Comments on: My Generation? Hello? http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2007/10/17/my-generation-hello/ Fearless. Thoughtful. Witty. Canadian. And Opinionated. Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:53:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: Jamie Henn http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2007/10/17/my-generation-hello/#comment-271 Jamie Henn Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:52:35 +0000 http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2007/10/17/my-generation-hello/#comment-271 This is one of the better and more nuanced responses to Friedman's article that I've read. And there have been many: from Facebook to blogs, students have been writing back, yelling (online) that they are in fact active, just ignored. However, it is much too early to pronounce the failure of the "Online Generation." The tactics developed in the 2004 election were new at the time and over-hyped as the arrival of a complete new strategy rather than what they were, an important piece of an evolving new form of activism. Since then, a new crop of activists has been trying to improve on those tactics. We've had our failures and wasted time on projects that resulted in nothing, but we've also had phenomenal successes. Last spring, a group of friends and I helped launch and coordinate Step It Up 2007, a grassroots campaign dedicated to turning online connections into offline action. In three months, we organized over 1400 real world events - community rallies from the melting glaciers of Alaska down to the broken levies of New Orleans. They were united by a common message to Congress that was displayed in every photo uploaded to our website: "Step It Up, Congress: Cut Carbon 80% by 2050!" John Edwards attended one of those rallies, having committed to our goal two weeks earlier. Within the next two weeks both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama committed to 80% carbon reductions as well, signing on to the strongest climate legislation in Congress. This fall, we're at it again - trying to organize another set of rallies to drive the message home. The date is set for November 3rd and we're encouraging people to take action in their communities and this time invite their members of Congress and presidential candidates to join them. We know we'll never have enough money to host the kind of $1,000 dinners the oil companies can, but we can help gather thousands of people and send thousands more invitations to events. You can help - there aren't any events in Canada: the U.S. Congress is the big roadblock in our way right now, so that's what we're focusing on. But help us spread the word - get it out there on websites and blogs. That won't make November 3rd a success, the hard work of hundreds of people on the ground in their communities will do that, but it will be a help. As with web activism of any kind, it's all a piece of the puzzle. For more info visit: http://www.stepitup2007.org This is one of the better and more nuanced responses to Friedman’s article that I’ve read. And there have been many: from Facebook to blogs, students have been writing back, yelling (online) that they are in fact active, just ignored.

However, it is much too early to pronounce the failure of the “Online Generation.” The tactics developed in the 2004 election were new at the time and over-hyped as the arrival of a complete new strategy rather than what they were, an important piece of an evolving new form of activism.

Since then, a new crop of activists has been trying to improve on those tactics. We’ve had our failures and wasted time on projects that resulted in nothing, but we’ve also had phenomenal successes. Last spring, a group of friends and I helped launch and coordinate Step It Up 2007, a grassroots campaign dedicated to turning online connections into offline action. In three months, we organized over 1400 real world events - community rallies from the melting glaciers of Alaska down to the broken levies of New Orleans. They were united by a common message to Congress that was displayed in every photo uploaded to our website: “Step It Up, Congress: Cut Carbon 80% by 2050!”

John Edwards attended one of those rallies, having committed to our goal two weeks earlier. Within the next two weeks both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama committed to 80% carbon reductions as well, signing on to the strongest climate legislation in Congress.

This fall, we’re at it again - trying to organize another set of rallies to drive the message home. The date is set for November 3rd and we’re encouraging people to take action in their communities and this time invite their members of Congress and presidential candidates to join them. We know we’ll never have enough money to host the kind of $1,000 dinners the oil companies can, but we can help gather thousands of people and send thousands more invitations to events.

You can help - there aren’t any events in Canada: the U.S. Congress is the big roadblock in our way right now, so that’s what we’re focusing on. But help us spread the word - get it out there on websites and blogs. That won’t make November 3rd a success, the hard work of hundreds of people on the ground in their communities will do that, but it will be a help. As with web activism of any kind, it’s all a piece of the puzzle.

For more info visit:
http://www.stepitup2007.org

]]> By: Sarah Boyd http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2007/10/17/my-generation-hello/#comment-265 Sarah Boyd Thu, 18 Oct 2007 15:45:09 +0000 http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2007/10/17/my-generation-hello/#comment-265 I'm with Pat Tanzola. Undergrad is the new highschool--you have to have bachelors to make more than minimum wage, unless you have practical talent and are in the trades. Everyone I know is graduating with massive debt, except for the handful with super-rich parents. There's a few causes I would have loved to get involved in, but between full-time studies and my 2-3 part-part time jobs since high school, I don't have the time to eat, sleep, or clean my apartment let alone participate in worthy but non-pecuniary causes. My plan has been to get through school and then devote my career to my "cause" (I'm studying to be a refugee lawyer). There's also a vote-splitting effect. If you only have time to support one cause, what do you choose? Darfur? Palestine? Israel? Climate change? Racism? Labour activism? Feminism? Electoral reform? A political party? Anti-poverty? That's just a few of the causes warring for our attention on my campus (York, in Toronto). I wouldn't call it compassion fatigue--more like poster & protest fatigue. I’m with Pat Tanzola. Undergrad is the new highschool–you have to have bachelors to make more than minimum wage, unless you have practical talent and are in the trades. Everyone I know is graduating with massive debt, except for the handful with super-rich parents. There’s a few causes I would have loved to get involved in, but between full-time studies and my 2-3 part-part time jobs since high school, I don’t have the time to eat, sleep, or clean my apartment let alone participate in worthy but non-pecuniary causes. My plan has been to get through school and then devote my career to my “cause” (I’m studying to be a refugee lawyer).

There’s also a vote-splitting effect. If you only have time to support one cause, what do you choose? Darfur? Palestine? Israel? Climate change? Racism? Labour activism? Feminism? Electoral reform? A political party? Anti-poverty? That’s just a few of the causes warring for our attention on my campus (York, in Toronto). I wouldn’t call it compassion fatigue–more like poster & protest fatigue.

]]> By: Pat Tanzola http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2007/10/17/my-generation-hello/#comment-262 Pat Tanzola Thu, 18 Oct 2007 14:10:50 +0000 http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2007/10/17/my-generation-hello/#comment-262 Overeducated, Meritocratically Obsessed Overloaded by Debt Outnumbered 2 to 1 by Boomers (will spend adult years caring for dying relatives) Generation Green Party (10% of vote, 0% influence) Generation Jaded Solution: Ultimate Frisbee Overeducated, Meritocratically Obsessed
Overloaded by Debt
Outnumbered 2 to 1 by Boomers (will spend adult years caring for dying relatives)
Generation Green Party (10% of vote, 0% influence)
Generation Jaded
Solution: Ultimate Frisbee

]]> By: Paul Bien http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2007/10/17/my-generation-hello/#comment-255 Paul Bien Thu, 18 Oct 2007 06:39:28 +0000 http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2007/10/17/my-generation-hello/#comment-255 This is a very thought provoking piece, one worth further research I am inclined to opine. As a twenty-something myself I have been struck by the way University life seems to have changed in the past two decades. Chalk it up to those bedrocks of neo-liberalism, Thatcher, Regan and Mulroney, or perhaps to the increasing demand from the work world for even more education than ever before. The point I am trying to make is that something more has shifted than simply a move to "generation Q". Perhaps it's 'generation overworked' or 'generation overstimulated', but quiet is just not accurate enough. A campus to campus tour of Canada might really shed some light on the subject and promote some real, honest dialogue (perhaps the most absent of all the forms of dissension the used to pervade university campuses). This is a very thought provoking piece, one worth further research I am inclined to opine. As a twenty-something myself I have been struck by the way University life seems to have changed in the past two decades. Chalk it up to those bedrocks of neo-liberalism, Thatcher, Regan and Mulroney, or perhaps to the increasing demand from the work world for even more education than ever before. The point I am trying to make is that something more has shifted than simply a move to “generation Q”. Perhaps it’s ‘generation overworked’ or ‘generation overstimulated’, but quiet is just not accurate enough. A campus to campus tour of Canada might really shed some light on the subject and promote some real, honest dialogue (perhaps the most absent of all the forms of dissension the used to pervade university campuses).

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