Youth Sanity In Crazy Culture by Santosh Jha (read e book TXT) 📖

By Santosh Jha

**

Copyright 2013 Santosh Jha

**

License Note

Thank you for downloading this free eBook. Although this is a free eBook, it remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied and distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes. Thanks for your support.

**

Table of Contents

Welcome Note

The Backdrop

First Thing First

The Genesis Of Trouble

Understand The Drives Of Humanity

Mechanism Of Sexuality

Aesthetics Of Life-Living Purpose

Accept My Gratitude

About The Author

Other Titles By The Author

**

Welcome Note

Hello my dear young friend! It has now been established; every normal healthy kid born is the veritable genius of the universe, as it has been designed this way. However, it is also said, ‘together, we all and this crazy contemporary culture ensure that this genius becomes an absolute stupid in next 25 years’!

Somehow, the genius of innocence in young, which the culture labels as ‘sweet stupid’, is in incessant pressure by popular cultural benchmarks of success and self-worth, to become stupidly successful. And, when success comes, it comes with such huge costs of hypocrisy and conflicts that the society starts complaining. You can ask, ‘why cannot we remain, what we are, the born genius and a successful stupid!

I am perfectly sure, I am talking to a genius young friend, who has it all to understand everything that is there to be understood for a ‘truly successful’ life and living, which is undoubtedly the most amazing realism for all of us.

I am only too happy to say that this I intend to be a hearty and open talk between you, a young mind and me. The entire exercise is aimed at being in confabulation with young ones, with whom I wish to share something, which is such a powerful impact on our lives. Yes, we are talking about youth issues of sexual synergies, sensual symmetries & sanity and mystically beautiful aesthetics and purpose of life. Essentially, the talk is addressed to you, my amazingly talented young friend; however, if a parent happens to read it, I have a humble and compassionate appeal that you should place yourself in a consciousness of a young mind. This shall make better sense of this exercise.

At the very outset, I wish to say a small thing to you. I am sure; you must have realized that the world we live is what it is, neither good nor bad. It is somehow neutral and objective. It is people, the individual as you and we, who are the ‘Theatre’ of all troubles as well as happiness.

It is in our individualistic consciousness and perception that we accept something as ‘trouble’ and others as ‘happiness’. This leads us to a fact that whatever we are provided with, inside us or outside in the society; are essentially neutral. It is our subjective and personal positioning with these endowments, which make us accept them as either ‘treasure’ or ‘trouble’.

The same energy, which runs a car for us, can cause major fire, devastating everything. The life we have, the senses and its complex interplay we witness in our lives, are such beautifully neutral and objective energies. Whether we wish to use this energy for running the ‘car of our lives’ or burning our lives, is purely in the hands of an individual – you and we.

That is why; my dear young friend; I wish to tell you that in all the talks we are having, we shall focus on things and ideas, which are inside us and internal to our perceptions. The external factors shall always be there as they are for everyone. However, what impact and effect they have on us and our lives are what we shall allow them to have on us, as we shall have a perfect understanding of things and ideas within us. On this premise, we shall lead our talks. I sincerely hope, together we arrive, where we wish to!

I affectionately request you to kindly accept me as your true friend. A friend is not one who tells you what is right and what is wrong. It is one, who is just an effective “catalyst”, facilitating you a series of learning and unlearning, by optimizing painful processes of ‘option-building’ of life-living possibilities.

That is why, at the very start, I humbly request you to be my friend and accept this all as one long conversation between friends. Kindly, accept this not as a book but a ‘confabulation’ between friends. This, I am confident, shall engender smoothness of navigation and fruition of the entire exercise.

I need to say, we all live in a complex and conflicted world where almost everything is in for skepticism. It would be even better if you use this energy of skepticism and doubt all that we shall talk here. However, you should use your own resources to re-check their authenticity, utility and fruition. One must not ‘reject’ anything out rightly or show them a close door. Doubt them, re-check them, correct them if you find them wrong but never ‘reject’ them. Being wise and intelligent is an artistry, which involves ‘acceptance and then assimilation’. The genius you are, shall always process everything deep within, before making a decision on its utility or futility.

I chat up with you to share with you whatever is part of my consciousness. All wisdoms say, ‘what stays with you is what sinks in’. Wisdom is what we internalize. I share with you whatever I have internalized in my life. At the age of 46, I can say with innocence that getting old is such a beautiful and satisfying experience. Getting old has probably pushed ‘me’ close to the ‘eligibility’ of perhaps beginning to understand as what essentially is there to be understood! I feel truly blessed to share my consciousness with you.

**

The Backdrop

As we talked earlier, there are situations and scenarios in a particular stage of time in our society and culture, which are neutral and objective. However, these situations may work out to be ‘trouble’ for some people, even while, the same circumstances shall dole out huge benefits to others. Being young, probably a teenager, you are seemingly on the ‘wrong side’ of a situation in society and popular culture. The simple reason is – you have almost negligible say on the state of affairs around you, even when, you are exposed to them in a most impacting ways.

It is only natural that as a young person, you have a precarious and unsettled relationship with the cultural environment around you, landing you in unimaginable positions of corresponding unsettled behavior-action possibilities. This qualifies you as the ‘trouble’ of the popular culture, as you are still not in good terms with all, which the popular culture and societal environment wants you to be in.

Globally, since ages, the young people have been labeled as ‘troubles’ unto themselves, even while the sad reality is, the ‘trouble’ is there in the ‘adjustment’ of a ‘new entrant’ of society, into a popular but ever changing ‘belief system’ and ‘behavior-action-benchmarks’, which is culturally accepted as ‘appropriate’. You, as a growing up person has to understand very clearly the ‘core’ area of your trouble with this ‘appropriate-benchmarks’ and also, why you are often labeled by your parents and society in general as ‘trouble’ vis-à-vis these benchmarking requirements. We shall talk about it in detail, so that you have the correct and fruitful diagnosis and understanding of the ‘genesis and genetics of the trouble’.

The contemporary concerns of society and culture with you as a youth are broadly in three areas – alcoholism & drugs, sexual sanity and irritable aggression. In all developed societies and culture, especially in western societies, there is a consensus that these issues need to be taken up very seriously as top youth troubles and there must be a mechanism in place to educate the youth about them. However, there is still a debate on what should be the ideal mechanism. Naturally, as they all experiment with different mechanisms, you as a youth shall be in more trouble, as what needs to be accepted and what not!

As it has been a practice, there shall always be designs and mechanisms, which the society shall devise for you and experiment them on you, hoping for them to be successful in abetting the trouble. They come to you as ‘shoulds’, a prescription or as ‘informed choices’, which you shall be expected to make. The trouble is, you shall still be not sure, whether these ‘shoulds’ or informed choices are actually wisdom or troubles itself! There is reason for such thoughts. We shall talk about it later.

The fact remains that you shall always doubt anything, which is either prescribed to you as ‘you should do it’ or dished out to you as ‘information’ to make ‘right choices’. Both ways, the idea is prescriptive, comes as ‘expectations’ that you must do them. However, you shall seldom accept them as, firstly; you have doubts over their utility. Secondly, it is always easy for you to decipher that all these ‘expectations’ from you, have perceptible elements of ‘hypocrisy’ and ‘conflicts of interests’. You shall always ask loads of questions about their utility and purpose on you and shall seldom get answers as, most such expectations are actually huge hypocrisy.

It does not take a genius to see through it. You see that you are asked to keep away from alcohol and drugs, whereas, everywhere in society and popular culture, people young and old are deep down into it. You are asked to keep away from sex but everywhere, everyone seems to be indulging in it and in all spheres of life around you, all things have sexual overtones to it! You are told to be calm and cool in a societal space, where gun culture and rage is calamitously growing. This hypocrisy is so open and clearly visible all around that it is impossible for you to accept the prescriptions against their utility as one huge futility!

There is an alternative mechanism too, which is also being practiced and prescribed. This method understands and accepts that what is being told to the youngsters not to do, they cannot accept it as they see almost everyone else doing it. This alternative mode accepts the hypocrisy. That is why; this mechanism says, ‘Do it but avoid accidents. Get informed about possibilities of mishaps and stand geared up to do it safely’. Naturally, the onus of sanity and safety is on you.

However, there still remains this element of hypocrisy in it. The same people who label you as ‘troubled teens’ or ‘wayward youth’, are leaving the onus of practice of ‘appropriate’ on you. If I am troubled and my trouble emanates out of my failure to discern between ‘right and wrong’, how can I be left to be the ‘judge’ of my own wellness? The belief is, ‘you do it right, when you have the right information and facts’. This is one huge hypocritical proposition. Why?

I am saying this to you with perfect belief that it is something, which you can understand and decipher on your own, whether I say it right or not. The idea that if you are equipped with all right facts about a possible trouble, you shall be judging right and keep away from the ‘wrongs’ of the thing. That is why, they tell you how sex and drugs at your age can be devastating on your personality growth, how it can land you with dreaded diseases and other related troubles. The fact is, you listen to and accept all these ‘right facts’. Then again, you see that loads of grownups, educated ones and mature people around you are doing the same ‘wrong’ things and mistakes. You shall naturally question, “I am very young