Unless something unprecedented happens in the next three years, the first decade of the 21st century will likely be remembered as a lost decade: a decade punctuated by an aimless and divisive war, spattered with terrorist attacks, and one during which people were fleetingly but admirably brought together by catastrophic natural disasters. All in all, it will be remembered as our decade, and we will be remembered as the generation that sat back while the world unraveled and succeeded in doing nothing about anything.That's not to say I agree with the people who say activism in America is dead and go on to bemoan the apathy of everyone around them. Activism is still around. People still march, and protest and hold up signs. They still boycott products, and take off their clothes and sign petitions. But activism has grown old and haggard. Over time, its crisp efficacy has melted away and left behind a sticky, gooey angst that seems to thwart change more than it instigates it.
Our failure as a generation to incite change isn't linked to a lack of unrest or activism. It's linked to a lack of innovation. For all the white-haired, balding readers who saved America in the '60s and are brimming with the desire to provoke the next major change, I'm sorry. It's time for you to let go and let your children take over. It's time for you to get out of the way and let a younger generation lead this world in its chosen direction " a generation that is closer to the soul of this country and better understands the times we live in.
The problem with activism in America and the reason it has been unable to unhinge the status quo is that it is antiquated and outdated. Our problems are new problems, and our obstacles are new obstacles, yet we obstinately plod on and incessantly cast glances over our shoulders so we can imitate what happened in the 1960s. Naively, we think to ourselves and listen to our parents when they tell us, "It worked before so it will work again." But what do protests, posters and marches have to do with the Internet and the modern media? What does a war waged against communism have to do with the war in Iraq?
In a sense, protests and activism, as they are today, have lost their ability to cause change, because they are the wrong key for the lock. In this era of hyper-connectivity, protests and marches get co-opted by the media as soon as they are born, and, as a result, they stagnate before they can achieve their goals. In this era of three TVs in every household, wireless in every building, blogs, chat rooms, email, Facebook, AIM, Myspace, online gaming " with communication in general being the way it is " labels are passed out faster than cards at a casino. And once labeled, no matter what you say or do, no matter what signs or protests you hold, most of the world will stubbornly hear and see what they want.
It's time for us to realize that holding up a Clinton poster at a presidential debate isn't going to change anyone's mind or sway anyone's opinion. Today, in the 21st century, political posters and banners don't make us think twice. At most, they conjure up the fixed opinions we have already formed and remind us of how we weighed in when reading about the issue online or hearing about it on the news.
For our generation, it's important to remember that, unlike our parents, professors and politicians, we were born with basic civil rights and the freedom to speak; we're not fighting against McCarthyism or segregation. What we weren't born with was the right to be heard and seen through eyes and ears that were unclouded by biased judgment and narrow-mindedness.
It's not that we should cast off the older generations and wrinkle our noses at their ideas and lessons; we should respect and learn from the past. But at the same time, it is necessary at this point to take the next step and regard the formal education we were given as the foundation for our thoughts rather than the prescription. It's time to think and act for ourselves; innovatively, newly and according to the era we live in.
