Useless Opinion

Here, is one of the first articles I@ve written. It can be improved-it needs a counter argument, but I like it as it is at the moment. Anyway, read, read!

The Generational Clash

In the run-down palace of the world, the Americans worry in their shield of oil, guns, crucifixes and hamburgers. Everyone is out to get them, from terrorists, to environmentalists and pacifists. Yet these problems are mostly the consequence of power and blind decisions. The world with its variations and magic, focuses on one nation.

That nation is going out of control with change and revelation. Once safe under the enchantment of religion, in itself, America tries to hold to this image in the wake of a new generation. Ultimately, these new contemporaries will succeed, but in this modern day it struggles for freedom-in this case, the free will of sex.

The fight against the liberty of sexuality is led by George. W. Bush, who has invested millions of dollars in the campaign for abstinence. Organisations such as the Silver Ring Thing spread themselves across American schools, drilling messages, and the rights and wrongs to the so called ‘sex-obsessed youth’. In America, the teen pregnancy rate is twice the size of Britain’s, diseases like HIV are getting to epidemic amounts and teenagers are having sex at a younger age. You could say that the new age of sexual freedom from marketing and television has poisoned our minds. Or maybe in this world where sex sells, our confusion is at a peak, and all we want is some direction, a bit of comfort on the rocky world of adolescence. But whose thoughts are those? Parents, teachers, teens, politicians?

From my observations and thoughts, that’s not how parents think. Parents the world over are scared for their children. They worry when they fall and scrape their knee, when they leave for school and have their first relationships. Parents fear teens’ vulnerability because of the new society. The generations’ emerging sexuality, young people’s assertiveness and their confusion within it: parents are terrified of it all.

Uniquely, America has managed to turn disasters, such as wars into cash. In this case in the conflict for control, they have used fear as a chain of products to generate money. In the last ten years, 2.5 million teenagers have taken the pledge to not have sex till they’re married at the convenient price of $12. The moral crusade for abstinence is big business. They are herded into another world by being preached to: in that world condoms don’t work, sex is dirty without a piece of paper, and all we need to get by is the unwavering, never-ceasing belief that God is good and righteous.

I feel that this can only stifle people, with their desires and queries, and that makes me incoherent with anger. How dare the politicians and sermonisers shove and bully my generation into a new wave of fear and confusion? If you tell people condoms don’t work, why would they use them? If the preachers dare to take off their crucifix-encrusted sunglasses, they can reminisce about when they were young and confused and they themselves were being herded into conformity by their elders. Do they really expect all the teenagers to stay celibate? This economy of fear and bullying can only lead to dangerous times and disastrous epidemics, all for the sake of control.

I can never understand when I hear people talking about how sex is wrong and wicked. When it’s safe, and when it’s consenting, sex is one of the most beautiful natural things in the world. If the government pushes one single ultimate choice in a world where variety makes the world go round, you are only placing people in a corner, and these days the people in corners fight back. It may have decreased teenage pregnancies, but what about teenage misery? Denying yourself to a person you love because of a scrap of wood pulp and the wrath of the government, dressed up in a priest’s robe, can only pave the way to craziness and extra angst that our youth don’t need. Parents need to experience the fear, and talk to their children anyway. Fundamentally I believe that is the best remedy for fear and coping with new age things: to confront them, find the comfort in them, maybe even understand them. That’s the only way we will defeat our perils. That way we can rid ourselves of our cloaks to reveal our true persona. What do you think?