I'm Italian. I came back to Italy after 5 years abroad. I did a lecture in an event in Rome a few weeks ago and said "we are young, we can do it" or something like that. The young crowd looked at me with big open eyes. I realized there was something wrong in my sentence and joked "Right, right, YOU are young, you get to do it!".
This was weird. Not because I felt older then them, that was actually right! I'm in my thirties and they were in their twenties or the and of their teenagerhood.
This surprised me because in Italy people think of themselves as young until they are maybe 50 when they are considered adults and responsible. This is wrong. Not the look of the guys in the crowd. The problem is with the old generation, not with the young one. I'm in my thirties and I am an adult, that's it. Then, I looked at the TV (something I never do, I don't like TV). They always talk in a negative way about the young generation: protests, unemployement rate (which by the way in Italy is around 30% for young people!), not flexible, not willing to start a family, not interested in commitments and so on.
I started thinking that it's not just the youngster's fault, it's the parent's generation fault as well. If the young people don't have space, resources, responsibility is their own problem but they are not the only cause. Ok, I stop here, this is a longer post than usual, but I thought it was worth it.
How's the situation in your own country? Would you agree that responsibilities should be shared between youngsters and older generations?
The discussion is open...
No comments:
Post a Comment