Generation Gap

 

 

Change is hard; it goes against your grain, it goes against your habits, it goes against your hangover. And the hangover of India is very long. They are suffering from the past -- they only have the past.

 

Remember one thing: a child only has the future, he has no past. Hence, a child never thinks in terms of nostalgia. There is nothing at his back. He is so fresh that he has no memories. The young man lives in the present. The present is so beautiful; the past was only childhood, a preparation at the most. And the young man does not bother about the future -- one starts thinking of the future when the present starts slipping out of one's hands.

 

The old man thinks only of the past; he has no future. There is only death, a dark night waiting for him. He wants to avoid it. The only way is to turn his back to the future and look at the past. The child looks towards the future, the old man towards the past; the young man remains in the present.

 

The same is true about cultures. When a culture is very new it looks to the future. It has a tremendous aspiration for the stars, it grows, it expands. When a culture remains really young -- which very rarely happens, in fact, it has not happened yet -- then the culture remains in the present. And when the culture becomes old, it starts thinking in terms of nostalgia, of the past, the golden age that is no more.

 

Individually also, youth is a new phenomenon. In the past the child used to go from childhood to old age; youth was not a stage at all. In poor countries it is still so. You can see in the aboriginal tribes of poor countries, children six years old, five years old, working like old men. Seven years old, eight years old, and they are already burdened with worries. They will not have a chance to be young. Hence, in the past there was no generation gap. The generation gap is a new phenomenon, a very significant phenomenon. This is the first time it has happened, this is the first time we have been able to afford it. It belongs to an affluent society, it belongs to a certain richness, when the generation gap appears.

 

The child and the old man are facing each other -- there is no gap. The child looks to the future, the old man looks to the past. Hence, you will always find a great friendship between children and old people. They are facing each other. That has always been the case -- children and old people lived together. There was no gap.

 

The youth is a new phenomenon in the world. He is neither a child nor an old man. He is breaking new ice. He is trying to live now, here. Yes, a few individuals in the past have lived in that constant youthfulness, but only individuals, not cultures. There is a possibility now that even a culture may start living in the present. Many individuals will be needed to prepare the ground for cultures to live in the present.

 

-Osho, "The Goose is Out, #6, Q2“