The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the causes of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and, as soon as time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight. The story of its ruin is simple and obvious; and, instead of inquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long.
-- From Edward Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Even though the famous banana album by the Velvet Underground and Nico didn't sell that many copies, it has been said that everyone who bought one started their own band. This summer marks the fortieth anniversary of the publication of The Port Huron Statement of the Students for a Democratic Society, 1962 -- the first official document of the SDS. While not nearly as tasty a mass media story as the anniversary of the sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll of Woodstock and 1969's Summer of Love, it was perhaps as influential to the student activism of the '60s as the banana album was for musicians. "We are people of this generation," the statement begins, "bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit."

The copy I downloaded from the Web was 33 pages long, single-spaced. It's hard to imagine students today writing a document comparable to a thesis for neither credit, degree, nor money. The authors, most in their early 20s, offered their work "as an effort in understanding and changing the conditions of humanity in the late 20th-century, an effort rooted in the ancient, still unfulfilled conception of man attaining determining influence over his circumstances of life."

Their "statement" reminded readers that the radical idea of democracy was still a goal to be achieved. They claimed a crisis of imagination and that the educational process was part of the problem, not the solution. "Although our own technology is destroying old and creating new forms of social organization, men still tolerate meaningless work and idleness. While two-thirds of mankind suffers undernourishment, our own upper classes revel amidst superfluous abundance. Although world population is expected to double in 40 years, the nations still tolerate anarchy as a major principle of international conduct and uncontrolled exploitation governs the sapping of the earth's physical resources. Although mankind desperately needs revolutionary leadership, America rests in national stalemate, its goals ambiguous and tradition-bound instead of informed and clear, its democratic system apathetic and manipulated rather than `of, by and for the people'."

That was then, this is now. The world population, in fact, has doubled over the past 40 years. And the other situations they talked about? You tell me. How much progress have we made about the abundance of meaningless work? The imbalance between the haves and the have-nots? The tolerance of anarchy and uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources? The emergence of revolutionary American leadership?

Tom Hayden, one of the principal authors of the statement, was recently interviewed on National Public Radio, airing his views on how far we've come. He believes the Internet has made it much easier to participate in the democratic process than in the days when the spoils went to whomever could stay at the meeting the longest. He spoke of the continued need to organize, reflect, and connect as individuals and organizations. He spoke of his concern that volunteerism has replaced activism on our nation's college campuses and more quick fixes than long-lasting changes come from our nation's capital.

The Port Huron Statement reads: "The questions we might want raised -- What is really important? Can we live in a different and better way? If we wanted to change society, how would we do it? -- are not thought to be questions of a `fruitful, empirical nature,' and thus are brushed aside." How are we doing with these questions today?

Those trying to deal with the tough questions include Duane Elgin, the author of Promise Ahead. In the first lines of the first chapter of this book, Elgin asks some questions of his own: "How grown up do you think humanity is? When you look at human behavior around the world and then imagine our species as one individual, how old would that person be? A toddler? A teenager? A young adult? An elder?" Elgin has been asking this question to audiences around the world for some time, and he's discovered that two-thirds of his respondents share his belief that humanity is in its teenage years -- rebellious, reckless, concerned with appearance and fitting in, drawn toward instant gratification and "us versus them" thinking and behavior.

He then let us in on both the good news and the bad news of this theory. It's like the old Chinese proverb about how crisis holds both danger and opportunity. Or Crash or Bounce, as Elgin calls the choice facing us. If we are to make it through the turmoil of adolescence into a productive and thoughtful young adulthood, he advises, we better take seriously the scientific name we've given ourselves -- homo sapiens sapiens. Humans who not only know, but who know that we know. What do we know? And how do we know it?

"Our situation is like that of a long distance runner who prepares for a marathon by eating a steady diet of junk food," Elgin writes. "We are trying to run modern democracies in a diet of televised entertainment just when we are confronting challenges of marathon proportions."

The author uses the first six chapters to lay out what at least some of us know about our current world situation, and to identify some of those, perhaps, who are fiddling while Rome burns. He then cites a major survey, taken over 30 years, of American college freshmen. In 1966, more than 80 percent of the students listed "developing a meaningful philosophy of life" as either "very important" or "essential." "Being well-off financially" ranked fifth, with less than 45 percent of the respondents naming it as a very important or essential goal in life. By 1996, however, these two choices had essentially switched, and Elgin names his emperor:

"I believe there may be no more dangerous challenge to our future than the cultural hypnosis that is generated daily by commercial television, which trivializes the human experience and distracts humanity from our larger potentials. By programming television for commercial success, we are programming the mind-set of entire civilizations -- indeed, the species-civilization -- for evolutionary stagnation and ecological failure."

Despite the incredible power of television, Duane Elgin is pulling for humanity to make it through our adolescence. He sees in our new technologies not just the ability to hypnotize the masses, but also the chance for individuals and organizations to respond to the increasing challenges before us. He foresees a long and healthy adulthood for the species, but only -- as with individual teens -- if we can safely navigate our way through the initiation by harnessing the immense passion of that age, connecting with others, and taking responsibility for our actions in the world.

It is in this regard that I appeal to young adults of any age. Read the book. Listen to a teenager. Register to vote, and elect people with both passion and vision. Take a stand on some current political issue -- the "inevitable" war against Iraq (visit http://www.moveon.org/iraq_meetings.html), or restoring funding to the United Nations Population Fund (http://www.aauw.org/5000/alert1.html). If you want an even bigger picture, visit www.dailysummit.net blog next week to see what 106 world leaders, plus 65,000 other delegates at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, are thinking about and debating as they attempt to create a blueprint for the 21st-century.

The difference between a Bounce and a Crash will be measured in the difference between action and inaction. The journey of 1000 miles -- or 1000 years -- begins with just one step. Take one today for humankind.

Pam Steager can be reached at pjsteager@earthlink.net.

Issue Date: August 16 - 22, 2002