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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 29, 1939)
' • ? 1 I am one of the current yewtrdH^fc ♦ known as modem youth. That epithet summarises a long list of misstfct#-.) menu concerning us that I feel oore- pelled to deny with a vehenutoa# i echoed by my contemporaries. **Mod em Youth"-for all iU simplkfttv is a term meant to imply wfld life in the raw, or rah, as |k : is so fre quently punned. All youth is and has been awxjerp, for youth is the yardstick by which is measured. Our title with all iU'implications was coined by a gen- which itself was young not so long -qgo, and which would have been jaanrngd had anyone suggettU-d it was not iWqdem. That generation includes our ntqthers and fattsrs^ Many of our parhqts have written articles that have added impetus to the unietrsal diMrussionNpf qyr com plete lack of morals. I Facts have been published ing to prove our immorality. ' N Why not look on these facts in their ftnati light and admit their existanee since the beginning of time. Fveryon*: til the Bible is not wicked because that book has told us of so many fast women and lustful* men. All of Bal- sac’s and De MaupaaaantV -worlU fUHi not considered pure imagination, but fiction based on experience. Th«* do not prove the men and women of those days all lascivious. They are a | por trayal of but a portion of the people of those days. Always there have been those > who were tempted but were strong enough to turn aside i Mmi temptation, and those who were strong enough to turn aside j tpw temptation, and those who iUNHnj tempted artd fell. The perxenLage has not changed radically, but the ntnajl her of those who will admit tefepta-'j tion, even anonymously, has. We are a frank lot—from the most angelhc to the most diabolical. «We are frank, and we are great pretenders. We are the epitome of Shakespeare’s “All the World's a Stage.” We act with such Intensity that many of us lose the true concep tion of our roles, and sometimes even forget we are acting. It is true, deyer- the!ess, that we are the largest cant ever to play in that most ribald of all Rabelaisian episodes—“Mo<lem Youth.” | [A jj Many of our lamented weaknesses are blamed on the demon drink, prink ing ia an indispensible part ot any representative gathering of ynuth. Wf all take pride in being able to drink properly (if indeed there is any proper way to drink), but any ovef- 14 V r f ■ r i’ I "» , M TT decent Off Doutt] By “lilac" dicta .1 indulgence is severely frowned upon. A continued tendency to become “swanked” on all occasions is re warded with ostracism. That is the supreme penalty of youth, for not to be one of the gang is an insurmount able tragedy. / ( We drink, not for- the effect on our senses, but for the effect on the ' vrorld. We have seen since first we ‘ mere j allowed to gq te plays and picture shows of our own choosing ' that liquor has a prominent part in life -of the American elite. We ^ave also read that this is true. Why should we eschew what ia done by this elite? Wp are as good as they. It is, then, the normal thing to drink —thai abnormal to abstain. Vrap flw same iaurccn we have •aqaitwd a freedom in our association with , tha/. opposite sax that has astounded oo j parents set them j smxiotisly diicussing tjbis situation with their fr ends From this discus sion have si rung; M] articles and i statistics propounding the shocking truth of our corruption But we are not immortal. We sin to this extent: a casual manner in mixed company; quite a bit of risque talk; and a great pretense of sophistry’ that fixxlea ihto a cautious reserve at the approach of the flame called passion. Our parties are not the Bacchanal ian ravels attributed to us. Neither are the neputed orgies of squashing or ipPttag. They are carefree gatherings consisting of numerous spiked jokes j(aal44p- «K*Ma4 the little pup named Stokawsky because he was the pianiet), and a round of dancing which includes several 'fi*rlem-born swing numbers no more harmful thanftthe .square dances of j yesterday. All this, is interspersed ' nth cocktails and highballs takeij discreetly. These parties are gradw Jly ravelled out by couples, sometimes two or three to a car, wending their ways slowly home ward. I will not deny the love-making that takes’place then. I will admit it to be i\i i *1 quitje general. But 1 will deny that it is promiscuous. It b what we feel to be the normal result of a deep emo tion, but when it b happening it b genuine. I am certain there are, in proportion, no more ears today park- ! ed in secluded places than there were buggies in the same seclusion in our parents’ daya., <>ui colleges are constantly labelled nests of passion where contracep tives have as prominent a place in girls’ purses as cigarets. Sexual ex perience before marriage is supposed to play a prominent part in college life. If one believea all the articles written on this score, to admit having been graduated from an American co educational college is to admit having been a part, however innocent, of an educational brothel. This is not true. In college all classes of people are mingled. Naturally among them will be those who have no more morab than a cat. Solomoa valued a virtuous woman above rubies. That does not mean all the women af hia day were harlots, -and though many students betray prurient tendencies, college life as *| whole is clean mmI virtue is still valued highly. Wt denounce these associates of ours who are imprudent; we do not object to others denounc ing them; but we do object to being classified with them. Our colossal pretentions are what has gotten us into hot water. In an attempt to show our worldly wisdom we have forgotten to avoid all ap pearance of evil. That b from the Bible. We have been told that most of it is just beautiful legend. We pre tend to be agnostics. But we ! rtrdp»| the Bible, most of us shame-faced) y and in private. We honor the churches though we seldom attend. Ask our opinion of religion and you will like ly receive the scoffing answer you expect It will not be the truth. I am not attempting to make us ap pear saints. We are not saints, and we are not sinners. We are normal, healthy-minded young people, and we have been maligned by a generation that has .forgotten it was normally youthful only recently. We are as decent a generation as there has ever been. Chastity to us is - as sacred as it was to any of our an cestors, and just as prevalent. We are the same youth that has headed every generation, but a youth which instead of trhispering uses a normal tone of voice to wonder and express ideas about its newly begun illreputed voyage on the sea of lift We are moral and chaste. ♦ THE BATTAMON l i