Family Weekly
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YOUTH
T7iis distinguished critic of the American scene assesses a current phenomenon and decides he's all for it; here's why
T HE PRESIDENTIAL Contest between
Senator John Kenneth', 43, and Vice Pres
ident Richard Nixon, 47, has drawn attention
to a fact that usually goes unnoticed: youth is
taking over many key jobs in this land.
To many people, tins causes distress. Aren't
time-tested, "experienced" older men better able
to direct the affairs of a nation, or a company,
or a major scientific project? they ask. Don't
judgment and wisdom improve with age? Is it
right, in a time of world crisis, to be considering
for national leadership men who have not yet
reached even the moderately "ripe" age of 50?
Sounds logical, doesn't it? But I cannot say
I am alarmed by the visible evidence that people
decades younger than myself are taking over.
They've always done so. Many of the greatest
pioneers, scientists, military men, national
leaders, reformers, and statesmen from ancient
history until now have been virtually kids.
Those of us who have come to imagine that
age-phis -experience necessarily equals wisdom
are mistaken as are those of us who, on reach
ing middle or old age, tend to imagine we, not
youths, are the ablest judges, leaders, and
opinion moUers.
It is the young men of every nation who
usually are the doers, the pioneers, the bold
innovators. The founding fathers of the United
States Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and
others were younger than Kennedy or Nixon
w hen they led 13 colonies to independence,
united thea, Stnd TOte oar Constitution- Com
parative youth is no baadicap-aad often a great
ad astgge. Senior citizens are radioed to over-
the fact that nearly all
new knowledge, original thought, and scientific
discovery is made by young men and women.
We ad alt Americans seem afraid of young
people. Teen-agers in oar country as Margaret
c&- v.
moronow now't rojs
OVER!
Mead recently observed now live in their own community, apart from
;v-tnTre, la-tmo much communication with grownups. This withdrawal of
older persons from youth is due in large part to our adult translation
of what we call our youthful "pranks"' into something we
now fearfully call "juvenile delinquency." The result is
one of the most serious calamities in our present
culture. Our fear and our virtual segregation of
teen-agers undoubtedly add to the reluctance
of many older people to admit youth is taking
over everywhere. -
Most mathematical discoveries, mathema
ticians assert, were made by people under
30 ; and, in many cases, people under 2 1 .
Most minds begin to "harden" with age;
they reject new and different data. That
is why the Nobel Prizes in science
usually go to young men. Only in the
arts, where a lifetime's work is re
warded, do many oldsters win
Nobel laurels.
Today, whole industries and
great corporations are being
founded by men in their 20's and
30's. Scores of multimillion-dol
lar electronic companies, for
example, are the creation
of young men, and
young men run them.
Why? Electronics
itself is so "young" that
not many men over 50
have had sufficient
theoretical training to
direct such enterprises.
Wernher Von Braun and his staff,
who launched the first long-range
rockets the V2s that bombarded Britain
were mere kids. The American who gave
them their idea Robert Goddard was young
when be began trying to prove the rocket was an
ideal vehicle for weapon-carrying and space inves
tigation. Old men in our military command laughed at
Goddard. But the young Germans went to work on young
Goddard's notion. Examples of this kind could go on endlessly. From
the young politicians who founded this nation and the young generals
who fought for its independence to the young men of science who
have made the world so different that only young men and
women can best adjust their thoughts to the future of us all
it is youth that must take over. The problems we face, such as
the unchecked and alarming "explosion" of popula
tions (in a world where half of us are already
undernourished), are problems for young, not
elderly, men. Our senior citizens aren't up to resolv
ing the threat of all-out H-war, let alone the problem of
how to prevent such North Temperate Zone suicide.
By PHILIP WYLIE
, That, in my view, is the reason youth is "taking
over" today. On the whole, only young people
are equipped to keep pace with the ever-more-complex
"facts of life." In centuries past, when
knowledge of a fundamental and revolutionary ,
sort remained virtually unchanged from one genera
tion to the next, the experience of older people did
mean they had more wisdom than their sons and daughters.
But all the wisdom on earth is useless if it is applied to
problems the 'wise old men'don't understand.
Caesar was leading Roman legions in his 20's. Alex
ander the Great had conquered most of the known
world when still in his 30's. And I might add with
no intention of irreverence- but merely to
emphasize my point that the. Founder of
Christianity was 32 years of age when they
crucified Him.
The reader will by now see that I am not dis
tressed to find Presidential candidates in their
40's. I trust youth. As a parent, I felt a kinship
for teen-agers that apparently was as welcome as
it was rare; for many former teen-agers and many
new ones, of their own accord, come to visit my
wife and me for days, a weekend, a week. We
consider that a prodigious compliment.
; I'll admit it startled me when, recently, my not-yet-30-year-old
son-in-law phoned to say. he'd just
raised a million dollars for a new corporation
he'd planned with two oftier young men. But my
amazement was momentary. I think his company
will be well-managed and very profitable. Evi
' dently, the notoriously hardheaded (older)
money men of Manhattan agree.
Why shouldn't we expect youth to take over?
Isn't that exactly what we hope they will do and
why we teach them at home and educate them in -schools
and colleges? What hope exists that
transcends hope for kids yours, mine, every
body's on earth? What better hope is needed?
For me, none.
Family Weekly, October 30, 1960