I feel it's this apathy that's allowing, if not fuelling at least some of the problems in this world.
Ah, to be young again (sez the elderly 35-year-old). It's not necessarily apathy, ackshully. For me, it ain't apathy - it's choice. I can't possibly do things about all the problems I keep hearing about in the world: poverty, disease, waste, destruction, war, and on and on. So I choose not to know about the ones that upset me and I choose my battles (Planned Parenthood International, World Wildlife Fund, Kids' Help Phone) and I go out and vote, not that the latter does a helluva a lot of good, it always turns out to be choosing the least of a whole bunch of evils as far as I can make out.
Apathy certainly is bad - but don't confuse selectiveness (even selectiveness in what information/news people take on board) with apathy. Although, that being said, I don't know what teenagers do or don't do in the way of attempting to better anyone else's lot. I know the teenagers I knew when I was one were, for the most part, thoughtful, intelligent, sensitive, some of them were certainly wot you might call "intellectual" and knew a lot about what was going on in the world, and I think they were helpful sorts, too, who did volunteer work and so on. I don't know what modern teenagers are like coz I don't know any, though I will in a few more years' time when my nephews and niece turn into them!
I suppose it comes back to the whole generalization issue. If you try to make sense of the world by generalizing, you begin to get a rather black-and-white picture. It sure is easy but it ain't pretty.
