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Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Youth and the Winter of their Discontent:
Two things have particularly drawn my attention today. Both things happen to involve the younger generation, the generation to which I belonged not that long ago.
Exhibit A: In France, groups of young people have erupted violently in protest of a change in the labor laws. The French government has realized painfully that they can no longer sustain their welfare state at its current levels. In an attempt to curtail such support, a new law has been passed that relaxes job protections for younger workers. Or to say it another way, there is an expectation now codified into law that younger workers should do their jobs with some accountability, and be prepared for the consequences of not doing so. But years of coddling are hard to undo, and as a result of the policy change, thousands have taken to the streets in violent protest.
Exhibit B: Not too far down the road from me in Dallas, students apparently have decided that today would be a good day to walk out of class to protest the galling prospect of the nation and the state actually enforcing their immigration laws. So, in a fit of disobedience much more civil than that of our friends in France, hundreds of all nationalities and creeds have been walking through the streets of downtown, insisting that immigration laws are wrong, and should be ignored.
So we have one group of kids complaining because they are expected to work for a living, and another group of kids complaining because they do not believe in the rule of law.
Have we lowered the expectations we have of our children so much that hard work and adherence to the rules are no longer reasonable? And does anyone expect repercussions for either group here? I suspect that we'll see appeasement before consequences, and that is the very thing that got us here in the first place.
Labels: Archives_2006
.: posted by
Dave
1:25 PM
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