Pretendicipation

Today Sebastian at pagunblog posted a list of factors working against gun rights. One of his listed reasons calls out millennials, something he has done twice today:

Our activists are getting old and tired. They are not being replaced by people with youthful energy. If you look at analysis of the March for your Guns (sic), the other side actually has the same problem. The general trend, if you ask me, is that millennials are far more removed from traditional civic life than past generations. I actually think millennials are more civic minded than my generation, but their views on civic life are very different. They are far less cynical than my generation, but they are also far more naive.

I agree with his statement of the problem. I am not sure I agree with his analysis in the last two sentences, but he also didn't write enough for me to feel like I understand him well enough to agree or disagree. However, as an older millennial I've noticed "pretendicipation" most places in my life.

We were trained to "pretendicipate" from childhood. Gotta get those bullet points for a college application! Mom and dad can't leave you behind while all the other kids are playing three different sports!

"Pretendicipation" is doing enough to claim you participated without feeling like you're lying but doing nothing more. Some examples from my life:

• Throughout high school I participated in a trivia competitions where regional schools would form teams and travel to a single location monthly to compete. I eventually captained my school's team. Most years it was difficult to get anyone to show up for practices. Even when it was easy, most people made no effort to answer questions. Their version of a competition: Get on bus, eat free food, sit around chatting with your friends, get back on bus, and go home. I've since heard this team had to disband due to lack of participation.
• Similarly, in high school I was a member of an honors club for the "bright" kids. This club needed elected club officers. If you were willing to do the work, you were guaranteed a position because no one would run against you. Sure, they'd show up to the minimum required meetings and pseudo-required events, but mostly to hangout with their friends -- not to get anything done.
• In college I was a member of a club that put on various outdoor activities. People would complain if there weren't enough events, but they'd do nothing to help organize them. In fact, many people would show up at activities and then not even bother to help clean up. Why help when you can stand around chatting with friends while other people do the work?
• In graduate school I ran a social organization that put on on-campus happy hours. We could easily get 300+ people to attend. If we asked for volunteers to help organize, 20+ people would email to offer their support. Most of them would show up when it was time to set up. How many would actually do something besides drink free beer and chat with their friends? Maybe two or three. By clean-up time sometimes it was down to me and one other person cleaning up after 300 people. I've since seen some of the pretendicipants put the organization on their LinkedIn as an extracurricular. Years later, this organization has also effectively disbanded.
• I don't have any examples from the workplace that I can find a way to make non-identifying, but it's been no different. Outside of their job role, people will not do extra work. They'll show up to say they participated, but they won't actually do anything.

I don't think there is any easy fix for this. I've often taken leadership roles in groups I've participated in because I wanted to be there and wanted to contribute. (It perhaps helps that my parents didn't force me to do too many activities as a child.) It feels like most people just want to check a box.