"It seems to be the thing now that young people are getting back into politics"
About this Quote
“It seems to be the thing now” lands like a raised eyebrow, and that’s the point. Susan George isn’t just noting a trend; she’s using a slightly dismissive, almost fashion-report phrasing to expose how politics gets treated as a lifestyle accessory until it suddenly doesn’t. The line carries a double charge: mild surprise that youth engagement has returned, and a quiet indictment of the forces that made it lapse in the first place.
As an activist, George is speaking from a world where political participation is rarely “back in” by accident. The subtext is structural: young people don’t drift into politics because they discovered civics; they’re pushed there by rent, debt, climate anxiety, precarious work, and the sense that institutions are rigged. Her wording implicitly critiques older media and political classes who only recognize youth participation when it becomes visible, disruptive, or electorally useful.
Context matters because “getting back” suggests a previous era when youth politics was assumed - the long shadow of 1968, anti-war movements, anti-globalization protests, later the spikes around Iraq, austerity, Occupy, Fridays for Future. George’s sentence compresses decades of cyclical attention: elites ignore youth until a surge becomes a “thing,” then narrate it as novelty rather than necessity.
The intent, then, is both observational and tactical. By framing youth politics as a moment, she invites the listener to ask whether it will be treated as a passing craze - or as a durable shift that threatens comfortable arrangements.
As an activist, George is speaking from a world where political participation is rarely “back in” by accident. The subtext is structural: young people don’t drift into politics because they discovered civics; they’re pushed there by rent, debt, climate anxiety, precarious work, and the sense that institutions are rigged. Her wording implicitly critiques older media and political classes who only recognize youth participation when it becomes visible, disruptive, or electorally useful.
Context matters because “getting back” suggests a previous era when youth politics was assumed - the long shadow of 1968, anti-war movements, anti-globalization protests, later the spikes around Iraq, austerity, Occupy, Fridays for Future. George’s sentence compresses decades of cyclical attention: elites ignore youth until a surge becomes a “thing,” then narrate it as novelty rather than necessity.
The intent, then, is both observational and tactical. By framing youth politics as a moment, she invites the listener to ask whether it will be treated as a passing craze - or as a durable shift that threatens comfortable arrangements.
Quote Details
| Topic | Youth |
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