In response to Julia Rain's diary and many of the replies, I want to weigh in on why I think Young Americans
seem not to care about politics.
It has to do with the way we teach history in High School and our FAILURE to teach it in University.
Now, I can only remember my High School history classes as the most mind numbing hour of my day. Why? Well, most history teachers (who really aren't historians) teach it this way.
"The following events will be on your test, so please remember them...
In 1922 So and So did Such and Such.
In 1924 This happened
In 1966 That happened
Any questions? No? Good. See you for the test tomorrow."
Can any people here tell me why that is bad?
Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
There is no CONTEXT, there is no interaction, there is no discussion of the interconnectedness of events. In short, there is no WHY and no SO WHAT?
So, students tune out. The good ones remember the dates for the exams, but then flush it out of their heads once the test is finished.
Why is this bad? Well, to use an example from fearless leader (who obviously fell asleep in or outright ditched history class), it means that students don't know that there are two sects of Islam that hate each other. Also, they don't know that both were living (somewhat peacefully) together under Saddam.
So, they don't understand when the country blows itself up in sectarian violence.
What else don't they know? Well, they don't know that the current borders of Iraq and its neighbors were drawn by a Frenchman and an Englishman trying to split the "spoils of war" after the collapse of the Ottoman empire.
It is said that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it, but this isn't the case for those who never learned it to begin with.
I would wager that if you asked 100 people (of any age) WHY the Vietnam War happened, they wouldn't be able to tell you beyond "to stop communism".
If you asked them why WWII started, they would probably say because Hitler was killing Jews. Oops... Wrong answer there kiddo.
So, that's OK, right? We can make it up when they get to college and take all those great liberal arts courses...
I teach "management" to engineering students. To a student, most of them come into my class looking for an "easy A", with nothing but disdain for the "soft stuff". Most of them, after the course is over, realize that understanding how to work with people and make better decisions is important.
Some students come to talk to me in my office, because they realize that I may just know something (and sometimes I actually do) about the world outside of University.
I am continually AMAZED at how little they know of the world outside school, and even less about the world outside of their country. WHY? Well, they share stories with me of their BORING civics class, and even MORE BORING History class. Why was it boring? (See earlier part of post, it's taught wrong!!).
Well, so, they will get it in their "other classes", right?
WRONG!!! The problem is, that the purpose of a University education seems to have changed from becoming educated to getting a job. At least, this is how it appears with my boots on the ground in a University.
The result of this is an overabundance of "technical" classes and a dearth of "liberal arts" classes. Our engineering students get 6 free electives, of which 3 can be taken "outside" of engineering. Taking 6 courses a term is quite a burden for these students, so they avoid courses that require reading, writing, or critical thought (i.e. those courses that would really help them in the real world.)
So - they avoid Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology, and History courses like the plague because of "all the reading that is required", and take the intellectual equivalent of under water basket weaving. I don't blame them, if I had to take 6 hard science courses a term, I wouldn't burden myself either.
What does this leave? Very technically qualified workers without the capacity for critical thinking.
So, to tie it back to the original purpose of why "Young People aren't interested in politics", it's because they haven't learned enough to be good consumers of what's going on in the world.
Anyway - off my soap box.