The "I Don't Care" Generation

I don't understand these MTV guys, I really can't. There seems to be some perverse force at play making my understanding of this channel into the equivalent to my trying to understand the moods of my son, who, by the way, is a big fan of the channel. He is glued to "Splitsvilla", "Roadies", and that Akshay Kumar something where he talks in his high baritone-gone-bad voice about adventure and how he loves it.

Yeah, I watch these channels as my son sits glued to them. I try to understand his understanding of what is happening in these channels. Wait, this is getting a bit confusing, so I will simplify, simplify. I am trying to understand how the younger generation is being misled by the notion of what young people should be doing in the modern world. Hope you get the drift! The dominant theme here is to "not care about anything," or, as "Splitsvilla" puts it "Be Raw."

Being Raw as I understand it means: saying what comes to mind (without thinking), doing what you feel like, and disrespecting everybody. Be Raw also mean, by a corollary, that I don't care. There's great danger in bringing up a generation in this belief. People do not understand this. A generation weaned on "Be Raw" or "I don't care" should also be prepared for rawness from others, and also be prepared for "don't care" when some social atrocity has been committed on them. They should know that there are wars being fought, genocides being planned in this world. These young people are still in the care of their loving parents. However, are they prepared to face the world alone, on their terms, as their parents did around thirty years ago? 

We as parents did whatever we could to cocoon them from the world and its ills. We worked hard to provide them a home, clothes, bikes, education (which is very expensive these days). We genuflected before tyrannical bosses, ate humble pie in office meetings, took shit from our clients, swallowed our pride before aggressive colleagues to hold on dearly to our jobs. If we were raw and "I don't care" they would have ended up in a broken family, all alone, living in some slum, without a job to give them the security they are flaunting. 

Okay, I will stop ranting now.

But why I don't understand these MTV guys is because on the other hand there is this guy Raghu exhorting everyone to be caring, polite and a good citizen of the world. And he bloody imposes himself of the poor trembling darlings. A girl said she wanted to be in Roadies because that would make her famous and give her the right break. Girl, grow up! This thought of instant stardom through the teevee is figment of the fertility of your imagination. And there's this show where the spoilt brats of rich industrialists are summarily insulted and traumatised by another presenter, or Veejay, or whatever.

Now "I don't care" has become something of an anthem for the youth. There are young gangs everywhere sporting their "I don't care" on their sleeves, in a manner of speaking. I saw a girl crossing the traffic, ears plugged by a hearing device, talking to someone, unmindful that the cars are honking impatiently for her to cross. "I don't care," she seems to be saying. And there's this guy, his hair like spikes on his head, his ears, nose and eyebrows pierced, wearing skin-hugging clothes, and a pointed pair of shoes. He also seems to say, 'I don't care."

Do you care? Do you? I don't understand this generation.  

I am @johnwriter on Twitter and John.Matthew on Facebook. I blog here.