“Thwarted, or starved, in the important objects proper to young capacities, the boys and young men naturally find or invent deviant objects for themselves. … Their choices and inventions are rarely charming, usually stupid, and often disastrous; we cannot expect average kids to deviate with genius. But on the other hand, the young men who conform to the dominant society become for the most part apathetic, disappointed, cynical and wasted.”

— Paul Goodman, book Growing Up Absurd

Source: Growing Up Absurd (1956), p. 13.

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Paul Goodman47

American novelist, playwright, poet and psychotherapist 1911–1972

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