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In our mind's eye, we Americans see ourselves as the young Elvis, a slim-hipped rock-and-roll revolutionary shaking things up around the world. But how do we answer critics who see us as the old Elvis? Enormously rich, yes, but sick, miserable, and bloated from excess?

That's how Canadian activist Kalle Lasn, author of "Culture Jam: The Uncooling of America," and growing legions of mostly young people around the world see us. To them, the American dream has become a nightmare that threatens the planet.

The fast car means environmental destruction. The luscious, slim blonde symbolizes the self-hate of eating disorders and Caucasian tyranny. Our monster malls illustrate an insatiable selfishness. And the jangle of our ceaseless entertainment symbolizes the death of authentic community and human values. The culture wars have erupted again, and this time the battlefield is global.

From the streets of Seattle to web pages to books and magazines, there are signs that a new counterculture is fermenting, particularly among the young. The next big showdown: Washington, D.C., on April 16 and 17, when environmental and human rights groups opposed to globalization are planning the Mobilization for Global Justice. Their aim: to disrupt the annual spring meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which protesters say harm the environment and destroy local industries and culture.

"Bubbling beneath the surface is this huge new movement...that is looking for a new direction outside the mainstream," says Gerald Celente, director of the Trends Research Institute. These are the young people from around the world who marched in Seattle in December to protest the World Trade Organization, Celente says. Yes, the majority of American kids want to wear clothes from Old Navy and crave SUVs, but another group is growing.

"My parents' generation was really able to mobilize around the Vietnam War. There was also the civil rights movement and the women's movement," says Sara Pipher, 23, a human rights activist. "This generation is turning our eyes outward and looking at the effects of corporate culture on the rest of the world. We need to examine the exportation of our American dream and its ramifications for human rights and the environment."

Carol Holst, the founder and program director of Seeds of Simplicity, a national voluntary simplicity group based in Los Angeles, calls the movement "a groundswell." Rather than one issue, she says, young people are focusing on a range: "environmental concerns, labor issues, human rights, gender equity issues."

While she estimates that no more than 15 to 20 percent of people entering their 20s are rejecting "possession obsession," Holst believes that "this type of social conscience is growing among the young."

Beka Economopoulos, 25, is a field organizer for Ecopledge, which also is known as the Dirty Jobs Boycott campaign. The group encourages young people not to work for corporations that harm the environment. Jailed for five days during the Seattle WTO protests, she is organizing students for this month's protests of the World Bank and the IMF.

"There's a new climate, socially and politically," Economopoulos says. Her generation's path to activism looks something like this: First, you focus on recycling projects and cleaning up rivers and beaches. But you realize you're coming back to the same place every Earth Day. Then you move on to legislative campaigns and eventually decide that transnational corporations are the problem.

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