The Language of the World: Bobby Kennedy and the Quality of Youth
Bobby Kennedy on the quality of youth:
“Our answer is the world’s hope; it is to rely on youth. The cruelties and obstacles of this swiftly changing planet will not yield to obsolete dogmas and outworn slogans. It cannot be moved by those who cling to a present which is already dying, who prefer the illusion of security to the excitement and danger which comes with even the most peaceful progress.
This world demands the qualities of youth; not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. It is a revolutionary world we live in, and thus, as I have said in Latin America and Asia, in Europe and in the United States, it is young people who must take the lead. Thus you, and your young compatriots everywhere, have had thrust upon you a greater burden of responsibility than any generation that has ever lived.”
Youth is a quality and a state of mind that gives us the ability to continually see the world through new eyes and different lenses. Bobby Kennedy spoke of the outworn dogmas and slogans of the previous generation and cited that what we need is the quality of youth. If we are to tackle the growing problems of tomorrow we need to go back to the visions of yesterday. We need to go back to a time when we saw the world differently: before we decided things are just the way they are.
When a newborn baby opens its eyes for the first time it sees a world without labels and identities. It sees a world through the eyes of infinite possibility. That is the quality that we need now, not just in our leaders but among the general populace. Kennedy said that in order to create the world that we all want to pass down to our children that we require the “qualities of youth; not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease.”
It’s time that we demand this quality of our leaders and of ourselves. I will now leave you with some questions to spur some creative thinking…
When you were a child how did you see the world?
How does the way that you saw the world as a child differ from the way you perceive the world now?
What is not possible now that you thought was possible when you were a child?
Who do you know that as an adult displays the ‘qualities of youth’ that Kennedy describes?
If you know a person like that, how do they personify these qualities?
Bobby Kennedy is an example of someone who displayed the qualities of youth. The video below is another speech that he gave called the Mindless Menace of Violence which highlights his thinking.
I cannot say exactly the way that I saw the world as a child. As an archetype, a child’s eye is fiilled with wonder, and grand possibility. I was raised in a home where “You can be anything you set out to be” was a mantra, where my parents took steps to ensuer that I’d not be stifled. I think they believed in me. That wonder, that expansive paradigm, is lost to pessimism as people age; with that I agree. Still, I am an idealist. It takes a choice within me to remember that all great challenges consist of a series of momentary questions. I am daunted by world poverty, yes. I am daunted by inequality. And I believe there are some truths, universal. The language of the world, the philiosphy of a world “desired and believed in” is real, even if the thought harkens back to a child’s understanding of possibily of this earth. In my being, I know that all people want to live a life where their faith is not a public questions, their health not a personal concern, and their future not in peril. We must, as we work, use the language of the world, the language of humanity to negotiate social progress on a pan-global, pan-cultural level.
There is a place, however, where a child’s perspective should be reserved for the unknowing youngster. It is not possible for things to change quickly, for the challenges in this world amount to much more than the child’s greatest concern. We cannot hold tight to the childish thought that one person will ensure our future, singlehandedly, as child feels master of their play-world.
Sometimes I think I confuse naivate and the quality of youth.
In adendum:
Though the quality of youth presents a hopeful lens through which we can view the world, and then make progress, some things are reality. There is evil the world, and I believe you must recognize it, and not be fool to it.