Apathy

As a teenager in this day and age, it's easy to forget about the rest of the world. Our lives are just so interesting that it's all too simple to just become self-absorbed. And it happens. We forget about current events and think only of our next Foco froyo.

And then we see something like this...


This picture (Robert Stolarik for the New York Times) was taken in the area surrounding the G-20 conference, a naturally controversial zone- complete with armed policemen and tear gas. The man being arrested was a protester of the conference.

This in and of itself is not unusual at all. Whenever world leaders get together, something like this happens. However, what I think we fail to do is examine why things like this happen. What is this man protesting? He may be wrong or he may be right but he's passionate about this conflict. More to the point, if there is conflict such as this in the world, why are we sitting back and ignoring it instead of thinking about what's going on? And taking stances on these issues?

A few decades ago, the teenagers and youth of this country were among the most politically active groups in the nation. Perhaps this can be blamed on the draft; when the draft was in effect, eighteen-year-olds had to worry about the feds calling them to fight and die for their country. We the present-day teenagers, on the other hand, are not going to be sent overseas to fight- so we don't have a personal life-and-death reason to protest (at least, no immediate reason). And so we don't protest.

I think that we should reconsider our generational apathy. Let's take a good look at our collective political identity. Does it even exist? Especially we, as Dartmouth students and therefore among the most intelligent in the nation, need to examine the role we take in these crucial times.

So think about it. Will we be apathetic? Or will we decide to think and participate... and make this world a better place?