My Wise Generation

In the 60s and 70s, the United States headed in a direction that would forever change the generations to follow. My generation is at a loss for words, it is almost as if we are at the door, but do not want to do what it takes to step through it. Even worse, we would much rather go up to our rooms and play computer for "just a few more hours" than risk going out there. Most of the time Mom, Dad or Uncle Government will help us if we get in trouble anyway. The fact is, at some point, our generation has to wake up to the realization that our parents left us with a disastrous system of self gratification, irresponsibility, greed and lust.

In hindsight, the rationale behind the 60s and 70s was actually not that surprising. After all, they came from a generation of strong conservative beliefs and "hush" values. The explosion resulted in the pendulum swinging far to the left and a very fast rate. Many people experimented with what they did not understand and rationalized it as "If it feels this good, how could it possibly be wrong?" Now comes the aftermath, an explosion of STDs and unwanted pregnancies, children with no moral grounding and no hope for the future. We have a system of government whose waste has become satire rather than a serious issue. Our politician's primary concerns are not the state of the U.S. but the state of their own political image. In the middle, you find our generation, taking the wisdom of the generation before it, and attempting to make some sort of political, moral or meaningful sense out of all of it.

Here is the trick, it does not make any sense and there is a good reason for it. When our parent's generation rationalized that right and wrong were all relative to perception, we forgot who we were. When a man is murdered in another country, we stop to say "Is it wrong by their perception?" instead of remembering that "Murder is simply not justified." We have no grounding, and without a basis to determine what is right or wrong, just how can one possibly evaluate political decisions, government issues, personal responsibilities or even whether our own Children should be doing drugs, having sex or going to school.

It makes my stomach churn, and often brings me close to tears to think of those in my generation who are at a complete loss from the incessant mixed signals of the generation before us. Many of the concepts are simple and do not work such as: "Sex before marriage is okay" even though it has been statistically disproven. "Moving in with each-other before getting married is good for you" also has been statistically disproven. "Abortions without education of the after effects are okay" even though it has been proven there can be serious psychological issues after the decision. "The government has always been wasteful" when in reality it has not. "There is no God" has not been proven. "Evolution is not a theory" is also, not true. "If it feels good, do it" should make most people laugh because cocaine probably feels good. "You only live once" is now an excuse to make a poor short term decision.

What is mentioned above is just a taste of modern day morality, if we can even call it that. Morality is defined as "conformity to the rules of right conduct", but in reality we have no firm basis of societal right and wrong. We could hardly establish "rules" because they are constantly changing. My hope is that my generation will soon realize that we cannot be a functional society without a moral framework to live by. We cannot make exceptions to evil, including hate, jealousy, anger, lust, envy or greed. Evil is the cancer of a great society, and it will slowly eat away at our foundation.

Now, if you listen closely, you can hear a thousand philosophers scream. "Just whose philosophy should we live by? Who are you to say your philosophy is better than ours? Some people perceive evil differently than you do, what about them?" They are all justified questions, to be sure. Questions two and three especially adhere to the philosophies of the late 60s and 70s. The reality is we are barely scraping by as a society right now, we are so confused about right and wrong we do not want to take a stance at all. We would rather go the movies, play a game or just relax and worry about it later. Meanwhile the cancer is spreading and those who are suffering as a result of our indecisions are still out there. At some point society needs to agree on some kind of a standard of right and wrong. This standard needs to happen on an 'individual' basis first. We each have to decide for ourselves what is right and wrong, and we need to agree with each-other on what is best for society as a whole. We need to look evil in the face and say, "You are not welcome here, or anywhere for that matter."

Our generation has a lot of work to do. There is so much damage that has been done in our government, our schools, to our families and friends that we just need to get out there and do something about it, even if it is one person at a time, cleaning up trash or giving a good friend inspiration one day a week. We need to bring good back into our society and stop spending time on lust, greed, envy, jealousy and hate. We need to take the focus off of ourselves, and perceive ourselves as part of the community of mankind, as brothers and sisters. We need God to help us. Until we do this, until society realizes that each individual person has the capacity to make a huge impact on at least one person every day of their lives. We will not see progress, and the cancer will continue to spread.

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." - (Matthew 7:24-27)

Craig Chamberlin