The Familial Role

     I truly believe that a vast number of our societal issues can be traced back to the family – and what happens inside the familial circle. We are all a product of our parents, our upbringing, and if educated on such things as morality, courtesy, respect and the value for human life, I believe so many of our social catastrophes and intolerances towards others which breed discord and violence would never come to fruition. Today, we see that so many of our modern perpetrators have been the victims of a troubled childhood.

     Yet to some extent, it is also one's society's responsibility to ensure that its inhabitants are getting the training that grounds them as active, productive, healthy members of the community. One of the passages in Book I of Utopia illustrates this

                     'If you do not find a cure for these evils, it is futile to boast of your

                     justice in punishing theft. . .If you allow young folk to be abominably

                     brought up and their characters corrupted, little by little, from childhood;

                     and if then you punish them as grownups for committing crimes to

                     which their early training has inclined them, what else is this, I ask,

                     but first making them thieves and then punishing them for it?' (21)

The validity of the point being made here is truly sobering to read. And as I processed this, it really hit me that, as a society, we have so much responsibility to ensure that resources are provided to the family's and the individuals within them so they have the knowledge and tools necessary to raise well-rounded, balanced citizens. There is no one to blame but ourselves if a society degenerates generationally. Ultimately, the family holds the power to nurture and train the future of society. But shouldn't we all take an active role or at least an interest in determining our destiny?