forever young

… I want to be forever young.

I once read a review of Youth Group’s debut album, ‘Forever Young is a musical encapsulation of Generation Y. Airy, optimistic, unsubstantial. The words don’t even make sense when you listen closely.’ The comments of a baby from the baby boom.

A lot of them love to generalise against us. We’re promiscuous, we love drugs, we’re rebel this we’re rebel that, rah rah rah. A lot of them seem to forget that they were labelled the Beat Generation, whose collective tantrums were well documented by the likes of Kerouac and Ginsberg. No, instead we are the Irresponsible Ones. It is the Age of Irony after all.

It seems that the children of history are always ostracised. The ideals and the culture of the current youth are invariably rebuked as ‘dangerous’ rather than progressive. The older generations abhor the lack of respect towards Tradition, yet conveniently forget their own apostasies in youth. History is full of these examples. The middle aged population of post-war Germany scoffed at the Dadaist movement of the young, yet they themselves shocked the world with cabaret. Likewise, elderly black Americans are alarmed by the indecencies of hip -hop, yet it was they who popularised the risqué ‘jiggaloo’ music of rhythm –n -blues. Is this hypocrisy of the old disapproving of the new ever -present?

Philosopher Maine de Biran: ‘A man grows old; he feels in himself that radical sense of weakness, of listlessness, of discomfort, which accompanies the advance of age; and, feeling thus, imagines himself merely sick… as the passions grow calm, as the fancy and sensibilities are less excited and less excitable… all that gave to the world of sensations its life and charms has begun to leak away from us, now that phenomenal existence is no more bolstered up by impressions from within or from without, we feel the
need to lean on something that abides, something that will never play us false–a reality, an absolute and everlasting truth. Yes, we inevitably turn to God’

Biran points out that the physical debilities of old age prompt us to lose faith in the power of youth and turn to ‘something that will never play us false’. While Biran is alluding to the need for the absolution of God, it doesn’t take a great leap of reason to conclude that the enduring nature of Tradition and Custom can easily fulfil that role also. As such, old age seems to be the cause of the shift in people’s ideals, prompting them to scorn at the young.

It is old age that rearranges our priorities from fun to comfort. From joy to satisfaction. It dulls not only our senses, but values of what is important in our lives. As we age, the ideals of youth soon gives way to conservative values of ‘just getting by’. The experiences of age discolour memories of the rebellious actions we once undertook as youths, until they become faded photographs of a forgotten past.

It happens to everyone. In fact, it is probably happening to you right now. You begin to make more decisions of ‘judgment’ rather than ‘heart’. Because that’s a part of growing old. You become a yes-man to Mr No, the voice of inhibition stopping you from following that wild hunch, warning you against love during VCE, who says ‘No, that’s not swell’ to the new wave of youth culture. It is probably happening right now.

When you grow old, when your senses are less excited and excitable, don’t dismiss the culture and ideals of youth with thoughts of Custom and Tradition. Dig up that faded photograph of you as the Young Rebel. Remember that you were once young too.

JTL