I am currently reading a book that tells its story based around the 1970's. The book isn't important, it's the 1970's that are important, not because of anything significant that happened, but because of the comparison of how we live today. Sure, there was no computer games, no mobile phones, technology was no where near as forward as it is today. I could barely understand the language used in this book. The language that people used to interact with each other. The conversation was totally different. People had passions, had causes. They wanted to learn about the world, to understand the politics of the world. Maybe we are just a lazy generation, but times have definetly changed. These people didn't have the technology at their fingertips that we do today. You couldn't go onto google, and find out what you wanted, life was much more of a struggle. Everyday living was about defining your own place in the world, and finding out who you was as a person, and more importantly what you stood for. People cared.
The amount of politics discussed in this book was amazing. Because that is how people spoke back then. Politics was very important. Every conversation somehow managed to turn to where you stood on political matters, because knowing where you stood was important. They knew that politics had a huge part to play in every aspect of their lives, from work, to family, to the way the country was run, and when they spoke they spoke with a genuine passion for their beliefs. A passion so many people, especially young people are now lacking. Don't get me wrong, I know that people care about politics, I know that how the country, no matter what country you are from, is run, matters to alot of people. We see it here on JU. That is a perfect example though, I've seen many of the people here say that they aren't as passionate about their politics outside of JU. That they won't argue till the end for them. That JU gives them the opportunity to do that, but it isn't something they always adopt outside of the confines of JU. Because, there is less of a fight. It appears we are happy to pick the lesser of two evils. Have we become that jaded? That instead of wanting the best, we are willing to settle for who is less evil than the other. Maybe we are embracing the lazy generation far to much.
That's the problem with my generation at least. We have had everything handed to us, the need for knowledge is getting less and less, mostly because of the great people who have gone before us. Who worked damn hard to get us in the position we are in today. That we have so many opportunities, so many more than people did in the years before. Somehow it seems to have made us complacent. Instead of wanting to go forward, and strive for what else we can do. We are happy to sit back, and let the technology of the world do the work for us. It is making us lazy and less passionate. I don't know many people my age that I could have a conversation about politics and they would actually care about what I was saying. I'm even guilty of it myself. Maybe because the fight has gone out of us, or maybe I'm just blind to it. In the 1970's there was social class wars. As a sociology student I was made aware of the class wars, of Karl Marx fight. Something that touched so many lives, what I seem to forget is, someone fought for the place I have in todays society. It wasn't me. Someone refused to work, some stood for hours in the cold, everything was a fight. While studying sociology it wasn't something that really touched me. It was about society and issues that I had thoughts and feelings about, but when it came to the class wars. The question is, what class wars? Are people just to accepting of the place they have been given in the world? Or have we simply made it easier for people to accept a life of poverty, that they wouldn't want it any other way? Has the government given them just enough to manage on that instead of fighting the fight against social class, they are to busy fighting the fight between themselves?
The world has definetly changed since the 1970's and in the big picture it isn't that long ago. Yet it feels worlds apart. We still care about politics, we will still fight for what we believe in, the world still matters, it's just the people doing the caring seem to be getting fewer and fewer. Which is a sad thing. We view ourselves as an intellectual generation, we don't have to fight with out fists we can use our minds. We seem to forget that for people gone by, the actions they did, did change the world, and it was for the better. Sometimes actions do speak louder than words. Sometimes I think the world has changed for the better, but that has made us change for the worst, and I don't know where that will end us up. I wonder what someone writing an article like this in thirty years time will have to say about the world?