Mother Jones' 15th annual student activism roundup
Hellraisers: the Next Generation
News: From the eco-MBA to the Christian hipster, college activism is alive and kicking—but what today's students care about might surprise you.
this spring, we posted a survey at motherjones.com to find out what our readers think about the state of student activism. How do today's campus movers and shakers stack up to their peace-marching, draft-card-burning, hunger-striking forebears? Among the respondents, the consensus was clear: 85 percent said students today are less politically active than they were in the '60s. So where have all the hellraisers gone? Many are online. Nearly half of current college students told us that the future of activism is digital. But nearly two-thirds also said the future is on campus. Flesh-and-blood action is far from an anachronism, but it's becoming unthinkable without social networking tools. To see how this mix of the old and the new works, look no further than Obama's young campaigners. They've got online organizing down to a science, but unlike the Deaniacs, they've mastered old-school skills like canvassing, door knocking, and phone banking. In November, we'll see if they pass their biggest test: luring their peers to the polls.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
Kiera Butler is an associate editor at Mother Jones.
Leigh Ferrara is the research editor at Mother Jones.
So my answer is to bloom where you are planted among the PEOPLE whose lives you can actually affect. Do good just for the good of it. Period.
But this just seems to poke fun at youth in general, implying that we are all superficial phonies, as though our parents' generation was any more real. Any more informed. Any more genuine.
Surely Mother Jones is aware of how difficult the public/mainstream dissemination of information is. That doesn't mean that there aren't informed youths. On campus or anywhere.
Anyway, while I agree that kids are lame and stupid, this seems like an idealist, misinformed picture of youth that assumes the Boomers were any more aware or active before there was a draft.
"ending sex slavery, starting Bible study in a bar" progress ending slavery and regressive bible studies, a typical Christian ploy attach something worthy to something dubious, like the missionaries who do good work giving people the necessities of life but in exchange they seek opportunity to indoctrinate their children. It will never end...
I am surrounded by these people everyday - student government senators, independent student journalists, hunger strikers, demonstrators, organizers, etc.
Students as a whole may be more apathetic, but I would argue this is due in large part to the inadequate nature of the media and the complacency bred by mindless consumerism.
But this is changing. Students everywhere are starting to make change. We are banking on the energy created by the national elections and we plan to keep the fight alive after Nov. 4.
Which activist would best represent us in the above diagram? None of the above. We are a small, but growing, force fighting for the greater good.