(CZ) Od apatie k revolučnosti (K logice sociálního vývoje československé mládeže)
(EN) From apathy to being revolutionary

Stať analyzuje sociální vývoj českoslovensicé mládeže v 80. letech na základě reinterpretace dat sociologických výzkumů. Autoři si kladou otázku, kde se vzala revolučnost mládeže v listopadu 1989. Odpověď nacházejí v deformovaném, demotivovaném a odcizeném vztahu lidí k práci, politice, kultuře i v problémech v rodině, které mládež citlivě vnímala. Závěr dokládá nezbytnost změn životních strategií mládeže, nemožnost kopírovat životní styl jejích rodičů a prarodičů.

The goal of the work is to prove that the participation of the youth in the revolution in the year 1989 was nothing accident all. The authors are looking for the answer to the question referring to the revolutionary character of young people, the students in particular, in the analysis of the determining attributes of the historical development in the 80s, and in the specific interaction of the young generation with the conditions which had been formed in that period. In the 1st chapter called „The Czechoslovak Youth beffore the November Revolution“ the causes and connections of the deformed, demotivated and estranged relation of the youth to the work, are dealt with as well as a problematic „discovery“ of a chance how to escape the low, nivelized salaries which had little to do with the actual performance at work in the official econommy by the means of the so called „second econommy“. In this connection the young people’s dependence on their parents’help, often long after their making themselves independent and establishing families of their own, is poimted at. Further on it is explained in this article why the values linked with the social and political activities found themselves at the very bottom of the values orientation ladder, and why young people used to enter official socialist political organizations which they did not consider their own. The autors also deal with the culture of the youth, and with the children- parents relations in the family. They draw the readers’ attention to the fact that a number of the values, ideals and goals displayed by the young in 1989 were intergenerationaly conveyed. The parents of the young of 1989 people belonging to the generation whose hopes were disappointed in the year 1968, when they had been young. The second chapter „The Czechoslovak Youth in the November Revolution“ asks the question whether the social „catalyzator“ was to be necessarily the students youth. The answer is „no“, but it remaines a matter of fact that the brutality of the totalitarian power directed against „the children“ led the older generation out from the long year’s lethargy, hypocrisy and fear. The last two chapters are devoted to the contemporary situation of the Czechoslovak youth and to their perspectives. The authors direct the reader’sattention to the fact that the social future of young people is not free of serious problems. In spite of that they share an optimistic vision of young people’s perspectives, the vision being based in the premise that the new generation will not copy the totalitarian values forced upon their parents and grandparents, that they will not continue their parent’sdeformed life style formed in Czechoslovakia in the past. In the conclusion of the article it is indicated what values young people will be likely looking for and what are the ways to them they may find.