Young Adults? Responsible?

Well, not exactly, not all the time, not all of them. Going away from home on a semi-permanent basis is liberating for many young people, particularly those of the male and female persuasion; all others simply don't count for anything. Swallow hard on that one. All right, they're out from under their parents' thumb, their parents' observation, their parents' dictums and strictures, and admonitions. They've got free reign, to be themselves, by themselves, or with others, similarly inclined.

In short, they become, on occasion obnoxious in the extreme. Granted, not the larger groups who tend to be fairly serious about their studies, their virtues and values, their hopes and plans for their futures, their determination to make their way, to make their parents proud. They're not the problem, they never are. These are the good kids, the young people who have their heads screwed on straight, who have embraced their parents' values and aspirations.

It's all those others. Isn't it always? It's the young people for whom freedom doesn't mean freedom to behave well and be a credit to themselves and their families. Freedom means all restraints have been removed and it's party time at the zoo. I could never quite understand why alcohol consumption was equated with having a good time. Yes, I know, drinking relaxes, removes inhibitions, makes for a jolly night out. What about relaxing and just having a rollicking good time with like-minded friends and acquaintances?

Well, I never had the privilege of attending university. But our children certainly have, and they too never saw the utility of drinking, let alone drinking to excess, let alone wreaking social mayhem in the process. Yet here we are in a well-educated, fairly intelligent and free society burdened with young people who leave home to attend an institute of higher learning and what's high really up high on their agenda is carousing.

It's become a thrill to burden other people with their ill behaviour, to instill fear in others through a ritual termed hazing. Sometimes this hazing can become downright dangerous, but it is always intended to humiliate at the very least and one can only wonder why it is that young adults can find satisfaction in humiliating others. Are there that many born sociopaths among us?

McGill University has had to institute an anti-hazing policy, including a list of banned behaviour ranging from wearing embarrassing clothing to paddling, whipping, beating or kicking. This is fun? This is entertainment? This is what people seek to amuse themselves with? The simulation of sexual acts, mocking or degrading others is considered to be a varsity sport by many, it would appear. Are these among the future leaders of society? What kind of society might that be?

Apologists explain this type of behaviour as simply youthful exuberance. Right. Any semi-adult who considers anti-social manners and mannerisism, exhibitionist and crude behaviour to be perfectly all right will rarely mature to become a reasoning and reasonable adult; they remain in a state of arrested adolescence. These people can and often do go on to become adult bullies and some manage to flourish in business, but as decent human beings they remain deficient.

Sexual harrassment during orientation week, or at any time during the course of university studies is abhorrent and can never be excused as youthful excess to be outgrown. At Queen's University signs were hung from dorm windows mocking the "no means no" campaign, reading instead "no means yes", and "no means kick her in the teeth". This is hateful and deliberately stupid behaviour, reflective of a mind that will never mature.

Anyone aware that his or her actions results in discomfort for another person and continues that objectionable behaviour regardless, deserves to be tossed out of the university environment until they understand due respect for others.