The comfortable generation

“To be sure, The Next Generation agrees with—and corroborates—Karl Mannheim’s assertion that ‘nothing is more false than the usual assumption . . . that the younger generation is “progressive’ and the older generation is eo ipso conservative.’ Diuk notes that ‘the education and shaping of views of the youth . . . is a critical element in determining whether they become active citizens, oppressed subjects, or perpetuators of the old system.’ She continues: ‘Youth’s energy and enthusiasm are value neutral, and can be a blank slate for any ideology; they can either be co-opted to support the old regime or mobilized to lead a protest movement to challenge the old order.’”

(The energy and enthusiasm of young Germans was hardly “value neutral” in the 1930s. More likely is the assumption that youth’s energy and enthusiasm is politically formed before the protesters take to the street. After age 19 or 20, is anyone’s mind a blank slate? More likely, youths in Russia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan are looking at “What is best for me and those like me?”)

http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/what-are-they-thinking-study-youth-three-post-soviet-states?utm_source=World+Affairs+Newsletter&utm_campaign=01974bf001-WAJ_Kara_Murza_11_28_2012&utm_medium=email

 And from other youth:

 “South Korea is undergoing a transformative generational change—one that has strong implications for the US. The younger generation, living a comfortable life in a first-world state, cares little about the threat posed by North Korea, which has been the dominant theme of South Korean life since statehood in 1948. The North is a dilemma of their grandparents’ generation that, to them, is no longer relevant.”

http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/no-fear-or-just-smug-south-korea%E2%80%99s-youth-dismiss-northern-threat?utm_source=World+Affairs+Newsletter&utm_campaign=01974bf001-WAJ_Kara_Murza_11_28_2012&utm_medium=email