It's been over 20 years since Tipper Gore co-founded the "Parents Music  Resource Center" (PMRC), which claimed that music by Frank Zappa, Prince,  and Cyndi Lauper (just to name a few) was corrupting  the "nuclear family" in America because such music was exposing the  youth to violence and sex way too early in their lives. If these were the  worries back in 1984, imagine the type of sex-loving, gun-shooting,  fist-punching teenage monsters we have created in a culture where 50 Cent,  Britney, and Marilyn Manson make Prince seem like a choir boy.

Just as with music, adults have been claiming that movies, TV, and video games  are too violent and that they "are sending children the wrong  messages." Take the case of 18-year-old Devin Moore, who last month  allegedly gunned down three men (two police officers and a 911 dispatcher) in Fayette, Alabama.  Moore's own lawyers are claiming that Moore was inspired by the  violent video game Grand Theft Auto, in which the player drives around a city  picking up prostitutes and shooting anyone in sight. A tempting argument - but  if Moore's lawyer is right, how do we explain the fact that there have not been  11,999,999 more cop shootings over the past 18 months, the period in which  "Grand Theft Auto" sold more than 12 million copies? (Read  CBS's story about the case).

No one will deny, not even me, that video games and films have definitely  become more violent, more real, and more interactive. While this might scare  the bejesus out of parents, young generations, more  than ever, seem able to comprehend and decipher what is real, and what is  fantasy. If there was such a monkey-see-monkey-do attitude among the youth, why  then with all of this crazy culture around us is the homicide rate among teens  15-19 at record lows, down 45% from 1993? Why are high school physical fights  down nine percent since 1991 (when the statistic was first recorded)? Why are  teen pregnancies at their lowest point ever, down 18% from 1990? (See The Child Trends DataBank.)

The fact is, youth performance over the past 15  years has been phenomenal. Unfortunately for many adults, the statistics  directly contradict their rhetoric. For insight into this problem, we can turn  to Margaret Mead, the famous American anthropologist, who argues that such  criticism of youth arises when older generations feel lost in our new society  of rapid social change. In "Culture and Commitment" (1978), Mead  wrote that

we have now entered a new phase, in which adults all over the  world have to recognize that all children's experience is different from their  own.

Mead maintains that up until the late '60s, we lived in a postfigurative society "where change is so  slow…that grandparents…cannot conceive of any other future for the children  than their own past lives." Because change in a postfigurative  society was so slow, adults were better able to understand what the younger  generations were going through.

Modern society is now a place of exceedingly rapid social change. This is  not just a matter of technological advance, but also one of increasing  diversity in each new generation. Generation Y is the most diverse  generation that has ever existed in the United States. Only 61% of  Generation Y is white, compared to 80% of Americans born between 1930 and 1945,  and this trend is only going to accelerate in the decades to come. Generation Y  is also much more religiously diverse than older generations (except for Gen X,  which is exactly the same as Gen Y). 34% of both Generation Y & Gen X  identify as non-Christian: up 15% from the Baby-Boomers,  and up 20% from those born between 1930 and 1945. (see  Chris Bowers, "The  Future of the Electorate"). Mead describes this new culture as a prefigurative society:

In this  new culture, it is the child - not the parent or grandparent - who represents what is to come." [...]  There are now no elders who know more than the young themselves about what  the young are experiencing. Today, adults "do not know how to teach  these children who are so different from what they themselves once were, and  most children are unable to learn from parents and elders they will never resemble.

Generation Y also enjoys a remarkable diversity of experience. By virtue  of ethnic and religious diversity, combined with new technology that makes the  whole world accessible, Generation Y has been brought into contact with many  more cultures than have past generations - and they are embracing this  experience.

The generational gap Mead describes is what has created such a backlash against  youth. Older Americans do not always appreciate modern diversity because they  themselves never experienced it. The "breakdown of 'traditional' families", "teen pregnancy run amok", and  "the dangerous pop culture" are all examples of adults projecting  their own insecurities about today's society because it is just so damn foreign  to them.

What both sides of the generational gap must understand is that we are now in a  new era. Young generations must recognize that adults are truly trying to look  out for them, but they must also realize that they are the culture and  that they are truly the only ones that know exactly what is going on  around them. On the flip side, modern adults must learn to accept that the  youth actually know more than they do in certain situations. It has to be  humiliating for parents every time they have to ask their nine-year-old how to  check the email. Unfortunately for parents, this process isn't going to stop.  Nevertheless, this does not mean adults are becoming obsolete; rather, it means  that adult-youth relationships are not going to be able to exist in the same  form as in the past. There is going to have to be more communication and  understanding on both sides of the equation if today's prefigurative society is going to work.

Because young people in America  are becoming more autonomous and independent with each new generation, their  demands are going to have to be taken more seriously. If recent trends in  voting continue, the youth influence over elections will be something that no  politician can ignore. Generation Y's diversity of experience seems to be  influencing their policy positions: for instance, 72 percent of those between  18 and 24 support civil unions for gay and lesbian couples. "Almost 70  percent of voters under 30 support bigger government over smaller government,  and nearly two-thirds of young people between 15 and 25 years of age think that  government should do more to solve people's problems" ("New  Generation, New Politics," The American Prospect, 14:9, Oct. 1,  2003) These statistics are only going to grow stronger in the future as each  succeeding generation becomes more diverse.

Crucially, Generation Y's willingness not only to tolerate but to embrace  other cultures gibes well with progressive values. The diversity among new  generations, in combination with their generally progressive voting record in  2004, matches up with what blogger Chris Bowers of mydd.com (who also happens  to be a CI Fellow) calls the "Clash of Civilizations." Bowers claims  that the best predictors for voting in the 2004 election were race and  religion; specifically, he found that 72% of voters who were not white voted for  Kerry, and 71% of voters who were not Christian also voted for Kerry. Be it  progressivism's push for a pluralistic society or a backlash against  conservatism's sexual and racial exclusiveness, non-white and/or non-Christian  voters are lining up in the progressive corner.

The youth movement of today thrives on the diversity of our culture - on the  exposure and experience it provides. In the long term, if patterns stay  roughly the same, progressivism will grow by default because its pluralism is  more reflective of the diversified youth generation than that of conservatism.  But conservatives have known this all along, and have accordingly invested  millions of dollars in think-tanks promoting their conservative ideology. More  directly, they are pursuing a range of strategies to "conservatize"  American high school and university campuses, which they see as havens of  liberalism. It would be unwise, however, to count on the natural  progressivism of youth to resist conservative infiltration; a similarly active  effort to cultivate younger generations must arise on the Left.

Generation Y's emergence as an independent and socially responsible group,  despite the negative attitudes toward us, must be taken seriously and embraced  in American society - especially in the world of politics. Gen Y's politics  seem to match up in the same corner as progressives, and this could signal a  long-term advantage for the Left. If progressivism wants to grow, it should be  looking not just at how to incorporate those with a different worldview, but at  investing in and embracing a generation that already shares its values.

-- Ian Campbell