"All we are saying..."

I’m going to write for a little while on the tendency of college students to be liberal. I say “a little while” because I really have no idea or agenda for these blogs, this series on liberal behavior is no exception. I’m going to wing it.

I started thinking about some bandwagon political messages that teenagers tend to subscribe to. The one that sticks out most in my mind is peace. When you start thinking about it, the cry for peace has infiltrated countless aspects of the adolescent community. Granted, this is my first experience in the college environment, so this peace epidemic might be something that started 40 years ago and never went away. But because I’m getting my first taste of this vague hope for peace, it’s peaked my interest. This wish for peace I’ve noticed could also be contained to the type of students I commonly work with. Regardless, I would challenge someone to walk around on this campus for an hour to count the references to peace. Everyday I see tie-dyed clothing with messages of peace, John Lennon shirts with peace signs, peace signs in dorm room windows (other than my own) and even on Facebook (are you a member of “I Bet I Can Find 1,000,000 People Who Just Want Peace?”) and YouTube (there are 240,000 hits when you search the word “peace”). Now this isn’t Miss America’s stereotypical wish for “world peace,” or hippie peace from the 70’s; peace has become cool. I would go as far as saying that peace is now a trend. And all brainwashed teenagers want to get in on the action.

Other than the obvious causes for this movement, such as an unpopular war, I started to wonder if peace is so popular among college students solely because people this age are typically more liberal than the rest of the population. Much of the media college students consume is thought to be left-wing oriented (The Daily Show/Colbert Report, Rolling Stone and CNN). But surely liberal media alone hasn’t been the single cause of an entire historical trend among college students. This article is a few years old, but it says some interesting things about the lack of political diversity on many college campuses. One of the comments from that article mentions that most college students don’t have a family to care for or similar responsibilities, this makes them more likely to be liberal. My main theory remains; as teenagers are exposed to more new information, they form different opinions. For me, I’ve never been surrounded by this many people my own age with developed political beliefs. Being able to discuss war strategy or the use of abortion in the line at Einstein’s is a completely foreign experience (I know, I need to get out more). Normally I would only talk with my stubbornly conservative parents about politics and the like. Life in college is revealing to me an entire spectrum of liberal beliefs that are actually educated and legitimate.

Speaking of my stubbornly conservative parents, my expert powers of persuasion have made my mom open to the idea of a pierced eyebrow. Just had to throw that in; I’m really excited about it.

I’m fairly certain that I’m not alone in this collegiate exodus to the left (dark) side. So, in a circular fashion, I think I’ve found some support to the reasons behind the peace movement. I’ll continue these peace rants later.
I found this videoto be a perfect example of the universal promotion of peace among youth. After watching it, feel free to hug a tree or send your unfinished Big Mac to any third world country.