Generational Tension

Three generations live in one country in 1976. They disagree about work, about the state, and about the sea.

The three generations [edit]

The war generation runs the state. The plan generation runs the plant. The young run the queue and the dance.

The war generation [edit]

A person of this generation holds 3 beliefs.

1. A hard year can return. Keep a store.
2. The party ended the war and the hunger. Do not break it.
3. A loud person is a danger.

This generation gives the party its votes and its silence. It also hides the informal trade and covers a kinsman.

The plan generation [edit]

A person of this generation holds 3 beliefs.

1. A skill brings a wage and a flat.
2. The plan works if a person works.
3. The system is slow but it moves.

This generation is the most loyal and the most tired. It works 2 shifts, builds a flat, and waits 8 years for a car.

The young [edit]

A young person of 1976 holds 3 ideas that the state dislikes.

1. The Czechoslovakia action of 1968 was wrong. See Socialist Moravska.
2. Western music, jeans, and a foreign film are better than the state product.
3. A person can leave. The border is a fact, not a law of nature.

The third idea is the dangerous one. About 41 percent of young people in a 1975 state survey say they would work abroad "for a time". The survey was not published.

The marks of the young [edit]

A young person shows the generation in 5 ways.

Work and the young [edit]

A young worker earns 140 leva and pays 30 percent to the house. The rest buys a record, a shirt, and a seat at a dance.

The young want 3 things that the state cannot give quickly.

• A flat before 26.
• A wage that grows with skill, not with years.
• A trip abroad with a return.

The dance [edit]

The dance is the main social space of the young. A port town has 3 dances in summer: the pier hall, the resort, and the plant club.

The band plays the approved style and then a Western song. The party officer leaves at the second song. The band plays a third.

The village young [edit]

A village young person faces a different problem. The land gives no place and the plant gives a permit.

A girl who finishes a trade academy does not return to the zadruga. She sends money and visits at Easter. The Baba calls this "a loss with a wage".

The army [edit]

A conscript of 18 meets the whole country in one barracks. A coast boy and a Marches boy share a tent for 2 years.

The army is the only place where the divide softens. It is also the place where a young man learns the border.

The old and the young at the table [edit]

A family table holds the argument in a fixed form.

1. The old person says "in my time".
2. The young person says "that was 30 years ago".
3. The mother changes the subject to food.
4. The argument ends with the same sentence: "eat".

The argument repeats each Sunday and it settles nothing. It also prevents a break.

The future [edit]

The young will inherit a state with 4 problems.

• A copper reserve for 8 years.
• A debt to the West of 1.06 billion dollars.
• An old fleet.
• A party with a mean age of 63.

The war generation will not see the answer. The plan generation will manage the decline. The young will decide what to do.

Other notes [edit]

• Regional Divides
• Dissent and Control
• Music