I think this song is about how people don't think about the bigger picture. They fail to see the forest through the trees. People think about themselves. Not intentionally though, not because that's how people are, but because we choose to ignore the flaws of society. People at some point adopt this philosophy that ignorance is bliss, we choose to ignore whats wrong with the rest of the world and just look out for ourselves. We think that by being concerned only with ourselves that we will have a better life, but eventually our greed and self-loathing comes back to bite each of us. By being selfish we are hurting ourselves and the rest of the world. The young boy was born with a good heart. Eventually he will mature and become like the rest of us. Becoming concerned only with his own well being and nobody else. Ignoring his true emotions, he will abandon his concern and love for others and in exchange adopt the life of self-centeredness and greed that most people live by.

I think its about the change that hippie movement was attempting to bring about. He was urging people(politicians, parents, the media) to not judge the ideals of the youth. Some people(the media, parents) saw the hippies as troublemakers and were fearful of how big this counter-culture was growing. The government saw them as socialist-pacifists that were becoming the biggest cultural phenomenon ever and feared they could become a threat to oppressive capitalist society and states such as the us and uk; much like the British saw meetings of revolutionaries during pre-revolution America as a threat to British control over the colonies. Dylan begging for people not to fear the change.