What do you think of this quote?

[SmellsLikeCurlyFries]

"Violence among young people is an aspect of their desire to create. They don't know how to use their energy creatively so they do the opposite and destroy."
- Anthony Burgess, English novelist, critic, and man of letter, 1917-1993

What do you think? Was Mr. Burgess accurate? Or no?

 

[MorkandMindy]

I would suggest it applies even more to old people.

They are the ones who want every last bit of oil out of the ground, have paid their mortgages so go on flights to every part of the World and cruises, use up every bit of oil possible in every way possible.

They want to leave their mark, for future archaeologists to be able to date everything relative to that wasteful generation when the World was ruined for the young.

No, not all old people are like that; I'm hoping it's only the ones I'm related to.

 

[DisingenuousChristian]

I am personally suspicious of such a highly foundationalist statement that seems to disregard the complexity of human motives. But then again, to not be a hypocrite, I find the statement does have a modicum of truth. At least in my felt sense.

 

[variant]

"Violence among young people is an aspect of their desire to create. They don't know how to use their energy creatively so they do the opposite and destroy."
- Anthony Burgess, English novelist, critic, and man of letter, 1917-1993

What do you think? Was Mr. Burgess accurate? Or no?

I remember being both creative and violent as a child. I was learning how to manipulate the world in any way I could.

I think creation and destruction are merely the aspects of a child who seeks out control over their world as they grow, they are a sign of the growing ego and self awareness.

We eventually learn how to fit in with society, so the violence has to go away for a mature individual.

 

[GrowingSmaller]

Not sure.

 

[AfanofJesus]

I remember being both creative and violent as a child. I was learning how to manipulate the world in any way I could.

I think creation and destruction are merely the aspects of a child who seeks out control over their world as they grow, they are a sign of the growing ego and self awareness.

We eventually learn how to fit in with society, so the violence has to go away for a mature individual.

I agree a lot with what you say here! I think it's a lot about controle and to get what you want! Children don't have the ability to see things from different perspectives in the way an older person/adult can do. If they see a toy they want that someone else uses and they want it, they often simply pulls it a away from the child using it. If they succeed in taking it, well great for them, if not well, let's try again. That is kind of the thinking and not too much more to it. Although it depends on what age we are talking, what type of violence etc. I mean there are people finding joy in dominating others with the use of violence, hard to call that creativeness...

 

[Paradoxum]

It is hard to say whether it is true or not. It could be that they simply want to fight for or against something, and sometimes that means they literally fighting.

 

[quatona]

"Violence among young people is an aspect of their desire to create. They don't know how to use their energy creatively so they do the opposite and destroy."
- Anthony Burgess, English novelist, critic, and man of letter, 1917-1993

What do you think? Was Mr. Burgess accurate? Or no?

I would like to know how - now that he has explained violence among young people - he explains violence among old people.

IOW: I am missing the context of his quote. It almost sounds like his premise is "young people are more violent than old people" (therefore the increased violence of the young requires an explanation).
If this is the case I would disagree with his premise.

 

[variant]

I mean there are people finding joy in dominating others with the use of violence, hard to call that creativeness...

Why is that so difficult to call that creative?

Creativity in and of itself is not a good thing, it is the goal of creativity that we tend to look at morally.

 

[farmer joe]

Not sure, I did my share of bad things when I was younger but never really did anything violent. I take that back, I did do a couple stupid things that may be taken as violent. Thinking back, it was really stupid. I wouldn't have done them but it was when I was with others that it seemed like peer pressure with and from friends at the time, was the result of the violent behavior.

 

[Received]

I think violence from anyone is often, but not exclusively, the desire to negate, which is antithetical in my mind to creation. That is, there's a reactive violence, which seeks to destroy in order to survive, or to have one's space, or to get one's revenge for another person stepping over the line. But there is definitely a type of violence which isn't reactive in its nature, and so destroys from the impulse to "make a scene" or "show the world" or whatever, and that's truly creativity. The mediating variable is whether or not the violence is reactive (typically coupled with anger) or not.

 

[Defensor Fidei]

I think these sorts of sentiments are indicative of the ageism which still pervades human society. The old fear change, and they are afraid to admit the failures of their own generation. To destroy a bad society is a good thing.

Youth is the leaven that keeps all these questioning, testing attitudes fermenting in the world. If it were not for this troublesome activity of youth, with its hatred of sophisms and glosses, its insistence on things as they are, society would die from sheer decay. It is the policy of the older generation as it gets adjusted to the world to hide away the unpleasant things where it can, or preserve a conspiracy of silence and an elaborate pretense that they do not exist. But meanwhile the sores go on festering just the same. Youth is the drastic antiseptic… It drags skeletons from closets and insists that they be explained. No wonder the older generation fears and distrusts the younger. Youth is the avenging Nemesis on its trail…
Our elders are always optimistic in their views of the present, pessimistic in their views of the future; youth is pessimistic toward the present and gloriously hopeful for the future. And it is this hope which is the lever of progress—one might say, the only lever of progress…
The secret of life is then that this fine youthful spirit shall never be lost. Out of the turbulence of youth should come this fine precipitate—a sane, strong, aggressive spirit of daring and doing. It must be a flexible, growing spirit, with a hospitality to new ideas, and a keen insight into experience. To keep one’s reactions warm and true is to have found the secret of perpetual youth, and perpetual youth is salvation.
--Randolph Bourne, Youth and Life

 

[bricklayer]

"Violence among young people is an aspect of their desire to create. They don't know how to use their energy creatively so they do the opposite and destroy."
- Anthony Burgess, English novelist, critic, and man of letter, 1917-1993

What do you think? Was Mr. Burgess accurate? Or no?

Violence is most often the product of a lack of creativity.
Generally speaking, violence, among non-militarized youth, is anathema to creativity.
Avoiding violence requires creativity that no one is born with. It does not come by right or time but by effort and experience.

I am left to believe that the quote is bunk.

 

[keith99]

"Violence among young people is an aspect of their desire to create. They don't know how to use their energy creatively so they do the opposite and destroy."
- Anthony Burgess, English novelist, critic, and man of letter, 1917-1993

What do you think? Was Mr. Burgess accurate? Or no?

Complete rubbish.

Now if he has said They are prevented from creating and therefore lash out and do the opposite, I might agree to a point. That at least would make some sense. Assuming the proposition that they are prevented from creating was true. As I see it that proposition is not generally true in Western society.