Society has to play a vital role in guiding the youngsters towards a virtuous path

Since the dawn of human civilizations, homo sapiens have witnessed innumerable positive as well as negative episodes and incidents in and around their societies which created everlasting vibes of their respective nature and character. As a result, we gave a good place to some of these developments and straightaway rejected those with lesser acceptances. Historically, we witnessed the invention of fire, wheel, and writing as well as agricultural, industrial, and technological revolutions which accelerated not only the pace of our development but also benefited human societies at large. Likewise, we witnessed globalization, urbanization, and a boom of social media which integrated every individual into a complex interwoven network of global relations and interconnections. To some extent, it has its positive impacts. However, its negative repercussions are more intensive and widespread.
At present, we are more influenced by the developments and the thought process of others who live in some other part of the globe. We follow almost everything blindly until it maintains and enhances our taste. We want to flow with the flow whether it costs our morality, values, ethics, customs, or traditions; it hardly matters for most of us because of the undue craze attached to it.
In our part of the world, when a child or adult follows the lifestyle of the Western world, he or she wastes no time in imitating every bit of that society- whether good or bad. It impacts the behaviour, way of thinking, as well as the actions and reactions of the imitating mind in toto. However, we fail to understand that ours is a completely different society than theirs. As a result, we become easy prey to vices like drug addiction, gambling, theft, delinquency, crime, suicide, murder etc.
One of the glaring examples of such episodes is the recent killing of a mother by her son at Rafiabad, Baramulla on Monday. It is very unfortunate and unacceptable, especially from our part of the land. This may seem like an unimportant and normal incident but believe me it is so alarming. At a cursory glance, it clearly indicates the present state of our society wherein we have failed collectively in guiding our youngsters towards a decent, morally justified, and acceptable path of living. Our elders have not and are not able to play their roles in our society. They have kept themselves occupied in advocating and justifying the false notions of individualism and materialism where cultural values and ethics are shown the back doors.
What has happened to our conscience? Aren’t we the elders and the caretakers of our own families and societies at large? What is more important for us than to think sustainably in terms of the moral and ethical development of our progeny? Do we think of sustainable health and balanced actions of our youngsters or make them more inclined towards self-centeredness and materialistic gains? Haven’t we made money their God?
Alas! Good Parenting, good health, and inculcating moral and ethical values were the real treasures which teach young minds how to behave with their parents, elders, and fellow beings at home and their places of work. If a child or an adult is neglecting his duties towards society, the fault lies in his or her upbringing and lack of timely guidance by those who were supposed to provide it most often. At our individual and collective levels, we are all responsible for any untoward episode that takes place in our society.
Children must be taught to respect their elders from inception not only at home but also in schools, colleges, and everywhere and to love their youngsters. Besides, they must be made to think for the greater good of others as well as their environment which includes not only the animate but also inanimate things. They must be taught to cooperate and compromise in order to maintain stability and equilibrium in society. It must be inculcated in their minds that today’s child is tomorrow’s citizen who must be a well-groomed and kaleidoscopic persona and not one with destructive and unacceptable traits.
The need of the hour is to come forward at our individual level and start working and fulfilling our duty by being the sailors of the ship in which not only ourselves but also the whole community and our society are sailing with us. The waters are so untidy and the waves of the time are so furious and roaring. If we avoid playing our role, the time is not far when the whole world will witness our wreckage. Let’s wake up before it is too late. Let’s correct our negligence towards our Children and dream of a peaceful and virtuous society.
The writer can be reached at [email protected]

Dr Rafi Ramzan Dar