Guilty and Charged

So I was reading the Times today, and as I tend to do, I drifted toward the op-ed pieces and came across this article by Thomas Friedman on the role of our generation (Generation Q, in his terminology) in effecting change in global society. On the one hand, as he points out, we do more than should be expected of us given the in-many-ways depressing state of global affairs; from building homes in El Salvador to working in AIDS clinics, members of our generation do a great deal to assist the rest of the world in bits and pieces.

But that's where it ends.

Beyond that, we are helpless. When we see a problem with society, we sign a petition or write a blog (case in point). We turn inward and do something on an individual level, seemingly oblivious to the power that a mass movement can have. From climate change to the growing deficit, there are a number of causes worth fighting for, but how far do we go in that fight? I agree with Friedman that we don't go as far as we can, but I don't know that a return to the '60s-style protest movement would be either practical or successful.

The question, then, is what can be successful? How can we mobilize one another to step out of the library (something us at Hopkins--including myself--do all too infrequently) and create meaningful change? The Iraq War might be a starting point, and obviously the anti-Vietnam War movement would be the model; however, there isn't going to be a draft anytime soon, so it's doubtful that most of us would get up off the couch for that. This is sad, since it suggests that the only causes society finds worth fighting for are the ones that directly impact us as individuals, and there aren't many of those that are shared by enough people to generate a movement.

I am as guilty as anyone of contributing to the aforementioned problems. The blogs won't go (sorry), but hopefully we can find an additional way or two to take things to another, more effective level that unites--rather than isolates--a very critical generation.

P.S. Don't expect any more baseball pieces for a while now that the Yanks are out. The salaries of three of the four teams (Cleveland, Arizona, and Colorado) have a combined salary less than the Yankees do (while the Yankees are debating shelling out more than $30 million next year to resign A-Rod). Worth noting? I think so.