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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 6, 1951)
nngei" Gen! aiioii Why haven't w heard from today's youth? IN TIME, this week, appears "The Younger Generation". . . a major report on the nation's silent, cryptic youth. The following are excerpts: Youth today is waiting for die hand of fate to fall on its shoulders, meanwhile working fairly hard and saying almost nothing. The most startling fact about the younger generation is its silence ... It does not issue manifestos, make speeches or carry posters'. It has been called the ' Silent Generation." But what does the silence mean? What, if any thing, does it hide? Or are youth's elders merely hard of hearing? But youth is taking its upsetting uncertainties with extraordinary calm. When the U. S. began to real ize how deeply it had committed itself in Korea, youngsters of draft age had a bad case of jitters; but all reports agree that they have since settled down to studying or working for as long as they can. The majority seem to think that war with Russia is inevitable sooner or later, but they feel that they will survive it. Hardly anyone wants to go into the Army; there is little enthusiasm for the military life, no enthusiasm for war. Youngsters do not talk like heroes; they admit freely that they will try to stay out of the draft as long as they can. But there is none of the systematized and sentimentalized antiwar feeling of the '20s. Pacifism has been almost nonexistent since WerM War II; to are Oxford Oaths. Butyouth's ambitions have shrunk. Fewyoungstc today want to mine diamonds in South Africa, ranch ia Paraguay, climb Mount Everest, find a cure for cancer, sail around the world, or build an industrial empire. Some would like to own a small independent business, but most want a good job with a big firm, and with it, a kind of suburban idyll. The younger generation can still raise hell. The significant thing is not that it does, but how it goes about doing it. Most-of today's youngsters never seem to lose their heads; even when they let them selves go, an alarm clock seems to be ticking away at the back of their minds; it goes offsooner or later, and sends them back to school, to work, or to war. The younger generation seems to drink less. 4 'There is nothing glorious or inglorious any more about getting stewed, " says one college profes sor. Whether youth is more or less promiscuous than it used to be is a matter of disagreement Fact is that it is less showy about sex ... As a whole, it is more sober and conservative, but in in dividual cases, e.g., the recent dope scandals, it makes Flaming Youth look like amateurs. Educators across the U. S. complain that young people seem to have no militant beliefs. They do not speak out for anything. Professors who used to enjoy baiting students by outrageously praising child labor or damning Shelley now find that they cannot get a rise out of the docile note-takers in their classes. : ' ' The only two issues about which the younger generation seemed to get worked up are race rela tions and world government; but neither of these issues rouses anything approaching an absorbing faith. Many students and teachers blame this lack of conviction on fear the fear of being tagged "sub versive. Today's generation, either through fear, passivity or conviction, is ready to conform. But God (whoever or whatever they understand by that word) has once more become a factor in the younger generation's thoughts. The old argument of religion v. science is subsiding; a system which does not make room for both makes little sense to today's younger generation. It is no longer shockingly un fashionable to discuss God. He is short on ideals, lacks self-reliance, is for per sonal security, at any price. He. singularly lacks flame. In spite of this, he makes a good, efficient soldier relying on superior firepower. The best thing that can be said for American youth, in or out of uniform, is that it has learned that it must try to make the best of a bad and diffi cult job, whether that job is life, war, or both. The generation which has been called the oldest young generation in the world has achieved a certain maturity. Young people do not feel cheated. And they do not blame anyone. Before this generation, "the were always to blame. It was a standard prewar feeling that "they had let them down. But this generation puts the blame on life as a whole, not on parents, politicians, cartels, etc. Says a TIME correspondent in Boston: "You cannot say of themYouth Will Be Served? because the phrase suggests a voracious striking out front security, wealth and stability. The best you can say for this younger generation is, Youth Will Serve. ' With reports on subjtcxa lik this and on subjects growing even more directly out of the headlines TIME each week attracts 1,600,000 of America's alert, most intelligent, most influential families ... the families who do the most planning, recommending and buying in the home and out. Every week, these people are America's largest audience of best customers. Every week they take TIME to get it StraiK TIME NMt MVMMMIMff '( - llS ! I, i ' J Out Tod Tho Wccldy Ncv;cmagasino