Urban Confrontation; 29; Citizens of the 70's: The New American Man Dr. Carl Rogers

From Northeastern University the National Information Network presents urban confrontations. The only thing is certain avenues and he is uncertain. Sometimes he feels enough stale sick sad uncertain world. He's sharply aware that he's only a speck of life on a small blue and white planet in an enormous universe. Is there a purpose in that universe. Are only the purpose he creates. He doesn't know the answer but he's willing to live with this anxious uncertainty. This week on urban confrontation psychoanalyst Dr. Carl Rogers co-director of the Center for the Study of the person. Has more money in California. This week's program. Citizen of the 70s. The new American man.

Used in cooperation with the associates for human resources. Here is your host Bill Safire beaner. As far as we can tell the first signs of what we know as man were visible on this earth some 100000 years ago to survive from prehistory until the 20th century. Our ancestors of shown a remarkable talent for adopting to an ever changing environment. A talent that is unique in the animal kingdom. The first man learned to sustain themselves as lound nomads after leaving the sanctuary of the forest. Later our distant relatives fashioned clothing on shelter to protect themselves from the elements. Ever since those days man has learned new ways of using energy to cope with changes in his surroundings. Each new environment has yielded a new man ready to cope with change with a new

lifestyle from the beast like Cro-Magnon man to the scholars of classical antiquity from the feudal lords and clerics of the Middle Ages to the well-balanced renaissance man from the technocrat of the industrial revolution until today at the start of the 1970s. Today for the first time in history a man is not only faced with environmental change for the first time and must consider the possibility that either slowly through waste or instantly through nuclear detonation his environment could be totally destroyed. Our guest today is Dr. Carl Rogers a man who has spent his life studying the way a man's mind is affected by environmental change. During this program you will hear Dr. Rogers announce the emergence of what he believes to be. A. Veteran down. To half. The challenges humanity. In this the final.

One. I've seen the emerging partially formed. From. Encounter Groups sense to the groups. I realize for many years I saw best emerging in the deep relationship of individual search theory. I see him showing his face in the rapidly growing very. Humanistic and human psychology. No I'm not speaking about just one age group. I see him in a new type of student emerging on our campuses. Underneath the extremism and the violence. I see him. In the campus I'm restless. It's so evident all over the world. Paris Czechoslovakia Japan. In this country. Colombia Berkeley and San Francisco State as well as many many other places. But this new man is not all

level. To me at times he's sometimes Frank but he is emerging. I see him in a surge per individual ism and self respect. You know our black population in and out of the ghettos. And in the racial unrest which runs like a fever through all of our cities. I see elements of him in the philosophy of dropouts of our generation the school drop. The. Hippies flower people. I see him strangely enough in the younger members of industrial management today. I coach but to my older eyes it's a confusing glimpse of him. In the musicians the poets writers the composers of this generation this man the doctor Rodgers talks about is not one to subject himself to organized authority in education in

business or in religion. Hello Dr. Rogers adds that the new man is definitely not a bureaucratic animal. Very clear though I'm excited for this patient about this person of tomorrow. There are aspects of the situation which are very sobering. The new man has characteristics which run. Strongly counter to the orthodoxies dog lists. Forums and creeds of the major Western religions false Islam Protestantism duties. He doesn't fit all into the traditional industrial management of an organization. He contradicts in his person. Almost every element of traditional schools colleges universities. He certainly is not suited to become a part of bureaucratic government. He doesn't fit very well in the military.

Since our culture has developed all these orthodoxies and forms of present day life. We have to ask ourselves seriously if this new man is simply a deviant misfit. Or whether it's something. More hopeful. Dr. Roger is going to change that his new man would not be at home with the disciplined man of ancient times. He's almost the heir to the CIS a very puritan culture. With its strict beliefs and controls which founded our country. He's very different from the person admired by the Industrial Revolution. But that person's ambition productivity. He's deeply opposite to the communist culture. With its controls on thought and behavior in the interests of the state. He in no way resembles the medieval man the man of faith and force. Of monasteries and crusaders.

I don't think he would be congenial with the man produced by the Roman Empire. The practical. Disciplined man. He's also very endearing to today's culture in the United States which emphasizes computer technology. And the man in uniform. Or the military police or government inspector. If then he's nude in so many ways. If he deviates so deeply from almost all of the gradually developed norms of the parents. And even the prison. Is he just a spork in the evolutionary line. Soon to die out or be discouraged. Personally I don't believe so. I believe he's a viable creature. I have the conviction that he's the person of tomorrow. And the perhaps he has a better chance of survival than we do.

Dr Rogers admits that his description of the new man now suits only a minority of our present population but he maintains that it is a growing minorities because Dr. Rogers offers us a profile of his man of the future. He has no use for a sham of a pretense. Whether in interpersonal relationships in education. In business in politics or in religion. You very lose authenticity. He will not put up with double talk. He has seen Madison Avenue phoniness on TV he's seen the doubletalk the politician. Has he seen the train to be a sure car with police clubbing bystanders and merely proclaiming the rightness of law and order. He has seen our world is largely forming. A world of pretense and he's not willing to believe what he is told. It has become a

slogan to. Tell it the way it is baby. I think you regard. Her culture is almost completely hypocritical. And I believe that this hate group for whom this is perhaps the deepest mark of the new man he's opposed to. All highly structured inflexible institutions. He wants organizations to be fluid. And changing. And adapting and above all human. It will be clear from what follows. How deep is his dislike for bureaucracy. Rigidity. For performance say he simply will not buy these qualities. He finds educational institutions mostly irrelevant and futile so first he's concerned his unrest in a college heist. Knowing.

Some elementary schools arise out of a hundred specific issues but none of those issues would have any importance if you schooling his education were truly meaningful for him. He sees traditional education as it is the most rigid. Outdated incompetent. Bureaucratic institution in our culture. That. Sees a conflict. Between. Morality. And its contemporary expression. Through organized religion. Dr. Rogers sees the new man as being without a fixed ethics. A man who judges each moral situation on its own merit. Some religious institutions are perceived as definitely irrelevant. And frequently damaging to human progress. This attitude toward religious institutions doesn't mean at all that he has no concern. For life's mysteries. Or for the search for ethical and moral

purpose it seems unfair that this person of tomorrow is deeply concerned with living in a moral and ethical way. But the morals are new and shifting the ethics are relative to the situation and the one thing that is not tolerated. Is the discrepancy between verbal standards and the actual living of. The new man is creating a new style of community living. And according to Dr. Rogers he is developing a new condom language groping. He's seeking. New forms of community. And closeness of intimacy of shared purpose. He's seeking new forms of communication in such a community. Verbal and nonverbal. Feeling full as well as intellectual. He recognizes that he will be living his transient life. Mostly in temporary relationships and that he must be able to establish

closeness quickly in his mobile world. He doesn't live long in one community. He's not surrounded by family and relatives. He's a part of what we're in. This calls the temporary society so he realizes that if you used to live in a human context he must be able to establish an intimate. Communicative. Personal bond with others in a very short space of time. He must be able to leave these close relationships behind. Without excessive conflict. A morning Dr. Rogers tells us that a new man and women as always believe in prominent unions they object to the little bomb works not the traditional marriage institution has demanded. He has a distrust of marriage as an institution. A man woman relationship has deep begging for it. Only when it is a mutually enhanced growing. Flowing relationship. This

attitude is as true of the woman of tomorrow as it is of the man. Each has a little regard for marriage as a ceremony or for permanence which proved to be highly imperfect. I found him to be a searching person. Without any meat answers. The only thing is certain I visit he is uncertain. Sometimes he feels a nostalgic sadness uncertain world. He's sharply aware of the fact. That he's only a speck of life. On a small blue and white planet in an enormous universe. Is there a purpose and I do universe or only the purpose he creates. He doesn't know the answer. But he is willing to live with this anxious uncertainty. There's a rhythm in his life between flow. And stability. Between changing this and structure. Between anxiety and

temporary security. Stability is only a brief period for the consolidation of learning before moving on to more change. I think that he always exists in this rhythm of process between changing and stability. He's an open person open to himself close to his own feelings. He's also open to doing sensitive to the thoughts and feelings of others and to the objective realities of his work. He's a highly aware person. I think he's able to communicate with himself much more freely than any previous man. The barriers of repression. Which. Shut off so much of man from himself are definitely lower. Than in preceding generation. It's not only is he able to communicate with himself. He's also often able to express his feelings and thoughts to us. Here's. Where there are negative or. Confronting in

nature or positive and loving his life and his dislikes his joys and sorrows. Are passionate. And they're passionate we express is vitally alive. So this new man is not just some sedately found alive. That is Dr. Rogers believes that more than his ancestor He is also committed committed to helping other man follow all their proper way at the same time. Look at the new man is an adventurer constantly in search of new levels of experience. Children he's a concern. First. You have a population explosion. The pollution of our environment. The injustice is done. Are minority groups the oppressive use of our military might are all deeply important to it. He's a spontaneous person. Willing to risk the newness often willing to risk saying or doing

the wild thing. He's adventurous and this has an almost Elizabeth thumb quality to it. Everything is possible. Anything can be tried. Currently he likes to be turned on. By many kinds of experiences and by gross. This dependence on drugs for consciousness expanding experience. Is not infrequently being left behind as he discovers that he prefers to be turned on by fresh and vital interpersonal experiences. Or by meditation. Tragically he often decides to. Obey those laws which he regards as just. And to disobey those which you regard as I'm taking the consequences of his actions. This is a new phenomena. Or culture. We've had a few Thoreau's but we have never had hundreds of people young and old alike willing to

obey some laws and disobey others. On the basis of their own. Personal moral judge. He's active. Sometimes violently intolerantly and self-righteously active in the causes in which we believe and see arouses the most extreme and repressive antipathy in those who are frightened by the change he can see no reason why education organizations urban areas ghetto conditionings racial discrimination unjust wars should be allowed to remain unchanged. He has a sustained idealism. Which is linked to his activism. He does. Hope that these things will be changed in 50 years. He intends to change them. He has a trust in his own experience and a profound distrust of all external authority. Neither Pope nor judge

nor scholar. Can convince him of anything which is not borne out by his own experience. He has a belief in his own potential and his own direction. This belief extends to his own dreams of the future and his intuitions of the press. He can cooperate with others with great effectiveness in the pursuit of a goal which he is convinced is valid and meaningful. He almost never cooperates simply in order to conform. Or to be a good fellow. He has a disregard for material things and material rewards. While he's been accustomed to an affluent life. And readily uses all kinds of material things really taking him completely for granted. He's brave and willing to accept material rewards or material things if they mean that he must compromise his integrity in order to do so. Then as I see him he likes to be close to the elemental nature

of the sea the sun. The snow. Flowers animals and birds to life. And growth. There. He rides the waves on his surfboard. He sails the sea in a small prayer. He lives closely with gorillas are very large. He soars down the mountain on a ski. This new man is a free spirit distinguished most according to Dr. Rogers for his freewheeling independence virtual personal independence. It's the hallmarks of the new me. I think of so many many persons who have decided to. Be themselves. To do their own thing. Even though it means giving up all the benefits of orderly structure the institutions of which they've been a part. I think of a top business executive who resigned in order to attempt to start their idealistic small company of his own. That would express the goals that he

held dear. These men and women of tomorrow. Not a power to be tempted by the rewards offered by the establishment. Instead we are turning to their own inner purposes to make constructive choices as to where they want to do. Dr Rogers has constructed a profile of this mound of the future. How will tomorrow's man be able to work with today's institution. Dr. Rogers in visions that the first conflict between the new mound and the established order will be filled within our educational system or perhaps building. Will this new person be able to participate in our current world. Let's look at just one facet of this question. Can he be accepted in our educational institutions. I find myself particularly concerned as to whether educators and educational administrator years will be able to communicate with this new man. Will they be

able to hear you to understand me. To participate with him. Will they be able to let themselves become involved in significant relationships with him. I'm not too optimistic. Educational institutions in my experience universities colleges secondary and elementary schools are generally more resistant to change less open to tomorrow. Than any other institutions in our culture. Science and technology are changing at a fantastic rate. Industrial management is utterly different from what it was. 50 years ago. Religion that bastion of. Stability and unchanging is used in an era of incredible ferment change marriage and the family are most firmly established cultural institutions. There's scarcely any resemblance to marriage in the family as I knew it as a boy and young man.

But the young people I know best including my own grandchildren describe their schools in almost exactly the same way as I would have described. 50 years ago when I was attending the same boring often worthless lectures the same frightening and punitive examination the same divisors and administrators the same worship of the Almighty brave as if it were the sacred. I don't love our religion thank. You. I feel rather hopeless about educational systems because they almost invariably have no built him mechanisms for feedback from their learners nor for the continuous change and renewal which is so necessary if an institution is to survive. So perhaps you can realize why I wonder whether people in charge of these rigid

institutions will be able to communicate with them to accept the person of tomorrow. I fear that the answer with a few notable exceptions is a flat no. I see real learning moving more and more outside the educational system leaving only the former. And the brick and concrete shells just as real religion is more and more moving outside the institutionalized churches. I hope that a number of you were active in facilitating real learning outside the educational system. If so. You will inevitably find yourself involved with the sort of person I've been describing. And will be able to communicate with. Concluding let me say that I have tried to describe and to give examples of this new man this person of tomorrow. I hope I've made clear how deeply his values differed. From current institutionalized. Years.

I trust it's obvious that he doesn't fit at all well into any of our current institutions perhaps least of all into our lockstep educational system. He's going to have a rough time trying to live in his own way. Some of you will understand him and help him find his own road. Some of you may despise yet in my judgment if you can retain the qualities I listed so briefly if you can create a culture which would. Nourish. And nurture those qualities then it may be that he holds a great deal of promise for all of us and for our future in a world marked by him credibly rapid technological change we desperately need his ability to live as a fluid process. You know world characterized by overwhelming psychological sham and pretense. We certainly need his uncompromising integrity to the extent that you're

becoming this person of tomorrow. And endeavoring to sharpen them refine his qualities in a constructive fashion. I certainly wish you well. May you find many enduring satisfaction as you struggle to bring into being. Within yourself. And in your relationships with others. The best of this new man. Thanks. You're right. Adams. Moonwalks gives birth to a new kind of. Independent Spirit. With a distrust for established authority and a commitment to solve society's problems. Well suited for the 1970. Northeastern University has brought us psychoanalyst Dr. Carl Rogers.

Co-director of the Center for the Study of the person at La Jolla California. Today's program. Citizens of the 17th. The new American man. The views and opinions expressed on the preceding program. Were not necessarily those of Northeastern University for this nation. Questions asked where the moderator's method of presenting many sides of today's topic. Your program hosted in those of our famous the record department of radio production. This week program which was used in cooperation with the associates for human resources. Record by Peter Lance. But thanks. All. Right Paul Dyer. Executive producer for open confrontation. Is the for lack. Of a confrontation is produced for the division of instructional communications. At the nation's largest private university. Northeasterners. Request for a tape recorder. Any program. Or series. May be addressed to. Confrontations. Northeastern University. Also. Prosecuted. One.

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