Hey! Listen to Me! I'm Young!

Agamedes feels old and unwanted. Is it time to move aside and let youth take over?

Do you need new -- lateral -- thinking for your own problems? email nick leth at gmail dot com. Need solutions? No worries. Now.

In The West of 22 April 10, Holly Ransom asks to be included in decision-making (Hey, baby-boomers, we have something to say): "I implore leaders... [to engage] with young people in our nation's decision-making process," she writes.

Tough luck, Ransom: leaders do not engage with anyone. Not with the young, not with the old, not with anyone. Leaders are leaders because (1) they claim to have all the ideas, (2) they support this belief by ignoring alternative views and (3) their ideas have, often enough, worked. And if they're political leaders, (4) they have pretended to listen to people with power.

Remember the "2020 Summit"? Of course you -- Ransom -- do, you were there. I was not. I'm near enough to being a baby-boomer -- but no-one invited me to the 2020 Summit. Who was invited? A selection of the people who shouted loud enough.

No worries, though... Was it worth being there, at the 2020 Summit? Did any new policy come from the summit? Last I heard, one idea came... almost... to reality. If I remember correctly, that one idea had been proposed by... Rudd.

Ransom writes that, following the 2020 Youth and Schools Summits in 2008, "the response (or lack thereof) has proved a huge disappointment."

So d'oh! don't blame the baby-boomers. We -- and here I mean, those baby-boomers who had an axe to grind, or who made loud demands to attend -- we were also ignored.

It's not the old ignoring the young. It's those who have (or who want) power who ignore the rest. The best form of ignoring other people's ideas is called, "public consultation". For a practical example of ignoring public views by instituting a process of "public consultation", see National Education Curriculum: a Done Deal.

Yes, get excited about being ignored. Yes, continue your efforts to be heard. But place the blame -- for being ignored -- in the right place. It's not age. It's not party politics. Ignoring alternate views is all about gaining and keeping power.

For me, my and mine.

Remember: there's no "u" in the power-plays of politics.

Independent thinking & independent analysis of your problems by Agamedes Consulting. Support for your thought: email nick leth at gmail dot com