Do you remember the time when our grandparents were revered by our communities not so much for the years they lived in this planet but for the maturity of their points of view? This way of looking at things is still true in China, according to some readings on Chinese contemporary culture.In the Philippines, 20 years ago, the reverence for elders in the cities was almost the same as in the rural areas. Things have changed so fast.
It looks like the present generation doesn't have the same degree of valuing of older people anymore. This regression is partly due to the "youth mania". It is as if life has only one season - the season of youth. If we look at the television programs all over the world, the compulsion to be young is in every content of both programs and advertisements. The viewer who delves into the meaning of things will surely scratch his/her head in frustration. The quest for meaning becomes a difficult task especially for the young.
Just what happened to the refinements of the human spirit?When schools and opinion-making institutions cop out because of the "youth mania"and relent to the run-of-the mill thinking process, a precious thought in society starts to be buried alive. Without a group that will slowly build a movement that will challenge present thinking, society will continue to regress. Then, when we see old people in the streets begging or old people wishing they died along with those who went to the other shore earlier, we will look at these things as normal.
When society thinks that begging by old people in the streets is normal, that is a time to be scared about.
