By: M. Joy Luwang
Changes have been human nature since evolution. It is said that today’s incidents are tomorrow’s history, and it is a fact that history is a repository of knowledge of several generations. The flow of history brings the story of different generations across the tides of time. The whole world has evolved from the pre-historic era and the Stone Age to the present generation of information and technology. As human society march ahead with their knowledge, they cherish and fine-tune the knowledge shared by the past generations, improving them for a better future. With the progress of development moving at a fast pace, gaps of knowledge and skills between one generation and another occur in a community, in a society.
Many experts define youths as the period between 18 to 45 years of age, and the period between 45 to 55 years of age is often regarded as mid-years between youth and elder. By this definition, youths make up around half of the population of the world. The period is considered as the most resourceful and many often compare “Youth life with morning Sun”. Youths are considered properties of a nation and pillars of the future, which is why they are called “Pillars of the Nation”. It is the time when one should not only study and learn new ideas and skills but also learn good behaviour, manner, and life skills so that they could lead the society in future. Every youth should put their efforts in adopting a profession that not only fulfils their personal needs but also serves the nation or the society in one way or another. Family elders and social leaders should also guide the youths and make them understand their roles in society. These are the reasons why the youth period is so crucial in one’s life.
Downfall or rise of a society very much depends on the characters of its youths. Corruption, drug abuse, gambling, immoral characters, and sex crimes due to the impact of western culture are key factors that contribute to society’s downfall. All these factors are easily attractable to the youths and incorporating these characters among the youths will lead to society’s downfall. A society whose youths do not have these characters, will flourish, prosper, and tread the path of development and peace smoothly. As such, the youths need to stay away from such characters and make plans to prevent such issues from leaking into the fabric of the society and population, especially the youths themselves.
The present generation needs to find and develop capable youths with flawless characters who can lead the society towards the path of development and prosperity. Leaders of the present generation not only need to put their efforts to resolve various social issues during their times for a better future but also groom youths who can continue the movement sincerely and courageously. Without such planning and thoughts, many such movements may die along with the persons who are leading the movements. Or if the movement is continued by individuals, who do not have leadership qualities or lack the characters, it will gain no progress. As such, the present generation of social leaders needs to be bringing up youths, sincere, courageous, and knowledgeable youths to groom capable leaders of future generations. At the same time, youths also need to be determined in their endeavour and to do better than their predecessors. No movement had seen victory without an organisation and leaders. A movement will not make much progress in the absence of abled leaders. Here, one can remember the movements headed by Lamyanba Hijam Irabot and how his movement fare after his death. It is worth studying why his movements died gradually after his death. It would not be wrong to say that a leader who works for the society since his early years, has leadership qualities and has “revolutionary organic intellectual”.
Engels said, “Youths are the future organisation, and the future depends on them. Youths are an organisation that brings new products and ideas; the youths always follow the ones that bring out new products and ideas. It is the youths that yearn for sacrificial value against the old and stale, and it is the youth that plays the biggest roles in the fight with sacrifice.” Today, the gap of philosophy and ideas between the old and new generations are emerging. The elders think – “the tradition and culture that passed down the generations are true, and they should be the tradition, and the identity of the community, a tradition of the society and its characters should be preserved”. On the other hand, the younger generation thinks – “past histories and present incidents should be studied, and new ideas and knowledge should be added for a better future, pros and cons, rights and wrongs of the changes made in administration, governance, social values, and economy should be dissected to make better changes by adopting the best ones and develop a way of living based on the changing society, ideologies and time”.
Such differences in ideas and philosophies often cause discontentment and anxiousness. Meanwhile, youths are bringing out a new concept of modern research philosophy with the biological concept and electronic science. Since change is human nature, the youths need to make changes in their life, works and characters but the tradition and historical identities of the society should be the base for their changes. While the older generations should never impose the old traditions and culture to the younger generations, at the same time the younger generations should also keep in mind that they do not ignore the traditions and culture while adopting the changes and smoothly bridge this generation gap. Generations will come and go, and changes will always be there. Without changes, the traction of a wheel of society and civilisation will stop, and one must never forget to adapt to the new changes. It is a must to put efforts to make a beautiful blend of old traditions and identity with new ideas and changes.
For civilisation to move forward and attain new heights of development, competition is very crucial. Contentment with whatever one has is a dangerous disease for a small community. We are neither living to stay away from death nor making civilisation just to live. We should move forward for a personal as well as a community goal. Nothing can be achieved without hard work. Development and success are the results of hard work. There is no limit for hard work and efforts in this world, and one needs to participate in the competition of life with everything they must push forward. However, several people do not participate in the race due to fear of losing and facing the shame of losing. It is akin to remaining idle without doing nothing. “I can do what he can” is the word of self-inspiration, knowledge and skills are the tools for success for the entire world. Through years, the knowledge earned by us are our intellectual properties, and the youths should know that the world today has high values for “intellectual property right”.
Let us unite the different academic exercises and smooth out the differences by making a common dialogue platform where academicians can gather and discuss daily, weekly, and monthly issues. Let us make a utopian society where there is no discrimination and a community that is self-reliance.
