I remember reading an interview with a UW student shortly after the World Trade Center went down. She was studying abroad and said that she couldn't wait to get back to Madison because she felt like she was missing her generation's Vietnam. Candles and flowers out on every porch and all. Ironically, while I was in Madison, I felt the same sense of nostalgia, if one can feel nostalgia for a place they were never a part of. A year and a half later, I still feel like we're missing our generation's Vietnam. Rather, we are missing the rebellious, idealistic spirit that defined a memorable decade.
What spurred that generation of young educated adults to actively engage in the making of history? Paul Berman, the author of one of the most respected works on the worldwide student radicalism of the '60s, seems to have captured the essence of that era. \Activism showed the wider population of privileged American students that their own cozy life did not have to be a prison,"" he wrote, ""and nothing could prevent them from going out into the world and fighting for a juster society, and the choice to be a democratic participant was theirs to make."" Too utopian? It didn't seem so to Berkeley, Columbia and Wisconsin students in 1968.
Times have changed, of course, for better or worse. The Soviet threat has been replaced by the terrorist threat. Vietnam has been replaced with Iraq. Globalization changed the face of the planet, shifting the focus of discrimination to nationality and world region. (A pretty subjective statement, backed up by nothing more than frequent interactions with the INS.) French fries have ceased to exist. Dick Cheney is no longer a graduate student at Wisconsin.
Hmm... so maybe there's plenty to whine about after all. Call for a socialist revolution. An anarchist revolution. A situationist revolution. Isn't this what it's all about after all? Disturb the status quo. Overthrow the government. Vandalize a nearby Starbucks location. Well, maybe not.
Getting lost in ideological trivia is counterproductive. I could not help noticing the atmosphere of disunity at one peace rally earlier this year-it seemed like a gathering of agitated cliques, each following its agenda. They would momentarily get together under the banner of peace, then disassemble and return to pursuit of their unrelated interests. The fragility of such a coalition was obvious March 19 when the anti-war flame went out. The biggest danger facing the student left today is the danger of internal rot-the one that destroyed the loose association of individuals formerly known as the Democratic Party. One need not follow a manifesto to engage in activism. Whining over minor inequalities of political life is not what a student movement is about. A movement with momentum doesn't carry a party card.
The current Ecstasy craze rushing through Europe, bigger than all the U.S. human rights and peace movements combined, has not been politicized. If anything, it rejected political agenda altogether-in a collective effort to attain happiness, albeit temporary and chemically induced. I'm not arguing for going on a communal drug binge in memory of Timothy Leary to overcome our lonely, estranged and isolated existence. But forming a generational character, held together by a common vision of some sort-ideological, recreational, intellectual-is a good start.
Our radical predecessors had civil rights, Vietnam, rock, social protest, SDS and Woodstock. This was their thing. It was their generation's vocation and they pursued it with spirit and dedication. We, on the other hand, have nothing. Sure, we have our classes, parties and college sports. What we lack is meaning. And we need it-not to put a label on us, but to distinguish ourselves from the countless generations of students that have risen and fallen with history. We don't have to follow in anyone's footsteps, we have to search for our own ""thing."" Or better yet-create it.
Do we need a counter-culture to define our generation? No, but some kind of culture wouldn't hurt us. I say we take the next step and apply those faculties with direction and intensity to influence the time we live in. Otherwise, what will we be remembered for? The Internet? Jay and Silent Bob would never forgive us.
