Irv. Cobb, Humoris and Author, Votes “Yes” for Modem Youth...

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 412, 21 July 1928, Page 24

Irv. Cobb, Humoris and Author, Votes “Yes” for Modem Youth...

VERY generation, when it reaches middle age, " \7 \| naturally looks on the coming generation as a Ur3i|«>L|! total loss. It is a habit doubt, back in the time of the Gar (leu of Eden. Adam contemplated Cain and Abel and > told Eve that the world "as bound to go to smash as soon as the nett Generation took hold of it. . . ° And I am sure again that X<>ah said to his wooden-faced wife that Ham, Shem and Japhet and ail the rest ot the youngsters should have been left

I think l am qualified in a way to speak of the younger generation, because my daughter was a regular flapper. She flapped. I used to think that she had more than the average share of intelligence and I never could understand why she behaved as tf she hadn’t an atom of sense. After she married, she settled down as a conscientious housewife and mother, and my wife one day remarked to her that as she had been such an irresponsible youngster, she could not hut marvel at the change in her. My daughter then confessed that the hoys seemed to be afraid of the girls that had any intelligence, and as stie wanted to get nei share of attention, she decided to dedicate herself to frivolity. As soon as i she married, she turned right-about-I face.

My daughter is typical of a great many of the young people to-day. Their wildness is merely on the surface. Of course, we have more people going further to*day, but that is not at all surprising when you consider the dangerous moral freedom that they have.

There were other periods, too. when licentiousness prevailed. We’d go so far that we would react violently in the other direction. We had. for example, the licentious period of the Stuarts, followed by the William and Mary period, and then England went to the other extreme again. So it continued, until the period of the mad Georges was followed by the ultraconservative Victorian period. Those were the days when women didn’t have legs, but feet or limbs. They were the props that supported the rest of her, no one knew just how. To see any more than the tips of her shoes would have caused a panic.

No doubt we will return, as we have always done, to a more conservative attitude. The boys and girls to-day who are acting in such a free fashion will see that it was too much overdone, and they will bring their children up differently. Many people think that one of the infallible signs that this is an age of moral decadence is the fact that we are so obsessed with sex. We talk about it all the time. ' It is the theme of our novels and plays. But yet this is only to be expected after an era ol Puritanism. Our present obsession is but the swing of the pendulum. Yet I can’t see that there is anything shame ful or disgraceful about it. It is a

normal experience of life. It is neiihethe most important nor the least in, portant. Yes; 1 am quite for the youngster, to-day. They are more honest, mA i r3tik amt more intelligent than their fathers and mothers were. If thev d any sinning, it is done in the open They are not the hypocrites thiyoung people were in my days. ~ with maturity there will come a sob*ills influence. The weak, of conr,, will succumb, as they have alwar doue. They would be spoiled no miter what the conditions were, Th* rest of the young people will be come the good, wholesome citizens of to-morrow.

Youth will always want to expertmeut with the materials that age has provided. Its elders can give therj advice hut not experience. That is why it is fatal to order or comm or our children. All we can do and masdo is to prepare them beforehand fotheir experiences. They are bound • , get their experiences. If we see thi: what they may do will hurt them todeeply, then we should tell them thialthough we may not be more intell gent than they, still we have lived longer and from the background of ot observation we know that thi* or that is the only sporting thing to do. Give them a plain statement of facts an-: then leave it to them. They will gener ally do the right thing. It scarcely ever fails. You will find that children will naturally defer to the judgment of their parents when they feel that the, are free to make a choice. Parentwho consistently tell their children thtrue facts, who don’t lie to them etry to force them into accepting ft truth, seldom have to compel them to do the right thing. One of the things that I admit* most about the young girl of today : is her desire to do something in t>, world. Even if she is a girl of meat-, she wants to engage in work of son:* kind. She also takes advantage of every opportunity to enlighten heself, whether it is on religion, ar politics or morals, with the resit that she knows more about the bnness of the world and of other peopl* than her mother ever dreamed of j knowing. If there is anything at all pitiful today, it is the old person who apes ti i young. Young people have always acted exuberantly, but why the oldt generation should behave like children is something 1 can’t understand. I don’t mean that a person of 10 or 50 should retire from life. I think, os j the contrary-, that it is a splendid thing for old people to he as active and as useful and intelligently alive as they are to-day. In former times a person of 40 was a dead numbe . But why shouldn't the older ones know where to draw the line? To my way of thinking, it is * deplorable fact that we should criticise and abuse the yoimg generation who are either reaping the oats thr we have sown or are imitating their painted, under-dressed mothers. We are certainly in no position to indkt our youngsters. It is their parents who are acting with no intelligence or restraint.

I believe that the present cynicism of youth is merely a passing phase o’ our twisted life. Indeed, I am hopeful that when the pendulum begins to swing the other way, instead of hs returning to the dull-witted, conservative extreme, it will pause half-

way, so that we will for once achieve a happy, rational balance.