As a man thinketh....

Another book passed to me for a quick reading. It's a book written at the early 20th century. Another one of those quickie ones like Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

In a nutshell...
Whatever you allow to take root in your mind, the fruits you bear will reflect that you sow. And that is what you become. Thought crystalizes into habit, habit solidifies into circumstances. To put it simply, you are what you think. 8)

And here's a study to prove... from the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, April 2009 issue.... yup, I know it's only February... I'm reading into the journal alerts... 8) This is a study on the influence of sexual lyrics in popular songs linked to early sexual experiences. But if you Google this and there're many old studies on it too. Main point of this study.. exposure to songs degrading sex leads to many teenagers engaging in it.

And some figures to back it up...almost 25% of female teenagers in the US suffer from sexually transmitted diseases or that approximately 700 000 teen pregnancies happen every year. I am not sure about Malaysia as it's quite difficult to get the figures. But I suspect it should be quite high; going by the sordid tales that I sometimes get from my young charges. I supposed we desensitize ourselves cos the lyrics of those nice sounding songs will keep playing in our head. We become what we listen to. It's the same watching porn...we tend to get influenced.

A couple of decades ago... songs were not so outrightly direct and debasing. In fact, discreet was a keyword. These days, they promote that sort of 'wild' lifestyle openly. Recently it seems it's cool to get pregnant in your teens. Responsibility for the baby? Don't worry! Mom and dad are still there to take care of the baby! And kid grows up more like a sibling to their birth parents than kid.

Society losing its mores???? Well, look at the kind of stuff heading the direction of our young... with the sophistication of today's communication devices, it's hard to imagine what the young are listening and viewing. The control is difficult to put in place. And that means viewer/listener discretion is required. At that age, it's anybody's guess how discretionary it can get. This onslaught is our own doing. This is progress???

So, as a man thinketh.... so he is...Proverbs 23:7. It is very true. What we put into our minds.... they shape us. So, if it's junk we put into those gray matter, then junk we'll become. If it's good stuff we put in, then good stuff we'll be. Sounds simple??? If only it is ...