CENTRAL NEWS
Youth movements have emerged throughout history as radical forces of change. Their power to transform, disrupt and revolutionize lie at the heart of the dialectics of social change and development. Especially since the past century, against its own interests, the sociality developed in the era of capitalist modernity prepared the ground for this youth dynamism to come to the forth in terms of action and organization.
Youth is and must always be in a constant struggle against and conflict with the older generation. We must recognize and accept this as a reality. If no struggle and conflict can be observed between generations in a society, this means that that society’s transformative dynamics have been weakened. The greater this generational contradiction, the greater the possibility of societal change. By its character, youth cannot accept the world as it is, but is rather prone to seek that which is good, beautiful, egalitarian and free.
Today, societies without youth moments cannot expect to see major changes in favour of justice. Each one of their steps will be heavy and yet remain aloof. They will turn into societies that have lost their power and hope to move ahead, which will have consequences for all other dimensions.
On the other hand, those societies in which the youth is highly organized, politically conscious and able to play a vital role in favour of dynamic change by inciting contradiction, struggle and conflict with previous generations, are those that are prone to experience revolutionary ruptures that carry the potential to re-set the terms of life. Such societies experience major material and spiritual changes that have the potential of exploding prevalent structures and mechanisms of the organization of life. If this change is consciously directed, there is a great chance for the individual and society to re-create and re-build themselves on new terms.
Therefore, we must understand the youth’s role in society and make sure it can play its role adequately. If we want to claim such attributes for ourselves, we must know the meaning of being and acting young. Otherwise, we will fail at building, developing or protecting our alternative systems.
There is nothing more damaging to individuals and societies than the killing or corruption of young people’s curiosity, spontaneity and quest for change. Without an active effort to organize youth dynamics, the repression of their desire for justice and change can actually further deepen the existing troubles in society.
Thus, political movements, especially those who claim to act on behalf of revolutionary, libertarian and egalitarian ideals, must properly understand and analyse individuals’ and society’s lived contradictions. Being aware of human and social psychology, of sociological phenomena and related conflicts and contradictions matters to be able to draw conclusions to solve such deep issues through theoretical perspectives, organization and action.
