Leaving youth ill-equipped and hopeless

After viewing the recent clips, I resolved on delving into Matisyahu's "Youth". The searing lyrics and coinciding montage create a raw and desolate space for youths. I extracted from these lurid images that every youth, whether it be the African boy soldier or the white child from suburbia, wants to escape. It would be grossly wrong for me to equate a boy soldier's plight with a youth surrounded by a raucous marriage, but within each one's world they wholly believe life is no worse than this.
The classroom suddenly transforms into an asylum, a haven that temporarily removes one from the manic and pain of reality. Yet, even teachers have "squashed the flame/fore it had a chance to grow", which leaves little hope for ameliorating one's suffering. These were perhaps the most disheartening lyrics of the song and I quickly felt despondent. If a teacher provides no hope, but rather incredulity and discouragement, then we simply perpetuate the anguish and heartache. We feed our youth to the wolves, expecting them to self-govern, "slamming their fists on tables and making demands". How can we even entertain the possibility that they would "make the right move?" We have not shown them, nor do we care to show them these so called "right moves", the smarter, less irrational decisions. They miss class and find escape within their drug induced stupor. Therefore, failure for youth is desired, expected, inevitable.

Teenage Outcry

After watching and listening to sundry clips of "Baba O 'Riley", I now know why this teenage anthem is ageless and has remained embedded in society. These clips differ in regard to film making, but they emanate similar feelings. There were a plethora of feelings I felt were prevalent throughout the clips such as; aggression,rage,confusion,isolation,sadness,and despondency. These common emotions often overlap and create ambivalence within a youth's life, which commonly results in a vexed or "troubled" youth. This ambivalence isn't exclusive to youths, but they are the demographic most drastically affected by it. They, unlike the majority of adults, have either not acquired emotional filters or are simply beginning to acquire them. The most common and beneficial of these filters is conversation, which creates much apprehension among youth. Why should they disclose and entrust a peer or elder with their secrets and vulnerabilities? I especially liked the clip taken from Quadrophenia because I felt the young motorist captured this notion. He drives to a secluded precipice and shouts a series of muted screams. To me this precipice was symbolic of the dangerous internal ledge that many youths are frequently tottering on. His muted screams was that universal desire to vent and confide our fears and frustrations, but that distrust that youth often feel towards individuals from all demographics. "Baba O' Riley" encapsulates the nuanced youth and propels listeners through a threshold that appears full of inebriated and sedated individuals, but is truly filled with adolescents in limbo and their muffled outcry for help processing this tumultuous period.