It never even occurred to me that it would be odd for them to be students, as the tie between students and radical uprisings and protests has been so strong throughout history. I think it has a lot to do with university/college/higher-education-of-chosen-place-and-time students generally coming from relatively privileged backgrounds, where they have the time and money and social standing to be able to focus on more than just getting through one more day. Not that people from less privileged situations don't rise up (not at all!) but when your belly is full and you don't have to worry about how you're going to manage the necessities of life, (and you don't have to worry that, if you do participate in a radical action, that you'll lose your livelihood and your means of affording such things) that's brainpower and energy that you can dedicate to other things. Like the revolution, perhaps.
That, and students are generally in an environment that encourages one to think deeply about things and expand your horizons — not only because of classwork, but because institutions of higher learning oftentimes bring together people from different locations and backgrounds. Ot top of that, they tend to be in cities, which also bring together people from an even greater variety of locations and backgrounds. It makes it easy to be exposed to new ideas, new ways of looking at the world, stepping outside the comfortable bubble of childhood and perhaps seeing the injustice in the world and wondering, "How can I make this better?" Add to that the fact that young people are less wedded to the power stuctures, more open-minded because they're less likely to have decided "This is the way the world works, period," and it's no wonder that so many of Les Amis are students.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2014-03-29 12:00 am (UTC)It never even occurred to me that it would be odd for them to be students, as the tie between students and radical uprisings and protests has been so strong throughout history. I think it has a lot to do with university/college/higher-education-of-chosen-place-and-time students generally coming from relatively privileged backgrounds, where they have the time and money and social standing to be able to focus on more than just getting through one more day. Not that people from less privileged situations don't rise up (not at all!) but when your belly is full and you don't have to worry about how you're going to manage the necessities of life, (and you don't have to worry that, if you do participate in a radical action, that you'll lose your livelihood and your means of affording such things) that's brainpower and energy that you can dedicate to other things. Like the revolution, perhaps.
That, and students are generally in an environment that encourages one to think deeply about things and expand your horizons — not only because of classwork, but because institutions of higher learning oftentimes bring together people from different locations and backgrounds. Ot top of that, they tend to be in cities, which also bring together people from an even greater variety of locations and backgrounds. It makes it easy to be exposed to new ideas, new ways of looking at the world, stepping outside the comfortable bubble of childhood and perhaps seeing the injustice in the world and wondering, "How can I make this better?" Add to that the fact that young people are less wedded to the power stuctures, more open-minded because they're less likely to have decided "This is the way the world works, period," and it's no wonder that so many of Les Amis are students.