Contents Up one level A Generation Gap A lost Language Shared Feelings A new 'Tribalism'        

By John Cole

 

People are finding new ways of 'belonging'

(1) The generation gap

Most people under the age of 40 - at least in the United Kingdom - seem to feel much less keenly their ties to a place or to a moment in history than do their parents and grandparents. Places like Northern Ireland stand out as exceptions!

 

How to start an argument(!):

In Turkey, at the start of every school day the children
stand to sing the National Anthem and recite a formula
which begins "I am a Turk.." (Maybe this is just one of
the reasons why Kurds living in Turkey feel so rebellious!)

What reaction would you get if you suggested a similar
activity for schools in the United Kingdom? "I am a citizen
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland.." doesn't seem to have the same ring about it.
And what would it feel like in Welshest Wales to be singing
"God save our gracious Queen" - in English?

It comes more naturally to this younger generation to see themselves as citizens of the world. Even the idea of patriotism has its problems.

Again and again when I have asked church members which social issues should most concern the churches, the replies have been starkly divided between the age-groups. Over-forties focus on the family, education and the needs of the locality. Under-forties highlight the global issues of peace, justice in economics, and concerns about the environment.

A symptom of this shift of perspective between the generations (although probably not its cause) may be the fact that during the eighties and early nineties in Great Britain one view of society prevailed over all others. In words attributed to Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister at the time, "Society doesn't exist." Where we might have expected to find local communities (we were told), we had only a number of individuals. When they gathered together, it was solely out of shared self-interest. Their value as individuals was to be measured as consumers. Those without purchasing power could effectively be ignored.

The witchcraft of market forces, which these attitudes unleashed, is still at work. An aggressive individualism still shapes a lot of our behaviour. In the market-place, as in the jungle, the law is not "Do as you would be done by," but "Do down as you expect to be done down by."

Relationships between people in this context are not a matter of principle - 'The gentleman's word is his bond.' (Has anyone produced a politically correct version of this proverb?) - but are based on an attitude to law which says, 'The law is a boundary which I will push back as far as I can and within which I can do as I like!'