Ever have one of those moments where you find yourself screaming at talkback radio as yet another caller rings in to make some inane comment about a topical issue?

I had one of those moments just last week when the whole boy racer issue was being discussed in the media and on talkback radio.

To be honest I’m getting sick to death of people who seem to want to downplay or write off the serious problems with today’s youth culture by making the stupid comment that go something like “but young people have always done things like this”.

What a load of garbage.

Yes, young people always are and always will be risk-takers, and rule breakers, etc, but the fact is that they type of risks that young people are taking today, and the rules that they are breaking are completely different to rule breaking and risk taking that occurred in previous generations of young people.

These young people are just breaking rules, or snubbing social conventions, they are actively breaking the law, and they aren’t just taking risks, they are engaging in extremely dangerous activities and behaviours.

Not only that, but we aren’t talking about a small minority of young people. Dangerous and risky law breaking activities are becoming normal behaviour for the majority and in fact they appear to be becoming the norm now for many young people too.

But then what do you expect?

Throw in a bit of Jack-Ass, a spot of Fast and the Furious, add a large dollop of finance companies willing to irresponsibly finance young inexperienced people into high performance super-cars. Take these ingredients and add in a dose of bad parenting philosophies and a large dose of rights without responsibilities type thinking and you’ve got a real recipe for disaster.

But it gets even better.

Add to that mix an absentee father, some messed up pop-culture role models and celebrities, and on top of that throw in a large dose of self-centred me first type thinking and you’ve got an even bigger problem.

To finish off this little cake, make sure you mix it in a bowl of moral relativism and rationalistic atheism which proclaims that there is no life beyond this one and that humanity is just a bare knuckled fight for survival of the fittest – now you’ve got yourself a real mess.

Young people today aren’t just acting out “like they’ve always done” in previous generations.

They are taking whole new risks, and facing serious social issues that most of our parents or grandparents never even knew existed.
Today’s young people have grown up in a culture that places more value on a rare North Island snail than on the life of an unborn human baby.

They have grown up in a culture that tells them that sex isn’t sacred, in fact it’s just a sport and that as long as you wear a condom there are no consequences for sex with whomever, whenever and however you like.

They have grown up in culture of instant communications, instant fixes and “have what you want, when you want it” type philosophies.

Young people today have been offered Britney Spears, P-Diddy and Paris Hilton as culture icons and role models, and they have been raised on a steady diet of MTV, Shortland Street and Big Brother.

They have been told time and time again that there is no God, there is no truth, that morality is relative, pornography is a great career path, and that pre-nuptial agreements are part of a normal marriage arrangement.

One look at our youth suicide, youth mental health and youth sexual disease figures and it becomes plainly apparent that young people today are vastly different and not just living like young people from previous generations did.

Until we face the fact that the philosophies we have embraced have led us to this point, and that we need new philosophies which lead us in another direction, then boy racers will be just the tip of a very large and very unhealthy ice-berg.

Anyone care to shuffle some deck chairs?