Beginning of a Survey on Youth

“Frequently, the middle-aged and the aged do not know how to approach the youth in the proper way; for, necessarily, the youth must come to socialism in a different way, by other paths, in other forms, under other circumstances than their fathers.” –Lenin, 1916

I believe that Lenin also said something like, “Who has the youth has the revolution.” Those of us who seek a better future must pursue youth and new leadership. It is a timeless law without exception.

As of this year, 2010, I have been an activist in social causes for over 40 years. It is only recently that I have begun to notice that crowds of protesters and picketers are no longer youth-dominated. In fact, youth seem conspicuously absent in public protests. My completely subjective observation may be completely wrong, and I have found very little hard data except for a study indicating that fewer younger people are registering and voting than their predecessor generation.

The most obvious reason for the paucity of young people in public activities is the extended period of layoffs. In the social justice movement, unions are by far the most important institutions. To America’s unions, seniority is sacred; consequently, most of the young people have been laid off and are no longer union members. At the same time, organizing has been made extremely difficult, so fewer new members have been added.

Youth unemployment, too, is far more critical than any other demographic. It may be that young people are simply too busy trying to support themselves to appear in public protests!

Observers believe that today’s youth had easier and longer childhoods than previous groups. Their parents nurture them much further into young adulthood. They tend to marry later, which is probably a function of the economic crisis as well as the loosening of sexual restrictions. The trend is greatly exacerbated by today’s jobs crisis, which causes many young people to continue living with parents and grandparents.

A great deal of the rather cold observations made by marketing strategists, human resources experts, and pollsters seems based on the idea that young people’s upbringing had much more to do with electronics and much less with human interaction than previous generations. Youth may be wiser and more savvy, but they also may be more cynical and alienated!

Today’s youth are comfortable ingesting vast quantities of information. They are very impatient with slower, linear, information presenting methods. They tend to be too impatient to go to meetings and listen to speeches. It’s too slow and linear. This may explain why some older people consider them narcissistic and alienated, although one study suggests that they hold that same opinion of themselves.

They have an expanded and misguided sense of “democracy” about information. They militantly defend the idea that all information, regardless of truth, regardless of usefulness, is equal. Even if a young person is committed to a given position, they may adamantly defend the presentation of the opposite position!

They are more comfortable with electronic relationships than any previous generation. They are impatient with less facile people. The only validation that youth usually accepts is from their age peers.

They tend to distrust the system and status quo, but they also tend to reject the traditional forms of political activism. Sometimes, they see such forms as actually part of the status quo.

Some observers feel that these internet-raised youngsters have incredibly short attention spans.

Possibly because they process more information and generally are more aware of their world than previous generations, they tend toward high levels of social consciousness. They seek jobs that “make a difference.” It’s my own observation that this insistence on meaningful jobs could be a source of considerable frustration and some cynicism – because there are extremely few “meaningful” jobs offered in a capitalist system.

At the same time, the hard data on electoral activism suggests that young people are significantly less engaged than their predecessor generation! It may be that they see themselves as being more socially conscious but, in a measurable sense, they actually aren’t. Paraphrased: “If you ask the youth, they will tell you that they are extremely socially conscious. If you ask someone else, they may disagree.”
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At this point, it would be overreaching for me to offer prescriptions for bringing more young people into the movement for social justice, other than to recommend that those who seek the youth must go where they gather – on the web. I’m still studying the problem, but am more than ever convinced that it must be solved! I only hope that this initial collection will generate an outpouring of hard data and hard conclusions from others.

See http://tx.cpusa.org/youth.htm for links to research