The Tug of War Between the Youths and the Society, Revisiting Sigmund Freud and Erikson's Theories

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. - May 4, 2016 - PRLog -- The youths are the darlings of the society insofar as they adhere to the society's bidding. In return, the society compensates the youths for their submission.

The society considers the youths as its premium investment. It had spent lots of capital transforming the acne face, self doubting adolescence to the smooth face, mature youth. Now, the society is eager to reap its reward before that youthful strength fades into the dwindling fatigue of middle age.

What is the society's primary agenda?

The society's unwritten maxim to all segments of its population is: 'Perform your task when you are most able, then make room for others to do the same'. The community needs to get its entire segments moving along swiftly, in an orderly fashion through the dis-assembly line of life.

Some of the easily identifiable society's age and parts include: the newborn, toddler, childhood, adolescence, youths, middle age, and the elderly. Without order, society will spiral into disarray from the pull of its individual needs.

Taming the beast

Public control starts from birth and continues even after death. However Humans are wired to be wild, like the nature where they came from.

Any attempt by an individual to erupt into their pure unrestrained self, id, a word coined by Sigmund Freud, is immediately squashed by the society's penchant to be in charge.

This difference between what the society needs and what a person desires creates a tug of war. But the society always wins. In Ego realm, the individual hides their sharp edges to become a compliant member of the society.

What the youths want and youthful exuberance

The psychoanalyst, Erik Erikson theorized that youths are confronted with realization that they have to find mates and build a family: intimacy and solidarity.

Failure to achieve this milestone, he opined, will end in: isolation and stagnation, when the youths are marginalized and their dreams stalled.

Moreover, when the youths look at their parents, it dawns on them that their beauty, like that of their parents will not last forever and that their strengths, like that of their parents will be waning in another decade or so.

Therefore the best way they can live out their roles in a timely manner is to play ball with society.

The society sees this vulnerability in the youth's psyche as an opportunity to foist its desires on them. It taps the youth's ethos for commerce and entertainment. It uses the youth's pathos for propaganda.

For their prowess, the youths are deployed to fight the society's wars and enforce society's laws.

How it Ends

The society rewards conforming youths by helping them reach their goals. Disloyal youths are often abandoned to fend for themselves.

This institutionalized punishment and reward measures creates strife among the youths, splintering their ability to organize against the society.

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