At least their aging parents protested for some good causes, like getting out of Vietnam. But this generation didn’t get nearly as riled up over Iraq as they did about their own government freebies. I don’t remember these kids, or their older siblings, turning out in such numbers or trying to shut down a major freeway over Iraq.
Generation Me, indeed.
The Vietnam generation was getting drafted and killed in Vietnam. The soldiers came home, some of them, and had horror stories whose punch line was “You’re next, kid.” They was also a massive Soviet campaign to spread anti war info and support.
The Iraq war has only one side of the story on display, and volunteer soldiers.
Good points, which bring to mind the fact that the Baby Boomers were pretty much the original Generation Me, and as you point out, the Vietnam protests can be seen to not necessarily run counter to that fact.
This story reminds me of those unbearably annoying “Generation We” drones.
It’s ironic, they are ready to protest themselves out of graduate school and I’m trying to get in. I was reading about all the protests in the local paper and all these kids are walking the streets with their little red wrist bands. What a completely moronic thing to do. Tuition is rising yet they aren’t going to the classes trying to get everything out of them, they are walking around the streets of Berkeley instead of staying in class.
I think the Boomers shining moment was the civil rights movement. Going to the deep south, getting themselves killed and beaten, non violence, nothing in it for themselves.
If we had some of that spirit now, a charismatic leader like King, we could get things done. Imagine a non violent mass jailing for not paying icome tax, say. Wild dogs loosed on little old ladies who don’t want to pay taxes, what an impression that would make, LOL.
They are only against the wars in so far as that the money being spend to fund the wars is not being spent on their education. If 9/11 would have occurred at UC Santa Cruz, I would not doubt that there would be less college students in the forests there and more of them signing up to fight the enemy that hates them for their education.
Anyway, they are also really gullible to the idea that a college education is necessary for them to succeed in life, and they have been told all their lives they deserve and are entitled to an education. Furthermore, they need to learn the tools necessary to analyze the world, and they yearn to be learned in the classics and… the point I am trying to make is the idea that they could be lefty intellectuals turns them on. There is no better feeling than knowing that you are smarter than the average, non-college educated Joey Fontana. Besides, there is no better life experience to prepare them for the globalized, real world than to live in the safe, isolated environment of a college campus and to travel to all the staged areas of Cuba. For all this, they call on their government to steal more.
I loved watching the protests on TV and pointing the really expensive stuff people are wearing. A Cal hoody, at least the good kind: $45. A Burberry scarf: $100+. A New Era hat: $25. That flannel shirt from Urban Outfitters: $90. Being at a protest to advocate more theft instead being at work to pay for college: Priceless.
Re: Shutting down that major freeway. No better way to piss off the taxpayer than to block their way home after a long day at work.
I remember going to class during the protests, expecting in full to have my class interrupted by protesters (I’m not sure if it was mentioned in the news networks, but several protesters wormed their way into classrooms and more or less forced any professors and students who hadn’t joined them to cancel the class). I was determined to confront them if they did and shove my economics book down their throats until they understood the calculation debate. For some reason or another though I kept arriving in class after they had left or left before they came. When I finally had my lunch break I decided to go find them myself, only to skip on the idea when I saw one of my professors leading them. I regret not going through with it now.
When I was heading home from a night seminar I managed to pull down several posters they had set up in the main halls, but it doesn’t exactly make up for things.
I have to admit to a level of hypocrisy; I oppose cuts to higher education, largely because I depend on theft to stay enrolled. But, I operate under the assumption that the state will tax no matter what, so my quip only suggests for government to transfer spending from one sector to another. I would never support increased taxation to make up the funds necessary to pay for public education. That said, I would much rather prefer me getting a job as an economist without a degree, but unfortunately few employers would take me seriously.
Darn it! Why can’t all the cool mass-action stuff happen where I live? I’d love to make a quick buck out of these affluent and misguided troglodytes [H]
Ah yes, protesting freedom of association and striking a major blow against property rights. Thanks to their ‘shining moment’ with their socialist leader King, we now have federal racial central planning - thanks for that, boomers.
To OP: I seem to recall Rothbard saying that as soon as Nixon canned the draft, virtually the whole anti-war movement collapsed like a wet paper bag.
Seriously, screw the boomers, and their new counterparts (these “Generation We” tools).
I love explaining to both groups of people how I am against everything they think is good; equality, democracy, “progress”, their so called integration and diversity (Orwellian terms to describe their policing of cultures and the current state of “race relations” that have resulted from it).
Plus, protests for the most part are, well, insincere,overly theatrical, and devoid of clarity.
It is bad when the leftists do it, but it is cringe worthy when tea party people do it. I can’t stand it, read a god damn book instead of shouting at people who don’t care.
Isn’t this…
akin to just tweaking their nose, and is basically just as ineffective as this…?
A lot of people on this forum are renegade members of Generation We, who themselves used to be leftist. So I’m not sure a “screw 'em” approach harnesses the opportunities at hand.
I get personal enjoyment out of it for one, and also it does open people’s eyes that someone out there who is not a dumb red neck opposes them. It is a shaking moment that is good for them.
Do you actually consider the whole generation (1970something to 2000) genetaion we or were you part of some group called that?
I am 18, I never thought of myself as “Generation We”.
Old people screwed up stuff for the younger people. I say we throw out “respect your elders”
They got the benefits and now we foot the bill. I’ve decided to have no mercy for the soon-to-be seniors. The job situation is terrible, the debt is unbearable, and we’re going to face a significantly worse living situation. I’d be more thankful if they had just left everything alone or as it was. : /
Related, an American friend of mine actually protested the war on the grounds that the money could be allocated towards keeping the cost of his university from rising. I really don’t understand how that works, I thought schools were run by states, could somebody explain where U.S. school funding comes from?
My friends who attend the local state university cannot fathom why everyone else would be against funding their school. Whats ironic is they attempt to speak all day on behalf of poor people around the state. I ask them all the time though, the same poor people being taxed into submission barely capable of attending a local community college?
Yea, what compassion.
As a student there are state loans and federal loans. There are grants as well, but I can’t remember if the grants are state, federal, or both. I’m only dealing with the bills of loans now so the grants, are given without my direct payback like loans with interests, I threw them out of my memory apparently, but I am reminded monthly of those loans.