What on earth is happening with the youth of today? Are they realizing that the evil conspiracies created by interest groups, both around the world and in their own countries, may damage their futures? Many horrible, awful, dreadful incidents occur around the world on a regular basis, but only a small number of young men and women seem to be concerned about them. Every human being's life is very important, particularly those of younger people who are valuable future assets. They deserve to have their opinions respected and must be encouraged to fulfill their potential. Thus, knowing oneself is a very powerful tool for young people. However, they must realize one thing: that they must be responsible for their every word and action.
It is said that these days, satisfied pigs enjoy a far better life than unsatisfied humans. In some ways, this is not wrong, but that does not mean that every single human must follow this concept literally. The actual meaning, what is suggested, is that people should not follow the path of greed, foolishness, and the inhumane. After all, the world’s disgraceful past is warning and telling people not to make the same mistakes as previous generations have.
The young people of today, as mentioned above, are somewhat immature and unprepared. They must be tough enough to live their lives and eventually negotiate any obstacles they encounter. Therefore, the most ideal role models are not satisfied pigs or unsatisfied humans. They are satisfied humans, or at least humans. In order to inspire young people to become good humans, it is beneficial to have an objectified opinion on debatable issues. The Ajou Globe (The AG) suggests three such issues: love, happiness, and the future.
-Does love mean becoming one with another?
Young people have many concerns, and most of them, unlike adults, are very pure and noble. Love, in particular, is the most beautiful emotion and also a major concern for young people. They constantly search for true love and show a curiousness in the opposite sex. As they continue searching for an answer, they finally reach the point of being with one another. Why? Every love is valid because as long as there are at least two beings in existence, someone must love someone else. At this point, many people believe in an illogical concept. They think that there must be a reward if one loves the other. People mistakenly demand that the other person loves them in an equal manner. To be honest, this is a very dangerous belief, because as people have the freedom to love the other person, they also are free to love other people. Thus, others are free to make up their own mind, regardless of whether someone shows them love or not.
Why do people make this mistake? It is because they are too vulnerable to accept that the others may not love them and to accept the pain of unrequited love. On this point, two philosophers, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Alain Badiou, suggest solutions.
-Hegel: avoid tragedy
Hegel suggested that "to love is to be one with another". He divided love into two steps. In the first step, he believed that a person who falls in love feels incomplete. In the next step, he claimed that a person finds oneself through another. This means that the other person equally loves the first person. Hegel claimed people fall in love with each other using a combination of the two steps. Thus, he is claiming that if everyone loves each other then their love is equal and they are able to avoid the tragedy of unrequited love.
-Badiou: endure tragedy
Unlike Hegel, Badiou claimed that: "love is a shared experience between two people." He believed that every individual is important, so whenever people fall in love, they are still two individuals, not one. Thus, he suggested that love is an experience and a shared event between "two," not the act of becoming one. Also, this means two individuals begin new independent experiences, not the achievement of completeness.
-How to lead a valuable life?
Life is very important to people and choosing a way to lead it is even more important. For young people, this is a common cause of concern, just like everyone else, so it is beneficial to find the best way to lead a life and create a bright future.
Thousands of solutions have already been offered on this problem but The AG will suggest some classical theories. In ancient times, people in Greece experienced the same issues and the Epicurean school and Stoicism attempted to find an answer. The Epicurean school tried to find it using the concept of unique individualism, while Stoicism tried to find it using the concept of world order.
-The Epicurean School: lead an ongoing individualized life
The Epicurean School mainly focused on pleasure. They believed that pleasure is the only key to liberate people from unhappiness. However, the pleasure they refer to is not pleasure of the flesh, but freedom from bodily pain and confusion of the mind. Therefore, they suggested that pleasure could be considered to be a means of freedom and this, eventually, would bring people happiness. Also, the Epicureans said that people should care about their own circumstances. This is because a lack of caring in big societies creates conflicts and confused states of mind.
-Stoicism: lead life by balancing between the whole and the individual
Stoicism suggested that the destiny of the world is already decided and if one lives according to reason they can expect and prepare for the future. People are tiny creatures compared to world so, therefore, they are powerless and it is impossible for them to change their destiny. Thus, people should not challenge the mighty universe, instead, they must conform. Additionally, people are most comfortable when they calmly prepare for the foreseeable future.
-What is the meaning of the future?
Many young people, and even old people, worry about the future. This is because people cannot tell what is going to happen. They can merely assume it by analyzing the present. This unpredictable and uncertain future is very important to people, even though they live the present. What is the reason behind this? One thing that is certain is that people have learned to prepare for uncertainty because an unstructured life would be disastrous.
Young people usually live without plans because it is too hard to live strictly by a strategy. Moreover, plans can easily become discarded due to the many temptations in life. Thus, it is useless to warn young people to always prepare for the future because they will not attempt to prepare until they feel the danger for themselves. Two philosophers who were deeply concerned with what the future means for humans were Henri Bergson and Emmanuel Levinas.
-Henri Bergson: the future exists because people expect things
People can expect things because they know the concept of time, which divides the future from the present. This concept of time did not immediately occur to humans. People were easily influenced by their five senses and this caused them to feel space rather than time. Therefore, the future, a relative meaning to the present, took a considerable length of time to understand. Bergson's opinion begins with this point. As people now understand the concept of time, they are able to consider time as a qualitative change. This change is an experience of time and is called "continuation." Finally, this continuation sparks the process of evolving into creativity and proves that humans are future-oriented.
Thus, to Bergson, the continuity of time is a spatial concept in the present and also the future.
-Emmanuel Levinas: the future exists because there are other people
Emmanuel Levinas was a philosopher who was skeptical that the future can be considered positively. Ancient people believed every person's destiny was fore-written and that they should expect and prepare for it. However, Levinas said the future can be affected by the interventions of others. This means that the future can be modified, compared to what was expected. According to him, the future is out of our hands and cannot be controlled by humans. The ideal future is difficult to achieve. Therefore, it is important to have a good relationship with others as a person’s future is closely related to their relationships with others.
All of these opinions can be considered and can help people to broaden their minds. There are so many other things to contemplate but these are meaningful enough to inspire young people to consider being responsible for their actions. Returning to the topic, what is the ideal role model? At least, it is good to have determined that the dissatisfied pig is the worst model. There are no right answers, only one’s own opinions. The most important thing to take from all of this is that people should not stop attempting to create an ideal model for themselves, which is absolutely dependent on self-preferences.