example...Lady GaGa, Ke$ha, Lil Wayne, and so on. What kind of message are they conveying? Party, have fun, f**k the world, make it rain, etc. On youtube we find: Lady GaGa - Just Dance, 130,000,000 views; Ke$ha - We R Who We R, 27,000,000 views; and Lil Wayne - Drop The World with 31,000,000 views...Thats a lot of views. Again, pop culture is "zombifying" the youth. Jersey Shore, Tosh.0, Teen moms, whatever it might be. I think this is exactly what DT brought up with the point of distractions. This is all distractions from the real world (no I am not talking about MTV's Real World).
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the world we are living in is shit. I don't like it at all. Yes, I am very cynical, but hiding from the harsh reality of this world is not making the world better. I know this for a fact as I was hiding during my two first year at college...thinking that substance abuse was the path to "nirvana". Anyways, what I am saying is that we need to act instead of giving in to our distractions. I propose we do something radical that will send our generation and others a message.
(I apologize if my message is unclear or whatever, but, my thought on this matter are overwhelming).
Coming from a country that is totally different from the US, I believe that culture also has a big role to play in this "insulation of the self" that is so rampant here. From personal experience, I feel that most college students do not interact with each other because there is a cultural component to it. With individualism so strongly dominating everyone's lives, one might think it is ok to do what you want including not interacting with others. I have felt more isolated from the world after I got to the US although the means of communication here are far advanced. I am in no way criticizing the culture here, just pointing the differences that exist between two very different cultures. One other thing would also be the lack of family pressure that exists in most Asian societies. There has always been that drive to succeed to make one's family proud and I was made aware that I would be the bread-winner of the house when my parents would retire. So I have learned, the most privileged you are, the lazier one gets (as from my very own experience).
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with Bibek unfortunately because I personally thing that college students interact with each other way too much, and do not take the time to invest in their personal and intellectual development. the reason why people spend alot of time on facebook is because we have become too interested in what other people are doing, even if what they are doing is non-productive. Another thing is that we have become a nation of "exhibitionists" in every sense of the term. By that, i mean that we have cultivated the notion in which we think everything we do is interesting. From sending nude photos of ourselves to other people and making "sex-tapes", to posting every single one of our daily activities on facebook. This needs to stop! In addition, there is an over-glamourization of bad behavior on television, in shows like jersey shore and teen mom, which makes people think that those things are indeed acceptable in our society.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with the notion Bibek presents here. It is an interesting, though provoking comment that the more privileged one is, the more lazier one gets. Put in other words, the more privileged one is, the more one loses an understanding on how privileged one is. I will certainly admit that it wasn't until college I (from Norway...very privileged) realized that I was living a pathetic life because I didn't care too much for things that happened beyond the tip of my nose. I don't think my case is unique and therefore I agree with Bibek. We do not realize how good we have it.
ReplyDeleteAs to olipolitics, I agree with the dumbifying effects of pop culture. Can we ban MTV?