PORTRAIT of the Younger Generation Why haven't we heard from today's youth? TNTIME, this week, appears "The Younger Generation". . . a major report on the na tion's silent, cryptic youth. The following are excerpts: Youth today is waiting foc the hand of fate to fall on its shoulders, meanwhile working fairly hard arid saying almost nothing. The most startling fact about the younger generation is its silence . . . It does not issue manifestos, make speeches or miry posters. It has been called the "Sileiet Generation." But what does , the sibnce mean? What, if anything, does it hide? Or are youth's elders merely Wall of hearing? * * -/ But youth is taking its upsetting uncertainties with extraordinary calm. When the U. S. be,,, gan to realize, how deeply it had committed itself in Korea, youngsters of draft age had a ba(fcrese , 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 inevi- • table sooner or later, but they feel that they will survive it. * * * Hardly annum wants to go into the Army; there is little. enthusiasm for the military life, no enthusiasm for war. Youngsters do not talk him heroes; they admit freely that they will try to stay eat of the &aft as long as they on. But there is none of the systematized and senti mentalized antiwar feeling of the '2os. Pacifism has been almost nonexistent since World War 111; so are Oxford Oaths. THE.IIA4LY COLLEGIAN. STATE COLL • EGE.' PENN SYL VANIA ~~~ ~ 3•::~ :::<~ t v~ TIME But youth's ambitions have shrunk. Few youngsters today want to mine diamonds in South Africa, ranch in Paraguay, climb Mount Everest, find a cure for cancer, sail around ( the world, or build an industrial einpire. Some would like to own a small independent busi ness, 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 themselves go, .an alarm clock seems to be ticking away at the back of their minds; it goes off sooner or later, and sends them back to school, to work, or to war. - *" * * The younger generation seems to drink less. "There is nothing glorious or inglorious any more about getting stewed," says one college professor. Whether youth is more or less promiscuous than it used to be is a mat ter of disagreement. -- Fact is that it is less showy about sex... As a whole, it is more sober and conservative, but in individual cases, e.g., the recent dope scan dals,itmakesFlamin' gYouthlooklikeamateurs. * V * Educators across the U. S. complain that young people seem to have no militant be liefs. .They (do , not speak out for anything. Professors who used to enjoy baiting students by outrageously praising child labor or damn- . • The Weekly I Newmagazine ing Shelley now find that they cannot get a rise out of the docile note-takers in their classes. * * But God (whoever or whatever they mulerstund by that word) has once more become a factor in the younger generation's thoughts. TO old argument of religion v. science is subsiding; a system which does not make room for• both makes little sense to today's younger"genera lion. It is no longer shockingly unfashionable to discuss God. * * * Young people do not feet cheated. And they do not blame anyone. Before this gen eration, "they" were always to blame. It was a standard prewar feeling that "they" had let them down. Btit this generation puts the blame on life as a Whele, - not on patents, politicians, cartels, etc. * * * Says a TIME correspondent in BoSton: "You cannot say of them, 'Youth Will Be Served,' because the phrase suggests a voracious' strik ing out from security, wealth and stability. The best you can say for this younger generation is, `Youth Will Serve.' " * * * With reports on subjects MO this— and on subjeCts growing even more directly out of the headlines—TlME 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 • Ameiica's largest audiencf of best customers. Every- week they take TIME=to• get it Straight. TIME WO .1111{1M.011•11111 111. V 1X• ; . : ~ :. 7 ..4,)1: ...:;.N.,51d4:4 : 1 i:K.,::i: .: iE?:..5 M:.i Mi1:::.:::.::;1:..P;..:•::,l#':4.,..,:0 4:•. . ia•. : .:E.V.: :.:q.•. .i .41,.: f % **M.4..1 0 ....0 X ... 5 .3 : . : :U taM l 4 i ,0:*W1 :, :i 0 O:A 4 Zi? 44Z4V :* . TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, Out Today
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers