I’ve just been watching a panel discussion with survivors from the Parklands school shooting in the aftermath of Saturday’s March for Our Lives gatherings across the US. How eloquent, composed and sensible they all were in proposing quite obvious solutions to the gun violence epidemic that has personally affected them, and which is ongoing across this country.
The five students being interviewed by CNN’s Van Jones are unlike students when I went to school many decades ago. These five, and there are others just as eloquent, composed and sensible who weren’t interviewed, are inspired by something greater than themselves. They see an urgent need for change, and will not rest until they have been heard and meaningful changes made to protect children and others vulnerable to senseless violence at the hands of those who should not be allowed instruments of death.
In the last century, there was a generation of heroes who went to war to protect whole nations of others who were being bullied by those who would seize what they wanted by use of force. That generation has often been referred to as America’s finest generation. They laid the foundation for a world that has not seen another world war, and flourished economically as international trade has bonded former enemies together in mutual benefit to produce unparalleled prosperity.
However, without a common enemy to galvanize society together, there has been a tendency toward self-indulgence at the expense of the common good. We have become complacent as corporate lobbyists have invested heavily in the political system to influence society more through campaigns contributions than we the citizens have through political activism. The student activists from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are calling our collective attention to this, and are showing us the power we have always had but meekly given away to corporate and political interests, until now.
The various, if somewhat flawed, investigations into the last US presidential elections have shown ample evidence that the manipulation of the US public is even being done by other countries to further their geopolitical agendas. The will of the American public, and citizens of other countries as well, has been manipulated with ever greater sophistication since Edward Bernays, took the understandings of his famous uncle Sigmund Freud, and used them in public relations campaigns to advance the agendas of many of this country’s largest corporations and government agencies.
Through his uncle’s ground-breaking work, Bernays knew that people’s instinctive responses could be influenced through the “group mind” without the public being aware of it. Advertising agencies have been charging large amounts of money for doing this for corporations and government agencies ever since. Why are they able to extract such large fees? Because it works!
However, it will no longer work when the messages being conveyed conflict with the foundational human programming for individual and species survival. By stepping up and humanizing the effects of gun violence, the student activists are breaking through the hypnotic platitudes of the NRA and the politicians they influence and awakening Americans to the threat unrestrained gun ownership presents to our society.
As a parent of twin 19 years old boys, I’ve noticed that they and their friends are different from my generation, in that they seem intrinsically programmed to be change agents, but not through violent or personal confrontation. They are not afraid to call out what doesn’t make sense, but it’s not personal, they just set about working to make change happen.
Van Jones’ interview made me wonder, are we witnessing the emergence of another great generation, a generation of societal innovators who will call out what isn’t serving the greater good and work on transforming our society to serve all, not just those who can pay for self-serving PR?
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