The New Student Activism - NYTimes.com
The Kids Are Alright.
They are hip to the Occupy Movement, Wall St. national embezzlement, and a sense of what Arab Spring populism can bring to pass.
The next generation of college students are progressive, nuanced, and not apathetic.
"...People in positions of power, I think they believe nothing is going to happen,” she said. “We’re just going to yell and scream and hold up signs and nothing’s going to change. But you’ve got an entire generation of people that realize something is wrong and something has to change because the system is wrong. There’s more of us than there are of them.”
"...“I’m not sure it would’ve happened if Occupy Wall Street wouldn’t have started,” said Marina Keegan, of the Morgan Stanley protest at Yale, where she is a senior. “Definitely people are starting to think more critically about their choices after graduation and how they affect not just themselves, but the world.”
I encourage you to read the whole story and get a glimpse of where the future and next generation will take us.
A collection of ideas, letters, opinions, and inspiration. On freedom, on Generation X, modern society, the ethereal dance of the unconquered mind (ok, that's the name of a photo exhibit in San Jose, but it's nifty sounding), the Democratic Party, how much rock and roll and the web will fuel activism, things worth chronicling, things we can improve, and the future.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
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Sunset, Venice 12/20/2012
I've been thinking some about the Winter Solstice, the Mayan end of the 30,000-year-cycle on 12/21/12.
What if in fact the world did end? Even though this probably will not happen, to live consciously it is honest for us to take a bit of an inventory.
Am I happy with how I've lived my life? (Yesterday, I thought mostly yes, with some areas for improvement, as below.) Are there changes I would make?
Would I have tried to forgive those that were hostile or disappointing to me?
Would I spend more time with those I loved the most, telling them that, feeling that more?
Would I be happier, grateful for what I have, what I've experienced, the joy, the beauty in this world?
Maybe the answer is yes to all of the above.
So this time can serve as a point of rebirth for all of us. If we think about it.
Because somewhere along the line I realized I think maybe mankind deserves it. !
The way we are killing each other, killing the planet.
How selfish we are, and snotty to those around us. Petty, competitive. Why is this? Do we have to behave this way? (I say no, it greatly detracts and misdirects energy from the full-time celebration in which we could engage, the great multi-cultural, multi-rhythmic dance we can sustain here.)
Maybe God or the Great Universe is fed up, and will pull the rug out from under us.
Don't think I can say we could blame Him/Her/It.
But it probably won't happen. (Probably not! This time.)
Still we are finite on this ride.
It is a time to think, am I happy with how I've lived my life?
Hopefully most of us can say yes.
For the part of us that have a little worry, a little sadness....
This is the time to be present.
This is the time to be the person you want to be, that can die at peace, that can hope to every day be able to look yourself and the Universe in the eye and say, how beautiful, smiling, and thank you. Let's do that.
What if in fact the world did end? Even though this probably will not happen, to live consciously it is honest for us to take a bit of an inventory.
Am I happy with how I've lived my life? (Yesterday, I thought mostly yes, with some areas for improvement, as below.) Are there changes I would make?
Would I have tried to forgive those that were hostile or disappointing to me?
Would I spend more time with those I loved the most, telling them that, feeling that more?
Would I be happier, grateful for what I have, what I've experienced, the joy, the beauty in this world?
Maybe the answer is yes to all of the above.
So this time can serve as a point of rebirth for all of us. If we think about it.
Because somewhere along the line I realized I think maybe mankind deserves it. !
The way we are killing each other, killing the planet.
How selfish we are, and snotty to those around us. Petty, competitive. Why is this? Do we have to behave this way? (I say no, it greatly detracts and misdirects energy from the full-time celebration in which we could engage, the great multi-cultural, multi-rhythmic dance we can sustain here.)
Maybe God or the Great Universe is fed up, and will pull the rug out from under us.
Don't think I can say we could blame Him/Her/It.
But it probably won't happen. (Probably not! This time.)
Still we are finite on this ride.
It is a time to think, am I happy with how I've lived my life?
Hopefully most of us can say yes.
For the part of us that have a little worry, a little sadness....
This is the time to be present.
This is the time to be the person you want to be, that can die at peace, that can hope to every day be able to look yourself and the Universe in the eye and say, how beautiful, smiling, and thank you. Let's do that.
1 comment:
To Whom It May Concern:
I really don't know what to say about student activism in the 21st. Century except to say that as usual it comes down to personal decisions.
It is evident that the Occupy Wall Street protests were/are driven by something. I guess it is an objection to the greed of Wall Street and how that effects the average Joe on the street.
Students specifically should have seen the writing on the wall from a Time Magazine article in the 1980's. It described how Pres. Ronald Reagan was re-vamping the student loan program and that, of course, students were going to end up owing more money.
Also, intelligence agencies infiltrate and direct protest movements to ensure that the status quo does not change or even that the status quo changes in the direction the particular agency or agencies wants. This must be articulated by a large newspaper like The New York Times but unsurprisingly it is not mentioned.
If the issue is the one per cent versus the ninety-nine per cent, then this intelligence issue must be loudly articulated to the masses.
Also, how are these one percent people getting such an enormous slice of the pie? (I think it is fiat currency.) And then how is this discrepancy peacefully addressed.
But no matter how hard the powers that be come down on the protesters, it is heartening to see that the protesters are still protesting. People know they are born free with rights given only by our creator. Nothing has ever taken away those rights in the past over the long term and nothing ever will. Now is a determinate time for personal decisions.
What a fantastic site. Truly professionally organized and such pertinent content. Kudos to Colby Allerton.
CanuckBuck weighs in.
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