(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
According to sociologist Gunnar Aakvaag, social psychologist Arnulf Kolstad and many more adult experts, my generation is a lost youth generation. Today's youth are obviously too boring and anonymous. We are probably the only youth generation since World War II that does not have a collective project. This is problematic because, among other things, we do not want anything to boast about at parties like 60-year-olds. Aakvaag believes that youth is not good enough and that we will never be.
The youth of ancient Greece were too noisy, according to Socrates. Today, the youth is obedient and kind, according to Aakvaag. What these so-called experts do not see is that, with their demands, they are helping to create a growing problem related to mental illness. Youth researchers end up drawing a narrow picture of what a youth is, and throwing out demands in cabin and torment. The requirements are a reality.
Scream and scream. The idea of a collective youth project is not real. We have never had, and will never have, such collective projects. Youth is not a homogenous group that is concerned with exactly the same things. As adults, we have different opinions, backgrounds, interests and perceptions. "The Sixties," "The Gerhardsen Generation," and "The Iron Generation" do not reflect all the youth who fall into these periods. It is unfair to generalize. Then as now there were youth with interests other than screaming loudly at the authorities. Defining a group based on who screams the most is undemocratic. But when Aakvaag, Kolstad and many more so-called experts generalize youth and take away the freedom to define our own lives, it deserves loud protest.
We do not bother to fit into the framework of mature, almost rotten adults.
So why do I think this has something to do with mental health? How can I accuse the youth experts of making youth sicker and sicker?
Crossing pressure factors. Because they tell us that we are perfect. We smoke less, party less, are more at home and more conscientious. We are mother-in-law's dream and we will do well later in life. We have grown up not knowing what it means to be so poor that one is near death due to lack of food. Furthermore, they tell us that it is not good enough to be perfect. At the same time, we will revolt and we will do it collectively.
Do you realize how paradoxical this is? Do you understand that you are helping to increase the cross-pressure that makes youth sick today? Can you tell me why in the deepest we should make another unreasonable demand for what young people should care about, how young people should be, and how the uprising should take place?
Our own rebellion. No, now that's enough. Let young people be the way they want to be. Let young people be young. We do not bother to fit into the framework of mature, almost rotten adults. Let's shape our own rebellion. We can discuss how today's youth uprising takes place, dear Aakvaag, but I would like to ask you not to say that I am boring. It's not me who dusts off the same old arguments from an avdanka ironic generation.
It would have been much more interesting if this debate had been taken on the youth's premises. You do not move forward if you do not debate with those who are the experts themselves. Young people are experts in their own lives. Aakvaag's youth is over. Now it may be time to understand that the debate belongs to today's youth generation, and that you, Gunnar Aakvaag, do not have a monopoly on the definition of today's youth.
If you do not understand, you may be a little too old to take this debate on the premises of those you are talking about. But do not worry, you will understand when you are young.
Steen Nylander is the leader of PRESS – Save the Children Youth.
karoline@press.no
