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  3. There’s a new campaign for the under-30s called Undivided. It gathers sugges

There’s a new campaign for the under-30s called Undivided. It gathers sugges

游客2025-01-11  28
问题     There’s a new campaign for the under-30s called Undivided. It gathers suggestions about Brexit from across the spectrum; leavers and remainers, left and, presumably, right. Its aim is to "get the best possible deal for young people out of the Brexit negotiations" and it will present the chosen ten demands in January. Hafsah Dabiri, its co-leader, says that young people must have a voice, and "the only way to achieve this is for us to be undivided in our political demands".
    Ah, demands. When a news website published Undivided’s video of young people speaking to camera, a sort of digital Ed Stone in its vagueness, the D-word was central. "I demand that there will be structures in place that allow me to study and work in Europe"; "I demand better access to mental health services for young people and better sexual health services for young women"; "I demand maintenance of free travel and free trade following Brexit". They must call the shots because they "are going to live with the consequences of Brexit the longest". The presumption that anyone over 30 is going to die soon may be a bit wounding to some of us, but never mind. It goes on to demand that Islamophobia and racism are stamped out, and "young people are finally taken seriously".
    Friends, this is not the way to get taken seriously by us battered, moribund, doomed oldies. Scroll down and the first reactions are tart. "I demand they learn manners, and how to vote" and "Oh, piss off, you can demand nothing, go sit in the corner and learn some manners... try thanking the older generation who fought to give them freedom of speech". To be fair, regarding that last comment the generation who fought most relevantly are now gently passing into history. The legitimate generational quarrel is with us baby-boomers who surfed a wave of prosperity, let the European dream corrode into corrupt bureaucracy, and didn’t mend the roof while the sun shone.
    Undivided is welcome because the young should be idealistic and take an interest. But reflecting on that intensely annoying video it struck me that if they have learnt the language of entitlement and demand it was from the generation above. Active citizenship, constructive improvement and neighborly grassroots organization have declined in status and esteem. The industrious wartime sense of a duty to save, firewatch and donate scrap iron to the common good is old hat. We have created a sense of the citizen as disgruntled recipient, not active contributor. Of course from ministries to minnows, active citizens still beaver away, keep the wheels turning and struggle to meet demands. But rarely does anybody say: "A good job done. Thank you!" Rather, the tone of public discourse is a passive and critical one: "Why-can’t-I"; "S-not fair"; "Bloody jobsworths".
    Hands up: this is led by media. A soggy stream of unconstructive passive discontent and crabby criticism rises constantly from interviews and polemics, comedians, columnists and Twitter. Excuse me here while I shoot myself in the foot and irritate the hell out of my colleagues, but if I read one more beautifully phrased think-piece (even by me) about how "the government is doing Brexit all wrong, and, dammit, not even telling us what it is doing, but we assume it’s rubbish"—I shall scream. The same goes for the routine sneer of the newscast interviewer and the grunting outrage of the polemicist.
    It’s great entertainment, this universal barracking. But anyone who has ever sat around a committee table knows what a sweat it is to balance budgets, comply with laws, set priorities, delay cherished projects, cheesepare costs and—yes—worry about media reaction. Yet those who do this rarely get much credit. In an age when media and image are sublime, the most popular figures are deplorers and snarkers who mock and complain and "demand". The palm of public approval goes to comedians and commentators, interviewers and satirists and entertainers who publicly weep for their nation’s shame.
    Some people, of course, do both. Honour to fundraisers, charity stalwarts, aid workers, and honest souls who stir their stumps to man a food bank, create non-profit services, take clothes and food to the homeless or the Calais Jungle. They I admire. They can have a platform. Among the "Undivided" campaigners some of the young demanders probably are volunteering, or thinking of how to engage with Europe or whatever. Those are fully entitled to offer well-researched and detailed "demands" and also to inform us, the media, so we can admiringly report and support them.
    But let it always be clear, in everyone’s mind, that anyone who actually does things for the general good deserves a higher rank and esteem than anyone who just talks about it. Or mocks it. There’s a parallel in the principle, which all sensible critics admit, that any honest theatre-maker or writer or creative artist—even if unsuccessful—outranks any critic, however brilliant. Actions speak louder than words. Not the other way round. [br] The phrase "call the shots" (para.2) can best be paraphrased as ______.
选项 A、have the right to make decisions and give orders
B、bear full responsibility in the process of Brexit negotiations
C、accept all the consequences of Brexit
D、take action against racial discrimination
答案 A
解析
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