teenage angst

The crucifixion of the so-called younger generation – mine...That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? This is something that has been eating away at me for an extremely long time, and I still haven’t come to terms with the whole shitty deal. Why we should be the sole guilty party in this screwed up planet is something I can’t quite comprehend, and I don’t think I ever will. I think maybe culture has a great deal to do with this, and since I am of the opinion that ours is totally fucked up, I don’t think I need to venture into that area too much.

Let me get straight to the point. I don’t like being on the wrong side of an absurd preconception. The opinion of a majority of parents – this is especially true in the case of teenagers – is that their children will turn out to be rebellious unless they do something about it. Then they do the absolutely worst thing they can do, and set up a number of so-called rules which are there to be followed, or else...I say this is the worst thing because these rules are ever so often restrictive, and in no small amount at that. It is true that there’s a quiescent sense of rebellion in each and every one of us. However, it is also true that restriction inflames this, pokes it awake and drags it out in the open, where it is then vilified, with a sense of outrage, even. Yet there are those who abide by these rules to all external appearance – emphasis: ‘to all external appearance’. I think it’s safe to say that it doesn’t turn out too well, either way.

It’s a well known fact that we are degenerate. One goes so far as to say we are debauched. I am, of course, taking the role of an extremist parent, but it’s true that every parent is suspicious of his/her child/children. Even getting close to a member of the opposite sex can be misconstrued. In fact, it is redolent of misdirection. Debauched? I’ll give you debauched. Maybe this world wouldn’t have so many debauched people if you just let us bloody live our own lives. Which youngster wouldn’t get upset at their parents attitudes and do something like this just to irritate them? You think you know us so well, you think we are not sensible enough to make our own decisions, you think we need someone with us all the time to steer us right. See what I mean? I think I speak for everyone when I ask you to ‘stay out of our bloody lives’. I know what I want, and I don’t want you to try and ‘put me right’, so to speak. Like a good friend of mine once said – and I don’t know of any better way to say this – ‘If I screw things up, I’ll at least have the satisfaction of knowing what happened was because of me, rather than be made to lament the fact that I let someone else make my decision for me.’ This is especially true in the case of marriage, in which context my friend stated the above. Our culture doesn’t promote love marriages, which is a crime in itself. And people don’t have the sense to see that just because their marriage stood the test, however rocky things might have gotten, it need not be the case every time. I mention this because this is the major cause for suspicion, that we will get close to someone of the opposite sex, fall in love, and get married, which is also equivalent to blasphemy. But here I wander...

I could go on like this and keep you here till kingdom come. But I choose not to. All the insubstantial things that lead to major crises, all the little arguments that lead up to the big fight, are, I think, understood. Preconceived notions and obsolete thinking are turning out to be our worst nightmares, and we aren’t allowed to wake up from them. So rebel, young hearts, rebel if you have no option left, for your cause is worthy and you shall be vindicated, by yourself, if not by anyone else – that is all important. This is what I’d like to say, if only there were someone to listen.