youth-radicalism

The militant minority of young people who act as the primary source of radical opposition and social criticism against established adult consensus politics.

1 chapter across 1 book

The Making of a Counter Culture (1969)Theodore Roszak

Chapter I TECHNOCRACY’S CHILDREN The struggle of the generations is one of the obvious con- stants of human affairs. One stands in peril of some presump- tion, therefore, to suggest that the rivalry between young and adult in Western society during the current decade is uniquely critical. And yet it is mecessary to risk such pre- sumption if one is not to lose sight of our most important contemporary source of radical dissent and cultural imnova- tion. For better or worse, most of what is presently happening that is new, provocative, and engaging in politics, education, the arts, social relations (love, courtship, family, community), is the creation either of youth who are profoundly, even fanatically, alienated from the parental generation, or of those who address themselves primarily to the young. It is at the level of youth that significant social criticism now looks for a responsive hearing as, more and more, it grows to be the common expectation that the young should be those who act, who make things happen, who take the risks, who gen- erally provide the ginger. It would be of interest in its own right that the age-old process of generational disaffiliation should now be transformed from a peripheral experience in the life of the individual and the family into a major lever of radical social change. But if one believes, as I do, that ‘the alienated young are giving shape to something that looks like the saving vision our endangered civilization requires, then there is no avoiding the need to understand and to educate them in what they are about. The reference of this book is primarily to America, but it is headline news that generational antagonism has achieved

This chapter analyzes the generational conflict in Western societies during the 1960s, emphasizing the unique and critical role of youth as radical dissenters and cultural innovators alienated from their parents' generation. Roszak contrasts American youth's approach to radicalism with that of European youth, highlighting the former's focus on combating the technocracy—a dominant social form characterized by bureaucratic rationalization and industrial organization—beyond traditional political struggles. The chapter argues that the alienation of youth has transformed generational disaffiliation into a major lever for radical social change, necessitating a deeper understanding and education of this emerging counterculture.