Common is the practice, of picking up the pieces, and not to demean any a person for using the term pieces. Tales of days of yore, would reveal traces of sanity, amidst the gender confusion of the generation that was. Some sanctity of character, an aura of responsibility and a mettle to face the world that well defined respective roles can in bits be recounted. But even so, and in the ever-shifting paradigm of renewed commitments, the wave of change can no longer be ignored.
Not so long ago, was the world a partriachically oriented setup – since to be replaced by the now dominant rise of individualism which has, arguably, been a principal catalyst for the current generational attitude. Growing up, narratives of boys should do this and girls should do that were a norm. If such narratives would find homage amongst the millennials is a theory beyond my immediate domain. Reversal of roles is firmly taking shape, much to the extent of societal anarchy.
And while it is human nature to err, we fall victim to many errors for failing to ask ourselves often enough, ‘at what cost?’ Jeremy Bentham once conveyed that; “stretching his hand up to reach the stars, too often man forgets the flowers at his feet.” And truthfully so, many are the times that we overlook the joys of the present in pursuit of the of never-guaranteed fantasies of the future. A dream has never been a sin, but an overzealous dream is certainly worth some check. To balance the scales of equality, the action and reaction must at some point cancel each other out in order to arrive at an equilibrium wherein the side of the scale that is dominant is neutralized by shedding off some of its weight and transferring it to the ‘servient’ side of the scale. The other option would of course dictate chopping off the weight of the dominant scale and jettisoning it altogether in order that both sides tally. Which of the two define our current generational prominence is a course I choose not to chart at the instance.
But the effects are glaring. That in pursuit of individualism and in narrowing down society to the individual, there has been great a gains as have been massive the impacts. Take the family unit as an example, hasn’t this been on the receiving end of the wrath of the generational tidal waves. Haven’t the family waters been marred by endless storms that continue to thrive? Haven’t plentiful of family-ships drowned in the expanse of the generational frenzy? And yet a great deal of this can claim root in the great emphasis on individualism, the same phenomena that precipitated women rights, child rights and sexuality debates-to mention but a few.
Here we are today, celebrating the key milestones that have been made in the individualism arena. Including the day of the girl that marked its fifth year on Tuesday. We pose and ask, but at what cost? Can we confidently say that we have achieved an equipoise on each side of the scale? Can we declare that there has been an over-emphasis that has created a paralysis of sorts on the other side of the balance beam? Any attempt at such declaration would undoubtedly spur a heated debate. But what is evident can survive the potential backlash. And better still, the truths of the day are telling enough. That at some point, we may just have missed, if not ignored, a point. That somewhere in our committed pursuits, a scale was uplifted at the expense of the other, and so much so, that independence has taken over inter-dependence. And now we have a task at hand. To appease the gods of the generations past; to renew our ever-present commitment to the girl race; to reconcile our egos with the calling appeals for human dignity. Else, the ever-booming eminence of single-parenthood, irresponsible parents, murky marriages and a disjointed society will take root. Let us all live to uplift each other up. Let our focus be on a equity-balanced society. For only then can the gains of one uprising accommodate the overall good of all not forgetting our duty to the generation in waiting, posterity, to whom we owe a great deal of all we do today.
©14/10/2016 Senaji DVA