Generation Q

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: October 10, 2007
I just spent the past week visiting several colleges — Auburn, the University of Mississippi, Lake Forest and Williams — and I can report that the more I am around this generation of college students, the more I am both baffled and impressed.

Times Topics: Arctic RegionsI am impressed because they are so much more optimistic and idealistic than they should be. I am baffled because they are so much less radical and politically engaged than they need to be.

One of the things I feared most after 9/11 — that my daughters would not be able to travel the world with the same carefree attitude my wife and I did at their age — has not come to pass.

Whether it was at Ole Miss or Williams or my alma mater, Brandeis, college students today are not only going abroad to study in record numbers, but they are also going abroad to build homes for the poor in El Salvador in record numbers or volunteering at AIDS clinics in record numbers. Not only has terrorism not deterred them from traveling, they are rolling up their sleeves and diving in deeper than ever.

The Iraq war may be a mess, but I noticed at Auburn and Ole Miss more than a few young men and women proudly wearing their R.O.T.C. uniforms. Many of those not going abroad have channeled their national service impulses into increasingly popular programs at home like “Teach for America,” which has become to this generation what the Peace Corps was to mine.

It’s for all these reasons that I’ve been calling them “Generation Q” — the Quiet Americans, in the best sense of that term, quietly pursuing their idealism, at home and abroad.

But Generation Q may be too quiet, too online, for its own good, and for the country’s own good. When I think of the huge budget deficit, Social Security deficit and ecological deficit that our generation is leaving this generation, if they are not spitting mad, well, then they’re just not paying attention. And we’ll just keep piling it on them.

There is a good chance that members of Generation Q will spend their entire adult lives digging out from the deficits that we — the “Greediest Generation,” epitomized by George W. Bush — are leaving them.

When I was visiting my daughter at her college, she asked me about a terrifying story that ran in this newspaper on Oct. 2, reporting that the Arctic ice cap was melting “to an extent unparalleled in a century or more” — and that the entire Arctic system appears to be “heading toward a new, more watery state” likely triggered by “human-caused global warming.”

“What happened to that Arctic story, Dad?” my daughter asked me. How could the news media just report one day that the Arctic ice was melting far faster than any models predicted “and then the story just disappeared?” Why weren’t any of the candidates talking about it? Didn’t they understand: this has become the big issue on campuses?

No, they don’t seem to understand. They seem to be too busy raising money or buying votes with subsidies for ethanol farmers in Iowa. The candidates could actually use a good kick in the pants on this point. But where is it going to come from?

Generation Q would be doing itself a favor, and America a favor, if it demanded from every candidate who comes on campus answers to three questions: What is your plan for mitigating climate change? What is your plan for reforming Social Security? What is your plan for dealing with the deficit — so we all won’t be working for China in 20 years?

America needs a jolt of the idealism, activism and outrage (it must be in there) of Generation Q. That’s what twentysomethings are for — to light a fire under the country. But they can’t e-mail it in, and an online petition or a mouse click for carbon neutrality won’t cut it. They have to get organized in a way that will force politicians to pay attention rather than just patronize them.

Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy didn’t change the world by asking people to join their Facebook crusades or to download their platforms. Activism can only be uploaded, the old-fashioned way — by young voters speaking truth to power, face to face, in big numbers, on campuses or the Washington Mall. Virtual politics is just that — virtual.

Maybe that’s why what impressed me most on my brief college swing was actually a statue — the life-size statue of James Meredith at the University of Mississippi. Meredith was the first African-American to be admitted to Ole Miss in 1962. The Meredith bronze is posed as if he is striding toward a tall limestone archway, re-enacting his fateful step onto the then-segregated campus — defying a violent, angry mob and protected by the National Guard.

Above the archway, carved into the stone, is the word “Courage.” That is what real activism looks like. There is no substitute.



上星期我刚刚走访几所大学，奥本、密西西比、莱克福里斯特和威廉斯。我可以向大家汇报：和这代大学生接触地越多，我就越发地困惑又感动。
感动的是，他们的乐观和理想主义超过应有程度。困惑的是，他们的革命性和对政治的投入远远不够。
9.11后我最担心的一件事就是女儿们不能再像妻子和我当年那样无忧无虑地周游世界，但这没有发生。
不仅从来没有这么多大学生出国学习，也从来没有这么多大学生出国给萨尔瓦多穷人建造住宅，或者到艾滋病诊所做志愿者。恐怖主义不仅没有阻止他们旅行，他们还卷起袖子前所未有地全身心投入。
伊拉克战争或许是个烂摊子，但是，我在奥本和密西西比注意到，不少年轻人骄傲地穿着后备军官训练队队服。很多没有出国的学生把报效祖国的热情投入国内日益流行的项目，比如“为美国执教”。
出于这些原因，我才把他们称作“Q一代”，也就是“沉静的美国人”，用的是这种说法中最积极的意义，指他们不声不响地实践自己的理想主义，无论在国内还是国外。
但是，Q一代也许太沉静，太沉溺于网络了，对他们自己和国家不利。一想到我们这代人要留给他们的巨额财政赤字、社会保障赤字和生态赤字，如果他们不是怒不可遏，那就是根本没注意。
对Q一代人来说，现在是一个从我们最贪婪的这代人所留下的一屁股欠债中挣扎而出的好机会。
当我去女儿大学探访她时，她询问了一条纽约时报10月2日报道的令人震惊的消息——北极冰盖“在未来一个世纪甚至更长时间将以前所未有的速度消融”，由于“人类造成的全球变暖”使得整个北极圈“朝着一个全新的不断融化的状况”行进。
“爸爸，北极圈究竟发生了什么事？”我女儿问我。新闻媒体为何有一天突然报道说北极圈正以比任何模型预计的都要快的速度融化？“然后整个事情就销声匿迹”。为何没有哪个总统候选人谈论此事？难道他们没有意识到这将成为大学校园的一件很大的事件么？（牧羊：良久无语，为此感动并为我们而汗颜！）
是的，他们看上去没有意识到整个事情的严肃性。他们看上去正忙于筹款或给爱荷华州农场主补贴而换得选票而无暇顾及。事实上候选者本可以好好在这方面大做文章，然而我们所期盼的又从何提起呢？
如果要求每位来校园的候选人回答三个问题：你打算怎么减缓气候变化？你打算怎么改革社会保障制度？你打算怎么解决赤字以免20年后我们都给中国打工？Q一代就是在为自己做一件好事，为美国做一件好事。
美国需要来电Q一代身上的理想主义、行动的精神和不平的怒火。20来岁的人就是应该点把火促使国家的革新。但是，他们不能用电子邮件把这把火送来，网上请愿或点击鼠标支持“碳中和”（计算出个人或团体的二氧化碳排放量，再通过植树、投资建设节能环保新设施等方式把排放量抵消以实现环保）也没有效用。他们必须以某种方式组织起来，迫使政客重视他们，而不是恩赐他们。
马丁·路德·金和鲍比·肯尼迪改变世界不是靠邀请人们加入他们的Facebook(美国最受欢迎的大学生在线社区)运动或下载他们的纲领。行动主义只能用老办法“上传”：也就是说，大批年轻的选民与当权者面对面说出真相，在校园或华盛顿国家广场。虚拟政治只是“虚拟”而已。
或许，正因为如此，这趟短暂的大学之行最让我感动的居然是一座雕像：密西西比大学真人大小的詹姆斯·梅雷迪斯雕像。1962年，梅雷迪斯成为密西西比大学录取的第一个非裔美国人。这座铜像摆出一个姿势，仿佛正要跨过一座高高的石灰岩拱门，再现当时那决定性的一步：在国民警卫队的保护下跨入实施种族隔离的校园，昂然面对一群愤怒的暴民。
拱门上方，刻在石头上的字是：“勇气”。真正的行动主义就是这样。无可替代。