Now and Then, Here and There

"Si jeunesse savoit; si viellesse pouvoit"
If only youth had the knowledge; if only age had the strength ~ Henri Estienne

Sometimes we hear the laments of the older adults about how the youngsters nowadays have fallen from grace. This standard that the former uses would be "their younger days".

Then the youngsters would argue with "Time changes things! Things ain't what they used to be anymore!"

Rinse and repeat until
A) both parties agree to disagree
B) one side chickens out
C) the debate gets more physical
D) all of the above, in no definite order

There is some merit in both. Things are no longer as good as the olden days - I usually phrase this as "when the sky was still blue and the grass greener" - and the world today is a different place to live in compared to, say, thirty years ago. We can hardly blame the elders for their stand - how many times have you yourself frowned upon the idiocy and mischief those younger than yourself were up to?


Sure, some things come with age - responsibilities, maturity, wisdom, driving license and the realisation that the world is not only a bed of roses but the thorns are very much real. But that's not what this post is about.

It's how the younger generation are getting more and more daring at a younger age. Primary schoolchildren getting acquainted with cigarettes. Teenagers experimenting on sexual behaviours. Illegal racing. Drugs and gambling. Women and men alike having no shame of parading every inch of their body for others to worship with their lustful eyes and erotic touches. Adultery seen as something normal. Single parenthood is as common as the traditional idea of parenthood. It's the collapse of the basic institution in a society - which spells eventual doom of the latter.

The problem with this risk-taking behaviour is that it is practised at the wrong place, wrong time, wrong situation.

Perhaps it has something to do with the wrong escape route.

Consider for a moment: when we pursue material enjoyments, our reasonings more often than not revolve around this elementary excuse of "to de-stress". In the olden days, things were harsher - everywhere people laboured, parents were generally stricter, kids rarely sought for entertainment. When they did, their form of amusements were basic, using everyday items like slippers, rubber-bands joined to form a skipping rope, and coconut leaves. They didn't have much of an escape, so they faced their hardships with valour and they prospered in the end when they conquered their difficulties.

So they may have a right to brag after all. And, while they're at it, dismiss our generation as having been pampered, causing us to become weaklings who only complain when things don't go the way we want them to.

In contrast, our escape routes are plenty. Too many to choose from, that even if we can successfully overcome the temptation of one, there is no guarantee that we can survive the next. Nothing good on TV? Switch on the PlayStation or XboX. Bored of the console? There's the Internet. From there...my God, the destinations are innumerable. Practically everything can be found there, with the help of a good search engine.

These temptations beckon us to choose escape routes over facing and looking at our problems in the eye. It's not like one of those shounen anime subplots that require the hero or his posse to go on a journey in search of his/their potential to become stronger, to defeat the current villain. No, this is running away like a coward because one is too afraid of the prospect of getting hurt, failure, or the notion of leaving everything including comfort behind.

In other words, afraid of hardships.

So we run away, abandoning the chance to develop ourselves. As a result, we are accused of being pampered.

We retaliate, then we are labelled as rebels.

...There's just no end to this, is there?

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Now playing: Gackt - 哀戦士
via FoxyTunes

P/s: Title or post is in no other way related to the Now and Then, Here and There anime.