Is youth rage a reflection of a breakdown of society?

Back in my primary school days, one of the Safari English text books had a picture that got etched in my little mind. There was this man sitting on a branch of a tree, but cutting it at its trunk joint. Perhaps finding it the most comfortable position from which to undertake his chore, the ultimate import of his folly was what a popular international TV series would call, “the science of the stupid.” This picture came to mind as I considered the possible causes of the destructive conduct of our young people, especially students. What exactly would cause a group of students run amok and burn down several dormitories, ostensibly because of being denied opportunity to watch a football match?  These could be the sounds of a falling branch. Somebody somewhere must be cutting our social branch at the wrong place.

Over the past years, we have been chipping away at this branch with assiduous resolve. We have not only abandoned the basic fundamentals of our Africanness — its social structures and practices — but have also gone ahead to throw out key tenets of faith and religion. Instead, we have embraced strange ideologies clearly at variance with natural social order. Thus, whereas many of us were brought up under strict discipline, enforced both at home and in school, we are now training children to demand their rights. Discipline in school has been reduced to passive activities that have little impact on hardened hearts of today’s child. No wonder, when their right to watch soccer is violated, they burn down the school.