The Greatest Generation.

As I'm entering my last week of ISP period, and have to actually start putting thoughts onto paper I've realized that I likely won't be writing many more blog posts.  Most of what I've written has a strong political perspective, despite the fun travel blog aspects.  I think this will probably be my last overt attempt at social commentary here, at least before my last post in-country, so I'm going to reflect a bit on regional happenings, my research, and a thought that has bothered me for a number of years.

"The Greatest Generation" is a term developed by Tom Brokaw to describe the group of Americans who came of age during the Depression years, and then, standing face to face with the prospect of global fascism, defeated one of the most sinister systems of aggression, conquest and inhumanity known to modern history.  With a bleak future economically, and the wildfires of imperialism spreading throughout the globe, mothers saw their sons and husbands leave home to bleed on the other side of the globe...on lands they may have never heard of.  These women then turned around and with those men too young, too old, or to infirm to fight rationed their food, collected scrap metal, and built the infrastructure that allowed them to construct a military armada capable of winning The Second World War.  Pacifists and conscientious objectors, scorned for their unwillingness to kill another human being and in opposition to forced conscription (another form of fascism in their eyes), even voluntarily contracted tropical diseases through injections in order to help doctors research treatments and cures for Marines fighting in the Pacific islands.

I've always felt that this was an appropriate classification.  I remember reading a couple of pieces when I was younger that criticized that generation's glorification. I forget the specifics, perhaps it had something to do with "they had no other choice," or something along those lines.  Though they may have had no other choice but to fight or die, they had what I call "generational courage"- the ability to confront a social problem that puts one individual in extreme personal danger because there is a strong enough collective sense of duty to action against the problem across a population.

Such courage has been seen in America at times since "The Greatest Generation," just not on such a uniform/mass scale.  The generation that participated in the Civil Rights Movement, is a great example. Thousands of northern youth agonized over whether to participate in Freedom Rides or voter registration drives in southern black communities.  Many chose this cause over their own personal safety, and a number paid with their lives. Most notably James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner in Mississippi.  And of course there was also the corollary movement against the Vietnam War.

Over the last couple of years I haven't been able to avoid thinking about the pervasive inaction of my generation.  Sure, "we" elected the first African American president, (I actually did not work on the Obama campaign, nor did I vote for him. And if you're thinking "oh my god how could he vote for McCain?!" please, for the love of whatever you care about, realize that democracy isn't just about who you vote for out of the two options you're spoon-fed- I voted for an African-American Woman).  However, Obama won, people got hammered and streaked across my campus, and then disengaged.  "Organizing for America" lost its critical mass, and wasn't there to stand behind truly progressive change.  Old, fat, racists in lawn chairs were more active post '08 than my generation in their opposition to the President's legislative agenda (contrary to everyone bitching about "where's the change," I've actually have been damn surprised.  check out the wikipedia page for the 111th congress. Some fine work was done on hate crimes legislation, reforming the racist mandatory minimums for crack cocaine, repealing DADT the list goes on) than the people who put the man in office in the first place!

I've joined a significant number of people my age at a couple of climate change rallies or one in Maine against the Arizona immigration bill, and for the DREAM act.  But I also saw numbers of them leave the rally early to catch a concert at Bowdoin, or skip out on the lobby day in DC because they were too hung over from the night before.  Raising your voice certainly takes some courage, but marching with a police escort in an incredibly liberal city in New England is easy. I feel like it's not that we lack the generational courage of those more active in the past... I don't think you either have courage or you don't, courage is something you find. Maybe the right situation hasn't invoked enough outcry for more decisive action in America.

I am not hopeless however.  The research I've been doing, and what I've been seeing here in the Middle East and North Africa has emboldened my belief about courage being something you find. Over the past couple weeks I have had a number of interviews with political opposition leaders here in Jordan who have been calling for democratic reforms.  They've run the gamut from a Shura (like a steering committee or counsel) member from the Islamic Action Front, the Secretary General of the Jordanian Communist Party (old school with a giant bust of Lenin in his office), the Secretary General of the Social Left Movement in Jordan (old school turned new school- he also went to jail in 1989 for calling for the same reforms that they're calling for now, an example of how there are always activists.  King Hussein sent them a letter apologizing and asking them to meet.  I shared with him the phrase we use when weird things like that happen: "Welcome to Jordan!"), and a spokesman from the March 24th youth movement that staged the sit in that was eventually broken up.  All of them are talking about the same type of democratic reforms and anti-corruption reforms, and are saying things consistent with the argument I want to make.  My objectivity kind of went out the window after reading the literature I want to use, instead of inductively saying "hrmmm what's going on here" like I originally intended, I became convinced that the co-operation being seen in Jordan between these groups of extremely varied ideology fits a particular piece of literature perfectly.

What a number of them (from the left typically) pointed out was that what was invigorating these efforts is the youth.  In Egypt and Tunisia the youth were the ones that became organized and initiated the process that brought down the regimes. Even in Benghazi, Libya, where there is no certainty of success  the youth have created a revolutionary atmosphere that is reminiscent of Barcelona during the Spanish Revolution.  The spokesman from March 24th brought up how a number of youth groups got together as the situation was heating up in other countries, and met to discuss what they wanted to call for. This included student groups, marxists, Islamists, independent democratic activists, so on.  At first it was practically impossible to get anything accomplished, but he described how, very quickly these groups could tackle rather large agendas in only a couple of hours. They agreed on their tactics, their goals for reform, and then took action together despite the risk of severe consequences.

What is happening in the region is unprecedented.  The initial success of action in a number of Arab countries has created a new atmosphere.  Regimes now know that they must play their cards right if they wish to survive, or at least, prolong their declines. The youth in these countries have made it possible, despite the bleak futures they faced economically, and the incredible risks of imprisonment, bodily harm, and even death. I am proud to be researching them, and I am proud, despite our different national origins, to call them a part of my generation. They have found their "generational courage," and I think history will deem them another case worthy of the title: "Greatest Generation."