Free Thomas Hine Goths in Tomorrowland Essay Sample
"At the end of this selection, Hine says that young people are "caught in a paradox", no matter how much they rebel against adult society to create a space for themselves, the "commercial machine" they're trying to escape from reincorporates their cultural style in the form of new products and merchandise. Do you think this is a reasonable assessment? Why or why not?
I think that the assessment put forward by Thomas Hine is reasonable. Paradox is a statement that conveys a particular idea, the opposite is displayed. In other words the statement by itself becomes contradictory.
In Thomas Hine's work, he tells us how adults are in a huge way pushing the young people especially teenagers away from the rest of the society. As a result, these young people are ending up trying all sorts of things in a bid to search for a place where they can or may at least fit in so as to be acknowledged and accepted. Young people would love to be accepted, noticed and pampered throughout their day today life. They always want to feel that they are outstanding. This is because they are attention seekers. As such, they always want to try out anything new regardless of where they got the idea from. Whenever there is a new fashion in clothes for example, they are the very first group of people to notice. As they do all this, they easily fall into the trap whereby the things they do are hardly approved by the adult society which is always watching. The intention of the adult society is to make corrections while there is still time, that is before time runs out. Though their (the young people) intentions are completely pure and innocent, the message that is eventually portrayed is completely opposite
The young people end up being misunderstood in terms of the music they choose to listen to, the mode of dressing that they prefer the type of hair they choose to do and even the make up they choose to wear. According to Hine, the Goths (who in this case are the teenagers) do things to try and express themselves and go to a place referred to as Disneyland, which is suppose to be a completely safe place but always end up being misunderstood. The message they intend to portray is completely different from the message that is eventually passed on.
The only thing that these young people are yet to understand is that the fashion designers for instance are taking advantage of their naivety. Through their very captivating advertisements in the media, which they are very aware are very accessible to the youth, they place their captivating arrivals and are very keen to leave out the negative effects or impacts of their products to the unsuspecting teenagers. Unknowingly, the unsuspecting teenagers even without much of a thought jump on the new stuff not knowing the mess they are getting themselves into.
Despite the many mistakes that these young people could be unwillingly making, the solution is not pushing them away and isolating them as the adult society is consistently doing. They need to get to the bottom of the matter and be able to realize why there seem to be so many misunderstandings. After all, it is always said that you should not judge a book by its cover. Giving a cold shoulder or even scolding they may seem to work for the time being because they seem to restrain for a while but that can never be the permanent solution. Error is too human and is completely normal but unless corrected it will be repetitive for a long time.
The adult society needs to make the initial step and try and approach the younger society to make an effort of finding exactly what the root of the problem is. The young people on the other hand need to be approachable and also be open hearted to let out their problems openly so that together they will be able to come up with the best possible solutions. It could be depression or rejection that makes them act the way they do but unless asked or completely dealt with, you will never know. The problem must be dealt with face to face or else it will for ever exist.
Parents, on the other hand, need to understand that it is like being stuck in the middle of an ocean in a boat that is not moving. When one tries to move it, water gets in and due to the weight of the water, the boat sinks. By trying to move the boat the person thought he was saving himself but it is not the case. On the contrary, he ends up being in more trouble than he previously was in. It is the same scenario with the young generation who are trying out new stuff that they see in the media for instance thinking they are doing the right thing but end up doing the wrong or even worse things. Many are the times they do these things unintentionally and without knowing the impacts in the both the short run and the long run. There need to exist communication between the young and the old. That seems to be the easiest and simplest solution to the huge problem at hand (Chuck 102).
The adult society is always more knowledgeable as they are more experienced as compared to the young generation. It therefore becomes very hard to be able to make decisions independent of the adult society. The things young people learn most of them are from the adult society; from the moment when they were born to the far they have come. Growing up to where everyone is at a particular moment is a continuous learning process. Their decisions on many things are dependent on what they are told. They are also dependant on what they learn from the media and innovators of several things that directly or indirectly affect them. Young people would only be able to establish their own way of doing things if they existed in a sort of a vacuum where no one affected their decisions. This is an ideal situation. No matter how small the percentage of the dependent information is, it is always some percentage that can be accounted for in the decisions they make.
Thomas Hine in his personal opinion was completely against the idea of isolating the teenagers by adult society due to what they had assumed to be the right thing to do. According to him they were just victims of paradox and some level of naivety. This, though may seem just like an escape goat, was out of their control unless they were to be enlightened. The young society is just caught up in the middle as they try to find space for themselves and a better comfortable life without any worries. They are just disguising themselves by for example being in black so as to feel better about themselves. Their rebellious nature is in a way justified and not unless they are given a chance to freely air out their views, the problem will never cease to exist. Tomorrow's adults will end up being scared and depressed. The future will be forever doomed. The problem must be corrected when it still can be corrected. Time is running out. Save the future.