Apathy

"... the student activist culture has become splintered. It functions in categories of niched, specialised enthusiasts. These are students who have waded through the wealth of available information and are highly knowledgeable on the ins-and-outs of their specific cause but operate within their own activist realm, mutually exclusive from the other causes. So whilst we may offer a nod of agreement to fair trade initiatives, or sign a petition in favour of gay rights of green power, the majority of us have only a general understanding of these issues and so are reluctant to deeply engage in advocating major change. Replacing what was once a mainstay of an inclusive campus culture, there is now an increasing tendency to designate the 'enviro, hippy type' as the keepers of the student activist tradition, whilst maligning them for their misguided allegiance to a bygone generation of protest and placard rebellion. And with sociologists and behavioural researchers telling us that we are more career driven than any previous generation, it's difficult to simply accept the honourable aspirations of these passionate few without viewing them with a suspicious, disingenuous glint that it's all part of some greater self-serving resume-padding exercise."

- Lisa Visentin, ' Where Have All The Protests Gone?'