In The Rhetoric, Aristotle speaks briefly of the character of young people. He does so in service of equipping the reader with a better understanding of how to more effectively address that audience. I’ll spare you the specifics of his comments here except to say that for those folks who deny that there is a more-or-less stable human nature they best not read these passages. The timelessness of his account is genuinely extraordinary. I read the passage to my students without informing them of its author and ask them whether it accurately describes themselves and their peers. Inevitably they agree that it does.
I find this encouraging.
Attach what certainty one may to our future success as a nation, or as a civilization, or as a species of creatures, but I think we can say with confidence that it’s impossible to snuff out once and for all the desire and hope for more and for better that engines all human change and progress. I also believe that so long as nature asserts herself that it’s also impossible to permanently snuff out that fundamental force that expresses itself most effortlessly and unselfconsciously in the actions and faces of the young—namely that the going up makes the coming down all the worth the while.
Of course this photo is a kind of lie, as every photo is a lie. Every one of these kids is troubled, if not tortured, by his or her own phantom fears and anxieties. They have all suffered from broken hearts, or plain old loneliness, or fears about failing the expectations of their peers and friends and family. Some are coming to accept the fact that they're not all that and a bag of chips like they thought they were. Some are coming face-to-face for the first time with their own limitations. But despite it all, here they show that laughter and an abundance of being is still there for the taking.
And good on them, I say.
I find this encouraging.
Attach what certainty one may to our future success as a nation, or as a civilization, or as a species of creatures, but I think we can say with confidence that it’s impossible to snuff out once and for all the desire and hope for more and for better that engines all human change and progress. I also believe that so long as nature asserts herself that it’s also impossible to permanently snuff out that fundamental force that expresses itself most effortlessly and unselfconsciously in the actions and faces of the young—namely that the going up makes the coming down all the worth the while.
Of course this photo is a kind of lie, as every photo is a lie. Every one of these kids is troubled, if not tortured, by his or her own phantom fears and anxieties. They have all suffered from broken hearts, or plain old loneliness, or fears about failing the expectations of their peers and friends and family. Some are coming to accept the fact that they're not all that and a bag of chips like they thought they were. Some are coming face-to-face for the first time with their own limitations. But despite it all, here they show that laughter and an abundance of being is still there for the taking.
And good on them, I say.
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