WHY TODAY'S YOUTH IS DISENCHANTED
Plain Truth Magazine
December 1969
Volume: Vol XXXIV, No.12
Issue:
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WHY TODAY'S YOUTH IS DISENCHANTED

Never in history have so many youths been idle, bored, restless, frustrated, rebellious toward authority as today! Why? What has produced such despair and disillusionment? Who is to blame?

   TODAY'S YOUTH, world-wide, is in revolt! Young people, in general, are disillusioned. Where has society gone wrong?

Rebelling Against What?

   What do today's youths want? What are they rebelling against?
   A British writer recently put it this way. "They [the hippies] want nothing to do with the world we've built for them. They're anti-everything from police to Press."
   They are even against money. "It's rotten," said a London hippie. "And it rots people."
   It's time we considered both where the adult society and where the hippie generation have gone wrong. For both adults and hippies share responsibility for the wrecked, weird, tormented lives of so many of today's youths.
   Many hippies feel cheated, sick, frustrated, BEAT — disgusted with the sham and hypocrisy of today's society. And they are totally frustrated in their vain attempt to replace it with anything better. Many didn't deliberately set out to become dropouts from society. These youngsters by no means planned to spend the rest of their lives in hippiedom. Most of them are casualties of a calloused civilization. Because of the grave shortcomings of present-day society, they were often shunted by circumstances into a totally non-productive, lay-about life — lives which not even an animal should experience!

Power of Big City Bright Lights

   Many of today's dropouts from society are city-bred youth. Others left the country or small-town life in search of the thrills and glamour which they fancied awaited them in the big city.
   A country boy or a small-town girl might, for instance, travel to London, New York or Paris to see the bright lights of "the big city." All their lives they had heard of the wonderful things to see and do in the city.
   But what they hadn't been told is that a big city is a human anthill. Hundreds of thousands, even millions of people rushing about madly — going nowhere fast — except to the grave! Any big city is a concrete-and-asphalt jungle. Petty and big-time crimes thrive in the environment of city bigness. Drug addiction, drunkenness, prostitution, gambling and other equally fruitless facets of man's fading civilization turn men and women into monsters.
   A big city can be a very cold, lonely, dirty place. Today's city dweller commonly doesn't even know the name of his next-door neighbor. Many fear striking up a friendship. Who knows — your next-door neighbor may be an ex-convict, a thief, a pervert, a maniac or a potential murderer!
   "No, thank you," says the average citizen. "I'll be friendly — but only at a distance!"
   A typical youth's initiation into the bright lights of today's big-city life is not unlike the fascination of bright lights on night-flying bugs and beetles.
   Did you ever have the eye-opening experience of seeing myriads of summertime insects — fascinated by a bright street light — busily bashing their "brains" out as they repeatedly flew into a street lamp? The next day many of these same bugs — the bugs who the night before were batting their "brains" out against the bright street light — are lying totally insensate or dead near the base of the street lamp.
   Like these unthinking insects, many of today's youths are bewitched, fascinated by the bright lights of today's big-city life. Unfortunately, many of them figuratively have to bat their brains out against the hard realities of life before they learn the real facts — before they learn that today's world is a pretty cold, heartless, impersonalized civilization that swallows up its victims with little hesitation, compassion or compunction.
   Is it any wonder, then, that so many of today's young people, wrecked by such a cold, heartless civilization which has not taught or trained them to cope with its pitfalls and hardships, have joined the ranks of the social dropouts?
   Again we ask: Why are today's youths so woefully unprepared to meet the pressures, stresses and strains of today's civilization? How is it that the adult generation has so miserably failed to equip these young-impressionable with the knowledge which would have enabled them to overcome life's difficulties?
   It is time some adults quit placing all the blame on today's youths for dropping out from society — for joining the cult of hippiedom, when it is the adult world that has so ill equipped them to cope with the society's strains and pressures.
   Can one blame young people for turning to a far-out way of life when, in all too many instances, adults have offered them nothing genuine?
   Can one blame them for their moral conduct when all too many adults practice sophisticated forms of polygamy while professing to be monogamous?
   When children see and observe, daily, adult examples of lying, cheating, immorality and general lawlessness — can one really point a finger at youth for espousing a way of life that accepts "free sex," drug addiction and shiftlessness as a way to live?
   Is not the prime responsibility that of adult society?

Hyde Park Hippie Rendezvous

   This year has witnessed three big pop festivals where the fruits of today's hippie generation could be observed firsthand.
   On Saturday, July 5th, the biggest pop concert of all time was held in London's Hyde Park. On that date half-a-million hippies flocked into London's famous Hyde Park to pay homage to the Rolling Stones — the world's "greatest" (or most notorious — depending on one's point of view) rock-and-roll band.
   Shortly before this pop concert opened, Brian Jones — a former member of the Rolling Stones — was found drowned in a private swimming-pool.
   Some referred to this pop concert as "Requiem for a Stone." One of the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger, read poetry by Shelley. Many of hippiedom's faithful were there. Besides the Rolling Stones, there were such "notables" as Marsha Hunt and Marianne Faithful. Two days later Marianne was near death in an Australian hospital, reportedly suffering from the effects of drugs.
   On the stage, Mick Jagger writhed, gyrated, groaned and growled — while his long hair flung, like a horse's mane, in every direction! The audience understandably lapped it up with frenzied rapture.
   The pop fans jostled against each other, cheered, applauded, shouted, burned joss sticks, or played tambourines. Overcome by heat and emotion, 250 fainted and were carried off by "Hell's Angels" to first-aid tents to be treated by a long-haired doctor. (This gaudily clad, long-haired assortment of hippies from all over Britain and the world were "policed" by "Hell's Angels") Some fans actually went berserk!
   Fifteen tons of rubbish had to be cleaned up from Hyde Park when the pop festival was over. All in all, the hippie fans believed the Rolling Stones' pop concert was a rip-roaring success.

Bethel Pop Festival

   Then... across the ocean, over 400,000 hippies turned up for the Woodstock Music and Art Fair held on a 600-acre farm at Bethel, New York, August 15 through 17.
   The usual hippie crowd and accoutrements were present at this pop festival. There were no reported rapes, assaults, robberies or murders as in the adult world. But three died from drug usage.
   Sanitation was at a low level, food was scarce. There were the usual piles of litter and garbage. Two nights of rain turned the farm on which the festival was held into a veritable "sea of mud." The young people referred to it as "beautiful"!
   The usual gay clothes, long hair, smelly persons, spontaneous and unabashed nudity and open, casual intercourse were part and parcel of the Bethel pop festival.
   The New York Times asked: "What kind of culture is it that can produce so colossal a mess?"
   This rock festival in the mud fields of the Yasgur farm in Bethel, N.Y., produced the usual loud beat music and was saturated with pot and every-which-way sex. Those who attended were, in the main, the sons and daughters of America's well-to-do, affluent middle classes. They were the storm troopers of the counter-culture that is rebelling against today's world — against all forms of organized society, against any suggestion of law or authority.

Isle of Wight Pop Festival

   Then, in September, another large pop festival was held on the Isle of Wight, just off the south coast of England.
   For days dropouts from society, hippie lay-abouts from all over Britain and the world began to congregate on the Isle of Wight.
   An estimated 200,000 hippie pop fans awaited the arrival of the "high priest" of folk music, Bob Dylan, from the U.S. Other "notables" included Jane Fonda and husband. Beatles John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were also present.
   During this pop festival drugs and nudity went hand-in-hand. Newspapers reported the "goings-on" — which included at least one instance of a young female undressing and dancing in the nude. In the bizarre world of the hippie festival, the fans made a big bubble bath which many shared — and needed.
   Hippies want to "do their own thing."
   The wildest scene occurred when a young man and woman (possibly under the influence of drugs) removed their clothes and... you guessed it!

Laziness a Way of Life

   A large number of "hippies" still live at home — accepting whatever charities they can receive from working parents. Others work at various odd jobs, short-term employment and in small businesses (sometimes "hippie" oriented book shops, music shops, and small eating establishments).
   But the point is, few are working toward any particular GOAL. Few, if any, are striving to create anything of substance — any lasting institution, worthwhile product, helpful service.
   Most seem to accept work as a necessary evil in order to obtain only the barest means of affording mere subsistence in life.
   Few seem to realize what joy one can get out of good, honest, hard work with the exhilarating thrill of accomplishment.
   Man was created to become a productive, useful, needed member of society! Every human being wants to feel he is needed, that his life serves some useful purpose. No one can be truly happy unless and until he is fulfilling that innate desire to do something constructive — to have a worthwhile existence!
   Yet how many young people have been taught, by the adult generation, the joy of shouldering responsibility. Few adults know what it is like to work hard at some job for which one is suited. And to receive the deep-down satisfaction of doing a job well.
   Not many squares like the work they do. Little wonder most teenage and adult hippies glory in laziness, shiftlessness, sloth. They pride themselves in idleness and ease.
   The result is that hippies away from home often have to go hungry, dress shabbily, sleep in cold, dirty, hard places. They do not have sufficient money to buy the necessities of life. They don't live properly.
   The result? Their health often suffers terribly. After months or a few years of bad eating and sleeping habits, their health often begins to break. Many hippies look pale, thin, listless, sexually depleted. Few have the robust, healthy, zestful joy of living that comes from a happy, balanced, productive life.
   Many are untidy (often downright dirty!) in their personal habits. Their gypsy-like existence leads them into circumstances where they can't wash and bathe themselves regularly. Consequently, it is not uncommon for hippies to become infested with "wee folk" — fleas, lice, etc.

Hippie Morality

   Most hippies freely admit they do not bother much about morality. Their loose living occasions many a headache and heartache.
   Man was intended to use his mind. Animals have only instinct. But man should learn to think, to plan, to order his life — not just to be pushed and shoved about by circumstances.
   What are the fruits of hippie morality? Social diseases, illegitimate children, guilt complexes sometimes leading to insanity. And mixed-up, confused lives devoid of the real deep love and security that come through a properly ordered home life — where marriage is contracted and where each remains faithful to his or her partner.

Drug Addiction

   It is well known that drug addiction is very high among hippies. The use of drugs by hippies is just about as common as bathing is among ordinary people.
   The horrible effects of drug addiction can hardly be overestimated. The main bad effect of drug addiction (especially, the use of LSD, marijuana, heroin, etc) is that these drugs twist the minds of the misguided users. Some of their minds have been damaged so much by drugs that they are doomed to remain abnormal. Some are driven to commit suicide. Others, under the influence of drugs, have been driven to some crazy action which resulted in their premature death.
   Surely a rational being should be able to calmly, coolly observe the fruits of drug addiction and conclude that it is in his, and society's, best interest not to become another hopelessly crippled drug addict.

Who Is to Blame?

   The three most important formative institutions which formerly influenced the growing generation are 1) the home, 2) schools and colleges, and 3) the churches.
   All three have nearly abdicated their respective roles.
   Parents are failing to teach children properly in the home. Millions of homes are unhappy, divided — a wretched environment for youth.
   Father is no longer in control in many homes. Mothers are too busy, and aren't properly looking after their families.
   Then, the parents often set wretched examples for their youngsters to follow. Remember, children learn by example. One's own personal example of cheerfulness, fidelity, cleanliness, industry and fairness will do far more to point the way than millions of words.
   When excessive drinking, drug-taking, marital infidelity, foul language, bad tempers, disrespect for law, and myriads of other bad habits are the daily norm in the presence of children — how can one expect them to grow up with any true basis on which to build a happy life?
   How many parents have failed to teach young people the value and real joy of work, of producing, of living a useful, constructive, upright life? How many have lavished money and material things on their children — have often been overindulgent toward them? But they have denied them any real sound moral or spiritual principles or guideposts by which they could conduct their lives.
   Result? Boredom, frustration, rebellion!
   Children can become miserable when they are permitted too much freedom. Today's parents are far too permissive toward their children. Children never develop respect and love for over-permissive parents!
   Until we learn to correct our own topsy-turvy, upside-down home lives, we cannot expect to raise happy, obedient, productive citizens. If we sow wrong teaching and examples in the minds of our children, we will have to reap the evil consequences! And that is just what we are doing — producing a bumper crop of dropout, hippie lay-abouts. Some of whom are, now dropping in again as young revolutionaries!

Schools and Colleges Share Blame

   Today's school and college teachers also share the blame for the big harvest of dropouts.
   Something is criminally wrong with much of modern education. Schools and colleges seldom teach the sound, moral principles of hard work, honesty, decency, good citizenship. Much of what is taught is irrelevant.
   Instead, teachers funnel into the minds of young people noxious, ready-made mixtures of agnosticism and rank atheism — often in the guise of evolution. God is thrown out of most all the classrooms of schools and colleges.
   Where there is no God, there are no absolutes, no definite laws to define what is right or wrong. Hence youths feel free to do as they please.
   So the younger generation is left without any guiding principles by which to steer. Like a ship without a rudder, they drift aimlessly through life, not knowing what they are, where they came from or where they are going.
   Educators have nurtured a bountiful crop of disillusioned, rebellious, fearful, amoral youngsters who are drifting aimlessly through life. The teachers and professors share a major responsibility for today's dropout, lay-about, hippie and/or revolutionary generation.

Waning Religion — Should It Share the Blame?

   Surely it does not take a wise man to see that somewhere religion has failed to give the answers to this world's ills.
   Much of the lawlessness that is so rampant in the world (especially among the young) is directly attributable to such concepts which urge us to believe we do not have to obey the most perfect code of conduct ever delivered to mankind — the TEN COMMANDMENTS!
   Today's ultra-liberal clergymen are contributing to today's lawlessness, however unintentionally. Some even march in the front ranks of protesters and by their presence, seemingly encourage civil disobedience.
   When they begin to preach and practice obedience to the Ten Commandments and submission to the laws of the State, then general respect for law will be easier for the younger generation to accept.

Youth Shares Responsibility

   Today's younger generation shares responsibility for its own actions! Each young person has the ability to examine the various ways of life to find out which produces good and which produces bad results.
   Young men and women can't shove all the blame on the adult generation. Everyone is a free moral agent — has the power of free choice — can and must decide for him or herself.
   Make no mistake about it. Today's youth can see the many things that are wrong with the present-day civilization. But they don't know what should be put in its place!
   Not even the young revolutionaries have an answer. They can see what needs to be changed — but what to build, they don't know!

The Fateful Choice Is Ours

   When will parents, teachers and clergymen — everyone — wake up to the awful realization that society has woefully failed to rightly teach the young generation — our most precious heritage?
   And when will today's youth wake up to see that, in spite of a lack of right teaching and training by their elders, they must face up to the pitfalls, dangers and unproductiveness of a lay-about, dropout, hippie way of life?
   Today's hippies are responsible for their own conduct! They don't have to follow in the steps of their elders when their elders err!
   The choice is up to parents, teachers and clergymen to rightly guide and lead the youths committed to our trust! If we fail, all of us will surely someday bewail the consequences!
   The choice is also up to you young people. You can — you must — decide to channel your lives into useful and productive channels. Only by so doing can you ever be truly happy! If you want to know the real truth about today's hippie world and its fruits, then be sure and read our free, fully illustrated booklet entitled, Hippies, Hypocrisy And Happiness. And then you need to read another booklet The Wonderful World Tomorrow - What It Will Be Like. It will open your eyes!

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Plain Truth MagazineDecember 1969Vol XXXIV, No.12