Youth And Values Essay Research Paper BIBLIOYouth

Youth And Values Essay, Research Paper

BIBLIOYouth and Values

In an attempt to challenge societal values, youth cultures, in the form

of rebellion, act and dress radically and form groups in protest. These

dissident actions against the structure of existing society promotes the

beginning of new small groups which reflect their own rules, structures,

class, gender and ethnic ideologies. So, the youth culture, in challenging

societal values, at the same time is reflecting them.

In comparing Margaret Mead’s young adults in Coming of Age in Samoa to

Russian youth it is evident where the differences arise. The Samoans

strong cultural values leave little need for individual expression.

Expectations of the children change as they get older. They know what

is expected of them and want to follow the rules.

In contrast, the youth in the Soviet Union, live in a culture of

confusion. They feel constricted by the laws of the society, see families

collapsing around them, and believe things should change. They want to be

individuals and they want to live by their own values and ideas. Many come

from broken homes and poor communities with little respect for authority.

They rebel against what they feel is an unjust society and look for a

culture or group that they can identify with.

Often society depicts these groups as dangerous, deviant and

delinquent. These groups, however, just show many of the valued structures

of society, but in a more radical way. They have a standard code of dress,

values, ethics and rebel in order to force their ideas onto the public and

to feel part of a recognizable group.

Margaret Mead noticed little individual differences among the Samoans.

“We have seen that the Samoans have a low level of appreciation of

personality differences” (Mead, 1973, 161). The Samoan’s strong cultural

and family traditional values do not allow for individualism. In

comparison, Soviet youth express their individualism through youth cultures

such as punk, ‘metallist’ hard-rock groups and “golden youth”. Although

they feel they are expressing individuality through these groups, they are

actually fitting into different structures, values and in fact, a totally

different societal group.

Soviet society is concerned about what these youth cultures stand for,

in particular the ‘metallist’ hard-rock groups. “They hate and despise our

whole system, all our values. That’s why they’re dangerous, and why I’m

pessimistic about the future” (Wilson, 1988, 22). In their defence, Alexei

Kozlov, a member of a band, “extolled the virtues of heavy-metal rock.” He

said it was “an emotional outlet for underprivileged and unemployed young

people…to work out their resentment…if we forbid this music, they will

display their aggressiveness in other forms” (Traver, 1989, 1991).

In combining their musical talents with their rebellion against an

unjust society, these groups find an outlet for their anger and combine

with others having the same interests. They work together with a goal

similar to normal society groups.

Over the centuries the importance of the extended family, in Russia,

has decreased considerably. At one time the family included grandparents,

aunts, uncles and cousins and it was more important than the society in

which it lived. The children were protected and controlled from outer

forces by this large family with strong religious, cultural and family

ties.

Similarly, the Samoan children share this strong value system. The

longer the child is kept in controlled state, the more of the general

cultural attitude it will absorb and the less of a disturbing element it

will become (Mead, 1973, 163).

In recent years, with Russian urbanization, family has become limited

to parents and their children. They have more material goods but lose out

socially and emotionally (Wilson, 1988, 28). From a young child nursery

schools or kindergarten have taken over previous parental obligations. The

schools help them do morning exercises. It feeds them, takes them out for

walks, puts them to bed, teaches them to keep things tidy, paint, model,

read, write, sing and dance. It also teaches them to be kind, considerate

and honest, organizes parties for them, and takes them for health check-ups

(Vishneva, 1984, 161). While the biological parents work, the state

educational system becomes a new “parent” to the child. The close

relationship between child and parent no longer exists, however, “the state

sees the family as respon-sible for the children’s welfare and for

instilling in them behaviour acceptable to the existing social norms. The

broken family is seen as a factor in juvenile delinquency. Good citizens

are obligated to “monitor the political conscience of family members,

especially that of children” (Shlapentokh, 1988, 34).

Anoth

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