Page 29 - MTYOI - Eng

A Message to the Youth of India 7

At home also, numerous young people are
unhappy. They cannot understand, nor be understood
by, their elders. They enjoy motorbikes, mobile phones,
computers, and iPods the way their parents toyed with
transistor radios. The world is open for today’s liberated
youth—alcohol, drugs, pornography, loose sex, violence.
Some parents try to protect their offspring by imposing
restrictions. But the youth consider such parents to be
suppressive guardians of an old-fashioned morality that
they don’t want imposed on them: “Why should I do
what you say? I’m young, strong, healthy, and want to
enjoy. Why shouldn’t I? I can look after myself. I don’t
need you!” Who can stop them? “Jump on a motorbike
and hit the road! We’ll dress as we like, think as we
like, do as we like.” The older generation laments, “Our
children don’t care for what we say. They don’t relate to
us.” But if parents are unable to give any clear direction
to their wards, what should they expect?
If the older generation is highly materialistic,
absorbed in maintaining and improving a comfortable
standard of living, how can they expect their progeny
to have finer values? In the unrelenting quest for
“Money! Money! Money!” where is the question of
right and wrong? “Right” has come to mean succeeding
materially; “wrong” means to fail. Moral instructions
are imparted as a convenience in an attempt to keep
offspring in line. Naturally, to give pious speeches yet
set an example of selfishness cannot dupe the educated
youth of today. If they are sceptical, disenchanted,