A NA LVT ICA L EDITORIAL
July 1970, Vol. 42, No. 8 Editor:
HERBERT A. LAITINEN
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Freedom and Ferment HIS IS written a t a time of campus turmoil, where it is all too easy to arrive a t simplistic conclusions as t o causes for student unrest. assert t h a t the problem is caused by a few radical leaders who want t o destroy any vulnerable aspect of organized society is to overlook the thousands who sympathize with many of the objectives, if not the methods, of the leaders. Also, to consider university strife as a n American phenomenon to be associated with American international and social policies is t o ignore the protests of students in many other countries throughout the world. Local or national events trigger incidents t h a t in turn set off chains of actions and reactions so involved as to obscure the underlying causes. Why, one may ask, should the student generation seriously question, and often reject, the values of the past; and why should the relatively privileged youth, rather than the deprived, be in the vanguard? It is in the wealthy, not the poor countries, t h a t protests are the loudest, and of course unrest is most evident in societies that are the most permissive in terms of individual or group expression. This is the first generation of youth brought up in the nuclear age, an age of relative affluence, and an age of tremendously improved technology. It is also the first period in which the dire consequences of unrestricted population growth loom seriously, not in some distant future but within the lifetimes of those already living. The generation now in positions of power and influence grew up under the shadow of the depression and the war during the thirties and early forties. The youth of today is convinced t h a t the materialistic goals of the thirties are no longer a problem, but that society must find new solutions t o international disagreements in the nuclear age, as well as new solutions t o society’s problems in an age of affluence. This, underlying the surface phenomena of protest and outrage, is an inherent idealism characteristic of youth that in the long run is beneficial t o society. I n the short run, however, we must not destroy the very institutions and industries that provided the basis of affluence and freedom of expression permitting our youth the luxury of protest.
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CORRECTION: In the June 1970 Editorial, the second sentence in the fourth paragraph should read ‘‘relevant to a military mission” rather than relevant to a military invasion.”
ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 42, NO. 8, JULY 1970
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