Bridging The Generation Gap
April 19, 2009
Why is today’s youth so negative and full of anger and aggression? The reason is that we have not provided them with what they ask for or really want, or the thing they were destined for. We are simply not ready to accommodate the younger generation. We don’t provide them with what they really want and need and that is why their lives are so difficult. On the surface they appear to have everything – computers, football, TV, sweets. But they don’t have an answer to the question “What am I living for?” This erupts in them through violence and anger at the elder generation.
After all, why are we even in this situation with an elder generation and younger one to begin with? Because the previous generation must tell and supply the new generation everything it knows about life. Otherwise what is the point of having parents?
A child gets out of diapers, learns a bit how to get by in life, and then asks, “So what’s next?”, “Is this all they are giving me? Now they need to give me the wisdom of life. The knowledge of where I am, what I am living for, what the essence of my life is. And this, I am not receiving from them.”
The fact that most people do not have a clue themselves about the answers to these questions does not free them from their obligation to provide their children with answers. They must search for answers. The child feels, “they gave birth to me, brought me into this world, and sort of threw me at the world” … This is what children feel inside and why they are completely disconnected from their parents nowadays. A child comes home, has a bite to eat and has his own life. For him his mother and father are simply machines that supply him with physical needs. All the rest, what has to do with his soul and what he is missing inside, has nothing to do with them. From his perspective “Who are they anyhow? Real dinosaurs.” Just robots that are in the house and serving him. That is how parents appear to children nowadays.
All this can change once parents begin to receive a different type of education. If they do not, the situation will not change. We can see this in families where parents are interested in the purpose of life, in the question: “What am I living for and how can I achieve the purpose of life?” The moment children look at their parents and see them developing from day to day, and feel they can provide an answer to any question they may have, and even more so, can explain to them what is happening in the world and the reason for the global crisis, the reason for all these difficult problems, answer questions about the end of life and the end of the world, all the subjects that the kids read and hear. When parents can explain and include their children in the correct explanation, then the situation changes altogether.
On the other hand, if children see and feel inside themselves how truly miserable their parents are, divorcing, substance abuse, and wasting their lives away (children nowadays are smart enough to pick up on this), then they have real contempt for their parents. So there is no choice but for parents to understand that they must also educate themselves – for their children’s sake. There is no way around this.
Comments
Got something to say?
You must be logged in to post a comment.