I feel compelled to blog about this issue, relating to a recent thread in the Pit about someone buying a stolen laptop, without really caring about who got screwed over.
Every day, in my hometown, I see groups of teenagers drink, smoke, vandalize, break into houses, break into cars, disrespect their elders, disrespect people younger than them, and even disrespect their peers. Bullying in school is one of the biggest social issues plaguing people under the age of 20 these days. I, myself, have been a target for bullying for most of my childhood, and even into part of my adult life.
So we have to ask ourselves... why? Why are some people just so compelled to walk over everyone else for their own little bit of satisfaction? I think a lot of it stems from the way this generation was raised. We live in a time where everyone's working. No one has time for their children. Parents raised in the last generation are apathetic, cynical, hateful creatures. There's a lot more bias and hatred in our media nowadays. Violence, sex, and drugs are glorified, and parents are too damn apathetic to do anything about it, including simply TALKING to their kids about it. Drug addicts and criminals are increasingly becoming parents these days as well. So it's plain to see, for me anyways, that it's not the children's faults that they act the way they do, but that this behaviour was instilled into them by bad parents.
It almost seems to me that these days, there seems to be a direct correlation between economic systems and crime. There seems to be more crime in countries that don't have any kind of social programs. Not saying that countries like Canada and Sweden are crime-free havens (I'm from Canada, and I'm obviously complaining), nor am I saying that communist nations like China or North Korea are crime-free. But I am saying that it seems like any nation that uses a more-or-less capitalist system where wealth is simply determined by greed and not by how much one is legitimately working for their goals tends to experience more corruption, more crime. In countries like that, where no social net exists for the poverty-stricken, the poorer people feel more compelled to resort to dishonest means by which to attain their goals, even if it means stealing, killing, raping, etc., while the richer people will also resort to extremes like bribing, reducing transparency, and lying, to ensure they do not lose their wealth and their power. Now, I'm not saying we should go straight for some sort of communist system, but some kind of system that gives equal priority to both lower and higher class citizens, by providing essential services for the poor and taxing the f*ck out of the rich so they can provide for the poor. This may help bring poverty levels down, and also combat crime!
Now, outside of that whole societal level, and on to the more personal level... crime is really just instilled in an individual when they want something really badly, but are unwilling to actually work towards getting it. A person wants a laptop really badly, but can't afford it because they don't have a job. Instead of going out, looking for a job, working for a couple of weeks until they can afford it (which would be far too hard for the average lazy teenager), they'll just wait until an opportunity arises to steal one, or buy one that was stolen at a very low price. The same applies to things like bullying. A person wants an increased social status, but is too lazy/hateful/dysfunctional to make or keep friends, so they make a show of beating people up and taunting them, making people think they're so incredibly tough. It all comes down to how lazy, unmotivated, and dysfunctional people are these days.
And a lot of that has to do with parenting. Guaranteed, most kids who steal and bully have parents that are not only fully aware of what their kids are doing, but in some cases may actually support it! Parents are growing far more apathetic, lazy, uncaring, and do things like let television raise them. As a result, kids these days are exposed a lot more to glorified sex, violence, greed, and think that this is the life for them. Parents don't discipline their kids when they do wrong, and usually only serve to enrage them more and make them turn even further towards crime. Parents don't talk to their children about sex and drugs anymore, which is why we see more teen pregnancies, sexual abuse, addiction, and abuse of alcohol/tobacco.
So while the last generation is going "oops" over how they're raising kids, and while our economic systems are encouraging youth to lie, cheat, steal, and otherwise to attain an end that they could just as easily earn on their own if they buckled down and worked for it, our generation is picking up the pieces. And my generation are already starting to have kids. How will these kids be raised? Will they be taught to disrespect intelligence? Will they be taught that drugs and sex are totally okay? Will they learn how to steal and cheat to attain their life goals? Will there be any discipline at all in the next generation?
The downfall of humanity is not going to be a result of war, famine, or disease, but of apathy, bias, lack of respect, and lack of discipline. All of those will probably lead to war, famine, and disease, anyways.
I know I didn't quote a single number in there, and this is really more an emotional opinion piece than some sort of thing with me stating the facts, so if you disagree with me, then so be it. I don't mind offering conflicting opinions. But please, have an open mind enough to read it and leave comments that are a little more intelligent than "ur a fag wanker lolololo". The whole point of this is the fact that there's very little respect in our generation, so it might not serve you very well to reinforce this opinion ^_~
We conditioned society to be this way. It's unfortunate and I never thought I'd see the day when things got this bad, but I'm here and I'm in it. So I just choose to associate as little as possible with humanity and our country, given I'm part of the mess. What can you do really?
I confess that I once bullied someone before but I didn't do it for myself it was to feel like a part of a group I felt bad about it after that and I never did it again...
Except my sisters!
As long as you're honest about it, and no longer do it, then there's no reason that no one can forgive you.
One thing I never mentioned in here is that I'm agnostic. I don't follow any religion, so my morals are based more on what's law and what isn't. So I'm not preaching forgiveness in the eyes of God, but rather in the eyes of one another.
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