Ludwig Marcuse
THE OLDEST YOUNGER GENERATION
Salon d'Automne
When Heine came to Paris in the summer of 1831 to write
about the consequences of the July Revolution,
his
first concern was to
describe the great revolution which had taken place in the realm of art
and had found expression in the "Salon."
When, in the fall of 1951, the President of France opened the
"Salon," he found in the catalog, "that the young people of today ap–
parently have no taste for the fierce battles" which have marked the
long history of the Salon d'Automne.
What has happened to these young people? It is not a matter
merely of their "taste," an art exhibition, and Paris. The statement from
the exhibition catalog and many similar statements from many countries
are aimed at a much larger group of contemporaries, whom it is cus–
tomary to designate by the comprehensive term, the Younger Generation.
The Survey
Time,
a magazine neither "highbrow" nor "lowbrow,"
directed its staff in all sections of the country to ask young people
between eighteen and twenty-eight, as well as their teachers, what
the
state of this Younger Generation might be. The survey resulted in a very
clear and striking portrait.
It
is, as Peter Viereck put it, the generation of revolt against
revolt.
It
does not demonstrate.
It
does not even talk, it is silent. It is so
passive that not even the most provocative statements can tempt it out
of its reserve. It is so unemotional that it tolerates everything-even
things which are contrary to its instinct.
It
is so little individualistic that
it "dates" in groups of six and eight. But what are these young people–
aside from what they are not? Fatalistic, skeptical, hopeless-without
making much fuss about it. So their self-portrait showed them. And
the experts confirmed it.
The explanation seems to raise more difficulties than the stock–
taking. What called forth this unyouthful attitude? We are told: Korea
