Next
Stage
In the mystery of the human development
Is that of
Old age
Coming on
Just about when you learn
How to do
What they have been trying to teach you
You begin to fumble
And then you have to
Pull yourself together
And for another few years
Act as though
You still could do it
And then everybody else begins to see
That he’s not doing so well
They put another waiter in
To take over the job for you
And
That kind of thing
You are gradually
Eased out
You are gradually
Eased out
[Chorus]
The first half of life
When there is a knock on the door
You think
‘Here it comes‘
‘Here it comes’
And the last half of life
When there is a knock on the door
You think
‘Here it comes‘
‘Here it comes’
In other words
The first function
Of the
Local social mythology
Was to
Bring you from childhood
Dependency
To responsibility
In terms
Of the social demand
And then just about when you are beginning to feel good about it all
The society that has said
You’ve got to do what we want
Begins to say
Well
It looks as though you can’t do what we want
So
You are on your own
Then you have what’s called a nervous breakdown
[Chorus]
The first half of life
When there is a knock on the door
You think
‘Here it comes‘
‘Here it comes’
And the last half of life
When there is a knock on the door
You think
‘Here it comes‘
‘Here it comes’
The
Next problem then
In a mythological order
That is going to take care of us
Is to tell us what to do with our psyches
When that begins to happen
The economic problem isn’t the main one
Not that somebody should
You know
Give you a fishing rod
And send you out fishing
And then have dinner for you when you come home
It’s what are you gonna do?
With that
Power inside you
What are you gonna do?
With that
Power inside you
What are you gonna do?
With that
Power inside you
What are you gonna do?
With that
Power inside you
What are you gonna do?
With that
Power inside you
[Chorus]
The first half of life
When there is a knock on the door
You think
‘Here it comes‘
‘Here it comes’
And the last half of life
When there is a knock on the door
You think
‘Here it comes‘
‘Here it comes’
You’ve become
Somewhat
Aware
Of the world
Of the mystery of the world
And you just don’t want to go doodling along with silly little children’s tasks
And that’s not what you’re
Worth
It’s not what you are ready for
There are problems to face
The most challenging one
Is death
Man is the only animal that knows he’s going to die
And as soon as you fumble that ball
It’s coming
It’s coming
[Chorus]
The first half of life
When there is a knock on the door
You think
‘Here it comes‘
‘Here it comes’
And the last half of life
When there is a knock on the door
You think
‘Here it comes‘
‘Here it comes’
So
We find
This
Wonderful problem
And mythologies
In general
The religions
Have served it
They have provided
Images
Tasks
Discipline
That carry the child
From
Childhood dependency to responsibility
Rather simple responsibilities
Those that society says
You’ve got to
Accept
And then
They’ve provided
A way out
They tell you
That daddy
Will beat a bear
And you’re going back home
Now this isn’t quite enough anymore
Either [audience laughter]
Is it any wonder that our clergymen look a little bit anxious these days?
[audience laughter fades]
Stage
In the mystery of the human development
Is that of
Old age
Coming on
Just about when you learn
How to do
What they have been trying to teach you
You begin to fumble
And then you have to
Pull yourself together
And for another few years
Act as though
You still could do it
And then everybody else begins to see
That he’s not doing so well
They put another waiter in
To take over the job for you
And
That kind of thing
You are gradually
Eased out
You are gradually
Eased out
[Chorus]
The first half of life
When there is a knock on the door
You think
‘Here it comes‘
‘Here it comes’
And the last half of life
When there is a knock on the door
You think
‘Here it comes‘
‘Here it comes’
In other words
The first function
Of the
Local social mythology
Was to
Bring you from childhood
Dependency
To responsibility
In terms
Of the social demand
And then just about when you are beginning to feel good about it all
The society that has said
You’ve got to do what we want
Begins to say
Well
It looks as though you can’t do what we want
So
You are on your own
Then you have what’s called a nervous breakdown
[Chorus]
The first half of life
When there is a knock on the door
You think
‘Here it comes‘
‘Here it comes’
And the last half of life
When there is a knock on the door
You think
‘Here it comes‘
‘Here it comes’
The
Next problem then
In a mythological order
That is going to take care of us
Is to tell us what to do with our psyches
When that begins to happen
The economic problem isn’t the main one
Not that somebody should
You know
Give you a fishing rod
And send you out fishing
And then have dinner for you when you come home
It’s what are you gonna do?
With that
Power inside you
What are you gonna do?
With that
Power inside you
What are you gonna do?
With that
Power inside you
What are you gonna do?
With that
Power inside you
What are you gonna do?
With that
Power inside you
[Chorus]
The first half of life
When there is a knock on the door
You think
‘Here it comes‘
‘Here it comes’
And the last half of life
When there is a knock on the door
You think
‘Here it comes‘
‘Here it comes’
You’ve become
Somewhat
Aware
Of the world
Of the mystery of the world
And you just don’t want to go doodling along with silly little children’s tasks
And that’s not what you’re
Worth
It’s not what you are ready for
There are problems to face
The most challenging one
Is death
Man is the only animal that knows he’s going to die
And as soon as you fumble that ball
It’s coming
It’s coming
[Chorus]
The first half of life
When there is a knock on the door
You think
‘Here it comes‘
‘Here it comes’
And the last half of life
When there is a knock on the door
You think
‘Here it comes‘
‘Here it comes’
So
We find
This
Wonderful problem
And mythologies
In general
The religions
Have served it
They have provided
Images
Tasks
Discipline
That carry the child
From
Childhood dependency to responsibility
Rather simple responsibilities
Those that society says
You’ve got to
Accept
And then
They’ve provided
A way out
They tell you
That daddy
Will beat a bear
And you’re going back home
Now this isn’t quite enough anymore
Either [audience laughter]
Is it any wonder that our clergymen look a little bit anxious these days?
[audience laughter fades]
A point I want to make is this
That all of these
Divine
Interpretations
Of local law
Of local social orders
Are simply cooked up
They are not true
The society
Has changed with time
These are functions of conditions
Of geography
And history
One must realize
That the moral order is in flux
Is changing
There is no God-given right
Wrong, true, false, moral
Immoral
And with that kind of
Relativism
One is free
To live as a
Human being
[Chorus]
One is free
One is free
One is free
One is free
To live as a
Human being
Not simply
As a
Robot
Repeating patterns
That have been
Enforced
From the past
From the past
So we have a much more sophisticated idea
Toward the social
Order
However when it comes
To this other problem
Of the natural order
One's nature as man
The thing is
Not
Quite
So
Relativistic
[Chorus]
One is free
One is free
One is free
One is free
To live as a
Human being
One is free
One is free
One is free
One is free
To live as a
Human being
One is free
One is free
To live as a
Human being
One is free
That all of these
Divine
Interpretations
Of local law
Of local social orders
Are simply cooked up
They are not true
The society
Has changed with time
These are functions of conditions
Of geography
And history
One must realize
That the moral order is in flux
Is changing
There is no God-given right
Wrong, true, false, moral
Immoral
And with that kind of
Relativism
One is free
To live as a
Human being
[Chorus]
One is free
One is free
One is free
One is free
To live as a
Human being
Not simply
As a
Robot
Repeating patterns
That have been
Enforced
From the past
From the past
So we have a much more sophisticated idea
Toward the social
Order
However when it comes
To this other problem
Of the natural order
One's nature as man
The thing is
Not
Quite
So
Relativistic
[Chorus]
One is free
One is free
One is free
One is free
To live as a
Human being
One is free
One is free
One is free
One is free
To live as a
Human being
One is free
One is free
To live as a
Human being
One is free
Now that’s not quite the way we educate
Our
Youngsters
We have another idea for them
The traditional notion
Of
A mature adult
Is
A person
Who
Behaves
As he ought to behave
Who behaves as the society has always
Asked him to behave
Grandpa behaved this way
So did great grandpa
And every kid who didn’t was eaten
So we all behaved this way
That is to say
The
Adult
Is the one who accepts
And represents
The order
Of the society
Without question
This you get
In all traditional
Societies
Now you know what we call a person
Who behaves that way
[Chorus]
A stuffed shirt
A stuffed shirt
A person
Who
Behaves
As he ought to behave
He has never built
Anything
Particular out of himself
He has simply
Done
As told
He’s sure
Of what’s right
Of what’s wrong
And
That’s that
Now we can’t have this anymore
We don’t want it
Our notion
In our society
Today
Of an adult
Mind
Is a mind
That accepts
Responsibility
For its own actions
That judges
In terms of
Value
Not saying
“Oh, I want this because I like it”
But in terms of
An ordered
Considered
Value scale
The individual is to judge
The individual is to criticize
And the individual is to represent
With courage
And loyalty
His judgments
[Chorus]
A stuffed shirt
A stuffed shirt
A person
Who
Behaves
As he ought to behave
Now this asks a lot of the society itself
That wasn’t asked before
This also tends to shatter
The idea
Of authority
Now that idea was formally
Validated by say
It came from God
The Lord of the Universe
Ordered things this way
For the society
For the society
The society
The society
Our
Youngsters
We have another idea for them
The traditional notion
Of
A mature adult
Is
A person
Who
Behaves
As he ought to behave
Who behaves as the society has always
Asked him to behave
Grandpa behaved this way
So did great grandpa
And every kid who didn’t was eaten
So we all behaved this way
That is to say
The
Adult
Is the one who accepts
And represents
The order
Of the society
Without question
This you get
In all traditional
Societies
Now you know what we call a person
Who behaves that way
[Chorus]
A stuffed shirt
A stuffed shirt
A person
Who
Behaves
As he ought to behave
He has never built
Anything
Particular out of himself
He has simply
Done
As told
He’s sure
Of what’s right
Of what’s wrong
And
That’s that
Now we can’t have this anymore
We don’t want it
Our notion
In our society
Today
Of an adult
Mind
Is a mind
That accepts
Responsibility
For its own actions
That judges
In terms of
Value
Not saying
“Oh, I want this because I like it”
But in terms of
An ordered
Considered
Value scale
The individual is to judge
The individual is to criticize
And the individual is to represent
With courage
And loyalty
His judgments
[Chorus]
A stuffed shirt
A stuffed shirt
A person
Who
Behaves
As he ought to behave
Now this asks a lot of the society itself
That wasn’t asked before
This also tends to shatter
The idea
Of authority
Now that idea was formally
Validated by say
It came from God
The Lord of the Universe
Ordered things this way
For the society
For the society
The society
The society
The primitive
And
Traditional
Initiation rites
Have to do with
Transforming the mode
Of
Reaction
Sometimes
And usually
Terrifically
Frightening
And actually
Very painful
Rituals
So that the individual will no longer think he’s a little boy
There are some rather amusing ones
From Australia, for instance
Where things are pretty fierce
When little boys
Begin to become kind of nasty
And difficult for their mothers to handle
The women get together and give them a good beating
Around the legs with
Sticks and so forth
And then in a few weeks
Something very interesting happens
The men
All dressed up
In strange
God-like costumes
Such as the
Youngsters have always been taught were the
Figures of the
Divinities
They come in with bullroarers and yawls and all kinds of terrifying noises
And the children
The boys
Run to their mothers for protection
And the mothers PRETEND
To protect them
Then the men
Grab them
And take them away
So mother’s no good anymore
Now they have to face this thing
And then
What they have to face is – is – is really no fun
[Chorus]
So mother’s no good anymore
Now they have to face this thing
And then
What they have to face
Is really no fun
So mother’s no good anymore
Now they have to face this thing
And then
What they have to face
Is really no fun
One of the
Ah
Little crises
The boy is behind
A screen of bushes
And a lot of very interesting things are going on outside
At night
Dances and so forth
The boys are told not to look
Well any boy who does look
Can you imagine what’s done with him?
He’s killed and eaten
That is
One way to handle juvenile delinquents [audience laughter]
Any
Youngster
Who will not
Cooperate with the society that is supporting him
Is just eradicated
Then
He is given a chance
To see what is going on out there
So he is sitting, a scared kid
I mean, he is about twelve or thirteen years old
At the end of this
Dance field
It’s night
A strange man comes out
Performing
The
Myth
Of the
Cosmic kangaroo
The cosmic dog comes out and attacks the kangaroo
Now after the youngster has seen this
Two big fellows come rushing down the field
And jump on the kid
And
Continue to jump on him
He is going to remember kangaroo
And dog forever
This thing is built-in
It may not be bright
But they get the point
And there are not many points to be gotten
[Chorus]
So mother’s no good anymore
Now they have to face this thing
And then
What they have to face
Is really no fun
So mother’s no good anymore
Now they have to face this thing
And then
What they have to face
Is really no fun
There are other things that happen that I won’t go through
But they are all pretty
Um
Exciting
Let’s say
And when they are all over
The kid isn’t the kid he was
Before he changed
A lot has happened
His body has been changed, and
And
He’s then sent back
To the girls
And there is one of them already selected to be his wife, and he’s now a guaranteed little man
And he’s going to behave
As a man of this crowd
Ought to behave
And
Traditional
Initiation rites
Have to do with
Transforming the mode
Of
Reaction
Sometimes
And usually
Terrifically
Frightening
And actually
Very painful
Rituals
So that the individual will no longer think he’s a little boy
There are some rather amusing ones
From Australia, for instance
Where things are pretty fierce
When little boys
Begin to become kind of nasty
And difficult for their mothers to handle
The women get together and give them a good beating
Around the legs with
Sticks and so forth
And then in a few weeks
Something very interesting happens
The men
All dressed up
In strange
God-like costumes
Such as the
Youngsters have always been taught were the
Figures of the
Divinities
They come in with bullroarers and yawls and all kinds of terrifying noises
And the children
The boys
Run to their mothers for protection
And the mothers PRETEND
To protect them
Then the men
Grab them
And take them away
So mother’s no good anymore
Now they have to face this thing
And then
What they have to face is – is – is really no fun
[Chorus]
So mother’s no good anymore
Now they have to face this thing
And then
What they have to face
Is really no fun
So mother’s no good anymore
Now they have to face this thing
And then
What they have to face
Is really no fun
One of the
Ah
Little crises
The boy is behind
A screen of bushes
And a lot of very interesting things are going on outside
At night
Dances and so forth
The boys are told not to look
Well any boy who does look
Can you imagine what’s done with him?
He’s killed and eaten
That is
One way to handle juvenile delinquents [audience laughter]
Any
Youngster
Who will not
Cooperate with the society that is supporting him
Is just eradicated
Then
He is given a chance
To see what is going on out there
So he is sitting, a scared kid
I mean, he is about twelve or thirteen years old
At the end of this
Dance field
It’s night
A strange man comes out
Performing
The
Myth
Of the
Cosmic kangaroo
The cosmic dog comes out and attacks the kangaroo
Now after the youngster has seen this
Two big fellows come rushing down the field
And jump on the kid
And
Continue to jump on him
He is going to remember kangaroo
And dog forever
This thing is built-in
It may not be bright
But they get the point
And there are not many points to be gotten
[Chorus]
So mother’s no good anymore
Now they have to face this thing
And then
What they have to face
Is really no fun
So mother’s no good anymore
Now they have to face this thing
And then
What they have to face
Is really no fun
There are other things that happen that I won’t go through
But they are all pretty
Um
Exciting
Let’s say
And when they are all over
The kid isn’t the kid he was
Before he changed
A lot has happened
His body has been changed, and
And
He’s then sent back
To the girls
And there is one of them already selected to be his wife, and he’s now a guaranteed little man
And he’s going to behave
As a man of this crowd
Ought to behave
The fourth function
Of a mythology then
Is to center
And integrate
The individual
In relation
To himself
The microcosm
In relation to
Its society
We’ll call that the “mezzo-cosm,”
The in-between cosm
In relation to
The universe
As he’s able to know it
And finally
In relation to that
Ultimate mystery
Of which I spoke
In the beginning
Now let me say
A word
About
The problem of integrating
The individual
[Chorus]
This is the thing
That has been the same
This is the thing
That has been the same
Societies have changed
But the problem of the individual in his life course
Has not
Greatly changed
The human being
Is a very
Strange animal
He matures
When he is about
Twenty
Years old
He has been
Growing
For twenty years
For most animals
That is the length of a lifetime
So here is a creature
Who has grown for twenty years
In an
Attitude
And in a position
Largely of dependency
Uncertain of himself
Turning
To his parents
For
Help
Instruction
Protection
Approval
And punishment
This creates
A psychological structure
Of
Dependency
The individual
Is in an attitude
Of dependence
On parental figures
Then
We ask him
To become
Responsible
To assume
Responsibility
Grow up
[Chorus]
This is the thing
That has been the same
This is the thing
That has been the same
Societies have changed
But the problem of the individual in his life course
Has not
Greatly changed
This
Is the crisis
Of the transit
From infancy
To adulthood
From dependency
To
Responsibility
Something has to be done
To make it happen
It won’t happen automatically
As we now know
From the problem of psychoanalysis
A person who
Looks like an adult
But every time responsibility is thrown upon him, turns around to see where mother or daddy is
Just hasn’t passed that threshold
A neurotic is a person who is having responses
Of dependency when there ought to be responses
Of
Responsibility
That’s all it is
So then he goes to a
Psychiatrist who tells him
“Grow up”
That’s about all
The problem is
But that is not so easy
After you have
The business of a reflex
Stimulus
Response
Response takes place
The response of dependence
Dependence, dependence
And now suddenly it’s got to be
Responsibility
[Chorus]
This is the thing
That has been the same
This is the thing
That has been the same
Societies have changed
But the problem of the individual in his life course
Has not
Greatly changed
This is the thing
That has been the same
This is the thing
That has been the same
Societies have changed
But the problem of the individual in his life course
Has not
Greatly changed
Of a mythology then
Is to center
And integrate
The individual
In relation
To himself
The microcosm
In relation to
Its society
We’ll call that the “mezzo-cosm,”
The in-between cosm
In relation to
The universe
As he’s able to know it
And finally
In relation to that
Ultimate mystery
Of which I spoke
In the beginning
Now let me say
A word
About
The problem of integrating
The individual
[Chorus]
This is the thing
That has been the same
This is the thing
That has been the same
Societies have changed
But the problem of the individual in his life course
Has not
Greatly changed
The human being
Is a very
Strange animal
He matures
When he is about
Twenty
Years old
He has been
Growing
For twenty years
For most animals
That is the length of a lifetime
So here is a creature
Who has grown for twenty years
In an
Attitude
And in a position
Largely of dependency
Uncertain of himself
Turning
To his parents
For
Help
Instruction
Protection
Approval
And punishment
This creates
A psychological structure
Of
Dependency
The individual
Is in an attitude
Of dependence
On parental figures
Then
We ask him
To become
Responsible
To assume
Responsibility
Grow up
[Chorus]
This is the thing
That has been the same
This is the thing
That has been the same
Societies have changed
But the problem of the individual in his life course
Has not
Greatly changed
This
Is the crisis
Of the transit
From infancy
To adulthood
From dependency
To
Responsibility
Something has to be done
To make it happen
It won’t happen automatically
As we now know
From the problem of psychoanalysis
A person who
Looks like an adult
But every time responsibility is thrown upon him, turns around to see where mother or daddy is
Just hasn’t passed that threshold
A neurotic is a person who is having responses
Of dependency when there ought to be responses
Of
Responsibility
That’s all it is
So then he goes to a
Psychiatrist who tells him
“Grow up”
That’s about all
The problem is
But that is not so easy
After you have
The business of a reflex
Stimulus
Response
Response takes place
The response of dependence
Dependence, dependence
And now suddenly it’s got to be
Responsibility
[Chorus]
This is the thing
That has been the same
This is the thing
That has been the same
Societies have changed
But the problem of the individual in his life course
Has not
Greatly changed
This is the thing
That has been the same
This is the thing
That has been the same
Societies have changed
But the problem of the individual in his life course
Has not
Greatly changed