One of the major hurdles during any major change, I've realised, is respect. I'm not talking about respect as in respecting each other's views and choices and such. I'm talking about the rule that has been cultivated in our minds since birth, to needlessly respect our elders. The sad part is, at one point in civilisation, this was actually good for our survival. I'm talking about way back when society was but a dream and you had to fight and hunt to live and human life expectancy was depressing at best. That environment meant that anyone who survived to be old was most definitely someone worth listening to. Sadly, this isn't the case now. You can utterly waste your life and still survive to at least 59 if you even have a lick of common sense and no unfortunate accident happens to you. So, why hasn't this social rule been changed? Simply put, those who care do not have the influence and those who have he influence do not care.
I'm not here to hate on anyone, no matter how unbelievable it may seem, but 90℅ of the adults demand respect for simply existing longer. For example, most teachers. They get paid to do what they do. They don't do this out of the goodness of their hearts. Oh some do, but they're the exception, not the rule. They get paid to 'deal with you ungrateful brats' in their words. Sorry, but in my eyes, that does not merit respect. Professional courtesy, normal human consideration, desire to get our money's worth, perhaps, but not respect. Plus no one respects them anyway, we just tolerate them because they wield greater authority. Sorry if you're a teacher, but no one likes you just because you teach them.
Is it so hard to adhere to a system where influence and respect are decided by merit and not NY who breathed more oxygen? It's not, but this system conveniences those in power, so its cool.
"But this has nothing to do with us!" You may think, but it affects everything. Once, in a school quite close to where a friend of mine lives, 150 students from the she of 14 to 16 signed a petition to stop physical punishments in the school. It should've been easy cause corporal punishment was never meant to be in the first place and are considered assault under the law, even police officers were unwilling to investigate the matter. Some were bribed, some think that it was a minor matter, but most don't even see what's wrong with it. All of these are true things I heard while trying to see why the law was so lax. The Indian equivalent of the saying "Spare the rod, spoil the child." came up quite often. The parents are unwilling to change their parenting style to match the times, stubbornly clinging to the belief that the world was the same as it was in their childhood.
This might sound like a regional problem, but ALL the third world countries and many first world ones have this, although on a much, much smaller scale in the first world ones. According to what I could piece together, 85-87℅ of all minors and recently turned adults are being or have been physically abused by their parents. What's even more laughable is that authorities are useless. I will use the USA as the prime example of a first world country. Let's say that the cops find a child who is being physically abused by his parents. They turn him over to Child Protective Services. They put him in a foster home or more rarely an orphanage. All's well and good. But yet many kids run away every year. Something wrong of course. What exactly, I haven't been able to find out.
I also searched the laws designed to protect us, but now only serve to weaken us. Even the more progressive laws of the world do not treat minors as people, really. In fact, we are considered similar to pets, to be little more than property of our owners, in this case, parents or guardians. The laws, although different in wording and level of punishment, are essentially the same. In both, if the parents/guardians/ pet owners go too far, PETA/Child Protective Services intervene, put them/us in a pound/orphanage/new owner/foster home without actually asking what we want. I don't know man, too many parallels for my comfort. That's not counting those countries where such laws and departments don't exist. There, of course, the situation is much worse.