Who is pushing young persons into the suffering of obsessing over random “isms” (like Greta Thunberg) at an age when they should be studying, earning, and making their future lives sustainable? Who is responsible for the destruction of their natural childhood? Is it the parents who allowed it? Or the intellectuals who created such an environment?
It is human nature for adults to feel happy and clap at every word a young child speaks. When parents do this at home, it is said that the child feels inspired and motivated to learn more. If this psychological science is weaponized in favor of controversial subjects to instigate children, the consequences will not be pleasant.
Making children utter grand, complex things that they do not understand, and having global media accord them massive headline publicity, encourages them to continue in that direction. Before they can even understand reality, they fall into the illusion that this is their destined path.
“We are doing something grand… we are out to change the world… we are the harbingers of change… we are not ordinary… we are born to bring change… our role is significant… we are vital parts of a major global project… the world media is behind us… awards are waiting for us…”
If such illusions take over any child’s mind, it is not the child’s fault. The real criminals are the perverted forces who attempt to serve their own interests by creating such an “iconic” child. The parents who hand over their children to such forces are equally guilty.
What kind of activism is this, where teenagers are involved in convoluted issues that even scholars cannot understand? Do the media houses that overhype them have any social responsibility? Don’t they all create an illusion in the minds of children that “We are special people… born to fix the world”? What kind of wicked strategy lies behind pushing teenage activists (especially girls) to the forefront in every issue? Does asking for their opinions on complex matters, projecting their statements as the ultimate wonders of the world, and encouraging them to give specific types of statements not destroy their authenticity? Using children to advance dangerous ideas (or the advancement of any idea) is a despicable, uncalled-for act. It is noteworthy how many people have wasted their lives caught up in the ‘delusion’ called ‘revolution.’
Stuffing the heads of young girls with woke feminism; shoving woke concepts like multiple genders, gender assignment, and reassignment (BBC ran such children’s programming and sparked a massive controversy; there is also an example in a European country where a young girl, brainwashed by NGOs, filed a case against her own parents for not letting her undergo a gender-reassignment surgery); shoving political ideologies in the name of “climate change,” which even scientists do not fully understand; teaching children about race, class, caste, liberalism, marijuana, transgenderism, homosexuality, dissent, and human rights, and manufacturing child-activists and “child icons” in all these subjects is the current trend. There are massive global media outlets that glorify such children. Many such trends have infested India as well.
It is not difficult to formulate any new ‘ideology’ like wokeness or social justice. A belief can also turn out to be false. Similarly, a specific belief can sometimes take birth based purely on an imaginary ideology. People with the same belief can also come together to market their ideological faith. But that cannot be expected to yield permanent results. One kind of belief can wipe out another. This cycle of conflict between beliefs may keep going on. What business do children have in such a bizarre place? Why are children being used here?
Like the obsession with money, obsessions with ideology and publicity are also major mental fixations. Parents must understand that if they push their children into the ditch of such fixations, it becomes impossible for them to become “normal” again. They must remain alert against the forces that perform such dangerous work.
“Catch them young” is the core mantra of most organizations. It could be a social organization or a terrorist organization. In all of them, one can identify the self-interest of brainwashing children to recruit them into their service. It is known to everyone that Naxals, Pakistani Jihadists, and the LTTE used to manufacture, and still manufacture, teenage terrorists. In the same way, manufacturing teenage activists is also wrong. Just as manufacturing child laborers or promoting child marriage is wrong, manufacturing and promoting child activists is also wrong. Appeasing the parents of boys and teenagers, trying various methods to convince them, and bringing their child to a monastery to make them a child-monk is also a similarly bad practice. These are all different forms of child exploitation.
Destroying the innocence of children in the name of “reality shows”… filling them with vulgar things beyond their age… making children dance for their own entertainment… entirely involving children in earning money through TV, cinema, etc… making movies that depict high school children like lovers and mentally destroying them… all of this is child exploitation.
Nobody gives birth to their children just to make them “child activists.” But those who push other people’s children into the ditch are not going to listen to this. They do not understand that other parents have hopes and dreams for their children’s futures, just like they do for their own. The world’s big intellectual crusaders have made arrangements so that their own children do not get into protests, but instead study, earn, maintain a stable life, and live comfortably! The ones providing encouragement are no different. It is noteworthy that no New York Times journalist’s children have dropped out of school like Thunberg to travel across countries crying “climate change.” Why haven’t those who want others’ children to do such work, and project it worldwide, sent their own children alongside them? Why didn’t Arundhati Roy make her children drop out of school to “save the environment”?
Those who remain emotionless regarding others are the ones called intellectuals. Advancing their ideologies through the cooperation of others is their sole objective. Parents of ordinary families must remain vigilant about these “great crusaders,” ideological leaders, billionaires, NGOs, intellectual professors, “ideological” writers, and political-social activists who act as the power (and the curse) behind activist children. It is not being said that all of these people are bad. But the innocence of ordinary children is highly likely to be harmed by the influence of such people who breathe ideology. Without even realizing it, children are highly likely to consider them role models and become activists at a young age. Disha Ravi could be an example of this.
This is an era where everything possible—books, newspapers, media, songs, plays, movies, popular film actors, universities, tailoring schools, women’s societies, factories, seminars, the internet, and social media—is being used for the convenience of questionable intellectualism, to create a good image of intellectuals, and to create new activists. In times like these, raising children without letting them fall into the hands of ideological fanatics (there is no difference between this party or that party, left-wing or right-wing; no matter what ideology they belong to, the hands of all of them) is a major challenge of our time. Be careful about ideologues. Keep an eye on what children do, where they go, whom they meet, what they read, and what they watch.
Children should be given thoughts that bring peace to life. They should be given a cultured education, made humble, and filled with hope for tomorrow and faith in life. Care should be taken to ensure they have a positive optimism toward everything. Crucially, care must be taken to ensure they do not develop illusions that they are special individuals or ideological figures born to reform society (no matter what that ideology is). Just like age-appropriate food, only age-appropriate thoughts should be allowed. Once their intellect matures and they find a footing in life, they will figure out their own way forward.
A peaceful and blissful “innocent life” is the natural right of all children. Give them a “normal” life. Do not try to make them bloom artificially overnight. Do not let others infect them with the obsession of ideologies and publicity to make them bloom artificially. Let them bloom naturally in the sunlight when the right time comes.
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