"... point us in the diretion of some kind of political enlightenment and psychic relief."

I can't recommend this column enough.

I am surrounded by people my age who each seem to be on an individual quest to personally define "ennui." There is virtually no one in my life who is ambitious or driven in any way.

Sure, some of us have careers and some of us don't. Some of us have goals and some of us don't. Some of us have "success" and some of us don't. Whatever end of the spectrum we find ourselves on, there doesn't seem to be much purpose or hope these days... just day after day that comes to a close with us figuring out how to make rent, dodge bill collectors, finish school despite the fact that doing so seems like it will leave us worse off than we already are.

Unlike the author of the column, my friends aren't all activists. But many of my friends are smart, are thoughtful and have real and distinct opinions on important issues.

We just don't have any real feeling that we'll be able to do anything about them. The real world is just too big and too fucked up for that.

I have searched and hoped for some sort of a fresh and real social or political movement to hitch my wagon to. But everything that comes along with any sort of promise just ends up proving itself to be a lie at worst and impotent at best.

So, we do one of two things: We delve into the minutiae of it all -- divide and conquer, become an expert at one part of something -- or we give up. There seems to be a lot more giving up.

I love this paragraph:

We are painstakingly composing our Facebook profiles because we did our daily round of news sites, and it left us feeling powerless and unsafe, like the only place to put our energies was inward. We are studying abroad because it feels like the only obvious way to interact with the world we care so deeply about. We are dancing at house parties on Friday nights because we talked about your op-ed, the war in Iraq, rape in Congo, but in the end, we just felt overeducated and underutilized.

That's the thing about my my my generation... we all want to do something: It just seems increasingly unreasonable to think that we can affect anything. I don't know what the answers are... and I know that this seems like an incredibly dark post... I really don't intend it to be... That column just seemed to really define a feeling that I think many of my peers will identify with. That seems like it's important to get down on paper.

UPDATE: I have to quote this paragraph too:

My generation tries to create lives that seem to match our values, but beyond that it's hard to locate a place to put our outrage. We aren't satisfied with point-and-click activism, as Friedman suggests, but we don't see other options. Many of us have protested, but we -- by and large -- felt like we were imitating an earlier generation, playing dress-up in our parents' old hippie clothes. I marched against the war and my president called it a focus group. The worst part was that I did feel inert while doing it. In the 21st century, a bunch of people marching down the street, complimenting one another on their original slogans and pretty protest signs, feels like self-flagellation, not real and true social change.

That sums up far more eloquently than I was able to do what I felt when I went down to Crawford when Cindy Sheehan was there. There were real people with a real sense of outrage down there and they were there because they wanted to do something, but it all felt like we were putting on a pageant.

Comments

[Chuck]

I'm not sure what generation I belong to or whether arbitrary measures like age define much of anything, but I definitely get the frustration and exhaustion described in the column, the sense that marching in anti-war protest does little to cause change.

But I think there are pockets of genuine change that are worth noting. Outraged calls to the Blue Dog Dems who represent Fayetteville convinced them to reverse their votes on SCHIP. An alliance of groups have stemmed the tide of media consolidation. So I wouldn't underestimate the power that activists can have, even if we have to fight constantly.

Of course, there are many areas where we've had very little effect (such as the war in Iraq).

[Dylan]

Yeah... the power of the few can certainly do some good. I guess I'm just losing faith that the power of the few will eventually grow to the power of the many.

I just feel like I keep waiting for our version of Camelot and I'm just beginning to believe that the system is so screwed up now that it isn't achievable.

Of course, it's not like Camelot was real, either.

Maybe it's just cause, as a country, it feels like we are losing right now. I wasn't around for the Pre-Reagan years, but I sort've wonder if there's a parallel in the national mood.

[Chuck]

That seems like an apt comparison, especially given the cost of living expenses (gas prices, health care, etc) and the fact that we are mired in an unpopular overseas entanglement (hostage crisis/Iraq War).

I'm not terribly optimistic, either, about a "power of the many," but I think that the few can use tactics effectively to make small differences.

[Alan]

Dylan,

Great article and great post from it.

I remember leaving school and friends in September of 2005 thinking I could possibly make a difference in just one persons life in New Orleans or the Gulf Coast region, after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Did I make that difference??? I might never know. But what word did I use to describe myself over those 5 months when I would speak with friends and family??? Tourist!

The line in the article about how we are just apeing those that came before us resonated too strongly with me.