How Does a Young American Student Stand Such Times and Live?
Kevin Gosztola
Chris Hedges, a writer whose work is frequently featured on Truthdig.com, recently wrote “It’s Not Going to Be OK.” His writing formed a dark but accurate representation of the world my young body is engulfed in right now.
I may not have done anything to make the world the way it is, yet I have a responsibility to respond appropriately in these times and must respond even if it means sacrificing an opportunity to move up a rung on the class ladder.
I have the capability to cling to the courage of my convictions and compel others to consider reacting to the concerns confidently rather than cynically.
Applied to today’s world, what does that mean?
Scratch the surface of any cynic and you will find a disappointed idealist, right? I happen to harbor jaded idealism that only becomes more jaded as the power of the people wanes. Perhaps, you do too, and so you wonder, what does it mean to have a responsibility to respond appropriately? Respond how?
If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
I wrote a letter to the editor that was published in my college’s newspaper. It was a call to students to come together and discuss creative, imaginative, and innovative solutions to the economic crisis this country faces. The call focused on how Student Government Association (SGA) at Columbia College Chicago, which I am a part of, is poorly representing the students because they are not responding to the fierce urgency of now.
A part of myself thought maybe some students would read the letter and react so I included the email addresses of the newspaper and the SGA so that students would write in suggestions for ways we could help students struggling; as service industry jobs are lost, college students will be hit hard because service industry jobs are what young students work to pay tuition.
But, I am not supposed to, as an At-Large Senator, write to a newspaper and speak out critically of a body I am a part of. Criticisms I harbor should be spoken in private and should not be uttered as a way of compelling a group or organization to take notice and act.
Not only did nobody publicly discuss my letter, but privately, they said read the letter and they passed it around as if they were in Mrs. Crabtree’s 4th grade class and the letter to the editor was an “I Love You” note from me to somebody I happened to like. This adolescent response in Student Government was met by stillness in the student body; perhaps someone will write something in the newspaper next week as a reaction but that’s about all I can expect in terms of an immediate reaction.
Why should any of this be of interest to you who struggles to make ends meet, you who goes to work, or you who takes your kids to school and picks them up from friends’ houses or takes them to the movies or the mall? Why should people who have no knowledge of my self care?
The college I go to is just a microcosm in America, but it is one where passivity, weakness, unawareness, naiveté, and indifference result in behaviors which build up a society that allows for prejudice, injustice, fear, and violence to triumph.
In fact, when SGA was in the process of doing something that would greatly benefit the students---granting the Cultural Studies department at Columbia $2000 for books to be used for students writing their theses because these books are expensive (about $25 each) especially in these times---the issue was not giving the money but the fact that if a proper checkout system was not established students would steal.
It is with great dismay that I say in these times, when people all around me are losing their jobs on a daily basis, my generation does not confront the harsh reality with dignity and compassion and a love for one another; no, we turn inward and become insipid, fearful, anxious, and spiritless.
My generation---We are the 9/11 Generation, not the Obama Generation.
We are the generation of “Us vs. Them” and not “Love and We.”
We are the generation of fright and same, not hope and change.
We are the generation who first grew up in a world of I.D. cards, metal detectors, security checkpoints, color-coded terror alerts, security cameras, and sex offender registries, etc.
We are the generation who remembers the day the towers fell and how those who were lost should never be forgotten, and by forgotten, far too many of us mean America will not fail to avenge the deaths that occurred on 9/11. United we will stand up against the enemy so America can remain #1.
We are the generation whose schools were more and more often the scene of school shootings or a place where militarization of education was occurring or where corporatization of learning accelerated by the No Child Left Behind Act took place.
We are the generation who are only against the wars after we see what it does to our loved ones; privately or publicly we pray that others fight it so our family and friends do not have to.
We are the generation who did not act when we were called upon to act. Indeed, young students from junior high through to college formed the backbone for the women’s rights movement, the civil rights movement, the anti-war movement during Vietnam, the anti-apartheid movement for South Africa, etc.
Now when the world needed to see students out in the street most, we were the generation who worried about what acting out would do to our grades, our parents, our well-being, and our future and who chose to instead go to the movies or the mall, play video games, update our MySpace or Facebook profile some more, text on our cellphones, talk to friends on AOL Instant Messenger, intoxicate ourselves with alcohol and other substances like pills and marijuana, and sleep.
We are the generation who in the past decade has had to work a job that takes up our free time so that college tuition can be paid for and so rather than being the main constitution of any peace movement against the war in Iraq or Afghanistan, we have been those doing what it takes to get by and those who spend the weekend anxious down on ourselves feeling powerless wondering what life is for.
So, why should I or others be surprised that in a Peace Studies class offered at Columbia College Chicago students talk about peace but do not cry out against the Iraq or Afghanistan War, the bombardment of Gaza by Israel, the genocides going on all over the continent of Africa in places like the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Sudan, or torture and abuse which turn men into fighters who wish to bring about more brutality and violence in the world?
Why should I be surprised that I who take it upon my self to follow news events closely and even analyze and respond to the stories sometimes am the only one in classes who know why an art exhibition on the Congo Women would be coming to my school? Why do I happen to be the only one who knows that hundreds of thousands of women (if not millions) are being raped because rape is being used as a tactic of war in a genocide where millions of people have been maimed, injured, and killed?
The students say, they don’t know because they don’t watch the news; it’s depressing. They don’t like to watch it because when they hear it they don’t know what to do. They hear it and it is overwhelming and the violence and brutality is happening everywhere so how can it possibly be stopped; they can’t do anything and are powerless.
Poor, pitiful artists! How can you be an artist and not think you can create anything that will help? Artists hold the power to tell stories and draw attention to terror and horror in a way that no other profession can.
And, it only gets worse with the 9/11 Generation as the financial doom and gloom continues to spread like a cancer. The 9/11 Generation becomes more and more focused on how to get by---how to pay the rent, pay for food, pay tuition, pay for health care, pay for transportation, pay the taxes, pay for student loans, pay for clothing, movies, music, and alcohol.
Each time the 9/11 Generation has time for Them, the generation considers Us or better, instead of We, they think Me. Students adopt a phony realism that bureaucratic government officials, policy wonks, and elitist newspaper editorial writers too often believe; the 9/11 Generation are adults who act like suburban kids and yuppie adolescent.
Hedges asked in “It’s Not Going to Be OK”:
“How will we cope with our decline? Will we cling to the absurd dreams of a superpower and a glorious tomorrow or will we responsibly face our stark new limitations? Will we heed those who are sober and rational, those who speak of a new simplicity and humility, or will we follow the demagogues and charlatans who rise up out of the slime in moments of crisis to offer fantastic visions? Will we radically transform our system to one that protects the ordinary citizen and fosters the common good, that defies the corporate state, or will we employ the brutality and technology of our internal security and surveillance apparatus to crush all dissent?”
Sadly, the time may have passed for my generation, not just the 9/11 Generation but the YouTube Generation, to do anything about it.
Unless another election extravaganza comes around in the next month or two, unless we are planning on beginning the next presidential election now, I see no reason to believe that college students will begin to heed any one who is speaking of a new simplicity or humility. I see no reason to think that there will be any mass action toward radically transforming our system to protect ordinary citizens and foster a common good
It seems the gimmicks and commercialism and hoopla of the presidential election which is now sold as a chance for young people to be heard is the only way students will act; acting outside the confines of the political system is beyond the realm of too many's imagination.
We are only as connected and as understanding of others if we take the initiative to read a new blog or webpage on the net or if others from outside the U.S. come to go to school in the U.S. from another country.
We are interconnected not by humanism or desires for peace, justice, and freedom but by the wires and electronics which form the Internet and the security-industrial complex that spans the world.
I am in the minority and surrounded by a majority who, if they take notice of all the horrors and terror perpetrated throughout the last eight years, do not take responsibility for allowing Bush to happen but choose to blame Bush. So, consequentially, with Bush gone and Obama in, change and reversal of the damage done has begun even though he makes no remarks about challenging the corporate structure of America or rethinking the American imperium.
My generation---the 9/11 Generation---do not know what they want from the world, they don’t know how to go out and fight for it, and they don’t know how to reject the narrative put forth by government, ask questions, and get angry.
The basic political instinct of anger which manifests hope for “the wretched of the earth” does not exist in the minds; without anger, there can be no hope and without hope, there can be no optimism, and without optimism, there can be no confidence, and with no confidence, there is no chance of finding peace within ourselves.
Without finding peace within ourselves, we cannot find the strength to wield the power we have as an individual.
So, idealistically and cynically, I say, with one condition, this country is finished if my generation is the future. Only if my generation can make the choice to do what we don’t know will we see future generations grow and live on this Earth.
Authors Bio: Kevin Gosztola goes to Columbia College in Chicago where he is studying film. He hopes to become a documentary filmmaker. He is a production assistant for CitizenKate.TV right now and went to the Inauguration. He is also currently working as a production assistant on a documentary called "Seriously Green" which traces the development of the Green Party throughout the 2008 election. He has a passion for journalism and writes articles or press releases for events in his spare time. He also enjoys writing movie reviews.
www.opednews.com/articles/How-Does-a-Young-American-by-Kevin-Gosztola-090205-857.html