Defining "youth rebellion" in 21st century

Wisdom Quarterly; Prof. Darby Saxbe, Stephen Marchee (AirTalk, July 7, 2015, scpr.org)

Ella Fitzgerald: “I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt...she personally called the owner of the Mocambo and told him she wanted me booked immediately. And if he would do it, she would take a front table every night. She told him, and it was true—due to Marilyn's superstar status—that the press would go wild. The owner said yes, and Marilyn was there, front table, every night. The press went overboard. After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again."

"White savior," Goddess Artemis, Jen Lawrence in the "Hunger Games" (esquire.com)

James Dean and Natalie Wood in 1955's "Rebel Without a Cause"

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I'm an F-word "rebel," grrr!

Long removed from the days of “Rebel Without a Cause,” youth rebellion today does not look much like what it did in the iconic 1955 drama.

 

Although James Dean, the film’s star -- clad in dark sunglasses, wearing a white t-shirt underneath a leather jacket, and nonchalantly leaning against a wall as thin wisps of smoke slither gracefully around his head from the cigarette hanging in his mouth -- was the image of rebellion in the mid 20th century, the youth today are neither wearing leather nor smoking cigarettes.

 

Later in the 1900s, rebellion came in the form of music. 

Step out of line, black sheep, just try it.

Bands like The Beatles irritated parents everywhere by introducing rock ‘n roll to America, and it wasn’t long before punk, hip-hop, and heavy metal artists created their own waves of rebellion in the years that followed.

 

Today, however, rebellion is not so black and white. In fact, it may be taking forms that are the exact opposite of what it used to mean.

(Rudimentary Peni) "Defined by Age" 

Why not drink Duff like that drone Homer?

LYRICS: The gap between young and old / Exists because it's what we're told / The older generation or the youth of today / Views and actions defined by age / Defined by age / Defined by age / The complacency of middle age / False dignity, moral outrage / Is just the same as the teenage rebel pose / Another source of money-making / Exploitation - manipulation / A gap is nothing, an empty space / In your mind defined by age / Fill the space - Defined by age / Fill the space - Defined by age.

  

Just laugh. Life is so much better that way.

An op-ed in the New York Times this weekend attributes the spike in sales for Evangelical sex manuals (some of which call for women to abstain until marriage) to a desire to rebel. “The act of submission, when consciously chosen, can feel empowering, and even politically empowering,” writes the author [the moralist T.M. Luhrman]. More + AUDIO

Just eat, dummy, but eat off trucks in parking lots (lastreetfoodfest.com)

• Where is America’s real youth rebellion?
• If only everyone would OCCUPY again? 

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  We're total rebels at corporate festivals (LAT)

  What does youth rebellion look like today?
• Where's the next wave of transformation coming from?
• Will rebels be from the music scene as in past generations?
• Do we actually rebel against anything anymore, or has social media technology made us complacent sheep? ("I'm starting a Facebook petition and a #hashtag so, yeah, take that NSA!")
• Could it be that there are still forms of rebellion taking place but that we don’t recognize them as easily because they aren’t taking the same form they once did?

COMMENTARY

So stop thinking; start knowing (Saara Arkiharha)

Nick Blinko: Dawn breaks but it isn't a new day. Men like sheep, women like mice -- all caught in the rat race. Take a closer look at what's going on today. Are you really justified in having nothing to say? Are you really justified in having nothing to say? Are you not aware of a feeling of humiliation? Don't you have to sell yourself and keep on saying "Sir"? Are you really satisfied that everything's okay?

Conditioned from the start and controlled from all directions, swamped by a "normality" that musn't be questioned:

Pussy Riot means progress for Russia.

Ignorance is only a form of self-deception. Are you really justified in having nothing to say? Are you really justified in having nothing to say? Take a closer look at what's going on today. Are you really satisfied that everything's okay? Because perhaps after all too much thinking doesn't pay. Perhaps after all too much thinking doesn't pay. More 

GUESTS

Prof. Darby Saxbe, assistant professor of psychology at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. She recently co-authored a study that tracked brain activity of teenagers who engage in risky behavior.

Stephen Marche, columnist for Esquire Magazine, explores the topic of what youth rebellion is today in an article from the November 2014 issue of Esquire, entitled “Where is America’s Real Youth Rebellion?”

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