Apathy runs rampant in Generation X
Henry Balling IV
Issue date: 12/4/09 Section: Opinion
"Your generation sucks!"
The words of a San Franciscan homeless man caught me off guard. So I mustered the only reply I could think of quickly.
"Sorry, man."
After that encounter in the Haight/Ashbury section of the city, I began thinking maybe he is right.
My generation is not particularly evil, but it's not exactly good either. We are the most apathetic, boring generation in recent memory.
Our idea of a protest is joining a group on Facebook or wearing a T-shirt with a clever quip. We don't truly rally behind any cause.
To all those people who join Facebook groups, I say one thing: nobody cares that a million people hiding behind computer screens are concerned about an issue. You have to make a statement in public.
When I attended East Aurora High School, an openly gay teacher organized a Day of Silence to support gay rights. For two out of the four years I attended, I was the only male to participate. I'm not even gay. Following high school, I've heard that several of my classmates have come out. Where were they?
They were probably afraid their classmates would call them gay. Nobody ever said those words to me, though.
The argument could be made that global warming is our rallying cry. However, it's people like Al Gore more than our generation who have carried the banner for going green. We haven't brought any meaningful change for the issue.
I have a lot of friends who are angry about the cost of a secondary education. Even a public education has become incredibly expensive. Still, the main outlet for that anger has been to bitch and moan and do a whole lot of nothing. The cost of an education is ridiculous. We're destroying the next generation by making an education available only to the moderately wealthy.
Still, the best solution a friend and I have found is to sit in his barn and complain.
Everyone is angry about something they perceive as unjust. Take your pick of racism, sexism, military involvement, lack of political change, the incredibly dumb two-party system or the cute and cuddly polar bears disappearing.
Just do something about it. Hold a sign up in front of Plassmann Hall or disagree with an opinion your professor puts forth in class.
I don't want to look back at my life (providing I have medical coverage or social security to get me to old age) and think I did nothing to positively change the world.
If we don't change, we'll have nothing to show we were here. So keep up with the status quo, college kids, and you'll have a lot to complain about and nothing to be happy about.
Rock musician Kurt Cobain recognized the problem has existed since the generation of teenagers from the '90s; the so-called "Generation X."
"My generation's apathy. I'm disgusted with it. I'm disgusted with my own apathy, too, for being spineless and not always standing up against racism, sexism and all those other -isms the counterculture has been whining about for years."
I'm sorry to say we've done nothing to change that.
The words of a San Franciscan homeless man caught me off guard. So I mustered the only reply I could think of quickly.
"Sorry, man."
After that encounter in the Haight/Ashbury section of the city, I began thinking maybe he is right.
My generation is not particularly evil, but it's not exactly good either. We are the most apathetic, boring generation in recent memory.
Our idea of a protest is joining a group on Facebook or wearing a T-shirt with a clever quip. We don't truly rally behind any cause.
To all those people who join Facebook groups, I say one thing: nobody cares that a million people hiding behind computer screens are concerned about an issue. You have to make a statement in public.
When I attended East Aurora High School, an openly gay teacher organized a Day of Silence to support gay rights. For two out of the four years I attended, I was the only male to participate. I'm not even gay. Following high school, I've heard that several of my classmates have come out. Where were they?
They were probably afraid their classmates would call them gay. Nobody ever said those words to me, though.
The argument could be made that global warming is our rallying cry. However, it's people like Al Gore more than our generation who have carried the banner for going green. We haven't brought any meaningful change for the issue.
I have a lot of friends who are angry about the cost of a secondary education. Even a public education has become incredibly expensive. Still, the main outlet for that anger has been to bitch and moan and do a whole lot of nothing. The cost of an education is ridiculous. We're destroying the next generation by making an education available only to the moderately wealthy.
Still, the best solution a friend and I have found is to sit in his barn and complain.
Everyone is angry about something they perceive as unjust. Take your pick of racism, sexism, military involvement, lack of political change, the incredibly dumb two-party system or the cute and cuddly polar bears disappearing.
Just do something about it. Hold a sign up in front of Plassmann Hall or disagree with an opinion your professor puts forth in class.
I don't want to look back at my life (providing I have medical coverage or social security to get me to old age) and think I did nothing to positively change the world.
If we don't change, we'll have nothing to show we were here. So keep up with the status quo, college kids, and you'll have a lot to complain about and nothing to be happy about.
Rock musician Kurt Cobain recognized the problem has existed since the generation of teenagers from the '90s; the so-called "Generation X."
"My generation's apathy. I'm disgusted with it. I'm disgusted with my own apathy, too, for being spineless and not always standing up against racism, sexism and all those other -isms the counterculture has been whining about for years."
I'm sorry to say we've done nothing to change that.
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