San Diego State University’s Independent Student Newspaper Since 1913

The Daily Aztec

San Diego State University’s Independent Student Newspaper Since 1913

The Daily Aztec




San Diego State University’s Independent Student Newspaper Since 1913

The Daily Aztec

HUMOR: To the winter class of 2010

By Matt Doran, Assistant Features Editor

In 1979, President Jimmy Carter gave a televised address that came to be known as his Crisis of Confidence speech. He beseeched Americans to buy less, to be less materialistic, less self-centered and more content with what they have in the hope a personal peace would lead to a national one. These are all noble aspirations, but unfortunately, they fell on disinterested ears.

Carter was appealing to the American spirit of independence and self-reliance, but what he likely did not know was that spirit had been usurped by an invisible enemy: apathy. A malaise has been steadily growing among the American public, one that has gone unnoticed and unmentioned. In his speech, Carter said the greatest threat to national security was energy dependence. That may have been true in 1979, but it is no longer the case. Carter was right — there is a dearth of energy, but it is within us, not the oil wells of the Middle East.

If apathy was a crime, Americans would be in prison. So many of our lives are marked with distractions of instant gratification. We have become intensely focused on our immediate satisfaction. One needs to only look at social security to see how our myopic, self-centered habits have landed us in a seemingly insurmountable quandary.

Not only are our attentions occupied and driven by fleeting personal fulfillment, we have come to expect it. We are entitled to it, and our avarice is insatiable. Given the amount of incessant, strategic advertising, this material cupidity seems implacable, and it is this mass consumption of physical and ideological distractions that has inevitably led to our passive zeitgeist.

We also want our thoughts delivered to us, preferably electronically. America was once a nation of innovators, but our ancestral heroes have been disparaged. Overgrown, lethargic teenagers dominate, and their innate sense of entitlement leads them to constantly live the question: What’s in it for me? John F. Kennedy spurred the nation’s youth to ask what they could do for their country. Was the second gunman on the grassy knoll apathy?

We think too much of what someone else should be doing to help us rather than what we can do to help ourselves. We bemoan our myriad woes, yet the idea of proactively seeking solutions to all that ails us is increasingly alien. In our time of mindless acceleration into the future, we need to be vigilant, to hold on to what we value of our past as we forge ahead. We must be aware. We must read. We must think. We must act. Unfortunately, we seem all too happy to sit on our raft of apathy, letting the currents push us where they will.

But I am not without hope. Apathy robs you of your dreams. It creeps into your mind and thwarts your future. Once apathy takes hold, it is not easy to overcome, and dreams can become memories. But I have faith.

You are college graduates. You have come too far and worked too hard to give up now. You came here to better yourself, to ensure you would have the best possible future, and you can, but you cannot do it alone. The best possible future is one where we work together. Why have we not been able to unite to rectify our collective malaise? It is because we are stuck in individual cycles of entitlement, consumption and short-term gratification. You can break this cycle.

The media broadcasts fear, promulgating the dangers that are sure to befall America, but there is nothing more ominous than apathy. It is a fundamental threat to democracy and our civil liberties. Apathy is a minatory danger that flies in the face of the defining characteristic of this country: individual freedoms. By being apathetic, our civil liberties are slowly chipped away — a right here, a privilege there. Think of what we stand to lose if we let our apathy continue unabated. If we remain uninvolved, unengaged and self-centered, we will be wastrels of epic proportions. We will have squandered our inheritance and spat in the faces of our ancestors.

Our democracy is feeble because its citizens are saturated with stuff and sapped of motivation. America has become a Potemkin village masking its illness. The concept of civic duty going beyond voting or the dreaded jury duty seems foreign and extrinsic. This must change.

How are you going to define yourselves as college graduates? Will it be by what you do or what you own? If you want your degree and your life to mean something, you will not measure its worth by how much stuff you amass, but by how you recognize and embrace responsibility and give of yourself in service of each other.

Be the generation that unifies, not tears asunder. This nation imports much of its energy because we have depleted our domestic natural resources. Or have we? You are this nation’s most precious natural resource. You are the energy we so desperately need.

Inject your verve into the heart of this country and shock it back to life. Rattle cages. Subvert the status quo. Make your voice heard. But, don’t do it simply to attack. Do it with purpose, with a solution. It is easy to attack and disassemble, but the high road is walked by those who offer alternatives.

What will your generation be known for? What you pursue now will be your legacy. What will you leave behind? What do you care about? In order to come together, you have to rally behind something. What torch will you take up? We are certainly not at a loss for causes, and I hope we are not a lost cause.

The battle between apathy and inspiration is easily won if our hearts and minds are open. But if they are mired in stagnation, then it will be a losing battle, and we cannot afford to lose. This battle must begin today; it is too urgent to be left for tomorrow.

Be the renascent generation of America. Go into the world to change it. Find your passion and fight bravely to keep it alive. Pursue your dreams with abandon. Never settle.

—Matt Doran is a creative writing graduate student who gives a s—.

—This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Daily Aztec.

Activate Search
San Diego State University’s Independent Student Newspaper Since 1913
HUMOR: To the winter class of 2010