Back in my day...

Maybe it’s a sign of my age, but it seems to me like the young people of today don’t care about much. I cringe to hear the statement, and I can see the caricature now. I know I’d be depicted as old and wrinkly, maybe grey haired, definitely stern looking, shaking my finger at some poor, unsuspecting youths doing nothing worse than having fun. Back in my day young people had manners, or, when I was young I would walk to school in the wind, rain, hail or snow, she would say, shaking her head in dismay. Despite the obvious stereotype of a moaning old person who has forgotten what it is like to be young, I stand by my conviction.

The fight is supposed to come from the youth. They are the ones who traditionally push against the status quo, they have the balls and the stupidity combined to put it out there. Aren’t they supposed to feel 10 foot tall and bullet proof? And with that sass and confidence, use it to make a statement to the world, to their parents, to the ruling class? When I was 15, I was all about the green party and saving the environment, by 16 I was marching in hemp rallies, by 18 I was canvasing for indigenous rights. The details don’t matter. The point is I was marching, I was engaged, I was aware. I acknowledged a wider community around my tiny, immediate world and believed I could make a difference. Furthermore I wanted to make a difference.

I remember when the first McDonald’s opened in the suburb I grew up in. I was completely aghast and abhorred by its invasion into our community.  I was becoming deeply committed to environmental causes at the time and had recently heard that McDonalds beef was grazed in hectares and hectares of destroyed Amazon forest. But the answer wasn’t just to boycott McDonalds. Some friends and I set up a sausage sizzle, Aussie style, just off their premises on public land, right before the drive thru. For every potential customer that came to sample the wares of the McDonalds chain store, we stole at least as many with our $1 home-made hot dogs, barbequed on the spot.

I feel proud of those days, stirring trouble, making a scene, and I notice that the youth of today are absent in the streets. Is it that it’s all been done before? Or are young people jaded so early these days that they simply give up on the hope for change before they even hit puberty? I don’t know the answer but I do know that, (lifting bony finger to shake), back in my day…..