Generation F'd

We have a national duty to be responsible citizens – or so they tell us. The young people of Generation F(acebook) are expected to be more than just young couch potatoes comfortably perched on the certainty and predictability of their lives. We are supposed to be opinionated about more than our buddy’s latest photo album displayed on the Facebook news feed. Taking a vocal stand about the pressing issues of our time means more, they say, than writing a catchy line as our status updates. More, they say, more because the future is in our hands. The smoky, filth-infested reality of tomorrow is in the shaky refuge of our soiled, grime-riddled phalanges; phalanges that attempt in vain to balance beer bottles and joints with all our global responsibilities. Oh, the trials and tribulations of youth!

How then, as a varsity student who is exposed daily to the horror of our present-day situation, do we positively look forward to the ominous future? How, when we persistently contribute to our own desensitisation, do we remember how to treat sensitive issues with delicacy and careful consideration? For example, how do we learn to say no to xenophobia when we are cackling a scornful yes to the jokes made about our fellow African brothers and sisters? And how do we participate as dedicated members of the fight against HIV/ Aids when in the back of our minds we despise sharing a shower with that res-mate who’s indubitably positive? How do we learn to be more when being less is so darn convenient?

At the beginning of the year, my friends and I took a stand and decided to spread the word and not the virus by becoming members of the Student HIV Aids Resistance Campaign (SHARC). When trying to decide between RavSoc – which drank for charity until our dearest Dean of Students gave it the boot – and SHARC, the easy choice for us was SHARC. Why? “Because, you know… Well… Come on… It’s kind of OBVIOUS…” would be our uncertain reply. Because we want to be like the outdated, overrated beauty pageant queens who pledge their lives to changing the world if only given half a …crown? Because we need to do SOMETHING – if only because we don’t know what exactly to do. Is it because we felt utterly shameless for walking past the pictures of the bony-cheeked orphans pictured on all the SHARC posters at Societies Evening? Was it all simply done out of guilt?

I haven’t the answers to my own question – I’m still trying relentlessly to figure it all out in my own mind. I do know though, that we know when what we’re doing simply isn’t enough. No matter how much the university system indoctrinates us with postmodernist ideas of questioning all and believing nothing, we have an innate, human concept of right and wrong. It is called our conscience.

In the ancient yet evergreen words of Gandhi, “There is a higher court than the courts of justice and that is the court of conscience”. This simply means that no matter how often our parents, lecturers, employers and friends let us off the hook for our wrong-doings, our consciences will never let us go unpunished for our transgressions. Even if, hypothetically, nobody knew that we had chosen to join RavSoc over SHARC, something inside us would know, and that would be enough.

That seems like a good thing, but the reality of it is something unfortunate. What it all really means is that although we are driven by some abstract internal concept to partake in responsible citizen behaviour, this behaviour will always be succeed irresponsible acts. SHARC will always be an afterthought after a night of crazy fun at RavSoc, and reading up on current affairs in the newspapers will always come second to checking up on current affairs on Facebook. Sad but true. I feel sad, not so much for Generation F'd, but regretfully sad for Mother Earth and the society she has bred to look after her.