Doesn’t anybody teach them proper conduct?
| Date :30-Jun-2019 |
By Vijay Phanshikar:
THE most disturbing aspect of the evening at a restaurant was a group of youngsters indulging in behaviour that was hardly suitable for a public place. They drank alcohol in good quantities, smoked cigarettes profusely, laughed very loudly disturbing others and spent money as if they had wads of currency notes in their pockets. One comes across many such groups at many places these days -- of youngsters indulging in habits that hardly come under good-behaviour category. Some time ago, I had raised the question about the source of money such young people abuse so brazenly.
There is no definitive answer to that question, for people can have unimaginable sources from where money flows to them, some good and legitimate while some bad and improper. But there is a major issue which I feel morally constrained to raise this time: Is there nobody in these people’s lives to keep a check on their rather unruly conduct in public places? Don’t they get a right grooming at home about how to behave not just in public places but also anywhere in life? On a few occasions, I found some or the other person in public accosting the youngsters and asking them to behave properly. On quite a few occasions, the youngsters hit back, asking the do-gooder to clear off or get lost.
It is heartening to find at least some persons who pick up the courage to accost people indulging in wrong conduct. Still, that does not answer the basic question about whether the youngsters have had any grooming at all at home or in schools or colleges. Looking at the complexity of the issue, I realise that the answer to the question is not easy to come by. For, what is involved here is what kind of definition the people harbour about various issues and behaviours. For some, there is nothing wrong in certain behaviours while for some others, there is nothing right. No matter the definitions people may be harbouring, it is obvious that certain behaviours are uncouth and undesirable, to say the least.
All human societies have their own norms, mores and folkways that generally govern their collective or individual behaviours. These norms conform to thought of decency, dignity, discipline and decorum. A little detail here or there may be different, but all human societies have more or less similar norms of behaviour in private or public places. Any violation of these norms accounts for bad behaviour. From this standpoint, I raise the question again: Is there anybody in the lives of such people who go almost berserk pursuing wrong definitions of freedom and individual liberty. They distort the discourse on decency, dignity, discipline and decorum and make others non-plussed. And this is the actual issue. It is time we started thinking about the right definitions of behaviour and about promoting those in the society. If we fail in this duty, we will be actually failing our youngsters in the long run, which, in turn, will be failing ourselves as well.