BOOKS Now it's 'Why Johnny can't protest' BY KIM ODE Scripps Howard News Service "Generation at the Cross- roads," by Paul Rogat Loeb; Rutgers, $24.95. hen Paul Rogat Loeb explains why many of today's college and university students are politically uninvolved, the conversation begins to resemble a graduate-level "Why Johnny Can't Protest." They lack confidence. Their education has failed them. They doubt their abilities to defend an opinion. No one has taught them how to be politically active. Sounds sad, except that Loeb goes on to describe in these same students a vaulting arrogance when it comes to judging the motives and intellects of fellow students who are activists. Such is the beauty of the Perfect Standard, a concept that Loeb identified over the g Bookshop Care I e EVENTS e an. 9 • 7pm • $3 Jamie Weinstein, Ph.D. Lecture/Self Empowerment an. 10 •7pm •$3 Carole Austen Lecture/Calling Planet Earth an. 11 •7pm • $3 Carol Gurney Lecture/Talking With Animals . an. 14 0 7:30pm The Arabian Nights with storyteller Ashley Ramsden and bellydancer Titanya Dahlin Barnyard Community Room Adults · $8 Seniors & Students · $5 Not suitable for children due to adult fun & games. 624-1803 .d Open daily 10am-9pm ¥THEBARATARD, CARMEL W seven years he spent listening to students across the United States, and writes about in his new book, "Generation at the Crossroads." Students who apply the standard to themselves never fail to come up short. They rarely state an opinion, he said, because they lack confidence in 7 want to be active people can do thing ever taught me hou their ability to defend it. "It's as if they believe they have to be able to debate Henry Kissinger on 'Nightline' before they say anything. They mistrust their own knowledge. They feel they don't know enough." At the same time, he said, they measure politically active fellow students by the same meticulously calibrated yardstick of intellectual worth. "They say, 'I asked them a question, and they didn't have the answer, so I can't get involved with something like that. '" Applying the Perfect Standard, whether to themselves or to others, is "ultimately a way of reserving judgment not only an any given issue or controversy, but on the entire prospect of taking responsibility for the future," Loeb said. Stern words, considering that this book was meant as a sort of life preserver flung to Generation X as it fights a rising tide of denigrating phrases ranging from apathetic slackers to greedy cynics. But Loeb, a 42-year-old author, investigative reporter and lecturer on citizen responsibility, doesn't fault the students. Rather, he says, they're simply overwhelmed. "It's like - and I'm going to sound like a computer here - but it's like there's a default setting in our culture now: there are people so burdened with daily concerns that they feel they have no latitude to act, teachers who don't raise controversial subjects for fear they'll lose their jobs, news reports that are vast expanses of problems that make social change seem impossible." As one student from Michigan State told Loeb: "I want to be active...I know people can do things, but nobody's ever taught me how to get involved." The idea that involvement is something that must be taught may seem absurd to many who were of college age during the Vietnam years, during the civil rights marches, during the Watergate hearings. But Loeb argues that times ...I know s, but nobody's i to get involved.' have changed. Many of today's students are,working a couple of part-time jobs to pay for earning a degree that may or may not get them a job in an uncertain economy. They literally don't have the time, or the energy, to be politically involved. "They're just caught in the box of survival." Loeb also found that they lack a sense of history - for example, a recognition that their great-grandmothers could not vote. They know little of the union movement in this country. Sometimes, their education has distorted history. "We envision Martin Luther King as a demigod, but I wonder how many really know he was just 26 years old when he went into Montgomery, Ala., and was probably filled with doubts and probably lost more battles than he won?" Loeb found that many of today's politically uninvolved students have a special mistrust of the Vietnam activism in particular, noting a continuing theme that cropped up at school after school: that of students spitting on soldiers. "It makes anybody hearing about this condemn the protesters," he said. "During the Gulf War, I heard students say, 'We're not going to spit on the soldiers this time.' " In fact, he said, the image was in all likelihood a myth. "It may have happened to someone somewhere at some time, but it was not this widespread action that they believe it was." Still, it summarizes their feelings about activists in general as anti-intellectual, crude, slogan-chanting rabblerousers. And yet, Loeb - a longtime political activist - sees room for hopefulness. "It is more heartening to find that students want to act but don't know how, rather than they don't want to act," he said. "The thing that seems critical is role models. It seems an awful cliche, but it's true. If they find a role model in family, friends or teachers, they will get involved." Former activists, now grown older and less involved, should perhaps consider reactivating their lives. What students need to see, he said, is that other people are working in concrete ways to strengthen a sense of community, that social involvement is worth its cost, that human fates are intertwined. And this requires putting the Perfect Standard to rest. "Students adopting the Perfect Standard want BEST SE NATIONAL (Source: Publishefs Weekly) M M = m 52 4 ms ACTION - HARDBACK 1 (1) Politically Correct Bedtime Stories. James Finn Garner 2 (2) The Celestine Prophecy. James Redfield 3 (4) Debt of Honor. Tom Clancy. 4 (3) Insomnia. Stephen King 5 (5) Wings. Danielle Steele 6 (6) The Lottery Winner. Mary Higgins Clark 7 (9) God's Other Son. Don Imus 8 (11) Mutant Message Down Under. Marlo Morgan 9 (10) Taltos. Anne Rice 10 (7) The Bridges Of Madison County. Robert James Waller NON-FICTION - HARDBACK 1 (1) Crossing The Threshold Of Hope. John Paul II 2 (4) In The Kitchen With Rosie. Rosie Daley 3 (2) Don't Stand Too Close To A Naked Man. Tim Allen 4 (3) Couplehood. Paul Reiser 5 (6) Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus. John Gray. . 6 (10) The Hot Zone. Richard Preston 7 1-) Illuminata. Marianne Williamson 8 (5) James Herriot's Cat Stories. James Herriot 9 (13) The Book Of Virtues. William J. Bennett 10 (9) The Bell Curve. Herrnstein and Murray guaranteed success," Loeb wrote in his concluding chapter. "Social activists must live with ambiguity... Activists have to accept that the results of their, labors will often be intangible, that they will rarely have every answer or relevant fact, that they'll often be uncertain about what they've achieved. They 34* need to recognize as well that even in the darkest times, they can spur discussion and thought." LLERS lOCAL (Source: The Thunderbird Bookshop, The Barnyard) FICTION -HARDBACK 1 Politically Correct Bedtime Stories. Garner 2 Celestine Prophecy. Redfield 3 Mutant Message Down . j Under. Morgan { 4 Cat Stories. Herriot 5 Debt of Honor. Clancy FICTION- PAPERBACK ' 1 Dead Heat From Big Sur. Gilligan 2 Shipping News. Proulx 3 Disclosure. Crichton 4 Smillas Sense of Snow. Hoeg 5 Dear James. Hassler NON-ACTION-HARDBACK 1 Illuminata. Williamson 2 Baba. Yang - 3 Crossing The Threshold Of Hope. Paul 4 Warren Buffett Way. Hagstrom 5 Feast Of Eden. Monterey Junior League NON-FICTION - PAPERBACK 1 Above Carmel, Monterey and Big Sun Gilliam 2 Chicken Soup For The Soul. Canfield 3 Monterey, The First Buildings. Stewart 4 Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey Now. Angelou 5 Care Of The Soul. Moore Alta Vista Magazine, Sunday, January 8, 1995 11 1 , OCR Text: BOOKS Now it's 'Why Johnny can't protest' BY KIM ODE Scripps Howard News Service "Generation at the Cross- roads," by Paul Rogat Loeb; Rutgers, $24.95. hen Paul Rogat Loeb explains why many of today's college and university students are politically uninvolved, the conversation begins to resemble a graduate-level "Why Johnny Can't Protest." They lack confidence. Their education has failed them. They doubt their abilities to defend an opinion. No one has taught them how to be politically active. Sounds sad, except that Loeb goes on to describe in these same students a vaulting arrogance when it comes to judging the motives and intellects of fellow students who are activists. Such is the beauty of the Perfect Standard, a concept that Loeb identified over the g Bookshop Care I e EVENTS e an. 9 • 7pm • $3 Jamie Weinstein, Ph.D. Lecture/Self Empowerment an. 10 •7pm •$3 Carole Austen Lecture/Calling Planet Earth an. 11 •7pm • $3 Carol Gurney Lecture/Talking With Animals . an. 14 0 7:30pm The Arabian Nights with storyteller Ashley Ramsden and bellydancer Titanya Dahlin Barnyard Community Room Adults · $8 Seniors & Students · $5 Not suitable for children due to adult fun & games. 624-1803 .d Open daily 10am-9pm ¥THEBARATARD, CARMEL W seven years he spent listening to students across the United States, and writes about in his new book, "Generation at the Crossroads." Students who apply the standard to themselves never fail to come up short. They rarely state an opinion, he said, because they lack confidence in 7 want to be active people can do thing ever taught me hou their ability to defend it. "It's as if they believe they have to be able to debate Henry Kissinger on 'Nightline' before they say anything. They mistrust their own knowledge. They feel they don't know enough." At the same time, he said, they measure politically active fellow students by the same meticulously calibrated yardstick of intellectual worth. "They say, 'I asked them a question, and they didn't have the answer, so I can't get involved with something like that. '" Applying the Perfect Standard, whether to themselves or to others, is "ultimately a way of reserving judgment not only an any given issue or controversy, but on the entire prospect of taking responsibility for the future," Loeb said. Stern words, considering that this book was meant as a sort of life preserver flung to Generation X as it fights a rising tide of denigrating phrases ranging from apathetic slackers to greedy cynics. But Loeb, a 42-year-old author, investigative reporter and lecturer on citizen responsibility, doesn't fault the students. Rather, he says, they're simply overwhelmed. "It's like - and I'm going to sound like a computer here - but it's like there's a default setting in our culture now: there are people so burdened with daily concerns that they feel they have no latitude to act, teachers who don't raise controversial subjects for fear they'll lose their jobs, news reports that are vast expanses of problems that make social change seem impossible." As one student from Michigan State told Loeb: "I want to be active...I know people can do things, but nobody's ever taught me how to get involved." The idea that involvement is something that must be taught may seem absurd to many who were of college age during the Vietnam years, during the civil rights marches, during the Watergate hearings. But Loeb argues that times ...I know s, but nobody's i to get involved.' have changed. Many of today's students are,working a couple of part-time jobs to pay for earning a degree that may or may not get them a job in an uncertain economy. They literally don't have the time, or the energy, to be politically involved. "They're just caught in the box of survival." Loeb also found that they lack a sense of history - for example, a recognition that their great-grandmothers could not vote. They know little of the union movement in this country. Sometimes, their education has distorted history. "We envision Martin Luther King as a demigod, but I wonder how many really know he was just 26 years old when he went into Montgomery, Ala., and was probably filled with doubts and probably lost more battles than he won?" Loeb found that many of today's politically uninvolved students have a special mistrust of the Vietnam activism in particular, noting a continuing theme that cropped up at school after school: that of students spitting on soldiers. "It makes anybody hearing about this condemn the protesters," he said. "During the Gulf War, I heard students say, 'We're not going to spit on the soldiers this time.' " In fact, he said, the image was in all likelihood a myth. "It may have happened to someone somewhere at some time, but it was not this widespread action that they believe it was." Still, it summarizes their feelings about activists in general as anti-intellectual, crude, slogan-chanting rabblerousers. And yet, Loeb - a longtime political activist - sees room for hopefulness. "It is more heartening to find that students want to act but don't know how, rather than they don't want to act," he said. "The thing that seems critical is role models. It seems an awful cliche, but it's true. If they find a role model in family, friends or teachers, they will get involved." Former activists, now grown older and less involved, should perhaps consider reactivating their lives. What students need to see, he said, is that other people are working in concrete ways to strengthen a sense of community, that social involvement is worth its cost, that human fates are intertwined. And this requires putting the Perfect Standard to rest. "Students adopting the Perfect Standard want BEST SE NATIONAL (Source: Publishefs Weekly) M M = m 52 4 ms ACTION - HARDBACK 1 (1) Politically Correct Bedtime Stories. James Finn Garner 2 (2) The Celestine Prophecy. James Redfield 3 (4) Debt of Honor. Tom Clancy. 4 (3) Insomnia. Stephen King 5 (5) Wings. Danielle Steele 6 (6) The Lottery Winner. Mary Higgins Clark 7 (9) God's Other Son. Don Imus 8 (11) Mutant Message Down Under. Marlo Morgan 9 (10) Taltos. Anne Rice 10 (7) The Bridges Of Madison County. Robert James Waller NON-FICTION - HARDBACK 1 (1) Crossing The Threshold Of Hope. John Paul II 2 (4) In The Kitchen With Rosie. Rosie Daley 3 (2) Don't Stand Too Close To A Naked Man. Tim Allen 4 (3) Couplehood. Paul Reiser 5 (6) Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus. John Gray. . 6 (10) The Hot Zone. Richard Preston 7 1-) Illuminata. Marianne Williamson 8 (5) James Herriot's Cat Stories. James Herriot 9 (13) The Book Of Virtues. William J. Bennett 10 (9) The Bell Curve. Herrnstein and Murray guaranteed success," Loeb wrote in his concluding chapter. "Social activists must live with ambiguity... Activists have to accept that the results of their, labors will often be intangible, that they will rarely have every answer or relevant fact, that they'll often be uncertain about what they've achieved. They 34* need to recognize as well that even in the darkest times, they can spur discussion and thought." LLERS lOCAL (Source: The Thunderbird Bookshop, The Barnyard) FICTION -HARDBACK 1 Politically Correct Bedtime Stories. Garner 2 Celestine Prophecy. Redfield 3 Mutant Message Down . j Under. Morgan { 4 Cat Stories. Herriot 5 Debt of Honor. Clancy FICTION- PAPERBACK ' 1 Dead Heat From Big Sur. Gilligan 2 Shipping News. Proulx 3 Disclosure. Crichton 4 Smillas Sense of Snow. Hoeg 5 Dear James. Hassler NON-ACTION-HARDBACK 1 Illuminata. Williamson 2 Baba. Yang - 3 Crossing The Threshold Of Hope. Paul 4 Warren Buffett Way. Hagstrom 5 Feast Of Eden. Monterey Junior League NON-FICTION - PAPERBACK 1 Above Carmel, Monterey and Big Sun Gilliam 2 Chicken Soup For The Soul. Canfield 3 Monterey, The First Buildings. Stewart 4 Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey Now. Angelou 5 Care Of The Soul. Moore Alta Vista Magazine, Sunday, January 8, 1995 11 1 , Heritage Society of Pacific Grove,Historical Collections,Names of People about town,V through Z File names,Woodward History,WOODWARD_007.pdf,WOODWARD_007.pdf 1 Page 1, Tags: WOODWARD_007.PDF, WOODWARD_007.pdf 1 Page 1