Garth George: Time to put brakes on 'Me' generation

Garth George

It doesn't surprise me in the least that the University of Otago's ban on pornography in residential colleges, and restrictions on alcohol consumption, are, as reported this week, being seen by some students as an attack on student freedom.

Internet access at the colleges - most of which are university owned - runs through the university's network, and certain websites, including file sharing and pornography sites, are blocked.

Some students have complained that alcohol limits and internet usage policies at the colleges are "draconian", but the university's student accommodation director maintains that the primary aim of the colleges is to provide an environment in which students can focus on their studies.

He's right, of course, but he seems to forget that he is dealing with another Me generation, young people on the cusp of adulthood who are considerably more selfish and less empathetic than their peers of bygone days.

These are youngsters who cannot recognise the dire consequences of self-centredness and lack of care and respect for others, and have no concept of the common core of civilising values humanity has had for thousands of years - known as the Ten Commandments.

Yet I am persuaded that if we were prepared to take a fresh look at the principles contained therein, we might go a long way towards solving the pressing yet apparently insurmountable social and economic dilemmas that confront us today, most of which arise from greed and selfishness.

I am talking here strictly about principles - not about Christianity or any other religion. I am simply inviting you to take a rational look at the core values enunciated in those 10 simple rules for living which have served civilisation for millenniums and which still serve those who are prepared to try to live by them.

Take, for instance, the Fifth Commandment, the one that says we should honour our fathers and our mothers (and implicit in that is to respect our elders in general and those to whom we as a community have given authority - university college directors, schoolteachers, police officers et al).

Learning to, and having to, defer to adults was once part of the discipline of childhood, and if we were to accept again the core value of letting children be children until they mature naturally, we would soon see the beneficial effects in our education system, crime rates, mental health and sporting achievements, to name just a few.

The Sixth to Ninth Commandments exhort us not to murder, commit adultery, steal or bear false witness (lie and cheat). I know that murder, adultery (and fornication), theft and lying and cheating have always been with us - and always will.

But that is no reason not to remind ourselves, and to teach our children, that these are core values, that to disobey them is hazardous to ourselves and deeply harmful to others, and that if they are indulged in there is invariably a penalty to pay.

The Tenth Commandment tells us we should not be covetous (jealous and greedy). This is the core value which we transgress more than any other these days, the one that leads to, and renders unsolvable, some of our most chronic social problems. Yet it is the last one most of us will ever admit to. Greed rules, okay?

But just imagine what the nation would be like if most of us all of a sudden stopped coveting our neighbours' wives, husbands, sons, daughters, money, businesses, houses, cars, boats, clothes, jewellery "or anything that is your neighbour's".

Why, it might even lead us to give credence to a couple of other core values: that money isn't everything; and that it is better to give than to receive.

garth.george@hotmail.com

Garth George is a veteran newspaperman who escaped from Auckland to live happily in retirement in Rotorua.