I paid a brief visit to my teenage son's school the other day. The sun was out and the air was thick with restless, hormonal energy. If only we could tap into these kids' hopes, dreams and creative urges, I mused, we could reinvigorate our jaundiced adult world. It's a tempting proposition, is it not? That all of us, in our youth, have the capacity to be innovators, free-thinkers, resolute refuseniks when it comes to accepting the status quo. Tempting, but alas, illusory. Most of us figure out from a very early age that it's safer to conform than rebel. We tend to go with the flow, rather than ask why it has to be so. That's why so many young people today tell pollsters their ambition in life is to be a celebrity, a sports star or a glamorous model. Yes, they want to be rich and famous, but they want success simply to fall into their laps. Change the world? Sounds too much like hard work. But without innovators we're stuck. Every new generation needs people determined to find a better way. Of thinking, doing, and living.
- Stephen Sackur
http://www.bbc.co.uk
Spot on.
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