Once the children of peasants were destined to be peasants. They grew up knowing they would follow in their parent’s footsteps. Long before they reached adulthood, they were working side by side with the older generation. They did not rebel against this fate because there was no alternative.
With the advent of the industrial revolution, things changed. Now a plethora of unfamiliar jobs beckoned. Now children could be asked what they wanted to do when they grew up. Although they might not have a clue, parents wanted them to think about this even before they entered school.
And make no mistake, they would be going to school. Literacy had become so important that education was mandatory. This meant that the young would spend their formative years in the company of their peers. Adult jobs and adult colleagues awaited their future.
The upshot was a period of rebellion that coincided with the teenage years. Erik Erikson talked about an identity crisis. He speculated about the need for adolescents to figure out who they were before making critical choices. They required a strong sense of self prior to formulating these fateful decisions.
Thus was born the need to revolt. Nowadays it is commonplace to regard the teenage years as tempestuous. This is the period during which the young and their parents are constantly at odds. Although it was not always thus, heated fights currently break out about the most mundane matters.
Parents naturally want less belligerence. They prefer that their children conform to the wisdom of their elders. The young, however, demur. They regard the older generation as out of touch. Because juveniles are denied the freedom they believe they deserve, they disobey.
While the young are often advised to be more respectful, a certain amount of defiance is a good thing. It permits them to try out their independence. In standing up against their parents, they discover that they have the ability to make, and enforce, autonomous decisions.
This realization eases the path to vocational and marital selections in line with their needs. Unfortunately, it also guarantees serious mistakes. A lack of maturity and social experience ensure that many teen choices will be flawed.
Parents, who hope to protect their offspring, dread errors of this sort. They want their well-intentioned advice to be followed. Nevertheless, it is important that they be resisted. Only this—including the inevitable fiascos—facilitates the transition to adulthood.
The important thing to remember is that teenage mistakes have to be reversible. Entering a life of crime in order to get even with a bullying father can have lifelong ramifications. On the other hand, a removable navel piercing may not. Once a newly minted adult’s independence has been proven, prudence can safely return.
This same pattern applies to the larger social scene. The young are notoriously prone to left-wing politics. In their idealism, they often embrace radical social movements. Whether this is liberalism, socialism, or fascism, they assume they are countering the bitterness of the older generation.
The young do not know about the brutality of Stalin’s Gulag. They do not realize that Mao Tse-tung murdered between sixty and a hundred million Chinese in order to further his revolution. They likewise have no idea about the dire consequences of inflations or depressions.
As a result, the young eagerly follow pied pipers. They march in the streets. They burn books. They shout down their adversaries. Blithely unaware that these actions undermine the democratic traditions they inherited, they believe they are promoting egalitarianism.
Some of this may be chalked up to youthful exuberance. Hence, as long as it does not succeed in giving us a Fidel Castro or a Pol Pot, it can be tolerated as a passing phase. But if it gets us close to electing a Bernie Sanders or George McGovern, cooler heads need to prevail. Adult experience and judgment must predominate in these matters.
After the young have calmed down, they may recognize that free speech is crucial to democratic governance. Once they begin earning a paycheck and supporting a family, they may similarly realize that government spending has to be limited. Let the young rebel, but, for goodness sake, do not put them in charge.
Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Kennesaw State University
No comments:
Post a Comment