Apathy

Some say the opposite of love is hate. I say it is apathy. Apathy is the lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern, as told by Google dictionary. This was said about apathy by Robert Hutchins, an educator: 

"The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment." 

This is what is plaguing my generation. I see my generation at the college that I am currently attending. there are students there that I believe are just there for fun, they really don't care what happens to them after college and some I have heard say even don't care if they ever get out of college. they would like to stay there as long as they can. This kind of attitude is a stark contrast between the actions and attitudes of  the greatest generation, the generation that brought this nation out of World War II. I see this attitude everyday, and I hate it.

I was alarmed to find out how many of my generation don't vote. It is not the fact that they don't vote, but the fact that they don't know enough to vote. Our schools are crippled by extensive testing that become the focus of education in schools. Passing the state tests are more important than producing thoughtful, well articulate citizens. If the education system won't do this. then who will. This void must be filled with something, something has to take its place. These minds of mush coming out of high school are looking for a way to think because in high school, they aren't challenged to. My generation watches television constantly and are always on social networks trying to find out the worst of each others' lives. They watch Jersey Shore and learn a new outlook on life: eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. This has become our creed. It's not my creed.

Sitting in one of my classes, we were discussing the idea of ethnocentrism. One student, sitting in the front row, raised his/her hand to add to the discussion. He/she said, "Can ethnocentrism be a type of food too?" The professor, hoping he/she had heard him/her wrong, responded with, "What?" The student went on: "Because I went to my one friend's house and she is Hindu and we definitely had some ethnocentric food there." I tell you this story because this student went to a high school and graduated, decide that she would like to apply to the same college that I had and got into that same school and now we are in a class together. I am so ashamed to be a part of this generation and I am embarrassed beyond anything I can think of.

You see, in high school, this student was never challenged with ideas. Ideas shape what we do and how we present ourselves. Another story I want to tell you is about an experience I had at the same school. We were assigned to be a part of a focus group for research in my Communications class. My focus group was assigned to discuss the topic of race. There were about ten of us and we all had slightly different opinions about race but all of us went immediately to a negative reaction to race and diversity and that is racism. Everyone had a pleasant experience. I dreaded doing this activity. I thought it was going to be really boring. But we all loved it and said that we would like to do it again. The reason why there was a common interest in this kind of thing was because we were openly exchanging information and ideas. You may think this is a normal thing, but for my generation, it isn't. I try to incite deep discussion, or just a discussion that is relevant to today about current events with some of my friends and almost always I get the answer, "I don't care." I pray for the day that my friends will care. I hope for a time when my generation will just care.

There is an answer to my generations problem but I am sure that none of them will care to even care about about it. 

"Apathy can be overcome by enthusiasm, and enthusiasm can only be aroused by two things: first, an ideal, which takes the imagination by storm, and second, a definite intelligible plan for carrying that ideal into practice."

An ideal or an idea. That is the answer. In the 40s it was freedom and defeating Nazism, Fascism, and Imperialism. In the 50s it was peace. In the 60s it was putting a man on the moon. In the 70s it was love. In the 80s it was political voice. In the 90s it was technology. In the first decade of the third millennium, it was globalization. What is it going to be this decade? We need ideas and I want my generation to take the lead. We get ideas and our own set of ideals by discussing with one another problems and how to solve them. My generation needs to make this world our own, these problems, ours, and solve them.