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Anastasia Preobrazhenskaya
Morality is a mind of a heart and moral youth is a mind of a state [0] - 29.04.2024
Just like a Good Businessman, interested in a profit-making and solid market, cares about training his staff members, so a State is beginning to realize that its status in the global arena depends directly on the youth. It depends on those young men, who are going to become active members of economic and social, cultural and educational processes. A huge amount of various youth targeted programs are included in the concept of international politics. They cover all kinds of areas of development and assistance to youth. But a Good Businessman is interested not only in staff members’ education but he also cares about “human relations” within his team. A State keeps up in pace with the Business: spiritual and moral education of the youth becomes the top-priority task of the youth policy in all the Russian regions. Spiritual and moral education of the youth is fine, it helps to improve; youth is always happy to endorse such a government initiative. Nevertheless, many people consider that moral can exist only coupled with religion, and a sufficient number of the Russian youth is faithless today (23 % in 2007, this information is taken from wikipedia.org). So what? Should I become a believer to become moral? Let’s try to deal with it.It does work!!!
“It does work” - Matroskin cat shouted. It’s a character from everyone's favorite cartoon “Three from Prostokvashino”. He managed to teach a little jackdaw to ask everyone “Who’s there?” Perhaps, programs aimed to educate the Russian youth in spiritual and moral way haven’t begun to operate full out, haven’t become large-scale and spread in all the cities and towns and in distant corners of our homeland. But we can say with certainty that the first stage is passed. It’s the base-stage – the foundation. It’s passed very successfully. It can be proved with the following examples.
Matroskin cat © bordersoff
In the last few years much work has been done to support the youth and to develop the concept of the youth policy. First of all it concerns the creation of new youth organizations and the development of already existing ones of very different trends. Associations of Young Journalists and Environmentalists, poets' clubs and equestrian clubs, Urban Student Council and various centers are being founded. They conduct successful activities in regional and administrative centers. A hippotherapy center “Lutchik” in the Novy Gorod (“New Town”) administrative district in Ulyanovsk city can be a shining example of education of moral youth. The center works actively with volunteers. It invites young people who love working with children. You can do various things. You can help somebody in an art studio, in a computer club and photo clubs. You can embody ideas of different events. Working with volunteers is the key point of successful activities of many youth organizations. Youth joins the ranks of volunteers actively. And it has its own all-important reasons. Mass detective fiction, movies, and TV series propagandize cruelty, obduracy, and indifference as good and worthy qualities of a businessman and any person who keeps up with the time. In their opinion people can achieve goals by all means. In the world where “dog eat dog” they care only about their own interests and benefits. So-called “private traders”, owners of organizations, abet denunciations, support squabbles within the team and breed unhealthy competition.
Such methods always hit the target without a slightest error. Which young man doesn’t want to build a distinguished career, earn money and be up-to-date? Nobody wants to be behind the times.
Under such conditions more and more young men begin to think if it is possible to build a career and remain a moral man with moral values.
Now youth organizations complete with youth policy and youth groups at the church come to the rescue.
Matroskin cat © bordersoff
Historically, the institution of church played not only religious but also educational and social role. People met and communicated with each other there. After the period of Soviet power the church lost this function, but young men needed to communicate. So, youth groups are being created at the churches. Their purposes are not only religious. For example, on 21 August a youth group from Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saint Mary in Ulyanovsk celebrated the 9th anniversary of its formation.
Our group numbers close upon 40 people, though is has started just with two brave girls. They have designed and accomplished such a mega-event. “I’m a teacher and it’s important for me to teach teenagers and youth to be moral. I think it’s one of the key directions of my work, - Kristina Yatsuk says. She is one of the founders of this youth movement; - we give lessons of morality in the form of chat room in schools and orphan homes. We watch special films; invite interesting guests, who can share their experience. It’s also really important for me to talk individually with guys. We can talk about their personal problems, which can also base on morality.”
Moral and religious discrepancies
So, should we become religious or not? We should make up our mind. We can be ethical and not religious. And a mini-survey, conducted among 25 young men (16 – 24 years old), shows that 76% are religious. The truth is that everybody believes in something private. They believe in themselves, in God’s being, in different Gods, in “their own” God, etc. And 72% of them answer confidently that morality without religion not only can, but must exist.
Mini-survey of young people
Are you religious or not? Does morality exist within religion?
Does morality exist within religion? © Gaudeamus
These discrepancies are glaringly obvious. A religious man will say without a moment's hesitation that morality results from religion; an atheist will announce that not only believers can play fair. And what do we have? Believers admit morality separately from religion. How is that possible? It’s quite simple. In today’s Russia as well as in America and in European countries many so called nominal believers are appearing. And there is a paradox: religion is bad, religious men are over half and morality within religion is a normal state of things. The conclusion is forced upon you: our parents’ and our parents’ parents’ creeds, original “religious inactivity” are still in our heads. But at the same time they gradually give place to more effective principles, which can be used in the modern life. Years later philosophical thought become to spiral back to Socratic ideas. He was the first in “Euthyphro” dialogue to show autonomy of morality apart from religion. Modern youth along with Paul Kurtz arrive at an idea that “people are able to be honest, truthful, and sincere and just without divine sanctions.”
Moral youth is a mind of a state.
Undoubtedly, moral youth exists. Many people tend to help other people. They want to live right and teach the others to appreciate moral values. They teach them to live well, according to morality and to benefit their native land, their state. That’s great that a state also understands it and tries to help youth to school them to morality.
Matroskin cat © bordersoff
A rehashed and updated statement of Heinrich Heine is used in the article heading. It says that “morality is a mind of a heart”. The future of any state, not only ours, depends on the younger generation, on today’s young men who will chair their area or region and join the ranks of workers of government facilities and major companies. Both general moral values and young men’s morality is a sort of moral environment in a company. The point is that the better climate is, the better a company works. For our secular state, morality within religion is an important point in moral and religious education of the youth. Certainly, such morality exists, and certainly, it presents methods of education work. But they need to be perfected and, before everything else, to be distributed among youth. Nevertheless, the outcome is important rather than the ways of its achievement. Morality can be educated in terms of religion or simple humanism. Ok! Let’s be moral in fact rather than in word! Our future is in our - ethical - hands!
Translated by Elena Noskova
Edited by Georgii Tikhonov
Culture |25.02.2014 | Views: 1520
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