A short rant from a young "radical"...

[Duct Tape]

Amongst all the threads of true importance, this post is completely pointless. This post serves no other purpose than to satisfy my own selfish desires and therefore I thank anyone who is willing to set aside a portion of their day to read it. Excuse the weak outline and weak substance.

Since the age of twelve, I've spent time learning the nature and essence of politics and, accordingly, I have come to understand and accept the range of human opinions. I pride myself on the fact that I take time to consider nearly all opinions, but at times I grow tired of the inner debates I conduct between my own opinions and that of the Republican or Libertarian or whoever is on my mind.

Sometimes I simply get tired with the whole thing. I can't stand the fact that I spend time being objective but in the end I receive no credit because of the fact that I'm a sixteen year old Democratic Socialist or as some like to call it: "young and naive".

I read Marx and Orwell; I read Chomsky and Hartmann; I read the opposition (Ayn Rand), but no matter how much I learn, I know that I'm dismissed. The Right, the Middle, the apolitical, and even the moderate Left dismiss me. The Right and the Middle call me "naive and an extremist", the apolitical call me "ignorant and dogmatic", and the moderate Left call me "smart but misguided". None of them believe that I can hold my positions as I advance into old age, but I know-and perhaps this truly is naive-that I will not surrender to complacency, or to conformity, or to ignorance.

I realize that many people have made stronger statements than mine and have still surrendered to those vices, but I know that I am not one of them. I belong to the other group of people. I belong to the group of people that have retained their perspective-who continue to make an effort. I will not back down from my positions and I will not soften them because they are too harsh for some.

In essence, all I'm truly saying is: Not all youth conform, so don't dismiss me simply because I'm young and you don't agree with me.



"Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it." - George Orwell

"Case by case, we find that conformity is the easy way, and the path to privilege and prestige; dissidence carries personal costs." - Noam Chomsky

"Always go too far, because that's where you'll find the truth." - Albert Camus

[Suich]

1. Since you were 12???

That's very impressive! Keep up the good work, Duct Tape!

:yourock:

[Electric Monk]

2. Welcome to DU, I look forward to reading more of your thoughts. k&r nt

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Old Codger]

4. On the other end

Of the age scale, I am an Senior Citizen(old fart) and constantly get stereotyped as a "conservative",not me! A lot of us old farts are fairly liberal, I am for sure, always have been and always will be...


Welcome to DU :hi:

[starroute]

5. I arrived at my basic political positions between the ages of 13 and 15

I'm 64 now, and I like to think I've gotten more perspective over the years, but I'm still wrestling with the same questions and tentative solutions I came up with then.

My main issues were my disillusionment with the Kennedy administration -- including but not limited to the Cuban Missile Crisis -- combined with a sense that the left was good at single-issue campaigns (civil rights, nuclear disarmament) but had no sustained vision for social progress.

I've been chewing over those problems for 50 years now, and if anything the fact that they just keep recurring decade after decade has made me more intent on the need for radical social change.

So don't back down from your beliefs. With luck, you'll still be developing and refining them in 2060.

[Snoutport]

6. Wow...if you have come this far by 16

I am looking forward to where you are by 18 and 20.

Everyone becomes aware at their own pace. Don't be mad at us because you are way ahead of your time! :0) welcome to DU.

[Odin2005]

7. I've been a radical leftist since I was in High School.

I was bamboozled by Obama's charisma for a while, but that wore off when he sucked up to the health insurance industries.

Capitalism is ultimately doomed, it is unsustainable both socially and ecologically, it wrecks the planet, individual minds, and society as a whole. That does NOT mean I am opposed to the market, nor does it mean I support economic planning that has proven not to work. No, I support putting the means of production in the hands of THE PEOPLE THEMSELVES in the form of co-ops and community-run enterprises.

welcome to DU! :hi:

[Citizen Worker]

8. I look forward to hearing more from you Duct Tape. Keep at it!

[Beam Me Up]

9. I'm 63 going on about 16, so don't sweat it.

I mean, it doesn't matter how many years you have or haven't been on this planet. What matters is what your convictions are and where your heart is. "Maturing" doesn't come with age, exactly; it comes with having tried. Sometimes you succeed, sometimes you don't -- but you learn as you go along. You can get as disgusted with politics as you want. Completely understandable. Just never get so cynical you give up. That is self defeating.

[socialist_n_TN]

10. This year I turn 60 years old and I've been

a revolutionary Marxist since I was 16 or so. I went underground for a few years in the Reagan era, but I never changed my political orientation. I went through what you went through when I was 16, so I can relate.

Advice from an old Bolshevik. Continue to read. Continue to study. And, MOST importatntly, continue to THINK FOR YOURSELF. My recommended reading would be Leon Trotsky, books either by or about. He was the Bolshevik "road not taken". Of course, Marx is good, but so is V.I. Lenin.

Good luck, welcome to DU, and don't hesitate to jump in. There's a SOLID contingent of real Classic Reds here and a lot of socialists of all stripes, so you shouldn't be alone.

[Taitertots]

11. there is no crime greater than being sane in an insane world

Every great idea has been condemned at some point.

[Skidmore]

12. Among youth, nonconformity is conformity.

Ponder it.