Daily Meditation: Thursday, September 20, 2012

Adults - their part in how the young behave

09/20/2012

There is not enough awareness of the extent to which adolescents today are victims of the culture they are steeped in – the films they see, the books and newspapers they read, the conversations, speeches and, above all, the music they hear. They are shaped, fashioned, permeated, by the senseless and dangerous theories of writers, thinkers, film-makers and musicians, who are quite unaware that they bear a responsibility. These people are adults, and yet they have never reflected on how powerful the spoken or written word or sound and image can be, or how disturbing for the public, nor how they can affect people's balance, particularly young people, who are so much more vulnerable. If today’s young people rebel or indulge in all kinds of excesses and practices that are dangerous for their health and psychic balance, it is adults who are at fault. Instead of reflecting on better ways of educating and guiding them, they pour out all their wild imaginings onto them. And then they are surprised how young people behave. They shouldn’t be. If they are honest, there is only one thing for them to do: see their own reflection in the mirror the young people are holding up to them, say to themselves, ‘We have made these children what they are’, accept the lesson and change course.