Our Generation's Strengths Vis-à-vis Despair

I was thinking about the division of our generation's identity in relation to global problems. On one hand we've got an extraordinary messed up world to deal with and the scope of the problems are overwhelming in their complexity and numbers. Yet, when I look around on campus, I see little to sour my belief in human ingenuity and much to bolster my optimism.

To my eye, environmental issues are the most threatening challenges facing us and future generations. Studying them is something of an exercise in zen-defeatism. The literature reads like a manual to disaster. I've become a connoisseur of the openings to books about the environmental. They all open in the same way - a one or two page wrestling match between author and issues that attempts to condense apocalyptic evidence into a manifesto of imminent destruction. They all pretty much say the same thing - that we're screwed. Of course, most academics are of the more optimistic type, and they follow their doomsdaying with brilliant suggestions for prescription and proscription... but their initial stomach-punching introductions leave me with a sinking feeling even through the most hopeful of articles: Why haven't the solutions been implemented? What has gone wrong?

Those questions have no easy answers, but it's easy to weigh ourselves down in the non-answer of apathy or lack of political will. Discouragement abounds in activists. A professor told me once that "if you're protesting you're inherently a loser." This is true. But so much the sweeter is winning after you've tasted defeat. Something has changed on campus recently in relation to environmental issues. With the establishment of a green residence next year, the expansion of on campus recycling, and the overwhelmingly positive response of administrators to student efforts to spearhead environmental initiatives, it seems clear that the University has hit its tipping point. Last year I would have been skeptical of NU's commitment to the environment, but this year I am sure that it is strong.

And what did it take to finally hit our green stride? A combination of things - years of little-noticed pressure from within the administration, building student support, and finally the efforts of a few dedicated student activists to galvanize green sentiments into useful political clout. The initiatives that we're seeing now are the tip of the iceberg, with a complex set of committees, actions, and individuals floating beneath the surface. Locally, change is coming from top, bottom, and all points in between.

So - our generation's biggest strength and weakness? Our weakness is defeatism - if we take our raison d' etre as improving the state of the world and humankind, the problems are overwhelming, and it's easy to just sit back and be comfortable. Or strength is our ability to look locally at the positive political changes, positive coalitions, and positive attitudes that prevail - and then to take action on the basis of that hope.