The empty people

The empty people, they wanted nothing more; they chafed at bonds because they were not mature enough for discipline, the kind of discipline one gives himself. He had seen too many of them, sad, misguided people, railing at institutions and ideas they were too juvenile to accept. The important things in life called for maturity, for responsibility. Too many fled from it, wanting to be back in childhood when somebody else coped with the problems.

(from Where the Long Grass Blows, by Louis Lamour)