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Title: Youth Against Liberation
Author: Sven Bonnichsen
Date: 2015/06/25
Language: en
Topics: NO! Against Adult Supremacy, adult supremacy, child liberation, youth
Source: NO! Against Adult Supremacy Vol. 5. Retrieved on 2020-05-02 from https://stinneydistro.wordpress.com/2015/06/25/no-against-adult-supremacy-issue-5/

Sven Bonnichsen

Youth Against Liberation

Not all youth support Youth Liberation. In fact, a large percentage

would be against Youth Liberation — even after being introduced to its

ideas. …See, granted many youth simply haven’t encountered the ideas of

Youth Liberation, and so they just go along with the flow. But

resistance to YL, by youth, runs deeper than that.

My thinking here is highly influenced by the book “Right-Wing Women” by

Andrea Dworkin. …It’s 1971, the second wave of feminism is cresting, and

the slogan “Sisterhood is Powerful” is hitting the streets. There’s this

feeling among radicals that with 51% of the population, women are going

to be an unstoppable force. All we need to do is raise women’s

consciousness, and they’ll surely be on board with the cause.

But, it comes as a slap in the face to discover that not all women are

on board with feminism. There are people like Phyllis Schlafly (in

particular) who defend the notion of wives being subordinated to their

husbands. Why is this? The Marxist Feminists fall back on the concept of

“false consciousness” — which to my mind is rather patronizing, and

un-disprovable. Once you basically say that a person is wrong because

they’re deluded, there’s no further room for argument.

Dworkin argued that Right-Wing Women are basically offered a better

deal. It’s the sexual revolution, and one segment of the feminist

movement is feeling disillusioned, getting the sense that they’re just

getting exploited and used by “free love” men. So the choice looks like

this: be the property of just one man, who has some obligations to care

for you — or be the property of all men, none of whom owe you squat.

From that perspective, it makes a lot of sense to me why a lot of women

would want to stick with the “traditional” patriarchal arrangement.

Back to youth. You’re 16, legal adulthood is just two years away. You

can either make a fuss and fight for your rights — taking lots of flack

from parents, teachers, and society in general along the way — or you

can simply wait out your time, aging out of minority. It’s the path of

least resistance. And all the privileges of adulthood are just waiting,

shining in front of you; the fee-for-entry seems to be putting up with

the 18-year hazing of childhood just a little longer.

Furthermore, youth are well-practiced at taking the point of view of

adults. It’s the dynamic of dissociation. The five year old protests,

“I’m not a baby!” The eleventh-graders avoid hanging out with the

tenth-graders, to avoid the stigma of being associated with one’s

inferiors. Most people spend the first 18 years of their lives not

thinking of themselves as minors at all — but rather, practicing

thinking like adults.

I’ve listened to youth condemn Youth Liberation, talking about how

children aren’t competent to vote. Or about how they support the curfew,

because youth are bound to get in trouble. It’s rather amazing: the

speaker never seems to doubt their own intelligence and good nature —

but their opinion of their peers is abysmal. I can’t help but wonder:

what portion of this is actually based on observation — and what portion

is based on the powerful image of youth-as-inferior propagated by adult

society?

In terms of talking about the “deal” that society presents youth (be a

rebel and suffer, or be patient and get enormous privilege) — I’d be

remiss if I didn’t mention the deal offered to religious youth. Secular

society offers up legal status for putting up with minority. Religious

communities (many of them) offer up heaven. “Honor your father and

mother…” (which means “obey”, I believe), is the fifth of the Ten

Commandments. If you believe in the bible, then YL is seemingly a

rebellion against God.

Religion offers a complete world-view that can be very difficult to

argue with. The worldview offered by most YL thinkers, by contrast is

very limited. Our area of focus tends to be limited just to a few legal

rights, and a period of one’s life that may only be 2–4 years long. I

think our ranks remain thin partly due to this. Notice that the YL

movement is being far outpaced by the Christian Youth movement.

…Ironically, some of these youth groups are also dubbed “Youth

Liberation”!

It need not be so, however. YL has the potential to offer up a very

expansive world-view: one that is not merely about a few years of one’s

life, but rather encompasses (a) what it means to be an adult, how do

well at having a family of one’s own, a vision of justice and fairness

that takes it’s strength from the principle that no person is property

(and we must continue working to wipe out the vestiges of

people-as-property), a world-view whose truth is firmly rooted in

verifiable historical events.

A world-view is a powerful thing. Feminism, Marxism, Freudianism,

Re-evaluation Counseling, and other such philosophies are compelling

largely because they give you a lens — through which it becomes possible

to interpret the world around you. The sense of control provided by

being able to make sense of the world — is intense.