[A-List] Missing in Antiwar Action

[Richard Menec <menecraj@xxxxxxx>]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/19/AR2007011901619.html?

Missing in Antiwar Action

By John McMillian

Saturday, January 20, 2007; 12:00 AM

Recently I finished teaching a freshman seminar at Harvard called "From 
Reform to Revolution: Youth Culture in the 1960s." When I built the 
syllabus, I asked students to ponder a single, overarching question: "How 
did the youth rebellion of the 1960s happen?" That is, what caused millions 
of young people to pierce the bland and platitudinous din that characterized 
the early Cold War years? Why did so many youths -- many of them affluent 
and college-educated -- suddenly decide that American society needed to be 
radically overhauled?

But as the semester progressed, my students frequently turned the question 
around: Why is there no rising protest movement among young people today? At 
the very least, they asked, shouldn't we be seeing more antiwar activity? 
According to a CNN poll this month, 67 percent of Americans oppose the war 
in Iraq, and more than half would like to see all U.S. troops home by year's 
end. Given that it was not until August 1968 that a majority of Americans 
began calling the Vietnam War a "mistake," this is a remarkable statistic. 
By 1968, of course, antiwar teach-ins, sit-ins and marches were commonplace 
on many campuses; demonstrators had violently clashed with soldiers on the 
steps of the Pentagon; and the Democratic National Convention had descended 
into chaos over the war.

Today, grass-roots antiwar activism has not been entirely absent. But one 
would be hard-pressed to argue that we're on the cusp of a rising protest 
movement. Why not?

First, the civil rights movement exerted a forceful influence on left-wing 
protesters in the 1960s. When African Americans bravely stood up against 
attack dogs, cattle prods and fire hoses, they dramatically demonstrated the 
power of collective action to foster social change.

Second, the draft personalized the Vietnam War not just for the hundreds of 
thousands of young men who were conscripted but also for their loved ones. 
No matter how strained the U.S. military becomes, our all-volunteer army --  
widely regarded as a lethal "third rail" in American politics -- isn't going 
away anytime soon. As a result, too many of us enjoy the luxury of regarding 
the Iraq war as an abstraction. Among my 12 students, only two personally 
knew someone serving in Iraq. One is a medic, the other a chaplain.

But my students suggested some other reasons today's youth seem so passive. 
Although this high-achieving group was hardly representative, many of them 
spoke plaintively about being pressured from an early age to begin building 
their credentials for college. "Students are expected to get perfect grades, 
excel in extracurricular activities, save the world and be home before 
dinner time," quipped one freshman. These demands seem to be common 
nationwide. The American Academy of Pediatrics warned this month of the 
physical and mental health problems that may arise from the competitive and 
hurried lifestyles of many youths. In such pressure-cooker environments, 
students are unlikely to become committed organizers.

Nor are many students likely to be socialized into antiwar activism. Every 
campus has its left-wing organizers, but today the gauzy idealism that 
circulated among teenagers in the 1960s seems almost freakishly anomalous. 
According to a recent U.S. Census report, 79 percent of college freshmen in 
1970 said that "developing a meaningful philosophy of life" was among their 
goals, whereas only 36 percent said becoming wealthy was a high priority. By 
contrast, in 2005, 75 percent of incoming students listed "being very well 
off financially" among their chief aims.

Some of my students suggested that they might not even be capable of 
experiencing the kind of indignation and disillusionment that spurred many 
baby boomers toward activism. In the Vietnam era, the shameful dissembling 
of American politicians provoked outrage. But living in the shadow of 
Vietnam and Watergate, and weaned on "The Simpsons" and "The Daily Show," 
today's youth greet the Bush administration's spin and ever-evolving 
rationale for war with ironic world-weariness and bemused laughter. "The 
Iraq war turned out to be a hoax from the beginning? Figures!"

The students who took my seminar were a particularly serious-minded and 
delightful bunch. Most of them came to admire the pluck and panache of the 
New Leftists we studied, and they were quick to recognize how frequently the 
concerns of Vietnam-era protesters dovetailed with their own complaints 
against the Iraq war. Some even wistfully remarked that they would like to 
be part of a generational rebellion.

But they doubt that this is likely to happen. "Just like [in] the 1960s, we 
have an unjust war, a lying president, and dead American soldiers sent home 
everyday," one student wrote me in an e-mail. "But rather than fight the 
administration or demand a forum to express our unhappiness, we accept the 
status quo and focus on our own problems."

The writer is a lecturer in history and literature at Harvard University. He 
can be reached atmcmill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

================
Richard Ménec
Book reviews and more at: http://booksinternationale.pbwiki.com