CASS DA RE
<Features Editor>
You may have noticed the theme of this week’s Obiter Dicta, “Then & Now.” Our brilliant writers have delved deeply into Osgoode’s history to be inspired to write for you, our present-day audience. Normally, as your happiness guru, I would suggest a short walk down memory lane and avoiding wistful or regretful looks back. It is all too easy to get stuck in a pocket of your past; replaying scenarios, reliving outcomes, and imagining all the different ways things could have been different. The Happiness Project is not about “could haves, would haves, or should haves;” it is about growth, development, progress and consciously making informed decisions to promote positive mental health.
Having said that, I will bend the rules a little bit, for the sake of a good theme. Who doesn’t love a good theme? Today, we look back to a time before many of us Osgoode students were born, in hopes of gaining some welcome perspective on our lives in the contemporary era. Today, we explore the fascinating decade of the 1970s; a time of social progress, heightened political awareness, the blossoming of the environmental movement, and an enlarged space for women in the workforce.
In contrast to the laid-back hippie movement of the 1960s, the 1970s can be characterized by one word: action. Youth, young adults, and professionals defined a decade, through anti-war protests, second-wave feminism, and the first Earth Day. In contrast, Generation Y has been described as politically apathetic, narcissistic, having an engorged sense of entitlement, and as the Peter Pan generation that never wants to grow up. While these characteristics may not apply to any particular person, it is noteworthy that social science experts have come to classify this cohort as such.
What can we learn about happiness from generations past? The lessons we can take from the 1970s is that activism, participation, passion, and protest are the forces that can shape an entire decade’s culture and social place in history. Furthermore, these same dynamic forces have an equally significant role in changing the very people involved.
Consequently, your Happiness Challenge is this: get involved, take action, and do something that matters – whether it matters only to you or to the world, as long as it matters. Activism requires an emotional and ideological commitment to the cause at hand. Of course, like most things, this is easier said than done. How does one find a cause that matters? What should you stand up for? There are so many world issues, how do you pick just one?
These seem like daunting and warranted questions. Nevertheless, they are easily answered by mapping out your goals using a macro to micro framework. In line with most things in law school, you have to do the work. So get out your pencil and paper Osgoode, it’s time to do something.
1) What values or ideals are particularly significant to you?
For example:
a. Being nice to animals
b. Free and democratic society
c. Helping people
2) How could you manifest those values or ideals?
For example:
a. Walk your neighbour’s dog
b. Vote
c. Offer to carry someone’s groceries to the car.
3) Do others engage in the same activity? Is there a group or party that already actively lives out the values and ideals you share?
For example:
a. The Toronto Humane Society and the Animal Law Society at Osgoode
b. Local or National political parties and the Campus Conservatives at Osgoode *Disclaimer: The Happiness Project does not endorse any political stance as better or worse for your happiness. *
c. Community Legal Aid Clinics, Peer Mentorship, Volunteer Organizations across the City, and associations such as JustLaw and CLASP at Osgoode.
4) Join the others.
There is strength in numbers, and joining others to work towards the same cause or campaign will likely increase its chances of success. On a personal level, participating in a group movement encourages sociability, communication, and emotional bonding with other like-minded people. Clearly, such micro-process oriented activities have a positive causal effect on one’s happiness. Moreover, the macro, goal oriented activity will provide you with a purpose, aspiration, and ultimately a sense of achievement.
Generation Y and Osgoode students alike, do not let others define you based on a Disney movie where the main character wore green leggings. Do not be the passive victims of labeling, characterization, or categorization. Do not let your narrative and legacy be written by the generation before you.
Instead, be active; be involved; be enthused; be the authors, not the puppets, and be real-life heroes, not cartoon characters. Flared jeans and turtlenecks aside, the 1970s will now and forever be defined by the people who lived it, changed it, and created it. All I ask from you Osgoode, for the sake of your happiness, is that you do the same for your generation. It is only fair to ask of the educated and influential future lawyers of this decade, that you are equally as active in shaping your contemporary reality as the Osgoode alumni of the 1970s once were. Flared jeans and turtlenecks are optional.