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The Youth: A Confused Generation analyzed


The Youth - A Confused Generation

The youth symbolize enthusiasm. The youth are believed to be the potential energy of a nation, perhaps its key to progress. But what good can the youth be if they are not fuelled properly? If they are left stranded and unable to fend for themselves? There can be only one outcome – confusion.
In India today, the youth are at this crucial juncture:  an unstable crossroad where the traditional meets the modern, the eastern meets the western, the conservative meets the radical. I believe this to be the primary source of our confusion.

Our exposure to Western culture, particularly the media, has opened our eyes to a society that we perceive to be more liberal than our own. So we look up to it, and imagine that we are indeed a part of this ‘Uotpia’.  This imagination (or ‘fantasy’/delusion) soon transforms to a belief. But when we wake up to the reality of our own society again, the dream feels misplaced, giving rise to dissonance.
Dissonance is the root of confusion and conflict. We are driven by an urge to explore, experiment, experience; an urge to gratify our desires - ranging from sexual, emotional to just a need to ‘look cool’.  But when our external environment (parents/school) does not permit such openness, we are forced to repress it. This leads to frustration.

Another factor that plays an important role is our mind. When it analyses certain rules and norms, it clearly views some as irrational. But can it take a middle path, where some ‘adaptive’ rules are obeyed completely, and the irrational ones are placed subject to amendment or adjustment? Maybe a compromise could be made on both sides, society and the young mind, and a collective solution could be arrived at.

A ‘grey area’ where ‘sanskaar’ is not confused with good manners and is ridiculed. Or where it is okay to adopt Western values but not tamper with the traditional.

- Amartya Chakrabarti

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