You hear it all the time: “Young people aren’t interested. They don’t care. Young people today are lazy and apathetic.”
Well… I’d be completely disinterested in politics too if I thought the only options available to me were 3 look-alike old parties, some crusty hippies, and bunch of looney-lefties. Who wouldn’t be? The current political landscape in the UK is a moonscape of good ideas, and completely uninspiring.
Of course this is a myth, young people ARE interested, and they ARE changing the political landscape all over the world. The biggest party in the Italian parliament was 90% elected by youth, the ‘Arab Spring’ is a youth movement, as is the ‘Indignado’ movement in Spain, and Obama is only President of the USA because he ignited hope in the youth.
The problem is not the youth, it’s the f’in ‘grown ups’ that are the problem!
Where are the solutions to the problems we tell our youth are going to dominate their world?
We tell them that we are all destroying the environment, and then do nothing about it. We are borrowing their futures to pay for our todays, and then say it will all be alright because we can grow our way out of our debts – when we all know that is either not going to happen, or will just damage the environment further. And we tell them that if they’re not prepared to work for free they’re not going to get on the world, when none of us had to do the same.
That’s not just lousy messaging, that’s cynical and hypocritical behaviour.
LIFE is here to change this picture.
We see the problems, and we have solutions. We do not accept the continuing destruction of our environment, we are not prepared to mortgage our children’s and grandchildren’s futures to pay for an easy retirement today. And our solutions do not ask the young to revolt against the old, they do not pit the youth against the grown-ups, they are solutions that we can all join in together, to create a better future, and a life worth living for everyone.
LIFE proposes evolution before revolution.
Don’t chastise young people for feeling disenchanted, when the picture we are painting is so dismal. Paint a brighter picture, imagine a better world, and inspire the next generation to build the future that you want to live in, and that they will want to help build and support.
Don’t lament the apathy of the youth. Instead, take that as motivation to change the landscape, to provide better options, and challenge yourself to provide the shoulders for their future.
UK LIFE 