Research on Youth in an Age of Complexity: The Rockefeller Youth Task Force and Daniel Yankelovich, 1965-1975 (ARTICLE 13) (Report‪)‬

The period between 1965 and 1975 encompasses important events associated with the peak of the youth movement in the 1960s and its demise in the 1970s. The period was an "age of complexity" according to Daniel Yankelovich (1974), a social scientist hired by John D. Rockefeller 3rd's Youth Task Force to study the wave of protests that Rockefeller felt threatened the nation's future as well as his family's interests in entrepreneurial capitalism and philanthropy. Student protests began as issues of civil rights and democratic participation on college campuses reframed decades old civil rights campaigns against entrenched injustices based on income, power, and fundamental socio--economic disparities grounded in poverty, segregation, and persistent discrimination against minorities including African Americans, Hispanics, Migrant Workers, American Indians, and women. Another major source of discontent was the Vietnam War and draft, which expanded in the 1960s. In turn anti--war protests increased and became catalysts for progressively violent rebellions and clashes with authorities on college campuses. New perspectives on sexuality, love, and preferred life style reflected a youth culture that swept the nation to the alarm of many representatives of the older generation. The new morality also reflected a diminished adherence to the traditional values of the Protestant Ethic that equated economic status and hard work with success. Radical groups questioned the basic tenants of capitalism as a partner in democratic governance for equity and social justice. As young people gained headlines for unconventional life styles, counter culture ideas, and demanding protests on the streets and across college campuses, authorities were increasingly willing to counter these actions with violence if necessary. Alarmed by these circumstances John D. Rockefeller 3rd, as responsible for protecting his family's corporate and philanthropic interests and as a father with a daughter about to enter college, sought constructive answers (Rockefeller 1968a). An approach in keeping with his family traditions was to first research a problem and to find systematic short and long--term solutions. For example, in 1913--1914, when the Rockefeller family corporate and philanthropic interests were under attack in the press and by Congress during the Rockefeller owned Colorado Fuel and Iron strike and "Ludlow Massacre," JDR 3rd's father, John D. Rockefeller Jr., hired Ivy Lee to help redeem the family name. Lee, a pioneer in public relations, served Rockefeller family and corporate interests in this capacity over the next twenty years. While Lee spent most of his career propagandizing on behalf of wealthy clients disfavored by the public, his philosophy, however, was to seek the truth, listen to the parties involved, and to accommodate, or manipulate public opinion to serve his client's purposes.