I am interested by the deeper ramifications of this. How do our differing primal experiences informs differences between your generation and mine?
(Leaving aside, of course, that the difference between your formative years and mine are not as completely distinct that sentence implies.)
Are my people more cynical, yours apathetic? Has my generation radicalized left like Vietnam did the hippies? And has that same radicalization rendered us incapable of participating meaningfully in actual day-to-day democracy the way it did the fuckin' hippies?
This is one of the reasons I think the possibly unreasonable enthusiasm Obama generates could actually be positive; if young people can delude themselves into thinking the acceptably decent politicians might be on their side, they might actually bother to vote against the real monsters. Of course, if Obama squanders their enthusiasm (as LBJ and Humphrey did), it'll make things that much worse.
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branchandroot
Re: On the topic of America
Date: 2008-11-29 12:06 am (UTC)(Leaving aside, of course, that the difference between your formative years and mine are not as completely distinct that sentence implies.)
Are my people more cynical, yours apathetic? Has my generation radicalized left like Vietnam did the hippies? And has that same radicalization rendered us incapable of participating meaningfully in actual day-to-day democracy the way it did the fuckin' hippies?
This is one of the reasons I think the possibly unreasonable enthusiasm Obama generates could actually be positive; if young people can delude themselves into thinking the acceptably decent politicians might be on their side, they might actually bother to vote against the real monsters. Of course, if Obama squanders their enthusiasm (as LBJ and Humphrey did), it'll make things that much worse.