Our generation is well protected and cared for by governments and parents. Parents who lived and worked through dramatic global changes of 60 and 70s, who were brought up by parents who went through the evils of World War, parents who do not want the same painful experience for their kids. They have a house, are able to send their kids to university, and can provide their kids with enough ‘pocket money’ to send them off travelling around the world in hopes they might learn and discover what the real world is. But can kids really appreciate this care without really knowing what pain, fear or struggle means? Many question arise and that I will try to find answers to.
Looking at our western youth makes me wonder if we are going to enter history books of the future as “lost generation”. When lookng around me, I see generation that does not know what pain is, the generation that rely on their governments’ and parents’ support too much, have high expectations of them, a generation that is not willing to fight for a better world, the generation that is rather disconnected from reality.
There are different types of people but I will identify three main streams as a starting point for my future posts: 1) the careless, 2) the ambitious and 3) the wise.
1. The most common type of youth are the mainstream, the ''average'', the type that you see in everyday life. The ignorant type that only cares about creating one perfect bubble of meaningless toys, gadgets and friends around themselves, and then choosing to live in this bubble, ignoring the complexities of live.
2. There are others who do try to make something of their lives, but they concentrate on their education, future, well-being, careers, i.e.material well-being, and perfectioninng their own lives and spiritual strength to the extent when they forget about simplicities and joys that life offers, but most importantly they forget about people who truly and unconditionally love and care about them. As Leo Tolstoy perfectly put into words : “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing themselves”
3. And the third type are the young who are the closest to the reality, they are confused about the world, they have many questions that they want answers to but have nobody out there who can understand and relate to them. Their best friends are their thoughts, books sometimes- they feel they have more in common with them then their peers. The problem with these individuals is that they find it difficult to start acting, to tell the world about their confused minds, they don’t want to interfere or don’t think they can succeed and win over the wickedness of humanity.
Naturally, it is wrong to generalise but these are my personal observations, based on my personal experiences, feelings and cultural background. Coming from a family where spirituality, love and care were always most important, but where the struggle for peace, material and political stability constantly kept on challenging personal values and belonging. Moving across cultures helps one to find the inner self, but it is often when they find the inner self they lose connection or will to connect to the external world. Sometimes being an individual and, to some extent an outsider for some years, becomes overly exhausting practice and makes you want to go back in time, back to simplicity, where your mind stops wondering, stops asking questions, where one is capable to blend in with the crowd and able to connect and have mindless conversations with people around. But this is another story.. Back to generations now..
The challenge now is to create a balance within our generation - inspire the ignorant, remind of simplicities life can offer to the ambitious, and reassure the wise that everything is in their hands and actions, and actions only is the way to make a difference and make our lives worth living.
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