Youth: Fidelity and Diversity

Abstract

The subject of this paper is a certain strength inherent in the age of youth. I call it the sense of and the capacity for Fidelity. Such a strength, to me, is not a moral trait to be acquired by individual effort. Rather, I believe it to be part of the human equipment evolved with socio-genetic evolution. This assertion I could not undertake to defend here; nor could I make plausible the fact that, in the schedule of individual growth, Fidelity could not mature earlier in life and must not, in the crises of youth, fail its time of ascendance if human adaptation is to remain intact. Nor (to complete the list of limitations) could I review the other stages of life and the specific strengths and weaknesses contributed by each to man’s precarious adaptation. We can take only a brief look at the stage of life which immediately precedes youth, the school age, and then turn to youth itself. I regret this; for even as one can understand oneself only by looking at and away from oneself, one can recognize the meaning of a stage only by studying it in the context of all the others.

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