IT'S
ENOUGH!
(A Bird's
eye view on the contemporary youth)
Kingsley Anagolu
University of Bonn, Germany
ENTRY POINT
Oh yes my
dear friend, have the courage to be satisfied lest you suffer from
constipation. Or do you really not know that it demands a lot of courage to be
satisfied? It does! Like all children, when I was one, I remember on several
occasions I had to be advised by my mother, father or sibling to stop eating
when I would rather continue because of the deliciousness of the food. Despite
the fact that my stomach was filled to breaking point, I continued eating and
as I think of it now, I laugh because, then, on each occasion, after the meal,
I always needed Andrews Lever Salt or kerosene to free myself and to save me
from the probability of a blasting tummy. It is called over-feeding. Not that I
did not know when I was satisfied, No! I always knew because nature made it so.
There is a limit to everything. But I never had that courage to stop myself
because I used to think I would never see such delicious meal again, whether
delicious or not I can't remember again now. I was wrong as a lie. Today, when
I see even more delicious food in its overflowing variety around me and not
even having the appetite to eat, I laugh all the more and reminisce on those
early days. Had I known that food would never finish from this world, had I
known then that I was injuring my health, had I known then that even better
food unknown to me exists, and that food was only for me to live, I would have
had the courage always to respect myself when I was satisfied. But I didn't.
And so many children, if not all today still behave as such, eating themselves
to stupor till they begin to cry due to over-filled tummy. Did it happen to you
as a kid? Now, still look around you, you may still see such children. Tell
them 'it is enough', lest they die.
ONE STEP AHEAD
Now, am no
more a kid and perhaps you are no more. I have come to discover that so many
things needed the courage to put a hold on them lest they hold us to perpetual
ransom and push us to negative reckoning. Nowadays I project myself into my old
age when I would be around 90 or 100 years and I think to myself: 'what are the
things I do now that I might have the cause in that old age to look back and
laugh at because of its folly. I think I know those things but because am so
beclouded now, because I think I could make a point by going ahead in doing
them, just because am more interested in satisfying peoples expectations of me
and my present want, I run beyond my speed and wouldn't have the courage to
stop. So with every other person. This article is interested in the world of
the youths and what forms their major driving force.
Of course
the magma at the background of the volcanic eruption we see in the life of the
youth today is the quest for success. But as soon as I have mentioned this factor
of success, have I equally come to notice that the concept of success in itself
is begging to be understood even for once. What is success and who is a
successful person? We don't intend to go into definitions here but 'success'
today means different things to different people. Hence, 'he is a successful
politician, for instance, if he is a Governor, the President, a senator, or
occupying one of the different known political positions, even irrespective of
how he made it there, irrespective of how many lives he might have claimed,
irrespective of how many feet he might have stepped on. But in so far as he is
there, he is a success. No please! He is not a success! He is a successful
student when he has passed his exams irrespective of the known and unknown exam
malpractices he/she might have indulged in. No please! He is not a successful
student. He is a successful businessman because he has wealth unending, with
fleets of cars and innumerable houses in choice places of the major cities,
irrespective of missing persons around his personality and his dastard
ritualistic deep seatedness, irrespective of his dark night of a soul. No! He
is not successful. Indeed, these people are stark failures if they continue
that way. And so today, success is judged in terms of what is immediately perceived-result
orientation, position and money, in terms of physical positioning judged within
the measure of what one has especially money, because money gives people the
position. But maybe I have to disappoint you here by telling you that, that is
far from what success is. Fortunately or unfortunately, success is not a point
reached just like failure is not a point reached. Success is not a point or an
end, it is a process and this process includes the 'howness' this process or progression
is followed. Success is more defined by the content of ones approach towards a
certain pursuit and holding unto that process till the very end. When the
process is noble, there is success on its way but when this process is dotted
and punctuated by negativity, failure takes over. So success or failure are not
a place or a status where people reach like reaching the top of mountain
Everest, it is more of the way to this place and as such one can even be the
president and be a failure in life. One can be very poor and yet very
successful.
Back to the
youth once more. Their basic success drive needs to be oriented accordingly and
adequately repositioned to fall into the proper descriptions of success or
failure. Let them know that honest effort is more desirable than result and
satisfaction comes from here, that I know I am making honest effort of which,
of course, good result is a natural end thereof. Important truth here is that
the result of such effort, if it is in terms of money, is better managed and
preserved than foul money which most at times disappears through the same way
they arrived. But our youths need to know all these things.
BUT HOW?
Definitely
something is wrong somewhere. Somehow, but it is only somehow, I am tempted to
excuse the youths from their radicalism and banal approach to issues especially
the pursuit of money. This is because they are working with the kind of
equipment the society supplied them. Everybody is a child of his environment,
the philosopher would say and so, let us apportion blames accordingly:
a) THE
FAMILY: somebody said, 'The society is man writ large.' This includes that
there could be no society without the elemental individuals that make it up.
These individuals come from the basic foundation of the society, namely, the
Family. Have our fathers and mothers and relatives done sufficiently enough to
point the right direction to their children and wards or have they done so
little or nothing at all in this right direction? Or are they even directly responsible
as a matter of positive action of theirs in pushing their children-the youths
in a wrong direction? As a matter of fact, every indication points to the fact
that parents are guilty as charged, guilty as death. The family system today is
on death toll, in fact, it has collapsed. Discord and disunity is avalanche.
The whole process has been thrown out of gear and the young people have ended
up with very questionable value system and moral codes. These discordant
families care less about their children, not on the right education that could
regulate their social conscience, not on the good old values of integrity and
righteousness, not on the virtues of hard work, not on sincerity, not on
nobility. These misguided young people out of naivety and oblivion therefore
wreck havoc on themselves and society, resulting in their mortality and
societal decay. Of course a fish thrown out of water needs to struggle lest it
dies and hence the struggle for survival kicks off-any which way. Nowadays,
parents even expect more than desirable from their children in terms of money,
both males and females and the result is unabated decadence in morality as our
ladies take to the streets while the boys hit the roads, day and night,
waylaying innocent wayfarers. Or they take to the neo-money making methods of
today: ritual in its most bizarre lunatic unthinkable, sacrificing father,
mother, siblings and at times parts of their body. Today we get to come across
or hear tales of young people, males and females alike who go crazy all of a sudden
because they could not meet up with the demand of certain devious money making
directives. Our youths, let it be known, are searching for identity and when
they don't get it from their family, they turn 360 degrees.
b) THE
SOCIETY: the youth mirrors the various ramifications of the society within
which he lives. Here, in the society, everything seems like children in the
market square playing hide and seek. Nobody hears anybody and nobody discovers
anybody because the whole atmosphere is charged up in noise and totally peopled
up with men and women of different intentions. No co-ordination and there is no
meeting point. The meaning is that the society is not ready for the youth and
as such, they (the youth) make out meaning out of what they think this society
is telling them. It's like a politician trying to interpret the weather. Of
course if he tells you it will not rain, better go and buy a very big umbrella.
Today, what has taking centre stage is money talk and ostentacity. Money
phenomenon has worldwide dominated discussions, in the print and electronic
Media: dailies and Television, Radio and others available are filled with hypes
about how to make a certain million in one week or two. Or the Internet? Just a
click to check your mail and you see the pop up, 'you are one click away
from 1 Million USD,' if not more. And the rest of the Media, the story is
all the same, and our youths fall one million times for these hooplas, over and
over again. The whole culture is adrift with myths about money and its power of
influence as such that it has become an ear worm nay a huge day to day issue in
the lives of most people. Many spend a majority of their waking hours making
money, spending money, worrying about money, fighting over money, and trying to
protect their money. Igbo wisdom says that when the mother Goat chews its food,
its young ones observe and learn. Most of the things people do are what they
have learnt one way or the other and the result is always self evident. Most of
our computer internet centres today are riddled with the youth-in search of the
furtherance of the theory of Relativity by Albert Einstein? Or searching for
how to remedy the perilous Ozone layer? Or how to discover the cure to the
immune deficiency syndrome of our age?-No! They are there in the internet, day
and night, waiting for the next one minute click to the doorstep of Mr. Bill
Gates. What a shame! And the society makes the ground so favourable. Value is
no more placed on these youths and capital investment on this age group is
thrown over board. The result is that Cyber Fraudsterism and Yahoo-yahooism
become a reactionary choice. Money is a very powerful driving force and dynamo
and due to the inexperience and illusion of these young minds, their weak
psychological components could easily be swayed into positions contrary to
noble interests. Not seldom, young people are enticed en mass to adopt these
social and cultural value systems alien to their genuine interests and crime
rolls on top of one another.
Well, it is
these breakdown of social institutions and the consequent complexity thereof
that have led to these current unprecedented widespread disaffection in youths,
and these complexities are often overlooked by all concerned while being
presented in distorted and simplistic terms or are wholly misrepresented.
Hence, the people who are supposed to be on the disapproving forefront of this
issue are really on the approving side because of what they said or what they
refused to say. Ironically, this same society turns to complain-'our sons and
daughters have no direction-they say. Comrade President O P Tambo says here
that we don't deserve a future. What a shame!
c.
THE
YOUTH: not to be
left out in this blame distribution are the youths themselves because they are
the direct players. While it is true that many a time their choice are so
limited and it's like they are ambushed by their environment, yet, it is still
left to be said that whatever we do in this life, that we have chosen to do, be
that as it may. This is a truth beyond discussion, beyond all reasons and
excuses. The old age wisdom of dragging a horse to the river applies here. Only
that the horse cannot be forced to drink unless it decides. True as the night
following the day is that often times, not most of the times, the world of the
youth is so negatively backed up-parent's expectations, society and all that,
yet, it is left for the one concerned to chose, which direction he wants to
steer his ship. Always, the last blame or praise goes to a person who committed
an act. One who is caught as an armed robber receives the judgement despite his
godfather if he has any. That I am hungry and goes to steal is understandable
that hunger pushed me but where lies my power of decision not to go by way of
stealing because it is not a one way traffic that whoever is hungry must steal.
Solutions are there only that many times, we are too lazy, too impatient and
lack the courage to go the right way. The right way is always hard and
demanding no doubt but it is worth it. That the youths today are an easy prey
to the errors of the society is because the society has seen the easy
disposition of this youth to it. Not everybody is involved in evil. Though the
percentage might be minimal, nevertheless, does it mean that this minimal
percentage doesn't belong to this society? It is a matter of choice and
decision, what one wants to do. Very many no
more want the hard way. There are little or no more dreams and the little
percentage that still have dreams lack the courage to pursue it. Everybody is
on the speed lane to economic independence and belongingness in order to
satisfy one expectation or the other, external or internal. So the
youths are as guilty as charged.
EXIT
(Alls
well ends well)
Perhaps
there could be a meeting point, an agreement, a resolution, in all of this. We
hope so. There is nothing wrong with money or making it. In fact, there is
something wrong with not having it because without it, it's hard to do
anything. It only becomes dangerous when its pursuit is an end. When we develop
a love relationship with it, it gives birth to untold evils: 'for the love of
money is the root of all evil: which some coveted after, they have erred from
the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows (cf 1 Tim. 6:10 ). At this point, it can never be
enough again. But as a means, money can be enough when we know what we need it
for. Does this sound strange? Not at all. First of all is the regulation of our
needs so that our means could run in direct proportion to what we need. At this
point is an agreement of our needs and our means. The consequence is satisfaction
because then we will see that excess of it just like over feeding brings
unnecessary constipation and economic suffocation. At this point is the moment
of diminishing return and counter productivity. Without those necessary
streamlining of what we need money for, for sure, we would run into monetary
overdrive where satisfaction and contentment becomes illogical. The basic
equipment for the kind of economic maturity talked about here is education
which prepares for meaningful career wisdom of knowing when to apply the
breaks.
Our
generation seems to have forgotten so many things to our peril. We seem to have
forgotten that slow and steady wins the race, that he who is in a hurry worries
a lot, and that he who worries cannot change anything by doing so. Jesus the
Christ has something to that effect: 'therefore I say unto you, worry not for
your life, what you shall eat or drink or wear ......because life is worth more
than all of these' (Mtt.6:25ff). This is because there is an eternal wisdom
responsible for creation. All we have to do is seeking the Kingdom of God
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