The Decline of Moral Values and the Generation Gap

In today's society we are more relaxed about many things. And that is what seems to cause the
biggest difference between generations. Today the people of the younger generations speak what
on their minds, unlike 20 - 30 years .
The decline of moral values is another big issue when it comes to generation gaps. It seem that in
today's world in the average family both parents must work to pay the bills, thus leaving their
children to learn a lot for themselves. Which in my mind has the children learning from the
world's morals and values and lets face it they are not that great. Many young people feel that in
order to "fit in" they must lower their standards of right and wrong. And that may be why it so
easy for a kid to go kill 10 of his classmates and not care.
Decline in moral values is a global phenomenon. In the glamorous world of consumerism, the
race for unlimited accumulation is formidable; hence moral values are generally given a short
shrift. Ends alone matter most and means are free-for-all. The neglect of purity and morality in
the means adopted inevitably leads to further fall in moral inhibitions. Moral and ethical values
are linked with purity. Humanistic values upheld by an individual are a combination of moral,
ethical and spiritual qualities acquired.
The rise of violence is phenomenal in these days of economic and material development.
Economic interests that lurk behind policies and perceptions lead to military actions against
nations resulting in misery to children, mothers, elders and everyone. Education is not the only
sector that can take responsibility of the ill do of the youth, but it can take major share of the
responsibility. Most of the policy formulations take only a partial view of economic and
materialistic development which is considered synonymous with progress. Such a stance
encourages violent behavior. The realization that violence must be checked by all means seems
to have dawned upon educational policy makers globally. We are often coming across the
terminology peace education used by international agencies. Preparing children to internalize
the strength of non violence is now on the agenda of schools and institutions of higher learning
globally.
Who are the icons of the youth today? The men of character were the icons of the past
generation. These icons suffered for the human race. The icons of the youth today are film stars
and sports persons. The way we present Indian history, heritage, and culture to our youth leaves
much to be refined, modified and updated. The great contribution made to the growth of world
civilization by ancient India is yet to be explored fully and projected onto those who deliberately
attempt to ignore and distort these facts. Such efforts must begin from the institutions that train
teachers and must extend to schools and colleges through inservice and specific orientation
programmes at the earliest. The young of India must internalize a sense of pride in their
ancestors.

According to world standards the middle class Indians are not leading an enviable life.
Remember the fact that 30% of the Indian population is under the poverty line. Only a few
people come in the rich category. This means that vast majority of Indians are middle class. The
middle class Indians aspire for the life of rich Indians. So if you study the middle class Indians,
you will get a cross-section of India. Here we are interested in the moral decline in the middle
class families. The current generation of middle class families varies much from the pervious
generations of middle class families. There have been many changes in the moral values of the
current generation. Let us have a look.
There are changes in the food, dress, culture, education, job and family relations in the middle
class society. The middle class Indians have become idle in the present generation when
compared to the alert minded previous generations. The technological advancements have made
them lazier. Time is money in this modern world. Middle class people are running after meeting
physical needs of today. No one has time for spiritual enlightenment when compared to the
spirituality of the previous generations of middle class people.
In the current generation of middle class people, education given to the youth is not of good
character, in-depth knowledge and positive intelligence. So the current generation of middle class
Indians lacks the quality education. So the current education system fails to elicit the best from
the youth.
The current generation of middle class young people are hopeless that they are a failure in
fulfilling responsibilities and keeping words. They are lacking the qualities like love and care.
The previous generations of middle class were empathetic and compassionate. Young people are
not good in helping others. The middle class people learn lack of respect, egoism and selfishness
very quickly these days.
Middle class peoples aspirations are high disproportionate to their income. The previous
generations of middle class were happy with what they had. Middle class Indians have become
intolerant and we can see it in the form of rise in the rate of suicides and divorce.
Sexual and financial exploitation of middle class young girls is on the rise. The system is a
failure in preventing these. The icons of middle class Indian girls are movie stars and sports
persons. They are fascinated by the glamorous world these icons are living. You can see this in
their dresses, make up and mannerisms.
The middle class young people lack the will power which the previous generations of middle
class had. Since most of the middle class Indians are doing some sort of job now, the older
people in the middle class are looked after in nursing homes away from families or the parents
are being looked after poorly by sons and daughters in the place where parents were looked after
by their children well in the previous generations.

There is communication gap between two generations and young people are poor in judging the
older generation. Habits of the young middle class people are changing. Most of them are having
junk and fast food instead of traditional healthy foods used by the previous generations. Young
middle class boys and middle class girls from metros are attracted by binge drinking. Binge
drinking is a serious problem among youngsters in the Western countries. This can lead to
serious harm to their health in future.
Stress and mental diseases are more in the middle class people when compared to its incidence in
the previous generation. Now a days, middle class youngsters are not empathetic and you cannot
see a youngster involved in selfless social service. Cheating and fraud are not uncommon among
middle class in the modern times. Ego, envy, greed, temptation and sadism can be seen in the
youth. Materialism and consumerism tempt the middle class of this generation. People are not
timid to hurt others in this generation of middle class when compassion and empathy prevailed in
the previous generations.
You can see middle class Indians involved in prostitution and gambling not because of financial
problems in the family but for fun. We have not seen this among the middle class people in the
previous generations. When we consider the qualities and emotions, anger is more prevalent
among youth. Truth and non violence died out with the previous generations of middle class.
The problem on the part of government, that a lot of middleclass Indians are not getting adequate
education because of high cost of education and they are deprived of job opportunities. There is
huge human resources wastage as well. Quite a few of educated middle class Indians find out
lucrative job offers from abroad and brain drain happens. Promiscuity and adultery is not
uncommon among middle class youth and the incidence of STDs is on the rise.
Religious intolerance is more common now among youth and is the root cause of terrorism in the
modern world. New generation of middle class youth is not good in getting advices from the
older generations. Young generation of middle class is not being ashamed of doing wrong things
what their previous generation would not do.
Crime and drug addiction is wide spread in the current generation of youth in the middle class.
Homosexuality and abortion are being legalized against the morality of Catholic Church. We can
see that an oversexed society is evolving with proliferation of pornography, misuse of mass
media and internet. And in the media, celebrity gossip is getting more attention than real issues
of the society.
Education must foster the freedom of mind, the humanity of the heart and the integrity of the
individual. Even from our nurseries, we must train human beings by unconscious influence and
conscious effort to love truth, beauty and goodness.

People were willing to believe that a world free from distinctions of caste, color, creed, culture,
language and such other divides was emerging fast. Gradually they realized that the instrument
of education was nowhere near such a goal. It was only in march 1990 that the significance of
education crystallized globally and the world conference on education for all resolved to extend
universal elementary education to each and every one. If the education system was rooted to
culture, it just could not discard moral and ethical values that are ingrained in the Indian ethos of
universality and acceptance of diversity. An acquaintance with the history and heritage of India
could give them a feeling of continuity and motivate them and instill in them a sense of
possession of the sublime, goodness and beauty which they need to assimilate and internalize
An individual committed to values and excellence grows up only when the systems and the
society care for him and provide opportunities for the integrated development of his physical,
mental and spiritual abilities. We have universities and colleges of which one could be proud of.
Young persons emerging out of these have brought glory and fame to India in different sectors in
the country and also outside the country. But for majority of Indians, we have ill equipped
schools and colleges.

Conclusion
In short, the moral values in the society is on the decline. No matter, whether it is low class,
middle class or upper class. We are giving more attention to middle class because it is more
obvious among middle class and they form the majority in most of the societies. Middle class is
being blamed for loss of morality rather than low class and upper class. It is the need of the hour
to teach our children moral values to bring back the lost morality and to groom a new generation
with good moral values