One of the ironies of life is that when we were young, we could not wait to grow up, and now that we have, we are filled with an inexplicable yearning to become young again. But on a more serious note, when we consider the youth in our nation, we are both filled with hope and despair in equal amounts. While that reaction may seem a bit irrational, the fact remains that the youth are often inspired by a sense of idealism that seems to go AWOL as we grow older.
This is not to imply that all those listening to the speech are embittered old men but we do share a healthy dose of cynicism that has been shaped by our individual life experiences. This is one of the reasons why the youth of various nations are always on the forefront of any Cultural Revolution or an attack on any organization for one reason or the other, case in example, WTF conferences which are often held in various locations across the world are often laid siege to, by various groups with contrasting claims. The one commonality that seems to link these groups together is the fact that most of the activists protesting against world trade forum conferences often have a median age of 22-28 years.
Of course, some of us may find it hard to accept the fact that young men and women often protest for the sake of protesting and may even lack the required commitment to a specific ideology in order to join a particular protest. Rather, they often view it as a means to an end and as a way to strike a blow against the establishment. This brings us back to the question regarding the youth of our nation; we often find it hard to rationalize their actions because we could not imagine behaving in a similar fashion but a closer analysis of our own upbringing may point out to one of the reasons why the young teens often share a sense of entitlement, a lack of discipline and even unorthodox upbringing. While I am not claiming that all underage protestors or those in the median age group, protest because they come from unconventional backgrounds, the fact remains that all the kids are indeed growing up with a sense of deficiency as far as the ideal family goes.
The problem is that we have become more self-absorbed in our own lives and in our quest to earn more money or to seek gratification, we often ignore our children. This lack of personal attention is one of the key reasons why kids often seek to act out and these random protests are more of a call for help and a cry for their attention than anything else. This is why it is important that we spend more quality time with our kids, help them understand how the real world works, and guide them as they mature into responsible adults with a well-grounded sense of responsibility.
