David Quinn
Photo: CNS On RTE a few days ago, HSE boss, Paul Reid, praised young people for coming forward for vaccinations in such large numbers thereby showing such great solidarity with older people. He linked it to similar acts of solidarity by this age group in recent years. Was he referring to the marriage and abortion referendums of 2015 and 2018 when young people voted overwhelmingly to redefine marriage and withdraw the right to life from unborn children? It seemed so, to me at any rate.
Solidarity
I think the big vote in favour of same-sex marriage was a show of solidarity of a sort. It seemed only fair to a huge majority of young people that same-sex couples should have the same right to marry as anyone else. I’m not sure how much thought was given to how this affected the right of a child to a mother and father, or what it had to say about the importance of the natural ties, among other things.
The big vote in favour of abortion was a lot more complicated. At one level it was an act of solidarity with women, in the minds of Yes voters at least. There was probably an element of lashing out at the Catholic Church as well.
But deep down a lot of people probably voted for abortion because it is a quick way out of a sometimes very difficult situation. Abortion rather than mother and baby homes is now our way of dealing with infants someone doesn’t want, whether that be the mother, the mother’s boyfriend, or her parents.
Is the fact that so many young people are receiving their vaccinations an act of solidarity on their part? It might be in some cases, but equally it could be that young people simply want their freedom back. They have been told they cannot enter pubs and restaurants unless they can show a vaccine passport.
Imagine if you are 20 years of age and most of your friends can go into a pub and you can’t because you have not been vaccinated? Your social life would have come to a screeching halt. You also need a vaccine passport, a negative PCR test, or proof that you previously had Covid in order to board a flight.
Unless you have some principled objection to being vaccinated, or suffer from an underlying health condition that makes vaccines risky, you are very likely to line up for your Covid jab because the Government and NPHET have basically blackmailed you into doing so.
Vaccine passports
If vaccine passports had not been introduced, would as many young people be receiving their vaccinations? It seems unlikely, which considerably weakens the ‘solidarity’ argument.
But without doubt, young people have made huge sacrifices since March of last year. The risk Covid poses to them is very small, but they willingly put their lives on hold in order to protect their parents and grandparents.
In doing so, they gave up their social lives, jobs, and damaged their educational prospects.
But I want to go back to the suggestion that young people voted in such massive numbers for abortion and same-sex marriage out of a sense of selfless idealism.
To begin with, that would imply they have a better sense of justice than older people. But perhaps they simply have a different sense of justice?
Secondly, is this seemingly selfless idealism translating into other areas of society, into widespread volunteerism, for example? It doesn’t appear to be.
Yes, there is some involvement in the environmental movement but there are few reports of waves of young people joining voluntary organisations that involve small, humble acts of service such as visiting lonely people in their homes.
In fact, a couple of years ago, it was being suggested by some that teenagers should have to spend a year helping others.
The Journal.ie ran a piece with the self-contradictory headline,’ Should volunteering be mandatory for Irish teens?’ The point seemed lost on the headline writer that if volunteering is mandatory, it’s no longer voluntary.
But more importantly, if lots of people were volunteering to help others, you wouldn’t need to force them to.
In fact, even Barack Obama noted shortly before the pandemic began, that too many young people associate genuine activism with posting the ‘right’ attitudes on social media and being maximally judgemental towards those they disagree with, even wanting to see their opponents cancelled, that is to deprive them of opportunities to make their views known publicly.
Coming from a politician who actually did ignite youthful idealism when he was elected to the White House in 2008, this was a significant intervention.
Young people
Obama was specifically addressing young people who fancy themselves to be politically active, rather than the majority who are politically inactive. Nonetheless, he was still suggesting that even among the politically active, there isn’t that much activity in practice.
How are young people in Ireland voting? This would surely be a sign of their idealism. Well, the party they are most likely to vote for is Sinn Fein. How idealistic is that, or is it really a symptom of their rejection of the mainstream parties that have governed Ireland for so long?
In countries like Italy and France, young people are more likely to vote for the populist right. Again, is that idealism, or disillusionment with mainstream politics?
In addition, young people are less likely to vote than older people. In the General Election last year, those most likely to vote were aged between 35 and 64, while those least likely to vote were aged 18-24.
As we know, very few young people attend church these days. But has this rejection of organised religion translated into real mass activism and engagement elsewhere? The evidence suggests not. Some young people are idealistic and active, some are not. Some are intolerant and judgemental in the way Barack Obama pointed out, and some are not. Many are politically indifferent.
It is both patronising and simplistic for older people to pretend younger people are all the same. The real picture is a lot more complicated than that.