The Kids

In America, George Santayana once said, “issues” aren’t faced or resolved; they simply become unfashionable and boring, and then are forgotten. That this is so attests, I suppose, to the enormous strength of the system, for some of the issues do have some substance—though in the end they don’t seem to matter much. During the past decade or so, one issue after another has occupied center stage, had its moment in the spotlight, much as if they were so many performers on Ed Sullivan’s television show. But where are the issues of yesteryear?

Where is SANE, so prominent in 1958-59? Who remembers C. P. Snow predicting in a Commentary symposium of that era the imminent, certain, end of the world through nuclear holocaust? Though the Bomb is still there, it was elbowed off the stage as an issue by—Selma! Bull Connor! Civil Rights did a turn. Then Poverty. For the first time since the nineteenth century the Indians were hunted again, this time not by cavalry with Smith and Wessons but by CBS crews with tapes and zoom lenses. Then there was the Urban Problem. Everyone from Jane Jacobs and Howard Mumford to Norman Mailer was writing about transportation, the neighborhood and such things. Harvey Cox even cooked up a Pop Theology based on his vision of urban conditions. Naturally, he’s now tossed it overboard. Then Grapes, then Vietnam and, shouldering that aside, stealing the scene, the University Revolution. Just now it’s Ecology.

About the Author

Jeffrey Hart

Jeffrey Hart is a contributor to National Review.

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In America, George Santayana once said, “issues” aren’t faced or resolved; they simply become unfashionable and boring, and then are forgotten. That this is so attests, I suppose, to the enormous strength of the system, for some of the issues do have some substance—though in the end they don’t seem to matter much. During the past decade or so, one issue after another has occupied center stage, had its moment in the spotlight, much as if they were so many performers on Ed Sullivan’s television show. But where are the issues of yesteryear?

Where is SANE, so prominent in 1958-59? Who remembers C. P. Snow predicting in a Commentary symposium of that era the imminent, certain, end of the world through nuclear holocaust? Though the Bomb is still there, it was elbowed off the stage as an issue by—Selma! Bull Connor! Civil Rights did a turn. Then Poverty. For the first time since the nineteenth century the Indians were hunted again, this time not by cavalry with Smith and Wessons but by CBS crews with tapes and zoom lenses. Then there was the Urban Problem. Everyone from Jane Jacobs and Howard Mumford to Norman Mailer was writing about transportation, the neighborhood and such things. Harvey Cox even cooked up a Pop Theology based on his vision of urban conditions. Naturally, he’s now tossed it overboard. Then Grapes, then Vietnam and, shouldering that aside, stealing the scene, the University Revolution. Just now it’s Ecology.