Youth: between values and challenges
Youth nowadays experiences large transformations, from technological, economical and political changes to values and mentalities changes, as parts of the globalization process. Let’s take some examples of transformations and see what seems to be good and what seems to be bad. As good sides of globalization we have youth mobility, freedom of expression and extensive means of communication, open societies, human rights and tolerance. On the other hand we see various trends which we perceive as negative: consumerism, restriction of freedom of expression, disappearing of centuries long values atomization of life, and so on. At first sight, these negative trends together with others seem to be chaotically and without any sense. But as everything concerning social structures is a system, these negatives trends are connected and have common roots. I will try to demonstrate how some of the negative trends are not alone, but directly triggered by the apparently good features of the globalization, and how these negative processes influence the young people.
Freedom of expression
Globalization brought us internet which brought us blogs, forums and discussion groups. Young people talk, everybody talks. This creates the feeling of the freedom of expression. But expression about what? Because as we know we can speak about a lot of topics, but when we get closer to some kind of topics, we see that the freedom is being diminished. Let’s think: what happens if during a crisis or conflict the whole information and media coverage comes only from one side of the conflict? Let’s take the recent conflicts in Europe or worldwide: in Balkans, in Afghanistan, Irak, Libia. From where is the information coming from? Is it from both sides or only from one ideological side? The answer is very important because we can connect it with the answer to the question: how big is the freedom on expression connected with Google, Yahoo, FaceBook, Wikipedia, mail providers or Youtube? If it’s big it’s ok, but if it’s small, then why is it like this? Would it be like this because they belong to the same ideological side? Is it a coincidence that they reside in the same country or similar cultural space? Then, how sure can we be, as young people, that our freedom of expression is protected, or on the contrary, that is being limited?
We go further and we’ll see that the answer to these questions can be connected with the following problems. Let’s come down from the virtual space to the real space, to personal reality where we can ask the same questions. Is the freedom of expression protected in terms of quality, or only quantity? Let’s take the article 19th of the UDHR which states that:
“ Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
”
We agree on this, everybody. And now let’s think of some special topics such as minorities (they can be of any kind), rights (they can be of any kind), personal or national values. And I ask: if we as young people see some aspects or processes that raise question marks concerning the above mentioned topics, can we speak freely about them? Can we speak freely - without being rejected or disapproved- about special topics? If yes, this is ok, but if not, then would this mean that the 19th article of the UDHR is not respected nowadays? Let’s assume that we cannot speak freely about special topics. Why is that? And here comes into discussion the next key element which influence the freedom of expression: “politically correctness”. Actually, it is not about politics, but about attitude. The main trait of this thinking is that nobody is allowed to say or to do something that another group might consider as offensive. It also says that is better to keep quiet on our personal beliefs if this could be considered by others as offensive. Let’s take any special topic we discussed earlier, try to present it in public and we we’ll see “politically correctness” into full effect. So, to resume, we can speak about some topics, but not about all. And why is this? Who decides what is politically correct or politically incorrect? Then if we see that the effects of “politically correctness” appear when they touch certain topics about certain issues, groups or values, we could, but not necessarily, assume that decision of what is politically correct or incorrect is made by the ones who have the power to do this and who decide what is good or what is bad, according to their own group values or maybe, their own strategy. Two questions here:
- If this is true, is there any connection between politically correctness and the new censorship, or as George Orwell said: “thought police” or “intellectual militia”?
- If this is true, who gave them the right to impose the rules of one group over one majority? (Just a derivate question: are we really living in a democratic system?)
Also, if the same centers of power decide what is politically correct and incorrect, what stops them to decide what does “tolerant”, “intolerant”, “terrorist”, “democratic”, “human rights” or “new world order” mean?
So to conclude with this first issue, the 19th article of the UDHR states that “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression”, but on the other hand, the situation from internet and personal reality is different. So we ask this question: do the young people have or do not have freedom of expression?
Values: old is bad, new is right
The globalization brings not only technological transformation but also mentality transformation. There is in the air, a more present need for revolution. It can be the orange revolution, tulip revolution, Arab spring, or religious revolution. All of them have in common two elements:
- change: one person, one group of people or parts of the society want to bring major changes, spontaneously or less spontaneously, with or without a plan in advance
- values: because one person, one group of people or parts of the society decide that what was “Good” until yesterday, today is “Bad”. What worked as a system for centuries, now should be removed and put something NEW instead.
We can ask ourselves two questions here:
1. Is change positive? And we could say: yes, it’s positive depending for who
2. Do the values must be replaced? And we could say, yes, but depending with what?
Speaking about values: if one person, one group or parts of the society decide that some values are old; that they have to be removed and some new values have to be put in place, we can ask ourselves: can we trust them? Who can guarantee that their “Good” is our “Good”?
And now very briefly, let’s have a look on some changes of values and attitudes that can raise controversies:
1. God: get rid of old mentality, God is in us, we are God. Leave Jesus Christ, leave Allah, leave Moses, leave Buddha and so on. Why? Because the science proved that the spirituality is the expression of brain activity, the universe and ourselves are made from material particles and God is a superstition. New times will come and all of us who believe in God are intolerant. If you believe in your God, you do not believe in my God, so you are a virtual enemy because you are intolerant. Or, why don’t we mix elements from each religion, and make a new religion? A new world religion?
2. Money: you need money, you need more money. Trends are changing quickly and you do not want to be left outside. Work for money, think of money, live for money. Be concerned, be worried, be stressed, be restless because your money is not enough. You need to pay to bank your monthly installments; your thinking is about bank, installments, profit. But since they own the bank and you have debts to the bank, they own you. They own our mind, because they do not need our money, they need our mind and soul. So what is the cost of money?
3. Pleasure: you work too much, you are worried too much, and you are too stressed so you deserve pleasure. Pleasure ranging from buying clothes, traveling, high living standards to sex. Everything is permitted; the only limitation is your imagination. Search for pleasures to satisfy your hunger of pleasures. Consume goods, consume sensations, consume the people next to you, live your life. Do not get married, do not make children, make abortions, consume pornography, legalize relations between same sex, love yourself, love yourself in the others, be free! You deserve to be free!
4. Mind: the system must be changed so do our minds. People with the same idea coming from the same background have a high degree of probability to behave in the same way. Old systems of values oppose resistance to the change because they are not uniformed, they are different, so they must be crushed. We make revolutions but peaceful, we conquer countries but economically, we change your mind but you do it voluntarily, we oppress you but we protect you against terrorists. Because you are free to chose what we offer you. The biggest obstacle is the identity. The identities with consciousness are the enemies. They must be changed. First we change their system of values by proving that the old values are not working anymore, so new values must come in place. We turn the people against any form of authority: against parents, school, boss, political elites, Church, we make the people to curse and criticize their own values, traditions and countries. Because they have the right to have an opinion, the right to say something, anything, and it doesn’t matter if their words destroy instead building something. Once the identity was de-constructed and then re-constructed according to the new ideology, comes the last stage. Identities will lose their names because name is identity. They will become numbers. A society based on numbers and micro-chips.
Instead of conclusions
If what we discussed is real, and if we know that the time has come to stand up and take action, then we need just to pay attention to them and to their plan. And what should we do? It is simple: we should protect everything they want to transform against us. For example:
1. God: God is dead. This is not true! God exists. Believe in your God, believe in Jesus Christ, believe in Allah, believe in Moses, believe in Buddha and so on, keep the good from your religion in your mind and soul. God created us but God created also them, because God makes the sun shine above good and bad people, He makes the rain fall on good and bad people. He is our creator and we all are a big family.
2. Money: let us not became slaves of their system. New slavery for individuals and countries is the banking system. Make money but do not keep it for yourself, share with the others. Be with the others as opposed they want you to be: egoist and separated. Be good, make good.
3. Pleasure: pleasure is more powerful when is shared, why not to chose a way? They do not want families; they do not want healthy societies? Get married, make children and educate them the real values.
Article 16th from the UDHR states:
(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family.
(2) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
The natural law is man plus woman plus children. There is no other way. Family is the cell of society. Let’s protect it.
4. Mind: the most important part is to keep our minds free by knowing the Truth. “The truth will set us free”. They want us to know the truth, but a false truth. Let’s keep our minds free and clean and follow the “Truth, the Way and the Life”. In this way we will be free, because Truth will set us free.
The challenges the youth face today are linked with the values proposed to the societies. Proposed by who? We can say we do not know OR we can observe that nothing at global or regional or national scale happens by coincidence. Everything has an internal logic and is interconnected.
If the youth wants to represent the hopes for regeneration of the societies, if the youth is the force of tomorrow, if the youth can make the change, then the youth must be free in order to chose. But to chose the right option means that the youth knows the Truth. And the Truth will set our societies free.
Together and wiser we are stronger. We do no want no New World Order. We want New Just Order. So, youth of the world, unite!