If I said this ‘by myself’, I could be easily accused of being ‘an anti-British bigot’, but here’s a British scholar saying it for The DailyTelegraph:
“Young people now are being brought up grasping for what they don’t have rather than appreciating everything they already do.
For everything we have gained in material wealth and sophistication in recent years, we have lost in happiness and the overall richness of the fabric of society.
If we don’t act now, in the future we are likely to see increased levels of adolescent suicide and mental illness, and a culture in which taking anti-depressant drugs is the norm.”
This is today’s money-centered Britain, where a few sane minds (see this Action forHappiness) are trying to warn that things can’t go on like this.
Raising children in a society where ‘meaning of life = financial success’ is a recipe for disaster, and the Brits are already reaping the poisonous fruits of this nihilistic ideology.
Where could have secularism, atheism, hedonism, consumerism, promiscuity lead if not to a an atomised society where only 30% (down from 60%, some 50 years ago) of people trust their fellow human beings?
I like the slogan of Action for Happiness (“Let’s put the things that matter first”), however, I feel that it is but a pipe-dream.
How many of the young people (from Britain or any other country) born in the past 2-3 decades could escape the spell of this materialistic outlook on life?
It’s nice to wish putting the things that matter ‘first’ – but what actually matters, apart from every ‘I, me, mine, myself’ in this selfish world?
Could this self-centerd modern world where Christianity is uprooted find the way back to our Lord’s definition of happiness – the beatitudes?
Who of us is – apart so very few :-( – ready to be poor in spirit, mournful, thirsty after righteousness, meek, giving up all the nothings that apparently enrich our modern lives, so that we could find true happiness?
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