A Break in Generation
If the present generation fails to take the advice of their
seniors due to their modern mindset, senior people are
also responsible for their inability to convey their advice in a language that is more understandable and therefore more acceptable to the modern mind.
In the service conduct rules, there is a provision that is called a ‘break in service’. If a government servant fails to report for duty for a day or more without taking proper leave, the number of days on which he is absent will be deducted from the total period of his service.
The same applies to anyone who starts a business, abandons it and starts some other job and again abandons that job and starts a new venture. This kind of practice can be described as a ‘break in history’. People who behave in this way are said by psychologists to have grasshopper minds. And those who indulge in fragmenting their history in such a way cannot achieve any great success in life. Your history is your greatest asset and a break in service or a break in history deprives you of this valuable asset.
There is another ‘break’ which is widespread in the present world – the ‘break in generation’, or as it has more recently come to be called, the ‘generation gap’. Over the previous centuries, it was common practice for elders to give the younger generation the benefit of their experiences. This was a healthy and instructive process. Of that there is no doubt. Young people may have a good education but, because of their lack of experience, they can easily go astray. Formerly, parents or older family members had always been there (and are still there) to communicate their experiences to the upcoming generation, so that they should take the right path in life. But now, due to modern and unnatural ideas about freedom, the new generation is reluctant to accept the advice of their elders.
They have developed the attitude of ‘we know everything, we are the masters of our future; we have to stand alone.’ This kind of psychology acts as a deterrent to their proper development, for all over the world, the members of the new generation are entering upon their lives without the benefit of experience. It is experience that makes you mature. In this situation the whole new generation has become immature, and the result has been disastrous.
For example, let us take the institution of marriage. In our present age, this institution has been considerably weakened. After marriage either both the husband and wife live in a state of tension, or they end their marriage by separation.
Why has the institution of marriage become so weak in the present day, when it was so strong in previous generations? The reason is very simple. Marriage in previous ages was held as a matter of adjustment, whereas the present generation is quite dismissive of this fact. Having failed to receive the benefit of the older generation’s experience, they know nothing about marriage except love. And it is a fact that, in social life, it is adjustment that matters and not emotions.
Had there been no generation gap, the marriages of the new generation would have been as successful as in former times. Nowadays, this phenomenon is not so much the exception as the rule. This has done much damage to modern society. The aforementioned example is one of its harmful repercussions.
The generation gap is a very serious problem in our world. But the younger generation are not solely to be blamed. The older generation must also share the blame. So, there is fifty-fifty culpability. Old people have had their experiences – there is no doubt about that. But they are unable to express their experiences in the modern idiom that is understandable to the new generation. Thus part of the problem lies in the fact that there is a language gap between the two generations.
Old people know only the traditional forms of language, while the new generation is acquainted with language which they consider more rational. Old people give their advice in an arbitrary manner without giving the rationale behind this advice. They know only the language of dos and don’ts and the present generation can understand only that kind of language which is supported by reason. So, if the present generation fails to take the advice of their seniors due to their modern mindset, senior people are also responsible for their inability to convey their advice in a language that is more understandable and therefore more acceptable to the modern mind. So both generations are equally to blame.
