"The Phenomenon of the Young" -Jenn

What I found to be particularly interesting in Laclau and Mouffe's Hegemony and Socialist Strategy was there discussion of young people in the "Hegemony and Radical Democracy" chapter. They note the financial situation of many young people as well as their family dynamics and the hierarchy surrounding them. While they do go on to cite more materialistic and superficial things that unite the young (clothes and music) they do make reference to the two elements that make up democratic imaginary, equality and liberty and the predomination of equality that I think is still very prominent in young people.

Laclau and Mouffe make quick references to the Civil Rights movement in the US and I think it was many young people of the time who supported such a movement. With this being Black History Month it is easy to find references to the struggles of the Civil Rights movement with one common instance being the sit-ins throughout the south. These sit-ins usually talk about not only the black presence but also the young white population of fellow college students that helped support the sit-ins. Even today I believe you find a lot more young people in support of gay rights and gay marriage then you do of say the baby boomer generation. Even as we look at the ongoing news out of Egypt we learned many of the protests that started this movement were from young people and helped spread to and by other young people via very twenty-something mediums like Facebook.

My question then is when does this unity of the young population stop? Or is it that we are only allowed to support one major social or political movement together before our time expires? The young of the 1960s could support equal rights for whites and blacks and pass that equality onto future generations. We as the young can now support sexuality equality and pass that acceptance onto future generations, but I hope that we can be the generation to not lose our "young" acceptance and remain open as we outgrow our young-ness.