Need For a Vision Among the Youth of Today

Need for a vision among the youth of today

“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show dis-respect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.” Socrates c. (470-399 B.C)

            Why does someone begin an article with such a quote which was cited by someone centuries ago? Yes! This might surely be the initial reaction of some of the readers. Whatever may be the reactions of my readers, let me confess one thing: i.e., this quote disturbed me the moment I heard it, and I feel the disturbance till today. This is why when the Kwilamwila parish youth requested me to write an article for the parish magazine I thought of drawing a reflection on the above quote. Why am I so disturbed by this quote? Is it because no one makes such remarks about youth anymore? Or is it because the words of this ancient Greek thinker has become more commonly used today than ever? Probably the rationale behind me beginning my little article with Socrates’ quote is, his words are heard all over the world even today. At this moment I am tempted to remark: The youth have not changed much from the time of Socrates. “Youth” have been criticized from the very beginning of the development of the society and even today such words are not uncommon among the elders. Well, is it not shocking, that someone should criticize the youth hundreds of years ago? I believe at that time there were no much scientific developments as now. Any way, let us accept the fact that youth have been looked at with contempt from centuries past.  

            Many of my readers might still be confused as to what my conclusion will be. Obviously, my intention in writing these few lines is not to join this ancient thinker in criticizing the youth of today,  rather my intention is, to present the words of Socrates as a challenge for the youth of today. My question is: As responsible youth of 21^st century, will you allow the elders of today to make such a sarcastic comment on you? Or will you decide today to do something and pledge, “I will never allow anyone to pass such a degrading comment on me.” Let this be the attitude of whoever is reading this article. Let us decide here and now that life is not all about drifting away with the currents of the world like Relativism, Hedonism, Atheism, Scepticism etc., rather it is about working hard and doing something with our lives.

            A youth is defined as someone, who has a “zest for life, is enthusiastic, generous and full of joy, develops the talents and potential given by God, capable of responsible freedom, creative and optimistic by nature.” Indeed, youth are full of life and energy. They are ever ready to do anything and capable of lot of good works; but they also need certain orientation in their endeavors. A youth is like a river full of energy and potentialities that require certain amount of guidance and channelizing in order to be of best use to the society. This is where the role of the parents and the educators come in; there is a need for guidance and help for the youth of today. They have lot of energy and power but they need to be channelized. It is never a waste to invest on the youth. In fact someone very rightly commented, “To invest on the youth is to invest on the future.” But as youth, we too need to put an effort to be ‘SOMEONE’ in the world. Many of the youth of today does not seem to know what they want to do with their lives, and still worse- they to not know who they are and where they stand. Many of our youth, sadly, live in “fool’s paradise.” At this moment I am reminded of a short story:

Once two drunkards were walking along a public road knocking each other on the way. One of them asked the other- where are we? The other replied- ‘I don’t know.’ Both of them went along and bumped against an Army General. The angry General questioned the two men- Do you know who I am? Drunkards- “We don’t know where we are and he doesn’t know who he is.” Many of us are like the drunkards happy in our own world living in a fool’s paradise not open enough to come out of our world of spiritual and intellectual poverty.

            As youth, we need to use our God given intelligence and start being responsible and develop our talents and potentialities. Let us use our talents to do something useful for the society and the world. We should not allow any one to comment: “He slept beneath the moon, he basked beneath the sun and lived a life of going to do and died with nothing done.” Dear Friends, let us do something with our lives and do something useful. You might be aware of the following lines which are described as the saddest words in life:

Ø  “It might have been…”

Ø  “It should have…”

Ø  “I could have…”

Ø  “If only I had given a little extra…”

Let us hope that none of us fall into the misfortune of having to utter the saddest words of one’s life. This is why we need to start doing something with our lives. Sometimes I dread imagining  about the future of our youth because many of us still need to ask the basic questions of life or rather we have not yet taken life seriously enough or challenged ourselves sufficiently. If I ask some one, what do you do? (Nwng ma kalamw?) Most probably I will get the answer: “Gwdao swrao lwi.” Or if I ask someone what will you do in the future? (kalmasi ma kalamgwn?) It’s most likely that I will get the answer: “Nainwswi” (let’s see…). Some may consider this as the sign of humility, but I see it as lack of goal in one’s life. This is why we the youth of today we need to ask the basic question of life: “what do I want to do with my life?” Only when we ask Questions can we look for Answers. Many of us have the talent to find the Answer, considering the facts that we all are talented in one field or the other, but the main problem is we do not have “Questions.” Thus we end up doing Nothing. I personally remember many of my friends who were extremely gifted, be it in the field of studies, athletics, music etc., but some of them have landed up doing Nothing.

The path to success is not easy we all know, but the life of “Failure,” or “Defeat” is neither easy to accept, because one will feel the pinch of not working hard enough only later on in life, when you can do nothing about your past. That is why let us not allow our laziness and love for easy-life dominate us when we are young and capable of building our future. The elders of Kwilamwila parish, looking at the youth of our parish should be able to say, “The youth of our parish are very responsible, they are well mannered and well qualified, we have a bright future.” However, let us not take things lightly because it is not so easy to live an upright life in today’s world, let us do our best and allow God to do the rest. By our selves we are frail and helpless but with the help of God we will be able to do all things and say like St. Paul: “I can do all things in him who strengthens me.” Phil 4:3. Let us learn to have vision for our life do our best in achieving these goals and allow God to always guide every step we take so that our efforts may bear fruit and when storms of discouragement, failure and laziness assail us we may with humility cling on to God and be the persons we are called to be: God’s loving children.

By Nobin Narzary