Move over, boomers

"In his interview with two 30-something environmentalists who have challenged the movement's status quo, Contributing Editor Adam Werbach asks if the baby boomers are to blame for the sad state of affairs. 'What should these leaders do now?' he asks. 'Die?'

"No blood need be shed, but many boomers are reluctantly being forced to make way for younger activists with a crop of new ideas ...

"'The old era of political party identification is giving way to a disaggregated thunderdome of cause-based politics, distributed democracy, MoveOn house parties and do-it-yourself politics,' writes Dan Carol in Alternet's new book, Start Making Sense. 'Peer-to-peer politics ... is replacing the party as the place where new stuff happens.'

"The class interests of the practivists may be their weakest link. Taught that identifying with or romanticizing the oppressed is akin to colonizing them, many of these bloggers, culture jammers and radical consultants operate from a place of privilege not rooted in working America ...

"In their enthusiasm for new projects, practivists run the risk of replicating the boomers' mistake of turning their backs on the experiences of their predecessors ..."
Source: In These Times