"My view is that at a younger age your optimism is more and you have more imagination etc. You have less bias"
About this Quote
Kalam’s line flatters youth, but it also quietly indicts the adults who run things. Coming from a technocrat-president who spent his life selling India on the future - satellites, missiles, national ambition - it’s less a Hallmark nod to “kids these days” than a policy argument in plain clothes: if you want a society that builds, you need minds that haven’t been trained to say no.
The phrasing is tellingly modest: “My view is...” It’s the language of a scientist in a political world, softening a provocation so it can travel. Then he stacks the claims in a casual cascade (“optimism... imagination... etc.”), as if the evidence is obvious, almost empirical. That “etc.” does work: it invites the listener to fill in the virtues youth supposedly carries, turning the audience into co-authors of the praise.
The sharper subtext sits in the last sentence: “You have less bias.” Youth isn’t presented as morally superior, just less pre-loaded. Bias here isn’t only prejudice; it’s institutional habit, careerist caution, the learned pessimism that comes from getting rewarded for repeating yesterday’s answers. Kalam is pointing to a paradox of expertise: experience can expand competence while shrinking possibility.
In context - a statesman obsessed with education and national development - the quote functions like a recruitment pitch for innovation. Trust young people not because they’re pure, but because they’re still plastic: more willing to imagine a different India, and less invested in defending the old one.
The phrasing is tellingly modest: “My view is...” It’s the language of a scientist in a political world, softening a provocation so it can travel. Then he stacks the claims in a casual cascade (“optimism... imagination... etc.”), as if the evidence is obvious, almost empirical. That “etc.” does work: it invites the listener to fill in the virtues youth supposedly carries, turning the audience into co-authors of the praise.
The sharper subtext sits in the last sentence: “You have less bias.” Youth isn’t presented as morally superior, just less pre-loaded. Bias here isn’t only prejudice; it’s institutional habit, careerist caution, the learned pessimism that comes from getting rewarded for repeating yesterday’s answers. Kalam is pointing to a paradox of expertise: experience can expand competence while shrinking possibility.
In context - a statesman obsessed with education and national development - the quote functions like a recruitment pitch for innovation. Trust young people not because they’re pure, but because they’re still plastic: more willing to imagine a different India, and less invested in defending the old one.
Quote Details
| Topic | Youth |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
More Quotes by Abdul
Add to List
