MODERN YOUTH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22203, 5 March 1934, Page 2

MODERN YOUTH

ERA OF EXPERIMENT EXUBERANT VITALITY. : ' (Feom Ode Own Cqbb..spondent.) LONDON; January. 19. . Professor W. G. De Burgh, a. professor of philosophy at Reading University; spoke on the subject of "Traditional Morality and Modern Life" at a meeting of the British Institute of Philosophy. A new world, he said,"had been brought into being, and a new outlook given birth. There was evidence that the young were profoundly disillusioned with the established order, of society. They were not, prepared, as were their fathers, to take the universe as they found it. Age and experience, Jn; their view, had been weighed in the balance.and found wanting.' "' ',"., "■ -V j . ";■■ ! T 'Youth, to-day," he said, " are almost morbidly anxious to escape the repripach of insincerity, and are far less hampered than were their fathers by reticence in speech or action, "There is always, too, a temptation to claim credit as advanced thinkers by! the avowal of views of daring unconventionally. ' ■ » ■ . "'. t "Victoria!* enthusiasm for causes is a back number;'enthusiasm for persons has taken its place." . , Professor De Burgh analysed the more positive features in the outlook of the younger generation, and .said that what was most distinctive was their astonishing and exuberant vitality. - RAPID LIVING. This zest for rapid living had its correlate in indifference to the heritage of learning. History and knowledge were dismissed as a back number. The young to-day are at once more alive and far more ignorant than their progenitors ■in so far as they are not content to live wholly in the. present. Their eyes are turned towards the future. Their desire is not for erudition, but for experiment. "It is in youth, he continued, "that sex relationships are most insistent and increasing. Recent research in psychology has thrown much light on the dark places of the mind, especially in the early phases of its development. "We have learned, for instance, the disastrous effects of the inhibition of natural impulse. The rival claims of eelfexpressiori and self-control give rise to a grave problem to which traditional ethics offer no adequate solution. "What the older generation called wantonness is now interpreted as healthful natural impulse. Two changes had come about facilitating experiment in sex morality. The equality of the sexes had been recognised. WOMEN'S INDEPENDENCE. " Men have ceased to be looked upon as women's natural protectors. Women are no longer left in ignorance before mafriage as to the facts of sex. A frank discussion of sex questions is no longer tabooed for unmarried youths and girls. " Freedom' in talk leads to freedom in facts. Young women take pride in vindicating their newly-won independence, and claim the right to control their lives at their own risk. Besides, the popularising of the motor car tends to prevent effective supervision by their elders. "States and churches," said the speaker, "evoke their hostility rather than enthusiasm among youth unless, like the Soviet State, they are the products of youth's own creative energy."