I remember that as a child I used to hear my parents complain about ‘modern trend of today’ how we have made such progress in technology and science yet made complete regress where religion, moral values and affairs of the heart are at stake.
I remember sniggering at my parents wondering if they were making these rash statements because they were a bunch of old ‘fogies’. Alas years later, meaning the present now, I have come to the conclusion that although we have progressed further in my aspects, our emotions leave little to be desired.
True we have taller buildings but such short tempers. Why do we love too little and hate too often? Isn’t it true that we have more leisure but less fun, higher incomes but less morals, steep profits and shallow relationships?
Why are we all so concerned about our well-being that giving others less fortunate than ourselves seems to us a boring chore? As a teenager I remember getting up from my seat when sitting on a bus to allow –some pregnant woman or elderly lady to sit down. Why don’t we see this kind of thing happening any more?
Why have the youths of today more degrees but less sense? Why as Christians in this modern world we live in, have there been people who have been all the way to the moon and back but then we have trouble crossing the street to meet our neighbours?
What has actually happened to us all? Does modern mean forgetting all about love, rules, morals etc? Have we reached a stage where we are all like computers? Instead of choosing to make a difference in some matter or other to improve some situation we are choosing to hit ‘delete’ and close out eyes to certain sorry stories of sadness and unhappiness.
What has made us so uncaring compared to days of long ago? Is it because we have more conveniences but less time? Is it because we think more of fancy houses? Have our minds reached the point that we’ve split the atom but not our prejudices, cleaned up the seas but polluted our souls?
Why have many of us no regard for parents? Why are teachers being attacked even if their ‘shame is merely yelling at some boy or girl? Why does nobody have respect for the law in this day? Why have we become full of weak characters that see problems as stumbling blocks when our parents before us used to see them as stepping-stones? Why are we such intellectuals when compared to years ago, yet we seem we cannot attain genuine freedom because we are not capable of grasping and analysing many alternatives? Why have we become so complacent in reversing this modern trend of thinking of me, me, me rather than those children, adults, elderly and disabled people who are less fortunate than others?
Why have we all become so selfish? We may have multiplied our possessions with modern technology, buzzwords, new trends, but boy have we reduced our values!
Valerie Borg
MLP councillor
Valletta