A Problem Exists by Rodney Riley
I’m noticing a “Celebration of Ignorance” being enjoyed by many of our youth coupled with shifts toward individualism amongst many of our adults...one style of individualism being practiced bear a resemblance to isolationism, which yields an apathetic approach to social responsibility...while another style relates to a tunneled focus for success, which adds even less to our progress and leaves a void where nurturing observers and strong disciplinarians once sat publically carving borders of correctness for the boundary-probing minds of their time. Why are we asleep at the wheel?…especially when spongy brains are being soaked with derogatory radio, violent games, and mature TV entertainment flooding the senses and leading to this strange Celebration of Ignorance…A mental battle between education and chaos is gaining momentum with our Status at stake.
How Can We Change Direction?
Adults need to re-immerse themselves in the production of civil citizens, release the Fear of Confrontation and Wear the Protections awarded by Faith. Teach Grace. Teach knowledge of Self to regulate the exhaustive masks & the grappling of category that comes with not knowing who “the mind” wants to be...our youth need placement…our youth need to believe in a concept that carries them through days of existence plagued with sensory messages saying "be this way so they will like you or be that way to stay cool or say this to fit into whatever you’re trying to fit into"... knowledge of self isn’t only found in dormitories or rooms with books and teachers reading the same lines of someone else’s thoughts of right…the molding of the Self is an experience often learned through “don’t think like that” moments carved by nurturing observers...we need to teach a concept of ‘who’…or the youth are doomed to illustrate the derogatory sensory messages they meet on their path to ‘where’.
As a people we cause our own response…all groups have suffered great tragedies revealing the elasticity of their fabric…will the fabric stretch too far and stress to community un-involvement…I hope not…but I am noticing our “common struggle head-nod” change to a competitive stare or a disinterested head-down power walk to one’s next engagement…while our youth celebrate ignorance, or supplement the art of perseverance with quick hustle gimmicks that reveal a timid application of mental strength…let’s stop pampering this relaxed approach to education and re-institute a “group” philosophy tied to the admiration of individuality…for individual success exemplify ”What One Can Do Another Can Do”.
It’s time to constitute a shared belief that’s qualified by the youth and armored by the adults. It’s time to bring an end to their Celebration of Ignorance and usher in an Age of Reasoning. It’s time to teach our youth how to think and rationalize, how to strategize, how to survive this new interconnected world.
Rodney Kevin Riley
7/30/09
