I am 20 years old and I freely admit, that my generation does not like to get involved with politics. We do not like to talk about it, we don't like to form opinions on it, and a lot of us do not even register to vote because, as I have heard so many people my age say, "My opinion doesn’t matter so I’m not going to vote." I take a lot of issue with this mentality that seems to be so prevalent among people my age.
The phrases "let's not talk about politics," or "politics are boring" are favorites among my generation, and that should be very concerning to all of us. If for some reason I stumble upon a group of my peers talking about politics, there is always someone who says, “Can we not talk about politics,” but it isn’t ever said as a question, it’s always a statement, and because people my age tend to want to avoid conflict, we stop talking about it.
This has happened to me on more than one occasion. When I have bothered to ask why that person does not want to talk about politics, they always say that they are not in the mood or how it is boring or how they do not want to argue – that they essentially want to avoid conflict. The problem with that is that we need to talk about politics and things that may cause conflict because without talking about them, we can never move forward as a society.
We need to talk about Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz. We need to talk about immigration, the cost of college, Syrian refugees, women’s rights, gay rights, transgender rights, environmental issues and affirmative action. We need to educate ourselves and each other, and we need to realize that if we don’t think our vote makes a difference, that there are thousands of people across the country with the same mentality and that if they all decided to vote, it probably would make a difference.
Conflict is where new ideas stem from; it is where people learn new things, where people are persuaded to consider new views or where their own views are reaffirmed and conflict is how we move forward as a society. I do not mean war, and I do not mean physical conflict. I mean debate and discussion. Instead of saying things like "politics are boring," we should be encouraging each other to talk about politics, broaden our understanding. We should be talking to people with completely different views than us, and maybe instead of assuming the other is automatically wrong, we should discuss and engage. We need to educate ourselves and each other, we need to be informed, the Millennial generation is already the least likely to vote, and we need to.
We as a generation need to vote because this is our future, as a collective, and if we do not put in our say, we let others decide for us. We need to be aware of what is going on around us, and in our government – both state and federal – and we need to speak up for ourselves. But more importantly, in order to be aware, we need to be informed, we need to exchange ideas, we need debate and argument and conflict and discussion, and we need to encourage it among our peers. We need to do this service to each other and ourselves because this is the only way that societies move forward, and the only way that societies change.
Maybe some of you don’t like to talk about politics because you like to think that you don’t care about politics, but you should care. Why? Because you care about whether or not you’ll be able to go to the doctor without selling a kidney; you care about whether or not you’re going to be in debt the rest of your life getting that bachelor's degree; and you care about whether or not you get to choose what you do with your body; whether you have more bodily autonomy than a dead person. Everyone cares about something, so you should care about politics. You don’t have to like them, it is perfectly OK to hate politics, but you should become politically aware nonetheless.
We cannot live in a world where we are perpetually stuck in the exact same place as a country and as a society while the rest of the world continues to move forward; it just does not make sense. Conflict and potentially being uncomfortable is a part of learning, a part of educating our selves and each other — an important one — and it is an unavoidable part of growing up. So, we might as well embrace it, learn from it and try to do some good with what we learn and maybe even make the world a better place.
