Old-New Generations

The things expressed in a few environments I’ve been in… Of course, they are also expressed in many other places.

Where are those old holidays?

Instead of saying this, if we were to do something unique to those old days, at least we would relive the components of those old holidays. Still, repetitions do not guarantee that we can carry the components of the past into eternity.

Where is our youth? This new generation…

There’s no need to list the negative traits attributed to the current generation. Because we know that in every era, generations have seen the next as different, found that difference strange, and excluded what they found strange. Yet, excluding what one finds strange is such a contradictory act! A person cannot internalize what they do not understand, nor can they exclude it. But this level of neutrality is too much for most people. Where there is difference, bias is always in favor of the old times. And why is this such a deep wound?

First of all, we keep scratching that wound. We constantly remember the old days and want to return to them. It’s a trick of the mind…

The more we scratch, the more we make the wound bleed. As long as we fail to create a healthy synthesis of the past and the present, we cannot understand local and global changes; and here, too, we begin to bleed. This is a sign of our inability to adapt… (Of course, nothing is as easy as words.)

Our bleeding brings along estrangement. And we return to the beginning. A little reminiscing about the old days makes us glorify them.

Did we not anticipate this much bleeding when we immediately opposed change?

Of course, we didn’t. It didn’t even cross our minds to bleed. We all thought we were thinking the same way. Those who thought differently? They were wrong because they were different; and they were different because they were wrong—disrespectful, even. They were the wrong generations of a country entrusted to the next generation. As if all the youth had come together to shake the foundations of everything the previous generations had built, they were seen as disruptors of order. Were they builders of order or disruptors of it? Is order built and disrupted from the past to the future, or from the future to the past?

Order is “the relationships of elements within a social structure to the whole, the whole to the elements, and the elements to one another.”

Each generation is an element, and all generations that have come and gone form the whole…

Since order involves the relationships between the elements and the whole, if there is any building or disrupting of order, it is like compound interest; it is something done by all generations, bringing us good or bad outcomes exponentially. We focus on the point we’ve reached, but we act as if we weren’t the ones walking the path to that point.

To blame what you’ve done on others, to deny it, is to act without taking responsibility. If we are blaming the children, we are actually admitting this aspect of ourselves.

New generations set out on their journey with the burdens and legacies of the old. It is necessary to “find the path, open the path, or step aside from the path.” We must recognize that we are also responsible for the paths we fail to show. Since every path we fail to show results in stepping aside, we must accept that the formations that will take shape from now on also include the accumulations of previous generations. Moreover, we must see that the benefits of the struggles of the younger generations primarily increase the welfare of the older generations, and we must support these struggles in the most reasonable way.

The most reasonable support, at any stage, would likely be to strive to move from stepping aside to showing the way. By taking individual responsibility for the social structure…

Individual responsibility in the 21st century… Not being ignorant in the 21st century…

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” – Alvin Toffler

“The greatest battle is the one fought against ignorance.” – Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

This battle spans a time frame far broader than can be attributed to a single generation or generations. For the individual, it encompasses their entire life. Every individual is obligated to dedicate their entire life to acquiring knowledge for themselves, for those around them, and for those who come after them.

The past can be a guarantee for the future; but it is uncertain whether the past can fully embrace the future. Instead of relying on and clinging to the past to move forward, it would be more effective for the current generations to confront their prejudices than to step aside. By confronting our prejudices, we will initiate our own development. And this is what we will need most for individual responsibility: to sincerely stand against our prejudices, to think, to question, and to support our thoughts and inquiries with learning.

Since potential changes will now occur too quickly to be spread across generations, we will need to remain in a constant state of thought. The challenge, I believe, will be to pause. We will be able to accept and internalize changes only to the extent that we can pause and dedicate time to thinking. And whether we internalize them or not, we will transform in some way. If transformation is inevitable, the goal should be not to long for the past. Every memory we recall should be a pleasant breeze, but not something we dwell on.

In short, there is no need to assign too much meaning to the happiness of the old days or to whatever it is we now perceive as happiness. However, if the purpose of reminiscing about the past is to identify the reasons for differences rather than to seek happiness, the last thing we should do is blame the new generations or even unborn children.

"Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,

Which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them,

But seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,

And He bends you with his might

That his arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;

For even as He loves the arrow that flies,

So He loves also the bow that is stable.”

– Khalil Gibran

Before happiness, we need conscience. We need to keep alive that “God particle” within us. We need to evaluate every event, every generation, within its own time, along with the lessons we’ve learned from history. Sooner or later, we will part ways with the past. We will walk toward tomorrow with conscience. And then honesty and trust will follow it, and we will live happiness not in memories but in the moment.

(Old-New Generations)