be under the age of 25 — they have great economic impact — an average of $10.58 a week to spend per teenager. For example, they are certainly making themselves heard in everything from music and a rt to styles and riots and in all of these areas they have done very little to prevent the noisy minority from representing all of them. Adults have w il l in g ly gone along for the ride by copying teen styles in dress, language and thought. While being thoroughly horrified at the increase in drug abuse among youth, adults have eagerly picked up the psychedelic styles of dress, decor and decor um. The advertising appeal of such paraphernalia is staggering. But the biggest boost given by adults to the myth is the fact they want to be liked by young peo ple, even more than respected. Dad may be too busy, pressured or tired to be a good father, so he is thoroughly willing to settle for being a pal to his son. How ever unwelcome the recipient may be, the role is fa r more relaxing and less demanding on the main character. As a result we have a new national pastime — adults working hard a t winning popu larity contests w ith m opp e ts . While we were being alerted to the dictatorship of the proletariat, we were quietly subdued by the teeny-boppers. Further, parents, for example, will believe the myth as long as
“ M O II CAN FORGET IT. It doesn’t V exist.” I With that assertion, the ar ticle could be over now except for the fact tha t many adults, mes merized by the mass media, are convinced there is an insurmount able wall between them and the younger generation. This view is particularly prevalent in church circles. Because my simple asser tion is not likely to dispel such thoughts, it might be wise to look into the matter further and find out the real situation. The generation gap is some thing most young people recog nize for what it is — a myth, the imaginary product of sensational journalism. But as long as adults can be manipulated when they believe it, our youth certainly aren’t going to discard such a valuable tool. For them, it’s the best thing to come along since the axiom “Everybody else is doing it” was pawned off on adults as a suitable guideline for youth morals. Reinforcing the myth is anoth er phrase that can run tremors through the adult world—“Don’t trust a n y o n e o v e r 30!” Most young people doubted that one would take hold, but its impact fa r exceeded their fondest expec tations. Our world is becoming ever more conscious of young people for a variety of reasons: there are more of them — 52 per cent of the world’s population will soon
they encounter the problem of be ing unable to communicate with their own children, ignoring the fact that long before they lost touch with junior, they had quit communicating with each other. Church leaders will lean on the myth as an explanation for the loss of youth interest in institu tional religious activities. I t would be much wiser to look a t the in adequacy of their own programs: sermons with more q u e s tio n marks than exclamation marks; dry lectures that vary little from contemporary affairs’ discussions on campus; profound answers to questions nobody is asking and no answers to questions they a re ; an epileptic-style leap on every new philosophical bandwagon or a sta tic commitment to a Victorian ethic paraded as a spirituality. Rather than face these problems, it appears easier just to blame the whole problem on “young peo ple today,” shake our heads, and shuffle on. Then we need make no changes in the status quo, which is as one expressed it, “Latin for the mess we’re in.” If a generation gap doesn’t exist any more than it ever has, a communication gap certainly does. Adults and teenagers will have differing views, friends and interests. This is the normal gap between age groups. But when they cannot sit down and talk reasonably with each other with some degree of understanding, then we do have a problem. THE KING'S BUSINESS
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