Waiting on the world to change

We’re all misunderstood

They say we stand for nothing

There’s no way we ever could

Now we see everything is

going wrong

With the world and those who

lead it

We just feel like we don’t

have the means

To rise above and beat it

So we keep waiting

Waiting on the world to

change

- John Mayer

While helping to plan a recent HIV/AIDS awareness-raising programme on the campus of the University of the West Indies, I realised that the major factor that determined the date and time of the event was the fete schedule of the students. We had to be very careful not to infringe on their social lives in the hope that we would get a decent turnout for this very important activity.

This got me thinking about the priorities that students and young people in general have and I wondered: is activism dead in my generation?

Every day I am inspired by young people zealously committed to bringing about the evolution of our society. Students stand firm with people on the verge of displacement in the struggle for the recognition of human dignity.

Young artistes create works that highlight the promiscuous materialism and other viruses that have infected us. Boys in bands use rock n’ roll to raise awareness of issues from pollution to cerebral palsy. I am privileged to know such rebels with causes.

Yet I am not unaware that these young voices are far from the norm. And I imagine how beautiful my country would be if such a spirit were kindled and spread like wildfire in the next generation to inherit the reins of leadership.

I once had faith that we would all rebel against the corruption, hypocrisy and insularity of our fathers, and forge a new society founded on different values. We were supposed to protest and write books and discuss ideas and do whatever it took to shake up the status quo in the name of progress.

Then I went to UWI. And I soon came to realise that for most, tertiary education was a few years of harmless debauchery and a path to upward social mobility.

Who had time for the type of activism that flourished in the seventies, when there was so much partying to be done? As for philosophy and the development of ideas, the serious discussions on campus tended to centre on methods for getting the best jobs and making the most money.

How na?ve it seems to me now to believe that education ever was or ever will be about the upliftment of an entire people. Anything beyond narrow self-interest was always peripheral.

Even a cursory examination of the habits of the young today reveals that the situation is not improving. They have come to view progress as the emulation of “developed” societies rather than the formulation of an indigenous vision.

And the culture is changing accordingly. Take a walk through UWI and sit in the coffee shop that looks like something straight out of Manhattan. You will find yourself surrounded by an uber-stylish, latte-sipping elite for whom Che Guevara’s image is a fashion accessory along with their Dior sunglasses.

These are, supposedly, the best and brightest among us. Yet they raise no intellectual dissent, spawn no social movements and chatter incessantly about cars and clothes.

They are seemingly oblivious to the troubles of the world in which they live. Poverty, discrimination, lawlessness, human rights violations; these realities do not appear to per-meate their superficial veneers.

Not that this type of existence is not a valid individual choice, but it is without doubt antithetical to the creation of progressive leaders. If the future decision makers are mired in apathy and have never known struggle, who will have the motivation to confront the ills that plague us? Perhaps this assessment of my peers is too harsh.

Perhaps they are all too aware of the wretchedness of their fellow man, but feel utterly disconnected from the mechanisms of decision making and thus powerless to bring about change.

Perhaps they are overwhelmed by the enormity of the problems of our nation, much less the global society. Perhaps they only need time.

More than anything else, I think that living in a bubble is simply the easy thing to do. It is certainly much more comfortable.

Ignorance may not be bliss but it is often less of a headache than consciousness.