KHADIJA ZAFAR
OUR generationis being entitled as a soft generation.We aretold consistently and frequently that we are quite delicate creatures as compared to our ancestors who were much strong and brave. Things were difficult at that time and a lot of strength and consistency was required to complete a task. In our times, when all the manual work has been replaced by mechanical work which requires very less strength and time and only some basic skills, why can’t we even do that? When there are so many degree holders from wellrecognized institutions, where all the knowledge and wisdom has gone? When we have much more supply of food items, why are we always deficient of essential nutrients? When we have this much privileged life where we are much knowledgeable, where we work less and earn more, have so many varieties to eat and have too much stuff to entertain ourselves with, why are we always depressed, uninterested and lost. They wonder, what has happened with us?And we wonder too, what will happen to us? In old times there were veryless sources of knowledge.The head of the families, through all their life experiencelearnt mostlytwo orthreelessons and transferred them to next generations. Mostly people were not allowed to question the wisdom of their elders and simply followed them. In today’s learning system anyone who is incapable of questioningis considered dumb and stupid. From the very start of our journey of learning we are trained at home and institutionsto question everything.Thisis how people of oldtimes were programmedto unquestioned submission and now we are being programmed to doubt everything and question it. Modern sort of programming could help in academiclearning, butit wears outtheminds of individuals who are indulged in this sort of thought. Although there were less sources of knowledge, but they were authentic, and everyone believed them. However, now there is an outburst of knowledge but no authentic source and worst of all the knowledge is contradictory which has left the individual of this era confused and lost. Knowledge is although a blessing but also a burden and when a blessing is used to manipulate people it obviously produces desperate and lost beings. Capitalism has taken control of all media and in today’s world media is most intimate to everybody. Some years back media was just a source of entertainment but now it has taken control of every domain of life. From entertainment to politics and from education to privatelives are undertheinfluence ofmedia. Our ancestors were happy in their mud houses by eating bread with sugar, yoghurt and even water. They were content with whatever little and basic knowledge they had. They were happy with their tough and long working hours. They were happy with whatever they had and whatever they were. But then gradually capitalism made the new generation to think that what they had is not enough and they needed to achieve more to keep pace with capitalist society. This desire to achieve more and more has no end. The capitalism andmedia havetogether damaged the fundamental concept of living of themembers ofthe present generation and have shattered their belief in themselves, making themto believeintheir productsmorethantheir selves. We don’t believe in our ability to learn and trust private trending academies as doors for success. We don’t believe in our skin tone and features and use different harmful cosmetics and surgeries to change them to fit in. To be precise I would say the world powers are working strategically to play with our minds to maximize their earnings. We are being captivated in such a tactful manner where no one could decide for him/herself and everyone blindly follow what they are being dictated in the form of current fashion, trends etc. They have controlled the minds of individuals in a way that they have blurred all the directions and then offer you which way to follow. It caused depression and other mental illnesses in many, squeezing out their physical strength. That’s how our soft generation came into being. — The writer is a freelance columnist, based in Rawalpindi.
