Young Americans Don't Fight Back

8 Reasons Young Americans Don't Fight Back

For the most part I really agree with AlterNet article by Bruce E. Levine about 8 Reasons Young Americans Don’t Fight Back: How the US Crushed Youth Resistance. A lot of the points made in this article were very though provoking and some of the points I have thought myself. The sections which really stood out to me were television and the parts about schooling.

I agree with them that television is a dream come true for the authoritarian society which we live in. The fact that we spend some much time on TV, the Internet, cell phones and iPods exposes us to a lot of media. For example, while reading this article on the side of the site there are ads of apartments available in Spokane, WA. What is truly weird about this is I am currently looking at jobs in Spokane and subsequently looking at the cost of living. So not only are we being exposed to what the people who pay for the ads they also know what ads would interest us.

I also like the part where they state TV isolates people from each other and therefore are not communicating with others to form resistances. By isolating ourselves we are not only losing communication skills, but we are also lacking critical thinking skills so people end up believing everything they watch. For example, a young girl may see over and over again how great relationships with boys are in a movie or TV show and then expect to have their relationships to work out exactly the same way; except that is not reality of most relationships.

However, the topic of school which the author brings into the argument really stood out to me. This is the first reason they brought up was the fear of student- loan debt. According to the article two-thirds of college graduates will have student debt and it ranges from 25,000 to 100,000 dollars. The reason they claim the youth will not fight back is because they are too worried about keeping their jobs so they can pay their bills; so they will not fight back in fear of losing their income.

The next section about relating to school points out the fact schools only teach children how to obey rules or orders. Even though teachers teach about democracy their classroom are not democratic. I had a teacher when he talked about democracy in my history class would always reminds us this classroom is not a democracy it was a dictatorship because what he said was the final say. This limits creativity and can make it hard for students to voice their opinion when they believe they do not really matter.

Then this article brings in a political act called “No Child Left Behind”. Personally I have never understood nor agree with this political act and in my opinion I really believe it should be removed. This policy, along with “Race to the Top”, is essentially standardized-testing which create fear. Why? Because it constantly demands teachers and students focus on the results of these tests because they could be the reason students do not move up in school or teachers losing their jobs. This fear also results in the loss of curiosity, critical thinking, questioning authority and challenging illegitimate authority.  I especially agree that teachers should be evaluated by asking students, parents and a community if a teacher is inspiring students in the areas that standardize testing creates fear.

This article really caught my attention because I agreed with what was written. I just wish people who make the laws would read these articles and help create a change on how we approach raising our youth. However, this would require the law makers to be okay with the American people acting out against them and the laws they have created. I remember once in high school my teacher told us that Thomas Jefferson thought we would a revolution every x amount of years because he believed that the American government would become corrupt and violate peoples rights and there would be a need for change. I believe this article has the same thought that Thomas Jefferson did. We need people who are willing to fight the facts stated in this article so there can be a change.