Page 12 - C.A.L.L. #31 - Spring 2009

KALEIDOSCOPE

The Communitarian Scene from all Over and Under
Compiled (and partly translated) by Joel Dorkam

The early settlers of the Kibbutz were a select, special breed of
youngsters, whose main concern was to shake off the characteristics
of the old-fashioned Jewish "Shtetl" of Eastern Europe and create a
prototype of "Brave New Jewish Youth”. They never thought of
themselves as future "Israeli Senior Citizens". On the other hand,
they considered their offspring an improved extension of themselves (see Bruno Bettelheim's
"Children of the Dream") and expected that those healthy, suntanned, barefoot kids, growing
up in our beautiful settlements, getting a modern, liberal education by dedicated, skilled
teachers, plus almost any special wishes that they cooked up in their minds - would quite
naturally opt for kibbutz life, after completing their one-year national service, their army
duty (plus attachments ... ) and benefiting from their rights for higher education.

But gradually it dawned on us that our youths took all those privileges for granted and then
went off into the wide world, to try new ways of life, until then unknown to most of us. And
left their aging, ailing parents to care for themselves as best they could. That in turn, in
addition to external processes, resulted in an ideological and economical crisis which put the
Kibbutz Movement in jeopardy. It suddenly became apparent that, contrarily to former
beliefs, not every single kibbutz could provide for all its members from birth to grave. As a
result, many members no longer felt secure about their old age income, and began looking
around for retirement plans - non-existent until recently in most kibbutzim. As could have
been expected, this created a serious debate, particularly in heavily indebted older kibbutzim,
between the younger and the older generation. I won't go into details, but coming on top of
other conflicts, this one threatened to cause irreparable damage.

Having said that the question arises: How does it work in other places? Case in point: In
"Francesco 33" of Advent 2008 , Steffi and Matthias Reihardt discuss generation conflicts
and bring us a citation; "Our youth likes luxury. They display bad manners, ignore
authority, have no respect toward age. Today's youth consists of tyrants. They no longer
stand up when an older man enters the room. They contradict their parents, chatter in
company of other people, slurp their food at table and
terrorize their teachers ". Guess who wrote that? This is
how the great Greek philosopher Socrates in the year 500
B.C.E. chose to describe "today's youth"! Which goes to
show that the generations' gap and conflict have been
around for longer than expected, perhaps since the very
beginning of Mankind? Listening nowadays to the talk of
the older generations, describing present day youth, you
cannot help but notice that those who complain loudest at
present used to be the "naughty ones" of past times.

The generations' conflicts basically relate to human
nature. Children, actually almost all children, grow up nowadays under circumstances quite
different from those of their parents, they are conditioned differently from early childhood -
which creates stresses and lack of understanding, although the differentiation is quite natural.
The older generation has accumulated a lot of wisdom and life experience, whilst the youth
are still searching for new ways and values. Maybe the newly elected President Barak Obama
will be able to overcome those contrasts? Let's hope.

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