Q+A with Ethan Barton

Ethan Barton, 21, talks in depth about millennial cultures, social issues and how sometimes attempting to fix problems only creates more. Barton’s view on the generation gives insight on how the internet has shaped minds when it comes to political ideologies, fragmentation and polarization.

In a world of millennials trying to find where they stand politically and socially, Barton gives the perfect explanation on why a moral revolution is needed.

As a millennial, what would you say is a common political ideology among other millennials, and what do you believe?

“I think for political alignment, I definitely identify as a democrat. I still find myself there — even though I don’t even think that would be common ground among millennials. A lot of millennials I tend to prefer independent, or non-party kind of things.

I have common ground with a lot of millennials, I think, on one place, and that’s secularism. Even people who are religious tend to be more secular on how they think the government should work.”

Millennials tend to be progressive — do you agree with that?

“Most millennials, even the most conservative millennials that I know, think that marijuana should be legalized or at least used in a medicinal way.

I know that that’s a place where I’ve connected with some conservatives.”

Where are we now with progressiveness?

“Some of it has turned into regressiveness — we’re moving backwards because we’ve worked so hard to break down some of the barriers that we have, especially racially, in the country.

And now, I feel like some people who would consider themselves progressive are creating barriers again, to try to alleviate people feeling offended and trying to look out for people’s feelings, and how things can be perceived and how that shapes the culture, which are all necessary things to think about, but some people are going about it in a way that isn’t helping the problem, but is hurting the problem.”

How is ‘campus progressiveness’ compared to other progressiveness?

“As a student, I feel that a lot of us have found our voice in a way that they haven’t before, especially being in the south, being in Oklahoma. A lot of people who go to school here come from very conservative places and conservative areas, and I think those are places where theire voices weren’t welcomed, or felt it wasn’t welcomed.

When you come to campus and are surrounded by people who think like you and want the same things as you, who understand your feelings, you really do feel empowered — and that’s a great feeling to have.

I think that too many are using that new power and abusing that new-found personal power to do the things that were done to them in high school — not feeling welcomed, their political views not being seen as something socially acceptable. I think they are trying to do that to people on the right and people who are conservative.”

Can being too open-minded be a bad thing?

“You’re so open-minded, that anything that seems closed-minded, whether it is or not, anything that is closed-minded, you want to stamp it out, because we’re at an open environment. We’re an open mind, we want to constantly be taking in new things and considering that everything everyone has to say, except for you, because of what you had to say.

I definitely think that vacuum happens — it’s a reverse of the way things were before.

You hear people reference what year it is all the time — “It’s 2016! We’re progressive! We’re moving forward!” And that’s great, I’m all about moving forward, but by leaving some people behind, we’re not actually solving any problems.”

Is there an ‘easy fix’ for social issues right now?

“Whenever Bernie was running this past year, he said we needed to have a revolution. I think the revolution we need to have is a moral revolution. We need to reevaluate what morality is and humanity, what is essential to humanity in our new world, because it’s changed so much in the past 100 years.

What would fundamentally change the world forever is if we started to understand that birth control is a human right. If every person had access to birth control as a part of them being alive, that means for the most part, only wanted babies are going to be born, and only planned babies are going to be born. Globally, it would change things and I think it would make a lot of our relations better, just having less people and giving people control over their bodies, as well as eliminate the abortion issue.

If you make birth control a human right, then you don’t really need abortions any more except for circumstances of health.

I think that’s something that could really change the world.”