It's disheartening when you passionately care about something and put effort into getting your message out only to be met with silence. Sometimes I'd prefer being attacked instead of the apathy.

I just try to remind myself that there's plenty I care about which I haven't responded to and not take it personal.

There's a no-fail way to light a fire under the apathetic arse of Gen Y. When they all get their A-1 cards in the mail they'll be pouring into the streets. Just ask any male Boomer who was able-bodied from about 1965 through 1973 and sweating at the idea of wearing The Uniform about "motivation"!

Personally, I haven't noticed more apathy among Generation Y, at least not compared to what 20-somethings were like when I was one...about 15 years ago.  I remember my first year of college having a political science professor from France telling us that American young people were incredibly compliant and apathetic compared to European young adults. Maybe Jimmy Blue is comparing Generation Y to teens/twenties in the 60's and 70's?

If anything, I have witnessed many of my peers who were activists in their 20's become more complacent with age and particularly with the arrival of children. I was thinking the other day how I was much more involved with social justice causes before having kids.  Now I spend way too much time  figuring out how to deal w/ my 3 year old's tantrums and too little protesting injustice.

"Last weekend I was driving through my hometown of Olympia when something struck me as peculiar. Cruising across the Fourth Avenue bridge downtown, I could see hundreds of people holding signs and yelling about the Iraq war."

So I have a knee jerk response to reading Blue's article and then a slightly more thoughtful one.

Knee jerk: huh? What are you doing complaining about the lack of one's fellow youth at the protest when you're driving past that very protest.

Slightly more thoughtful: A general feeling among 60's and 70's era activists I've been exposed to is to " never trust somebody under 30." While nobody I've known has taken that statement literally, the underlying sentiment is always the same: our youth are often too steeped in the comforts and powerlessness of modern American living to follow through in activism. Of course, it's often the formerly socially conscientious parents providing the houses with a t.v. in every room and steeping the kids in competitive resume and college application principles which allows precious little time for social awareness and implicitly encourages the support of an unsustainable system. Like many things, the problems begin at home. On that front, the liberal community has been getting out-bred.

"Anybody who doesn't know that politics is crime has got a few screws loose."

In the Course of Events

Well, I don't watch a whole lot of TV, but I am pretty apathetic towards war. I'm also pretty apathetic towards, racism, women's rights, sex crimes, the environment, etc. Do I not think them important? Sure, they are important. Do I find them so important that I'm willing to put a lot of time an energy into them? No. I have my beliefs, I do little things here and there, but none of those things affect me. Am I selfish? Sure! Am I ok with that? You bet! I choose to accentuate the positive...none of the above listed problems are very positive.

 With that in mind, I'm sure you can understand why I chose not to stand my sorry self on a bridge in the middle of downtown oly on a REALLY cold day about something that I don't necessarily care about. Why pretend to have enthusiasm for something as opposed to committing yourself to something you actually care about?

Oh, and technically I'm gen X I guess.