Undergraduate Page
YOUTH AND ALL THAT
By JOHN DAVY (Trinity College. Cambridge) LARGE part of the nonsense that is talked about Youth arises from the practice of spelling it with a capital Y. The use of the capital in English is governed by subtle, unformu- lated rules, but one of its main effects seems to be to generalise and depersonalise the word to which it is applied. A good example is the word " government." Spelt without a capital it becomes human and domestic ; it is possible to remember what it really signifies: a collection of ordinary citizens elected by their fellows to assist in ordering national affairs. " Government " on the other hand is grandiose and self-important, implying vast masses of mechanism, a single inhuman entity which at any moment may turn on the people who called it into existence. The same sort of process is seen with the word " Youth." " Youth " is most simply defined as a collection of individuals who are occupied in growing up ; but in the capital-ridden vocabulary of today the word Youth is acquiring an implication of organisation. It is used as though Youth were a trade union, a movement, even a political party- " Listen to the Voice of Youth "; "Give Youth its Chance "; " The Demands of Youth "; " The Rights of Youth "; &c. And so a kind of Youth Myth is encouraged, and people begin to carry round in their heads a hazy picture of a vast body of clamouring adolescents, led, perhaps, by a troop of militant scoutmasters.'
Journalism, various youth organisations, and a number of well- intentioned citizens arc devoting much time and energy to making the nation youth-conscious, and, as a corollary, to making Youth self-conscious. There is much talk about "education for citizen- ship," inculcation of " social responsibility " and the cultivation of a " social conscience" in the young. When this takes the form of one period a week of "civics " and a visit to the Houses of Parliament and the local Rural District Council there is no fault to be found. But increasingly this kind of education is supplemented by various forms of school parliaments, school councils and other organisations designed to give the children at any rate the illusion of self-govern- ment. The result of this, far from giving children stability or a sense of social obligation, is very often to exaggerate the importance of quite unimportant matters, and to increase the self-importance of quite unimportant people. Anyone who has ever sat on any kind of school committee will retain memories of hours of impassioned debate over whether " break " should start at moo or 11.05 ; and who has not experienced the immediate and virulent form of bureau- cratic mentality engendered in so many previously harmless boys on being appointed prefect.
In the university, where it might be expected that most under- graduates would have acquired some degree of detachment, the same thing happens. Very many of those who become involved in the Union or in university politics rapidly lose all sense of proportion. In some political debates in Cambridge one would think that the result of the next general election depended on which way the members voted ; and the election of the Union committee has become a contest between the various political clubs. Doubtless there arc many people who lose all sense of proportion over beagling or Scottish country dancing, but somehow these preoccupations seem more harmless, less potentially dangerous than those of our pocket politicians. For our politics today have become a machine we can barely control. The situations into which it manoeuvres us are fantastic, unreal, artificial, and for that reason incredibly dangerous: ignorantly or carelessly operated it has the power to precipitate catastrophes immeasurably greater than were possible two hundred years ago. For this reason it is enormously important that those who are to handle the controls 'be clear-eyed and clear-headed. I havc not observed that either of these qualities is developed by participation in university politics.
Those people who are engaged in " boosting " Youth often assert [The author of the article Living in the Future, published in the .Spectator of July 15th, was L. H. PALMIER, not C. H. PALMER, as stated.]
that Youth can do everything of which its seniors arc capable, and do it faster, harder, better and longer. I have heard it seriously suggested that the age at which the vote is granted should be the same as that required to qualify for a driving licence (thereby, it seems, placing the House of Commons on the same footing as the Morris so). If youth is really shown to be pre-eminent in the management of affairs there is nothing to stop us forging ahead and drafting the design for the State of tomorrow, a sort of scout- master's Utopia. We foresee a brave new world with Youth at the Helm. The citizens of tomorrow have grown up precociously ; their elders have become citizens of yesterday, deprived of the vote and left to their senile maunderings. As the children catch the 8.45 to town, the parents play happily in state-provided creches. A family allowance is paid to all families with any number of parents under three. Parents over thirty-one half-price in theatres, trams and tubes ; State welfare clinics give advice to young daughters on parental care, and issue orange juice for fathers entering second childhood.
Youth organisations are growing and proliferating rapidly. At present most of them exist purely to provide opportunities for specific activities such as hiking, climbing, travelling and free sing-song. But it is the youth organisations with ideals that I view with mis- trust—the junior U.N.O.s, the official youth clubs associated with the political parties, the Young People's World Citizenship Leagues, and so on. Twice since the war (in 1947 and 1948) I have watched the May political processions in Vienna, and talked to some of the participants. The youth organisations have an evening torchlight procession to themselves. They march for hours, with flags, banners and uniforms. They shout slogans, and sing songs (mostly appalling doggerel set to third-rate march tunes and expressing third-rate political sentiments, but they are sung throughout with a starry- eyed fervour). It is unmistakably the same impulse that fostered the Hitler Youth ; it seems almost a psychological necessity to these people. It is not the particular brand of politics which they support, but the mentality these organisations encourage which is so depress- ing. For instance, in the University of Vienna it is rare for a member of the Socialistische 7ugend to be on friendly terms with a member of the F.O.J. (the corresponding Communist organisation) ; and lectures by professors who have a known political affiliation are often avoided by students with a different allegiance. Such nonsense is fortunately almost non-existent in this country, but this does not make us immune from infection. It is a virulent disease to which students are particularly susceptible, and which will attack the most detached, objective, the chilliest intellectual.
Youth is often over-emancipated, the slightest inhibitions rooted out at its earliest beginnings, and no harsh words must be spoken to little Robert in case he develops a trauma. And so the younger generation is accused of bad manners, arrogance and lack of respect for age or wisdom. How can it have, if the elder people have no respect for themselves ? So, as a Citizen of Tomorrow, I make a plea for the Neglect of Youth. Give Youth its chance and leave it alone. Allow us to cease being Youth and give us a chance to be merely Young.
Previous page
