Yes

by Wayne Leon Learmond

Created on: February 08, 2012   Last Updated: February 09, 2012

The lack of compassion within today’s youth is there for all to see. As society progresses year by year through its technological advances, it seems that the lack of common decency and manners decreases. As the gap between the rich and poor continues to grow, so too does the lack of respect of today’s youth.

The summer riots within the United Kingdom in 2011, summed this up perfectly. The vast majority of those who were involved in the riots were pre- teens and teenagers, all technologically-savvy. These were the ones that used technology - mobile/cell phones to their advantage, to cause havoc throughout the major cities of the United Kingdom. Indeed, the vast majority of those young people didn’t know why they where rioting - other than there was nothing to do, and a chronic lack of places to go for the youth.

However, despite the lack of places to go and things to do, this still does not excuse the lack of compassion within today’s youth. There are many reasons for this, one major reason being that there are children who do not fear ‘authority’ anymore. Adults are frightened to chastise their children now, for fear of being prosecuted by the authorities.

The law has swung too far toward the child, and away from the parents. The result of this is that this has stripped parents of their authority over their children.  There are many parents who are now terrified of showing any kind of discipline toward their children. The lack of fear for authority figures, such as parents, teachers, or the police is something that has crept into society as the years have passed by.

This is because the law of 'authority' has slowly been stripped away from parents and teachers. This has resulted in a lack of moral authority with parents and teachers fearing prosecution if they even lifted a finger against their offspring or pupil. This does not mean that it was right to hit children in the past, for misdemeanours. However, what is meant is that in the past especially, before the authority to chastise children was taken away from parents and teachers, there was a lot more respect.

One could say that during the Victorian age, children were told that they should speak when spoken to. Although there were gangs of youths even then, they still held a fear for authority figures. This was simply because the fear of spending a lifetime sentence for the most menial of crimes - such as stealing a piece of fruit, was very real indeed. Prison or the workhouse, both were as bad as each other and they were the detriments that made youngsters of that age respect and fear authority. However, move forward over two hundred years and today’s youth has a complete lack of compassion, and a viciousness to match.

Of course not all youths are like the ones mentioned above. However, it has to be said that people coming upon gangs of youths on the street, are very wary indeed. Feral youths who do not follow the law of the land but rather, their own agendas, roam the inner cities with a nonchalance and arrogance, knowing that the law really cannot touch them. Today's generation of youth has become the 'something for nothing' generation. Dependant on welfare benefits, there are many of them that feel they owe society nothing and that society 'owes' them everything.

Drunken youths are a regular sight at night within major city centres, and parents don’t seem to care about where their children are, or what they are getting up too. The complete lack of love, care, and understanding that some parents have for their children - plus the result of divorces - can see children treated like objects instead of human beings.

The legacy of this is there for all to see, as those same children are left to their own devices. They themselves will hold a lack of compassion, respect and love for themselves, other people and society as a whole. To many older people, youths today lack basic human decency for themselves or others around them.

Their lack of compassion is such that it is almost as if they are automatons. Many of them show no feelings at all for the hurt they cause to others, and their lack of humanity is frightening. It is this lack of feeling, and a could-not-care-less attitude for all around them, that makes them so fearful to others. Dressing in black with their faces covered, by balaclavas, and carrying weapons such as guns and knives, one has to wonder just where we will be in the future? 

Indeed, they have become the legacy of what happens when authority is stripped away from parents and teachers. Also, when in some families themselves do not even care where their offspring are from day to day, night to night, then is there any hope at all for society in the future?

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