If we haven’t been one, we know one: The recalcitrant teen. Hard to reach through a shell of underdeveloped emotion and ability to reason, such a person is dead set on reaching some immediate goal without considering its long-term consequences. It is the epitome of sophomoric living. Inexperienced in the ways of the world, yet having just enough knowledge to warrant a faulty self reliance, the teen “kicks back” and defies the wisdom of his or her elders. “What do they know about how I feel?” the teen says to Self.
So, generation after generation, the kicking goes on: Inexperienced youth in defiance of experienced adults. Contention prevails. It’s a time of will against will in most families, and in society in general, it’s a time fraught with disagreement about what is and is not important, valuable, and meaningful. And as is usually the case, the ensuing generation only too late discovers the nature of the previous generation’s concerns, warnings, and advice. Emotion rules.
In such a setting isn’t every generation inclined to reach impasses? It seems that in general—of course, this in no way applies to you because you have never been recalcitrant—recalcitrance runs through the species. We might avoid it personally during our mental and emotional development, but there it is, a world of recalcitrant individuals imposing an almost ineluctable influence. So, contentiousness breaks out as one adult “kicks back” at another or at others, or, on a different scale, one group “kicks back” at another group (religious, political, social, economic). “What,” a person (or group) asks, “does he (or they) know about how I (we) feel (or think)?”
Is this a simplification? Is recalcitrance too easy to identify as a cause? Or is there really some innate “teen know-it-all” lurking in the depths of both person and society?
Here’s what we know through experience: Recalcitrant teens usually have to outgrow their recalcitrance, often through learning in a bad or even harmful experience. And, as we look at history, it seems that every generation somehow engenders a recycled attitude that leads to violence and war. Recalcitrance: Is it a basic human characteristic?
So, generation after generation, the kicking goes on: Inexperienced youth in defiance of experienced adults. Contention prevails. It’s a time of will against will in most families, and in society in general, it’s a time fraught with disagreement about what is and is not important, valuable, and meaningful. And as is usually the case, the ensuing generation only too late discovers the nature of the previous generation’s concerns, warnings, and advice. Emotion rules.
In such a setting isn’t every generation inclined to reach impasses? It seems that in general—of course, this in no way applies to you because you have never been recalcitrant—recalcitrance runs through the species. We might avoid it personally during our mental and emotional development, but there it is, a world of recalcitrant individuals imposing an almost ineluctable influence. So, contentiousness breaks out as one adult “kicks back” at another or at others, or, on a different scale, one group “kicks back” at another group (religious, political, social, economic). “What,” a person (or group) asks, “does he (or they) know about how I (we) feel (or think)?”
Is this a simplification? Is recalcitrance too easy to identify as a cause? Or is there really some innate “teen know-it-all” lurking in the depths of both person and society?
Here’s what we know through experience: Recalcitrant teens usually have to outgrow their recalcitrance, often through learning in a bad or even harmful experience. And, as we look at history, it seems that every generation somehow engenders a recycled attitude that leads to violence and war. Recalcitrance: Is it a basic human characteristic?
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