Generational Fix

My editor, @ItsNutty, suggested the topic: “How the new generation has no-one to look up to”. I neither agree nor disagree with this topic, but it has sparked some related thoughts in my mind, hence this piece. Enjoy:

I read a quote which said “we so often complain about how utterly useless today’s generation is. Let us look to ourselves lest we forget who raised them.” Powerful words I felt. So often, people rush to blame society and “the decay in our moral fibre” for the degradation of the youth’s minds and behaviors. I will grant them the fact that over the years a lot of things have become more socially acceptable. Let me qualify my use of the term “socially acceptable” here to mean that society does not necessarily condone the actions of people, but more often than not will turn a blind eye to them thus ratifying them in a sense.

There are, however, still a few pockets of resistance to things which may be a little too liberal with non-political correctness. Two cases in point here are DSTV’s attempts to launch a 24-hour pornography channel as part of their offering last year. This was met with much a boo-ha by numerous, “morally up-standing” members of our society who threatened to boycott their DSTV subscriptions if the channel was introduced. Needless to say, DSTV canned that idea. The second case in point was the recent, erm…uproar from feminist SA about certain “sexually immoral” and “sexist” graphic t-shirts that a certain retail group had to recall from its stores.

Please, don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating for a 24-hour pornography channel on DSTV nor am I saying that I promote sexism, but what does that say about the quality of our upbringing if at the mere sight of a t-shirt that reads “you look better from behind” we all start making cat-calls and hooting our horns at every woman that walks by? In my view, that is the equivalent of boycotting Pick n Pay or Spar because I blame them for the high rates of drunken domestic violence in South Africa because they sell alcohol. It’s the same baseless argument, deriving your causes from the conclusion as opposed to drawing conclusions based on logical reasoning and evidence; a fallacy of false cause if you will.

I count myself lucky for having grown up in a family where I could look up to both of my parents. Above and beyond that, I had a strong set of aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins to look up to. That is where I got my principles from. Not the television, not celebrities, not people’s t-shirts, not the internet, or any other media for that matter. I am not, by any means saying that everyone has perfect role-models under their roofs to look up to, nor am I saying that there aren’t any positive figures in the media to look up to. What I am saying is that we, as society, need to stop worrying about what is in the big bad world to corrupt our children’s minds, and start worrying about what we can do to give them a foundation that is strong enough to withstand the pressures of the world. We must look at the cause, not the symptoms.

We need to empower the current and future generations with moral and ethical codes that won’t sway and be corrupted by t-shirts, peer pressure and what they see on the television. How? It’s simple really. Mahatma Gandhi hit the nail dead on the head when he said “be the change you wish to see in the world”. I can’t affect your actions directly, but by virtue of the fact that we as humans are creatures of habit and conformance, when we find ourselves surrounded by conscious, hard working people, we too in wanting to fit in will tend to conform to their behavior. It’s human nature at its simplest. Not to say jump to the extreme of permanent “do-gooding” – we are human after all – but try being a better person for a month; see if those around you react to you differently, treat you differently, speak to you differently.

Right now, as an individual I may not have the ability to change the world and everyone in it, but I can change myself, how I live in the world and how I deal with others. Who knows, that might just change them, and then the miracle of human nature will take it from there.