The TaraElla Story

Chapter 31. In Context: Political Passions in the Early 21st Century West Back in the 1990s, the world wasn't as political as it is now. Even university students were routinely described as 'apolitical', especially compared with their 1960s and 70s counterparts. The War in Iraq in 2003 changed things a bit, but by and large young people in the West were still not very passionately political throughout the 2000s. Those older than us lamented a loss of political activism, and even some in our generation, myself included, wondered if our culture could have more of a focus on social change, as it was in the 1960s, for example. I remember watching the Hairspray movie in 2007, wondering if a similar fusion of culture and civil rights causes could happen again. After all, even back then the majority of young people supported marriage equality, they just weren't passionate enough about it. It was this thought that led me to introduce political discussions in my popular 227