Youth culture - formation, communication and justification
Published on the Online Opinion , December 9th, 2005 If the distinguishing virtue of classical culture was a celebration of a sacred divine principle, while modern culture mourned the loss of the divine and post-modern culture celebrates its absence, then youth culture shows itself to be pre-eminent in trumpeting the supremacy of the individual – divorced not just from the divine, but from family, lineage, community and nation. This inclination towards extreme individuality has always been latent within the human heart, but social conditions have not been particularly conducive for its expression – until now. Small families, long working hours for both parents and a soaring divorce rate cause children to be tied more loosely to their immediate familles than ever before. Today, a child reared within an integrated nuclear family is exceptional not because he lives apart from his grandparents but because he knows both of his parents . Yet even when children are brought up in a stable dom