The Youth

After reading the article 8 Reasons Young Americans Don't Fight Back: How the US Crushed Youth Resistance, I have many differing opinions about what the author has to say about the issue he is bringing up. First, I believe that he has many valid points, yet as a Sociology and Ethnic Studies major it is hard not to be skeptical of his reasoning. He does not include a lot about the differences and difficulties that young people are faced with today that older Americans did not face a few decades ago, like the need for a college degree to be competitive in the job market, differing values in America, etc. It is important to realize how he frames the article makes it appear that young Americans are not doing something that others before them did, but there are clear differences between the generations and there are also many great things that the younger generations have and will do in the future that past generations did not have the capacity of doing. The first topic Levine discusses is student loan debt. The first thing that came to my mind when he stated that when he was in college it was affordable and he now sees people with up to 100,000 dollars in debt, I wondered if people his age would have stood up towards more affordable schooling. Also, you don’t have to go to a school that costs that much money, it is a choice, and most often you know you will incur that much debt from the get go. At schools that have high tuition you are paying for the prestige and power that University has, not for a greater education, though these schools do attract great professors I would argue that I have had some pretty great ones too, for much cheaper. In addition, there are other ways to pay for college such as financial aid and scholarships. I will graduate with absolutely no student loans and no debt thanks to a scholarship I receive for being a minority (I know I don’t look Cherokee, but I am, I promise). There are far more opportunities to help pay for school than there were many years ago, especially for minorities, as the interest in admitting more continues. Whether you try alternatives or accept the loans is up to you. Though I think tuition costs are ridiculous, I find it worth it for the knowledge I will attain and the usefulness it will provide in my future. Though I do think that other countries have the right idea about having free or at least affordable schooling, they clearly have differing values about what their country spends their money on and what is important to them. Though the United States says they value education, they send distinct messages about what they believe certain people will attain and how they value them, especially in elementary to high school. Also, by making college more and more expensive it makes it available to a small portion of people, so maybe we should be focusing more on making college more feasible for everyone and not how it makes the youth subdued. This should not be a problem that only faces the youth, since the older generations that didn’t have to pay an unreasonable amount for school are the ones that are making tuition costs so high. How does that even make sense? And eventually these people are going to need their kids to take care of them, unless they have a good retirement, and who will be able to with this 25-100,000 dollar debt they have? This is not just a youth problem. The next section about drugs given to children sounds like he just needed to have another reason for the article and isn’t the greatest evidence. For one, the DSM is in the 13th or 14th edition already and at one point being gay was listed in there as a mental disorder when not much was known or talked about on the subject. Obviously if that many people are being diagnosed there is probably a need for stricter guidelines so there is not over prescribing, but that is not something a child should be concerned with, the parents should have a problem with it more than anyone. The third statement about the schools not teaching democracy seems as if this is the only problem with education as if funding, resources, family structure and various other things do not create problems. Schools are also used as a socializing tool, since kids spend around 17,000 hours of their lives until high school graduation. Also, generalizing among schools does not help. Not all schools are like the way he explains and if they are there are things that need to change among our social institutions and our values as a country. I could go on in length about the rest of his topics, like the point about television which doesn’t actually give a reason why people are not acting and would need to act, just stating fact about what TV does, but I won’t. I do watch TV, but I don’t fit the generalization he claims. Yet the point about consumerism does seem to be Levine’s strongest argument, I believe that it is a problem especially since before studying the topic the past couple semesters did not have knowledge or seek knowledge about the products I consume. Though it is also not a youth problem. Also stating, “The more schooling Americans get, however, the more politically ignorant they are of America’s ongoing class war, and the more incapable they are of challenging the ruling class,” for some this may be true but for many it is not. It is also a great step that requirements in college make you take at least one class that will help you to better understand the greater outside world, like social justice or other various classes. There are many things that are not given to explain youth and social change as well, such as focusing on others. When I say that I mean that many people do to help causes and advocate for those that they consider worse off than they do. Also, ignorance or lack of knowledge accounts for a lot. If I don’t know any different it is hard for me to challenge something unless I know that at one point it was much different or that I am being treated different than others. Which is partly my fault and somewhat not. I cannot know everything. Another aspect that affects social change is age itself. Not to say that young people cannot create social change, because I whole heartedly believe that, but I know for myself that issues that will affect me later are not such a big deal to me now as they will be later. For instance, the fact that I am not trying to fight the Social Security issue is not on the top of my priorities, but that might change when I have a full time job and finances mean more to me. That is only a few years off, but a few years make a difference. Last, I would argue would be the changing of values, culture, etc with a social structure that is much slower to change. As I already stated this creates a lot more obstacles for the younger generations to overcome. The people that created it know how to work the system and have been doing it for years, the youth know a very limited time and don’t know much difference, but this will not stop us. There will be change, whether older generations think there is a lack of action or not.

We need more people like Michelle Obama. Saw this the other day and felt like it supplemented well. (The embedding won't work, i apologize guys!)

http://youtu.be/6yWchGCVpms