“I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on the frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words… When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly disrespectful and unrestrained.”

Overheard at the Dhaka Club? Two retired colonels strolling through a park perhaps? An op-ed writer in the Daily Star? No, this quotation, from the Greek poet Hesiod, is just a little older than that. It dates back 2700 years in fact, and just goes to show how bemoaning the youth of today is an ancient and established custom. Much later, a mere two and a half thousand years ago, Socrates is said to have echoed these thoughts, in the following passage attributed to him:

“The young now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority, they show disrespect to their elders…. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and are tyrants over their teachers… They talk as if they alone knew everything, and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them.”

Now Hesiod and Socrates have many advantages over your correspondent, whose words are unlikely to be read two and a half weeks from now, let alone two and a half millennia, but they suffer by comparison in one vital respect: they weren’t at the recent launch of the magazine “Voices of Hope”, and I was. If they had been, they might well have reconsidered their opinion about the youth of today, as there they would have met a highly impressive group of youngsters who are committed to making a difference and to shaping a better world, starting right here at home.

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