In discussing his students' responses to film on My Lai, Ben Friedlander
wonders if their generation's "cynicism and despair about [being able to
change society] are robbing them of the capacity for outrage." I would
like to hear responses to this point. My own sense, based on my older
son's and his friends' reactions (but they're already in their LATE
twenties) is that, in spite of the cynicism and despair etc., they'll talk
union at work, get out there with a picket sign, block bridges during the
Gulf War, etc. Just maybe not the long sustained commitment some--hardly
all, by a long shot--of "our generation" sometimes have done.
But they also seem, in some ways, more aware than many of us were, re
economics.
Also, we too had great doubts (at first?) of possibilities of change or
success--a fact often forgotten by MOSt current generations.
I think this is a terribly important point--HOW to reach the young.
Any responses?
Paula Friedman