RI's youth suffer from crisis of values<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Researchers say young Indonesians today suffer
\nfrom anomie. They do not know right from wrong.<\/p>\n
Rusydi Syahra, a senior researcher at the National Institute
\nof Sciences, told a seminar on youth here yesterday that many
\nyoung people committed socially unacceptable acts -- such as
\nvandalism or becoming involved in brawls -- because they lacked a
\nsense of values.<\/p>\n
Antara reported that the institute's recent study on high
\nschool students in Bandung, Ujungpandang and Medan, found that
\nmore than half of the respondents admitted to having difficulty
\nin defining whether their own acts were right or wrong.<\/p>\n
\"A great number of students also said they were often
\ndepressed without understanding why they felt that way,\" Rusydi
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Young people who dropped out of school and had no orderly
\ndaily activities experienced greater confusion. He compared this
\nparticular group with high school students who had relatively
\nbetter social and economic lives, and found that 40 percent to 50
\npercent of the latter group experienced anomie.<\/p>\n
\"The percentage of urban youth, such as those in Jakarta, who
\nexperience anomie is even higher (than those who live outside of
\ncities) because of the various urban conditions which lead to
\nproblems,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Anomie in societies or individuals is a condition of
\ninstability resulting from a breakdown of standards and values or
\nfrom a lack of purpose or ideals.<\/p>\n
The term was introduced by the French sociologist Emile
\nDurkheim in his study of suicide. He believed that one type of
\nsuicide resulted from the breakdown of social standards that
\npeople need to regulate their behavior.<\/p>\n
When a social system is in a state of anomie, common values
\nand common meanings are no longer understood or accepted, while
\nnew values and meanings have not been developed.<\/p>\n
Such a society produces, in many of its members, a sense of
\nfutility, a lack of purpose, and emotional emptiness and despair.
\nStriving for certain goals is considered useless, because there
\nis no accepted definition of what is desirable.<\/p>\n
Rusydi pointed out how Indonesian youths are exposed to a
\nclash of values, leading to confusion as to which set of values
\nto adhere to.<\/p>\n
When a family, school or peer environment failed to instill
\nstrong values in a child, while the mass media exposed him or her
\nto foreign \"unacceptable\" values, the child would certainly
\nbecome confused, he pointed out.<\/p>\n
\"They become people who do not have a clear purpose in life,\"
\nRusydi said. (swe)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/ris-youth-suffer-from-crisis-of-values-1447893297",
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