Today's bunch of sissies and yesterday's radicals

I've grown fond of my school's food service. Not so much because of the quality of the food, but because of the human community that I can observe. It is intriguing to me that in the next decade this bunch of babbling, reticent, self assured and frightened looking group of young folks will be the doctors, nurses, lawyers, diplomats, policy makers and ultimate leaders of the society. I cannot help wondering, how does this future look?

Our generation is characterized by our lackadaisical attitude. We are the only generation with no absolutes. Our tendency for compromise provides us with the opinion that we are at peace with everyone, but is our tendency for compromise leading to the demise of a society of values? Or is compromise the only guarantee of our future.

The previous generation had to answer this question and because of them we are aware of a lot more injustices happening today. They became known as radicals, but that didn't stop them. Yesterday's radicals defined right and wrong, regardless of whether it went against societal views, regardless of whether it brought about a division among segments of a society. Issues of Racism, Sexism, Ethnocentrism and cultural imperialism were brought out into open discussion and even when the political movement waged wars that were unjust, yesterday's radicals made their opinions known through positive radical means.

Am I advocating a radical uprising among our generation? This generation that has become secure in its safety of materialism. Absolutely not. I cannot deny the fact that fear of loosing the little status and safety we have in life, compels us to be inactive. Honestly, I will not drop out of school, save my fees and use it to help alleviate the suffering of the host of people in developing countries. What then am I asking of my peers?

The relief from fear, fear from been considered as radicals, fear from loosing our sense of safety and most important, Hope. Most people fail to act because of perceptions. Radicals are regarded as lawless troublemakers whose thirst for the disruption of society can only be matched by their belief that they are doing something right. What a lot of people fail to realize is that all change started as radicalism, going against societal opinions in order to foster change. Where are we to start looking for change, when the situation looks so hopeless?

Our forefathers in their quest for a better life made a lot of mistakes, mistakes that we are paying for and that we will be suffering from in the not too distant future. Destruction of the environment, discrimination and exploitation and subsequent murder of third world economies are all failures of the past generation that have been bequeathed to us. So in actual fact the situation looks hopeless. Who then wants to invest in a hopeless situation? Definitely not I, so this may be why I am scared of leaving my safety zone to help when another may just pick up the position I left and the devastation or inaction still continue. Where then do we gain hope from?

Our knowledge of history teaches us that change always starts slowly, but once it gains momentum, there is no stopping it. All that's required is for a few people to believe it. We are no longer the future leaders, we are the leaders. Our silence and cowardice now is not so different to that of those of our forefathers who stayed silent during, the holocaust, during slavery, and during the subjugation and subsequent exploitation of African resources. Together, we can raise our voices, together we can recover the courage we lost, together we can hold opinions and act upon them, not just allowing everyone to revert to doing what they think is best, but making use of our social institutions in defining societal values.

I refuse to be called chicken any more, and trust me, its no reflection on the chicken served at food services.