I tend to like Courtney Martin's musings on Gen Y activism, but I'm not terribly clear on what she thinks would happen if students stopped conducting activism within their colleges and "step[ped] into [the] raw power...of being young and mad." Are they going to blow up a building? Chant meaner things during the march? As Martin has written before, "In the 21st century, a bunch of people marching down the street, complimenting one another on their original slogans and pretty protest signs, feels like self-flagellation, not real and true social change."
In the 21st century, being young and mad is not a recipe for raw power, at least not the kind that channels clearly into social change. Being young, mad, and savvy, maybe, but even there, it's not clear to me what protest methods will achieve what end. The capacity for rage to effect change does not seem much in evidence. Martin may be right that holding pizza protests and hanging administration-approved signs doesn't do much, but what does? What sort of raw power do the people wield?
