What's the problem? Not consumerism but that brokenness is an accepted fact of life. Donna Dong of IV came to preach at us sunday, I mean this in the best possible way. She did not entertain us, she did not explain how to do things, she didn't provide us with comforting tales, she wanted us to change and move us. A very prophetic demonstration of her message was her enactment of our attitudes towards brokenness. A 5 year old cell phone stopped working - throw it away... it worked for an extra 3 years longer than it should have. A deceased Palm Pilot m3a should have given up the ghost years ago - discarded on the floor. Built in obsolescence is part and parcel of our new N. American worldview. Why is there no protest or reaction? We simply accept it as a fact of life!The last few weeks I listened to news and discussion programs why there was such low voter turn out recently. One excuse was the GenYers, while being well informed don't trust politicans and therefore ask the question why vote at all! As a boomer I grew up with the maxim "If it ain't broke don't fix it", but somehow we now live in a world thinking "It's gonna break, so buy a new one." But this is conditional on there being something better to buy, if there isn't then paralysis!
My young friend asked me why there seem to be so few activists in her age group. I think Donna has given me a clue, brokenness. If everything is broken, and with no hope, surrounded by empty words, actually what is left?
On the Fortune CNN.com blog there's a neat article asking this very question "Where are the Gen Y activists?" (see here) What was most interesting were the Gen Y respondents' comments. There was real sense of brokenness of the system, albeit in the US but not so far away.
Yadgyu comments struck me:-
It’s good for this guy to be an activist because it is his career. But trying to make others feel guilty for wanting to not be bothered is sickening. He needs to put himself in the average guys’ shoes and really understand that people are sick of being used as pawns by the left, the right, and anyone else who wants to use them.Rebecca's comments were the most real and offering hope.
We just understand that no one in power gives a $#!^ that The People are protesting, marching, or writing letters, because none of these things damage those in power. The only ways we can possibly hurt them are stopping the cash flow or refusing to vote for them (and once someone’s in office, they can breathe easy for another 2-6 years, so the voting part isn’t even that effective). So we try to change our world in more local ways. More of us than in any other generation are doing community service work. Have we given up on enacting national or global change in one fell swoop? Yes. Have we given up on change? No. Our generation just prefers to do it one person, family, neighborhood, or community at a time.
My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power. 1 Cor 2:4-5
