The deafening sound of silence

Caption : Be young and shut up Photographer : Wikimedia Commons

My first day at university was supposed to be different. I imagined fires ablaze, shouts ringing from the rooftops and hordes of young people at the ready, arms raised in clear defiance of the latest law designed to suppress any form of dissent.

Instead there was silence.

Disillusioned with the lack of enthusiasm, I began to look between the lines for a less obvious protesting student body. I found pamphlets being thrown my way, a colourful array of anti-war protests, protests against the banning of compulsory student unionism, protests against cafeteria food…

Yawn. Enough with the pamphlets already! I wanted to see action. I wanted to find fellow students discussing the next plan of attack. I wanted to hear passionate yet intelligent discussions in the hallways and elevators. I don’t want my moral conscience to feel obliged to go to these protests. I want every fibre in my being to feel engaged in the protest—to listen to that natural instinct propelling me to go.

Instead the pamphlets function to keep the walls decorated with an array of colours (and depending on the nature of the protest, the ground too). To put it bluntly, people simply can’t be bothered.

Or at least, this was my first impression.

It turns out that perceptions of young people have changed and this in turn affects the way we express ourselves. Images in the media often portray an apathetic and apolitical bunch obsessed with material wealth and possessions.

Those who do make the effort to be heard in public are represented as wild and out-of-control, drawing attention to themselves rather than to the cause and achieving little if nothing besides the occasional violence and unrest. It’s hard to look past this idea when student activism is primarily associated with students being arrested.

The fuel behind the fire I so strongly wanted to see is put on the backburner, abandoned for now. Soon another problem arises. The government continues to make student financial assistance difficult to obtain. Today young people are struggling with everyday reality, helpless to change the greater picture.

Noam Chomsky believes that the professors are anti-war activists today, not the students. Is this because the definition of political activism has changed dramatically?

There are many ways to lobby and show support for important issues. The internet is used as a forum for discussing these issues as there is usually no police squad on the other end to silence our views (or one would hope not).

How many petition signatures are those of young people? How many are volunteers? How many are critical of the media and the government? Actions we don’t usually associate with activism in the stereotypical sense seem to be common place for young people today.

The question remains, do young people feel that they have a legitimate voice? Although the nature of student activism has changed, one thing remains consistent—young people must realise their potential and continue to show their views and ideas in a number of ways. So long as their voice is not drowned out by the critical body which governs them, the possibilities become endless.

It will take years and years of persistence before we see results—but that’s how it’s always been.

Finally I learn the cruel and ironic truth. My university was built during the Vietnam years and was designed in such a way so as to suppress activism, to keep students apart and less inclined to join together to conspire against the government.

It seems as though the powers-that-be have figured out that we have all the power.

It’s about time we figured it out too.

And on that note, I’m off to don my protective helmet, ostentatious sign and trusty megaphone.

Let the silent battle begin.

How do I know this?

Anns, R. 2006, ‘Those were the days’, Monash University, http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/monmag/issue16-2005/...

Chomsky, N 2005, Imperial Ambitions: Conversations with Noam Chomsky on the post-9/11 world, Hamish Hamilton, Great Britain.

Christie, N 2006, ‘The death of student politics’, Online Opinion, September http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=4948

Horrin, A. 2006, ‘The Generation that chases no rainbows’, Sydney Morning Herald, September 30, http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/the-generation...

Muller, D. 2006, ‘Y Bother? This generation inhabits a different world’, Sydney Morning Herald, October 3, http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/y-bother-this-g...