The GENERATOR

A. OVERVIEW OF THE NEW OUTLINE

I just finished writing a multi-part essay on the "Youth Power" framework. [See the appendix for an overview.] It was a big enough concept that I didn't want to get stuck on outlining beforehand -- so I just worked off of a long list of notes. Now that I'm done, the first thing my mind wants to do is go back and reorganize all this material. I don't have time right now to do too much editing -- but I thought that I might at least sketch a new outline. Here is the overview:

I. HOW HUMAN BEINGS SHOULD BE TREATED
II. A GOVERNMENT THAT PROVIDES FOR JUSTICE & WELFARE
III. THE GROUP "YOUTH"
IV. THE NATURE OF ADULTHOOD
V. THE ORGANIZATION OF ADULT OPPRESSION
VI. ADULT ABUSE OF POWER - WITHIN THE FAMILY
VII. ADULT ABUSE OF POWER - WITHIN THE GOVERNMENT
VIII. WHAT DEFENSE AGAINST OPPRESSION REQUIRES
IX. ADVOCACY THAT DOES NOT RECREATE OPPRESSION
X. SHARED INTERESTS IN ENDING OPPRESSION

The biggest changes are the addition of " A GOVERNMENT THAT PROVIDES FOR JUSTICE & WELFARE" and " SHARED INTERESTS IN ENDING OPPRESSION". I also split what was previously "THE NATURE OF YOUTH" into two sections: "HOW HUMAN BEINGS SHOULD BE TREATED" and "THE GROUP 'YOUTH'". The other sections have perhaps been re-titled and rewritten somewhat -- but their essence remains the same.

B. THE NEW OUTLINE

Here's the new outline, in full, for my essay-in-progress, "The 'Youth Power' Framework":

I. HOW HUMAN BEINGS SHOULD BE TREATED

1. The fundamental "right" is ownership of one's own body.

2. Treating a person well means conscientiously respecting their right to consent or not consent in matters that concern their body.

3. It is unethical to treat any person as if they are human property.

4. Collectively, society has a responsibility to provide services to people who are impoverished or vulnerable to abuse.

II. A GOVERNMENT THAT PROVIDES FOR JUSTICE & WELFARE

1. YP presupposes the existence of an organized, democratic government.

2. YP advocates socialized services, a form of socialism.

3. There should be government-sponsored services that provide for the welfare of the needy. (e.g. Welfare, housing, food, clothing, healthcare.)

4. There should be laws that prevent oppressive treatment toward minority groups.

5. There should be well-funded agencies that enforce protective laws.

6. There should be some form of taxation that creating a pool of wealth, used to maintain justice enforcement agencies and social services.

III. THE GROUP "YOUTH"

1. "Youth" is a group whose members are characterized by: (1) being under 18 years of age, (2) living in the parents' house, and (3) being economically dependent.

[2. Youth are persons.]

3. Youth and adults are not identical.

4. Youth require care-giving. This does not justify granting adults absolute power.

5. Babies and fetuses fall outside of Youth Liberation's purview.

IV. THE NATURE OF ADULTHOOD

1. The line between adults and youth is artificial.

2. Adulthood is a membership organization.

[3. The implicit "mission statement" of the adult organization is this: "maintain control over youth".]

4. Both adults and youth try to dissociate themselves from childhood.

5. Members of the group "adults" can refuse to identify with the organization, and challenge its structure.

V. THE ORGANIZATION OF ADULT OPPRESSION

1. Adults oppress youth.

2. The family is the fundamental institution of adult oppression.

3. The all-adult government elevates the order of power within the family to a societal level.

4. Negative beliefs about and caricatures of youth are propaganda that supports the order of power.

5. "Ending" adultism would require a transformation of culture as well as laws.

VI. ADULT ABUSE OF POWER - WITHIN THE FAMILY

1. Adultism is motivated by self-benefit: the desire to be in control.

2. The essence of control is to treat youth as if they are human property.

3. Parental tyranny inevitably produces situations of violence against minors. This is the epitome of adultism's harm to youth.

VII. ADULT ABUSE OF POWER - WITHIN THE GOVERNMENT

1. Adult authorities cannot be trusted to maintain fair and just institutions on their own.

2. Adult government must be kept in check by direct participation and activism initiated by watchdog groups.

3. The potential for injustice cannot be eliminated.

VIII. WHAT DEFENSE AGAINST OPPRESSION REQUIRES

1. Youth need the means to escape suffering / abuse at will.

[2. Youth must have access to socialized services in order to lessen dependence.]

3. Youth need to be able to escape suffering without having to ask adults for help.

4. In all decisions that effect youth, youth should have direct participation in the decision-making process, or sole control.

5. To win these freedoms, youth must band together into activist groups.

IX. ADVOCACY THAT DOES NOT RECREATE OPPRESSION

1. Most oppression comes in the guise of "protection".

2. Adult allies pose a threat of cooptation.

3. It is important that actual youth be the voice of, and in control of, YL organizations.

4. There is more to being a YL advocate than just being a youth.

X. SHARED INTERESTS IN ENDING OPPRESSION

1. Oppression is a historical relationship between two groups, where one group has control over the other.

2. Adultism is an oppression -- comparable to racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, ableism, anti-Semitism, etc.

3. Youth have an interest in eliminating other oppressions because youth is itself a diverse group.

4. Other liberation movements have an interest in furthering the cause of youth liberation because adultism is one of the strongest models of the command/obey relationship.

5. While Youth Liberation may be encompassed within the goals of humanism, the need for youth activists who specialize in fighting adultism remains.

C. NOTES ON THE NEW OUTLINE

The goal of this essay is to describe the sub-variety of Youth Liberation that I call "Youth Power". Consequently, what I need to keep asking myself with each section is "Does this contrast YP against Youth Equality and Youth Culture -- or am I making statements that would hold true for all three flavors?" Here are a few notes about what I think of each section at present:

I. HOW HUMAN BEINGS SHOULD BE TREATED

Identifying my principles for "right treatment" is pretty fundamental. It gets at a theory of human nature... I worry that I haven't gone far enough into exploring the implications here. I should refer back to Alison Jaggar's work... Youth Equality comes out of the political tradition of liberalism; that implies presuppositions about rationality. Am I falling into similar pitfalls? Or have I escaped them by creating a standard of "right treatment" that need not be earned? ...Do I need to say anything here about what punishments are appropriate for people who violate the principles?

II. A GOVERNMENT THAT PROVIDES FOR JUSTICE & WELFARE

This section feels almost ridiculously basic -- and yet, I think that it does a good job of contrasting YP's views against Republicanism and Anarchism. I think that YL is committed to there being a government, and depending on its authority as a means to escape being trapped under the power of individual parents. A while back I started realizing that YL has an interest in socialism; as I started digging into history, I came to see that my larger presupposition is that there be a governmental structure at all.

III. THE GROUP "YOUTH"

It feels like I'm doing two things in this section, and that perhaps I should only be doing one. Mostly I need to contrast YP with YE by talking about how we understand the differences between youth and adults. YE's notion of justice is based on treating youth and adults identically -- YP's notion of justice is based on accommodation of differences, as exemplified by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The other thing that I'm doing is stating my definition of "youth" -- although actually I'm avoiding a definition here, and using a "characteristics" approach instead. How important is it to write out my definition of youth here? Do definitions belong? Or is there room for different definitions that would still maintain the spirit of YP?

...I'm struggling with how minimalist I want this document to be. Should I eliminate all points that are not truly essential to a YP point of view? If so, I can see whole sections that could be jettisoned.

IV. THE NATURE OF ADULTHOOD

With the exception of the point about adult's "mission statement", this section seems very solid, and very vital to the YP point of view.

V. THE ORGANIZATION OF ADULT OPPRESSION

This section also feels pretty solid and pretty essential. The ways in which YE, YC, and YP understand what's primary, secondary, and tertiary, was one of my most exciting insights as I put this essay together.

I didn't have any point in the essay previously that said "adults oppress youth", so I re-titled the first point. I'm not sure whether or not I really need to invoke the oppression framework, though -- oppression is a extremely useful add-on, but not essential. I could probably add a section about the nature of oppression... E.g. "all youth are oppressed", "oppression is a system, not merely aberrant individuals", "oppression, privilege, and entitlement are three separate things", etc. The last section, "SHARED INTERESTS IN ENDING OPPRESSION" could go together with this new "add-on" framework.

VI. ADULT ABUSE OF POWER - WITHIN THE FAMILY

I like the use of the word "power" here, tying back to the term "Youth Power". However, I'm not sure that "ADULT ABUSE OF POWER" is what I need here. I do like that the points deal with power within the family -- that seems to expand upon what is said in "THE ORGANIZATION OF ADULT OPPRESSION" -- but I'm left wondering, then, if there are other points about the family that I want to deal with. I'm considering going back to the original heading, "POWER AT THE INTERPERSONAL LEVEL".

VII. ADULT ABUSE OF POWER - WITHIN THE GOVERNMENT

Previously I had talked here about how youth need to organize themselves collectively. In this draft, I took all that out, and tried to just leave the bits about how adult power works at the governmental level -- basically that biases exist there, and that it can't be trusted to be impartial any more than individual parents can. Again, it seems like what I want to be talking about is the nature of power itself, more than the people who hold it. I'm wondering if I need to make my points a bit more general then, like "the government is a group of individuals, each of whom is corruptible", etc.

VIII. WHAT DEFENSE AGAINST OPPRESSION REQUIRES

This section is now largely about what youth as a group can do that will make them as safe as possible. The point about them needing to organize into activist groups seem like less of an abstract principle, and more of a practical one, so it doesn't feel as right here... But I'm not sure that I want to move it back into the section about governmental power, either. Part of me thinks that this bit, since it deals with ideals, ought to come before the section on how the government works -- but that would break up the organization wherein I talk generally about "THE ORGANIZATION OF ADULT OPPRESSION" and then move to the family and to the government.

Maybe I need to change these two sections into "power within the family" and "power in the government" -- followed by "youth power outside of the family and government"... Sort of a "non-governmental organizations" (NGO's) approach. ...That, then would be followed by something about "YOUTH POWER AGENDA"? You'd identify three bases of power: the parents, the adult government, and youth activists groups -- then you'd say what the youth activist groups stand for. ...Which would certainly be a means of distinguishing YP from YE & YC.

IX. ADVOCACY THAT DOES NOT RECREATE OPPRESSION

This again feels a bit like an "add-on" framework. It's not essential to the YP frame, but it does derive from it, and is very complementary. Maybe I need to explicitly say that there are several interlocking frameworks here -- not just a single one... The Youth Power framework, the oppression framework, and the "by youth, for youth" framework!

X. SHARED INTERESTS IN ENDING OPPRESSION

I've already talked about this section. It is of one cloth, with general remarks about "oppression". [Note that I never define the term "adultism" here, either...] It really deals with progressivism -- which is, in my mind, the big reason for invoking the term "oppression" at all. It's tacked on -- but well worth mentioning somewhere. ...How do I want to go about interlocking frameworks, if I've now determined that more than one is at work here?

APPENDIX: THE PREVIOUS OUTLINE

As a multi-part essay, there was no point in the presentation of "The 'Youth Power' Framework" where I displayed the entire outline in one place. For convenient reference, I include the original outline here.

I. THE ORGANIZATION OF OPPRESSION

1. The primary problem is parental tyranny and its inevitable result, violence against minors.

2. The family is the fundamental institution of adult oppression.

3. The all-adult government elevates the order of power within the family to a societal level.

4. Negative beliefs about and caricatures of youth are propaganda that supports the order of power.

II. POWER AT THE INTERPERSONAL LEVEL

5. Adultism is motivated by self-benefit: the desire to be in control.

6. The essence of control is to treat youth as if they are human property.

7. Parental tyranny inevitably produces situations of violence against minors. This is the epitome of adultism's harm to youth.

8. Right treatment of youth is founded upon their consent (and their freedom to not consent).

III. POWER AT THE GROUP LEVEL

9. Youth should have the power necessary for self-protection, without mediation.

10. The most important freedom for Youth Liberation to win is the ability for youth to escape situations of suffering, at will.

11. Self-protection requires youth to band together, to work for their collective well-being.

12. Adult authorities cannot be trusted to maintain fair and just institutions on their own.

13. Adult government must be kept in check by direct participation and activism initiated by watchdog groups.

14. Self-protection requires direct participation (not merely representation) in all decision-making processes that effect the life of an individual youth or the youth community.

15. The potential for injustice cannot be eliminated.

IV. ADVOCACY

16. Most oppression comes in the guise of "protection".

17. Adult allies pose a threat of cooptation.

18. It is important that actual youth be the voice of, and in control of, YL organizations.

19. There is more to being a YL advocate than just being a youth.

V. THE NATURE OF YOUTH

20. Youth are persons.

21. Treating someone "like a person" means conscientiously respecting their right to control their own body.

22. It is unethical to treat any person as if they are human property.

23. Youth and adults are not identical.

24. Youth require care-giving. This does not justify granting adults absolute power.

25. Babies and fetuses fall outside of Youth Liberation's purview.

VI. THE NATURE OF ADULTHOOD

26. The line between adults and youth is artificial.

27. Adulthood is a membership organization.

28. The implicit "mission statement" of the adult organization is this: "maintain control over youth".

29. Both adults and youth try to dissociate themselves from childhood.

30. Members of the group "adults" can refuse to identify with the organization, and challenge its structure.

31. "Ending" adultism would require a transformation of culture as well as laws.