When the Manic Street Preachers were photographed striking various revolutionary poses during their visit to Cuba last month, the most noticeable thing was how quaint it all looked. Youthful rebellion has never seemed so absent from popular culture since records (of the seven-inch variety) first appeared.
Seattle, the Zapatistas and the May Day rumbles in London suggest that some radical energy remains. But, when it comes to mainstream politics, the conventional wisdom is that most people in their teens and early twenties are switched off. Is this just the now-familiar “voter apathy” dressed up in trainers, or does it represent a more fundamental shift in attitudes? Is trying to corral the younger generation into the polling booths just a waste of time? Can today’s politicians ever hope to capture the aspirations of the young?
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