In this week’s blog post something that I want to look into more is our class discussion on the new student left. This is not a group that I would have ever labeled as a part of the intellectual class. Many different topics and thoughts were shared about this group and their influence or lack there of. The thought was brought up that this group might have actually been naive in thought and action, but I want to push back on that. After discussing this group I think that they laid the groundwork for younger people to be involved in social and political movements. This group not only allowed for a future student intellectual class to rise but also brought about a lot of change as well. The involvement that was discussed in this reading includes but is not limited to civil rights, anti-war, religious freedom, and many others. All of these protests are something I was aware of but had never thought of as an intellectual act before now. On page 430 of the Feuer reading, he states “The movements were always a source of intellectual ferment on the campuses; they had a sense of the drama of ideas. They made the average undergraduate and professor more aware of the emerging problems and realities of the world. They were a channel for the noblest idealistic aspirations of adolescence”. This part of the conclusion encapsulated my thoughts on the reading and rounded out how these student movements are truly an act of the intellectual class.
I wanted also to explore how we can see the influence of this group in today’s society. Student protests are something becoming more widespread. And while it might not be the same protest as the Students of the new left they have the same implications. In my lifetime there has been a large shift in what younger people fight back against. In recent times some of the things that come to mind are social and political such as gun safety, women’s health rights, Black Lives Matter, and LGBTQ equality. These are the main issues that are arising at the forefront of society and since my time in college, I have seen and been a part of movements like these on campus. But in relation to the quote, I stated earlier I question that I want to pose is while I feel that student movements are effective and influential, do older generations actually listen and want to enact change as much as students do? Is there a better way to gain the older generations’ respect when it comes to raising awareness on social and political issues?
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As far as I understood the reading from Feuer, the students wanted nothing to do with their parents’ ideas and genuinely could do without their respect. They sought this movement out as their own and the way they believed they were going to bring about change from the old way of thinking to the new way was through violence and usurpation. As we discussed in class, there were high stakes for the students in that their parents instilled in them a sort of responsibility to change the world. This interpretation of a new generation’s duty generates self-righteous and pretentious young adults that view what they are doing as a good deed to humankind.
However, this sort of behavior becomes dicey especially as an organization built on their own version of the truth, anything goes. The fact that they were disrupting any sort of discussion of other viewpoints on college campuses is telling of their agenda. They blatantly would shut down any sort of rally or talk of other viewpoints and if you were one to speak against their rhetoric you would be ostracized and ridiculed for your differing opinions.
Same goes with social and political issues we see today. In fact there are videos of people on the streets harassing others or students cutting mic’s of speakers discussing controversial topics. To what extent could these movements have continued when there was no available space for open discourse? Especially in such a place as a university where that kind of discussion should be welcomed.