Answering the question as to what the smartest way for Georgia’s quick and successful development is, most respondents tend to answer that modern education is what this nation needs to take up and cling to in the first place. Easy to say, difficult to do! Even America, the greatest country civilization has ever known, lags behind in this regard, with education having that nasty proclivity to struggle to keep up with precipitous human life.
Historically speaking, only a distinguished few have managed to jump forward with salient sagacity to prompt the world what to do to improve. In the overall process of development, on top of a relevant education, the power of example also plays a paramount role.
I needed to make this little introduction to lead to where, partially, this nation’s future is being built and its character is being tempered. Today, the generational difference seems to be bigger, and the gap between those generations seems wider than, say, 50 years ago, the reason being the time and the change in pace. Today’s schoolchildren in the 12 to 15 age bracket behave absolutely differently from those who grew up in the 90s, not to mention the even older generations. Understandably, they can’t help being so different, living as they do under the ideological influence of quickly proliferating liberal-democratic ways and means, and being the product of digitally-advanced technological innovations. And still, these overly progressive and aggressive young men and women are the subject of influence of their families, the society they are living in, the political situation in the country, globalist issues and, of course, their peers. These things more or less equally shape the lives and characters of our children, but at this particular time, I would like to emphasize the pernicious influence of political big shots, and their style of interaction on the lives of our youngsters.
It is universally recognized that the power of example can change us, totally altering a person’s future, ‘leading us not into temptation but delivering us from evil’. And if we could presume that this is true, our society might well be living in imminent danger, because the example set by our grown politicians currently active in the arena, represents a serious threat to our younger generation: their way of achieving goals, their manner of expressing themselves, their tone and vocabulary, their mean way of attacking an opponent, their blurred vision of Georgia’s future, their readiness to annihilate an adversary by any vicious means, their untoward physical behavior in parliament, their unbridled thirst for power, their uncanny predisposition to grab as much benefit as possible from the position they temporarily occupy in our society, and their unattractive presence on the television screen.
I just wonder if they know that their example for children, who are tomorrow’s leaders and the rescuers of our nation, is not working, and needs a good number of serious corrections. Contemporary kids are smart enough not to easily fall under harmful influence, but they are still fragile growing and forming minds and bodies who need help to become useful politicians and honest taxpayers. And where is that gravely indispensable assistance? Is it in what they watch on TV every day, that screen which emanates those angry, failing, doubting, gossiping and wrongly-presuming politicians of Georgia?
The power of example needs to be given appropriate sense, shape, content and direction in this country, grafted on the power of modern education. If we don’t do that, someday in the near future, we will find ourselves in the hands of a new generation of politicians who will look, sound and act in exactly the same way as those we witness today. Do we need that? No!
Op-Ed by Nugzar B. Ruhadze
