m open to all forms of criticism.
A couple of months ago, a concept was brought to my attention. You're probably going to criticise me for having no life at all, or assume that I've lost my mind and that I'm part of some cult. None of this is true. I just ask, where are the thinkers in our generation, and the next one. Have we all become so obsessed with superficial things?
Being a follower of the Zeitgeist movement, a project of theirs sparked my interest. If you have never heard of it, Project Venus is basically a concept that aims to reshape our society for the good. This got me thinking, because I myself have doubts about our future and how things will turn out if we keep letting things go the way they are now.
Taking recent events in Austria into account, when did it become right for one or more teenagers to hold a taxi driver at gunpoint? Sure, there have always been criminals, but when minors start falling into this sort of lifestyle, shouldn't something be done? Should we not question why this is happening? Within the space of one week, three taxi drivers have been help up at gunpoint or threatened with a knife, all of the perpetrators being teenagers.
I go back just a couple of months, still in Austria, when a fourteen year old was shot dead by police, and his seventeen year old accomplice wounded. The pair had broken into a supermarket at 2:25am and there is still debate whether they were shot out of self defence, or whether the police officer that opened fire was “trigger happy”. When did it become normal for fourteen year olds to even be out at this time of the night? Have parents become too lenient on their children?
The next question is, who do we place the blame on? Who is responsible?
As an atheist I will be honest and tell you that I don't believe in God. I don't believe that praying day and night will lead to society changing for the better. I don't believe in divine intervention. How many Christians, Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and the like, have prayed for the safety, protection and anointing of their people? Countless I'm sure, but have we seen much change, if any? Have our lives and our society not continued to spiral to the point where teenagers are now criminals? I do not believe anything has happened. I believe their efforts ultimately in vain.
Should we not be responsible enough to stand up and do something? Are we really so incapable and lazy? Why do we find it necessary to pass the blame onto someone else and assume THEY will do something? We are all responsible. We are the only ones who can do something.
I'll start of with the parents of this younger generation. I have personally seen many pay no regard to disciplining their children. This in turn leads to the children believing that they have the upper hand, and that they will always have their way. Many parents are far too concerned with either themselves, or with work. Instead of looking after their children, spending time with them, teaching them the fundamentals that build up a healthy society, they would rather earn more money or pamper themselves. I do understand that there is global economic hardship, and that some families do require extra income to survive, but there are some that give in to greed.
Their disciplinary measures are reflected in the schools where some children easily refuse to learn. They would rather play the class clown, the so called “badass”, or spend their time indulging themselves with different forms of media. I don't have a problem with a child owning a game console or mobile phone, as long as they are disciplined enough to know that there is a time to learn, and a time for leisure. If a parent has no interest in the education of their child, are they really worthy of being called a parent? If your child comes home from school, refuses to do their homework and heads straight for their room to lock the door and entertain his or herself, shouldn't you show the slightest bit of interest how much they are actually learning, BEFORE the school calls you in regarding you child s progress?
Is it right to spoil a failing student with all sorts of materialistic gifts? When your child has done wrong, should you just sit back and watch them continue to do the same thing without trying to stop them and teach them that their actions are wrong? How will they learn otherwise? Who else is going to teach them? The school? How can the school teach them when they have absolutely no discipline in their own home, when the concept of discipline has fallen through the fingers of their guardians and is no longer attainable?
I move on to the media. In the 21st century, it's impossible to escape this entity. We are surrounded by televisions, computers, cellphones, multimedia players, and the giant of them all, the Internet. While it is still largely impossible to censor the internet or even enforce an effective form of restriction in order to shelter minors from certain things, the other forms of media can be censored. I'm sure we have heard of the Censorship Board and many other institutions that carry out the same tasks. When you buy a DVD or computer game, there are clear markings throughout the inlay that state the minimum age one must be, or maturity level, before they are allowed to purchase, view or use the product. The titles that contain more violent, morally and sexually explicit content are clearly designed for young adults and older. And yet parents, other family members, and even the stores allow minors to purchase media containing such content. Not only this, but they blame the publishers and the creators when their children begin to imitate what they have seen.
A few months ago a German software company was banned from selling their games within the country due to a school pupil gunning down fellow schoolmates and teachers. Everyone knows that this is not the first time this has happened. And this is definitely not the first time a video game publisher has been held accountable for releasing a game containing violence. But people fail to see that, yes, they did design such a product, but no, it was not intended for minors, and no, it should not have been sold to minors. The creators and publishers only go as far as designing and releasing the product to the market. They are not responsible for who buys it, because they clearly state on the cover, in plain sight, who the product is intended for.
Again, I bring this down to discipline from the parents. They are the one's allowing, maybe even indirectly as well as directly, their children to purchase these articles. I look at all aspects of the media industry. While DVD's and videogames carry clear ratings, what about the music industry?
I don't mean to put them on the spot, but when did it become normal for artists, if we can even call some of them that, to release songs containing lyrics that are: Degrading to women, degrading to other cultures, not as such condoning but rather nowhere near discouraging the use of drugs and/or alcohol, being promiscuous, the use of foul language and the glamorising of violence? I'm sure you'll agree with me that substance abuse is one of the biggest problems among the younger generation, but the problem of promiscuity and all round moral is an issue in itself.
Albums do in fact carry a warning that the music does contain explicit content, and again, people ignore this. In fact, I believe that record labels have become so obsessed with making a profit, that they target anyone and everyone to buy their music, regardless of age or maturity level. I myself have stopped buying and listening to certain types of music because I totally disagree with the content. I find it offensive that someone should be able to make money and become an idol, when the message they preach is mostly sexist or violent. No, they might not condone this sort of behaviour, but they have managed to glamorise it and have done NOTHING about discouraging it where the younger fans are concerned. I'm looking mainly at what the Hip-Hop and Pop genres have become.
If I recall, when Rap and Hip-Hop first came onto the scene, they had nothing to do with being sexist or violent. They were created as a way for people to get a message out there, a story of their hardship and growing up in a ghetto. I still respect Tupac Shakur, because he did send out a message. He knew that the violence wasn't right, he didn't condone men being sexist towards women and objectifying them. But the more recent artists have use these as devices to make their way in the world and gain fame, fortune, and a global group of blinded followers who idolize them. And again, parents have sat back and allowed their children to idolize these idiots, rather than themselves. What happened to wanting to grow up like daddy, or daddy being your hero? All this next generation want is fame and fortune without really understanding the amount of hard work, talent and skill needed to achieve it. They don't even know the real price of such a lifestyle, because all they're been able to see are the glamorous parts of it. They driven by greed for material wealth and attention.
And we could bring the greed for attention back to the parents, AGAIN! As I said earlier, some parents are either far too concerned with their own well being, or with earning money. The children come home and have nobody to talk to or give them attention, so they look for other ways of attaining it.
I could continue to go on,but in conclusion, I hope you have read this through and I want you to ask yourself these questions and think about them. What is the next step? Who should take it? The answer is literally under your nose. If we as parents, or prospective parents, or one day will be parents, take it upon ourselves to try and teach our children the fundamentals, protect them from the wrong kinds of influences, and be attentive to them in that they are well disciplined and in turn, well educated, WE could reshape our society for the better.
Being a follower of the Zeitgeist movement, a project of theirs sparked my interest. If you have never heard of it, Project Venus is basically a concept that aims to reshape our society for the good. This got me thinking, because I myself have doubts about our future and how things will turn out if we keep letting things go the way they are now.
Taking recent events in Austria into account, when did it become right for one or more teenagers to hold a taxi driver at gunpoint? Sure, there have always been criminals, but when minors start falling into this sort of lifestyle, shouldn't something be done? Should we not question why this is happening? Within the space of one week, three taxi drivers have been help up at gunpoint or threatened with a knife, all of the perpetrators being teenagers.
I go back just a couple of months, still in Austria, when a fourteen year old was shot dead by police, and his seventeen year old accomplice wounded. The pair had broken into a supermarket at 2:25am and there is still debate whether they were shot out of self defence, or whether the police officer that opened fire was “trigger happy”. When did it become normal for fourteen year olds to even be out at this time of the night? Have parents become too lenient on their children?
The next question is, who do we place the blame on? Who is responsible?
As an atheist I will be honest and tell you that I don't believe in God. I don't believe that praying day and night will lead to society changing for the better. I don't believe in divine intervention. How many Christians, Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and the like, have prayed for the safety, protection and anointing of their people? Countless I'm sure, but have we seen much change, if any? Have our lives and our society not continued to spiral to the point where teenagers are now criminals? I do not believe anything has happened. I believe their efforts ultimately in vain.
Should we not be responsible enough to stand up and do something? Are we really so incapable and lazy? Why do we find it necessary to pass the blame onto someone else and assume THEY will do something? We are all responsible. We are the only ones who can do something.
I'll start of with the parents of this younger generation. I have personally seen many pay no regard to disciplining their children. This in turn leads to the children believing that they have the upper hand, and that they will always have their way. Many parents are far too concerned with either themselves, or with work. Instead of looking after their children, spending time with them, teaching them the fundamentals that build up a healthy society, they would rather earn more money or pamper themselves. I do understand that there is global economic hardship, and that some families do require extra income to survive, but there are some that give in to greed.
Their disciplinary measures are reflected in the schools where some children easily refuse to learn. They would rather play the class clown, the so called “badass”, or spend their time indulging themselves with different forms of media. I don't have a problem with a child owning a game console or mobile phone, as long as they are disciplined enough to know that there is a time to learn, and a time for leisure. If a parent has no interest in the education of their child, are they really worthy of being called a parent? If your child comes home from school, refuses to do their homework and heads straight for their room to lock the door and entertain his or herself, shouldn't you show the slightest bit of interest how much they are actually learning, BEFORE the school calls you in regarding you child s progress?
Is it right to spoil a failing student with all sorts of materialistic gifts? When your child has done wrong, should you just sit back and watch them continue to do the same thing without trying to stop them and teach them that their actions are wrong? How will they learn otherwise? Who else is going to teach them? The school? How can the school teach them when they have absolutely no discipline in their own home, when the concept of discipline has fallen through the fingers of their guardians and is no longer attainable?
I move on to the media. In the 21st century, it's impossible to escape this entity. We are surrounded by televisions, computers, cellphones, multimedia players, and the giant of them all, the Internet. While it is still largely impossible to censor the internet or even enforce an effective form of restriction in order to shelter minors from certain things, the other forms of media can be censored. I'm sure we have heard of the Censorship Board and many other institutions that carry out the same tasks. When you buy a DVD or computer game, there are clear markings throughout the inlay that state the minimum age one must be, or maturity level, before they are allowed to purchase, view or use the product. The titles that contain more violent, morally and sexually explicit content are clearly designed for young adults and older. And yet parents, other family members, and even the stores allow minors to purchase media containing such content. Not only this, but they blame the publishers and the creators when their children begin to imitate what they have seen.
A few months ago a German software company was banned from selling their games within the country due to a school pupil gunning down fellow schoolmates and teachers. Everyone knows that this is not the first time this has happened. And this is definitely not the first time a video game publisher has been held accountable for releasing a game containing violence. But people fail to see that, yes, they did design such a product, but no, it was not intended for minors, and no, it should not have been sold to minors. The creators and publishers only go as far as designing and releasing the product to the market. They are not responsible for who buys it, because they clearly state on the cover, in plain sight, who the product is intended for.
Again, I bring this down to discipline from the parents. They are the one's allowing, maybe even indirectly as well as directly, their children to purchase these articles. I look at all aspects of the media industry. While DVD's and videogames carry clear ratings, what about the music industry?
I don't mean to put them on the spot, but when did it become normal for artists, if we can even call some of them that, to release songs containing lyrics that are: Degrading to women, degrading to other cultures, not as such condoning but rather nowhere near discouraging the use of drugs and/or alcohol, being promiscuous, the use of foul language and the glamorising of violence? I'm sure you'll agree with me that substance abuse is one of the biggest problems among the younger generation, but the problem of promiscuity and all round moral is an issue in itself.
Albums do in fact carry a warning that the music does contain explicit content, and again, people ignore this. In fact, I believe that record labels have become so obsessed with making a profit, that they target anyone and everyone to buy their music, regardless of age or maturity level. I myself have stopped buying and listening to certain types of music because I totally disagree with the content. I find it offensive that someone should be able to make money and become an idol, when the message they preach is mostly sexist or violent. No, they might not condone this sort of behaviour, but they have managed to glamorise it and have done NOTHING about discouraging it where the younger fans are concerned. I'm looking mainly at what the Hip-Hop and Pop genres have become.
If I recall, when Rap and Hip-Hop first came onto the scene, they had nothing to do with being sexist or violent. They were created as a way for people to get a message out there, a story of their hardship and growing up in a ghetto. I still respect Tupac Shakur, because he did send out a message. He knew that the violence wasn't right, he didn't condone men being sexist towards women and objectifying them. But the more recent artists have use these as devices to make their way in the world and gain fame, fortune, and a global group of blinded followers who idolize them. And again, parents have sat back and allowed their children to idolize these idiots, rather than themselves. What happened to wanting to grow up like daddy, or daddy being your hero? All this next generation want is fame and fortune without really understanding the amount of hard work, talent and skill needed to achieve it. They don't even know the real price of such a lifestyle, because all they're been able to see are the glamorous parts of it. They driven by greed for material wealth and attention.
And we could bring the greed for attention back to the parents, AGAIN! As I said earlier, some parents are either far too concerned with their own well being, or with earning money. The children come home and have nobody to talk to or give them attention, so they look for other ways of attaining it.
I could continue to go on,but in conclusion, I hope you have read this through and I want you to ask yourself these questions and think about them. What is the next step? Who should take it? The answer is literally under your nose. If we as parents, or prospective parents, or one day will be parents, take it upon ourselves to try and teach our children the fundamentals, protect them from the wrong kinds of influences, and be attentive to them in that they are well disciplined and in turn, well educated, WE could reshape our society for the better.
For those of you that want to forward this on to friends and family or keep print a hard copy, I have uploaded the PDF for you to download at the following links.
Posts
