#time-bomb

It is only natural that the new generation should live with greater awareness of the possibility of doomsday than those ‘over thirty,’ not because they are younger but because this was their first decisive experience in the world. (What are ‘problems’ to us ‘are built into the flesh and blood of the young.’) If you ask a member of this generation two simple questions: ‘How do you want the world to be in fifty years?’ and ‘What do you want your life to be like five years from now?’ the answers are quite often preceded by ‘Provided there is still a world,’ And ‘Provided I am still alive.’ In George Wald's words, ‘what we are up against is a generation that is by no means sure that it has a future.’ For the future, as Spender puts it, is ‘like a time-bomb buried, but ticking away, in the present.’ To the often-heard question Who are they, this new generation? one is tempted to answer, Those who hear the ticking. And to the other question, Who are they who utterly deny them? the answer may well be, Those who do not know, or refuse to face, things as they really are.

Just two kids stupid and fearless Like a bullet shooting the lovesick There's only one way down this road