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Explosive Exodus. If their polemics sounded curiously off-key in the never-had-it-so-good society, the Young Angries at least helped ventilate British complacency and restore some of the dynamics that had gone out of the welfare state. A later wave of novelists and starkly realistic films bitterly mocked the opportunism and intellectual dishonesty of society as they saw it. Last year, for the first time since Pope and Swift peppered the 18th century Establishment with choleric wit, no-holds-barred political satire found a big, avid audience in theaters, nightclubs and newspaper columns. Even on BBC television, a longtime stronghold of genteel conformity, bright young men fresh from the universities outrageously lampoon such sacred cows as the Church of England, royalty, black African prime ministers and their own Harold Macmillan.
Youth's rebellious mood was measured by a Daily Telegraph Gallup poll, which reported recently that 45% of the under-25 generation would leave Britain if they could. To the government's dismay, 3,300 highly trained scientists and engineers migrated to the U.S. between 1957 and 1961; 250 Ph.D.s, whose training cost the nation $28,000 each, go each year.
Yawning Gulf. On the other hand, many of Britain's most talented young citizens feel that their country today is the most stimulating environment in the world. Says Author-Critic (The Uses of Literacy) Richard Hoggart, 44: "England today is the most exciting country in all Europe. We're facing ourselves, beginning to be honest." Echoes David Frost, 24, a recent Cambridge graduate who presides over the BBC's socko satirical television show, That Was the Week That Was: "We can be the first nation in history that's both a great nation and a totally honest one. We can stop this morale-boosting nonsense and the terrible underestimation of people's intelligence. It's a great time."
The new generation tackles life with an ardor and audacity that are in bright contrast with the fashionable listlessness that was once seemingly endemic among educated Britons. They laugh easily at themselves and view the world with a wry detachment that is often in striking contrast with the prickly provincialism of their elders. Says Bryan Robertson, 36, one of the most influential art gallery directors in Britain: "The intelligence of the people over the past ten years has vastly outstripped the intelligence being meted out to them by their leaders. They're way, way ahead of the politicians. And there's a yawning gulf between young people and the lingering Edwardian business type."