The ‘whatever’ generation

Young adults' declining interest in politics gives rise to a growing concern: Will we wake up one day to an America where people don't care who calls the shots• Or if they do care, what will be the basis for their political inclination•

Our concern, raised last year by young folks' apathy in the presidential race, has been triggered again, this time by a recent survey of more than 269,000 college freshmen polled by the University of California, Los Angeles in cooperation with the American Council on Education. Aside from their increasing technical know-how with computers and declining taste for beer and cigarettes, freshmen respondents say they're less interested than ever in the political process.

Accordingly, only 28.1 percent reported any interest in political affairs - down from the survey's previous low of 28.6 in 1999. And this during a presidential election, when four out of 10 young adults in another poll said in mid-June that it wouldn't make any difference who is elected.

The all-time high for political interest among college freshmen was 60.3 percent in 1996. Obviously more than a few young adults were disenfranchised by the former administration and the tawdry events that led to President Clinton's impeachment.

And though fewer college freshmen profess any interest in matters political, more of them nevertheless are leaning to the left, according to the latest survey. Could it be that more young people today are shaping their political preference based not on any ideology but on something vastly superficial, such as the convictions of their role models•

We trust that the new presidential administration, one not riddled with scandals and embarrassments, will reverse this sorry trend.