What scares young people? Our lack of passion - Sydney Morning Herald

Do Generation Y lack the political fire of their parents' generation? Photo: Simon Bosch

Brittany Ruppert is currently interning at The Sydney Morning Herald. This is her response to today's story about what worries young people.

At the age of 20, I am part of a generation that was born into an era of economic prosperity, political stability and social progressiveness. Until September 11, 2001, when I was nine, I hadn't experienced any particularly moving historical moments of any kind – and even that didn't dawn on me as truly tragic until some years later.

The times have continually been kind to us Gen-Y babies. So really, do we have anything to complain about? Or rather, are we likely to be passionate about the important issues, if we haven't properly experienced the adverse side of the coin?

When I hear about Gough Whitlam's "It's Time" campaign of 1972, I feel like I've been somewhat robbed of the political vigour enjoyed by generations of young people past. They truly had something to fight for – and as such, created the society which we have now inherited. The era of moratorium movements and women's rights marches seem decidedly behind us.

The Australian political climate over the last few years has been uninspiring to say the least. In the most recent federal election, my first as a voter, it seems that far too many of my peers based their vote on Tony Abbott's choice of swimwear or Julia Gillard's crimson hair.

In recent years the environment and economy have been at the forefront of the Australian youth consciousness. The 2006 release of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth mobilised a great many of us into taking a concerted interest in the issue of global warming and our ecological footprint. These issues were important to a great many of us. I starkly remember several nights' sleep lost over terrifying premonitions of apocalypse-style environmental disaster (think The Day After Tomorrow).

Fittingly, we went through the motions of shopping with our green bags and setting up our compost bins. But why weren't we protesting in the streets like our parents were? While they responded by belting out Peter Garrett's anti-uranium mining anthems during the 1980s, I sit lazily behind a screen and click "like" on an environmentally conscious Facebook group.

In a recent study from Mission Australia, researchers found that the economy has overtaken the environment as the issue which most concerns young Australians. This should not come as a surprise. Since 2008, the Australian economy has petered dangerously close to the brink of collapse. Some of our parents lost jobs, getting a job ourselves seemed far more difficult than it had been in the past. Not to mention the fact that most of us will never be able to afford to buy a property in Sydney without our parents' help.

With the economy in its current state we move further and further away from ever achieving the Australian way of life past generations once fought for. And yet, the overwhelming majority of young people continue to sit by compliantly, waiting for things to get better without any real understanding of the guts behind the issue. And yet supposedly this ranks as the issue most concerning to young Australians.

Young people are often portrayed as socially radical, progressive types. This ranges all the way from the free love culture of the seventies to the newest wave of "indie" culture to hit the market. As much as the typical teenager may like to consider him or her self as an apathetic outsider sitting on the fringes of society, in reality this image has always been mainstream.

It is a great shame that with the abundance of communication and learning tools available to us in modern times, we are failing to take action on the issues which concern us. Personally, this is my biggest concern: the transience with which we view important issues.

The environment and the economy are two areas which are going to continue to challenge my generation in years to come. However, the lack of solid philosophy and passion behind these causes is concerning. It's time for us to take a look at the big picture and speak out about the things which really matter to us as young Australians. There are a number of groups already doing this - groups such as GetUp and the Australian Youth Climate Coalition have gone to great measure to ensure a better future for the next generation, but unfortunately the majority of us are still yet get involved.

Hopefully we will acknowledge this before it is too late.

Poll: Do Gen Y have the political passion of the Baby Boomers?

Yes, they're far more engaged

4%

Some do

17%

It's a different type of passion for an internet age

29%

No, they are far less political

50%

Total votes: 255.

Would you like to vote?

You will need Cookies enabled to use our Voting Feature.

Disclaimer:

These polls are not scientific and reflect the opinion only of visitors who have chosen to participate.