Social pressure to conform, part two
Our newest non-conformist, Austin Perkins, who caught official trouble for wearing a coat and tie to school, explained his decision to do so thus; “They (the administration) set the standard, but we exceeded it,”
As I walk around campus today, wearing my khaki suit with white shirt and tie, hundreds of students buzz by me. When I was their age, we had an expression called “The Generation Gap”. Which dealt with the difference between us and our parents. Today that gap is a chasm, and now I am on the other side of the divide.
Chico State is a very conformist campus. I've lamented such to many professors and not one has contradicted me. I am here to get a sheepskin that I couldn't or didn't get 25 years ago.
When I graduated from Chabot College before the silicon age, we typed papers. There was a gallon of white-out on my desk. Calculators were just making their appearance in major catalogs, and we used cassette tape to record and play the music of the day. Radio telephones came in attache cases because of the large batteries they needed.
Every generation can make the same type of statement, as this one will when they find themselves with an AARP letter in the mail.
But the problem with that perspective is it is useless. The student body in this school is young, and the lesson plans are aimed at their lack of experience. The youngsters buzz on by not caring about anything beyond their immediate sphere of interaction. Perhaps this is made worse by cellular phones, ipods, and laptop computers.
But perhaps there is another point of caution in their silicon world, where there is no emotion, no compassion. They have faced no great challenge equal to the Great Depression. The Iraqi action is the closest thing to a generational conflict, but it is out there beyond their ken.
At least I carried a draft card when I was a teenager, and crossed my fingers as draft numbers were drawn once a week.
I try to see the character of this generation, and I don't like what I see, but more on that tomorrow.