Thieves,rapist, robbers, taxman cheats,middle class bankers & corporate managers,corrupt political underhanded dealers that are motivated by their own self-enrichment,irregularities in the awarding of government contracts to companies,loud-mouthed,uncouth,racist bigots you name them it's there in front of you as clear as mud.
Sounds shocking,alarming,all too familiar and yet this is the society we have deal with in contemporary South Africa. Are these the people that built South Africa and made it what it is?
Will the curtain ever come down on the hard-line confusions and contradictions that articulate our society at large and is our interest for "good will hunting" in seeking the answers to all the above mentioned vices in South Africa just a futile exercise?
What exactly constitutes a society that is morally bankrupt?
The Lonely Conservative wrote in an article about how "a woman who was murdered at 5:00 a.m. when she stopped at a car wash on her way to work. It’s not just the horrific nature and savagery of the crime so much as the reaction by society to it that paints a picture of how low our culture has sunk.Civilization and the police force deduced from this incident as only being -a woman in the wrong place at the wrong time."
So we get butchered by anonymous murderers and the best empathy society can come up with is to absorb the evil with much remembrance of the noble dead. Has our concept of common decency gone from just a hundred years ago? Has too much secularism in society made the levels of religious holiness look like a sad joke? Is secularism responsible for the beast we see in man's acts to come out more and more that what is expected? It is indeed a brave new world out there is it not?
Has our society in South Africa become the "people that work for living are now badly outnumbered by people that only vote for a living" or "I am sorry I only have only gun to aim at for my country"?
Some practices in society have changed out of sheer necessity, but basic thinking behind it has not necessarily followed suit. Should the adoption of a system of moral values be dictated only by circumstances? Has there been a general spirit of rebellion against our traditional values?
Political writer Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote:"Today’s society focuses largely on the immediate satisfaction of individual desires, in a setting in which individual and collective hedonism becomes the dominant motive for their behavior". Moral autonomy, selfish greed, and self-gratification may come to have a certain appeal, but are they conducive to genuine happiness, contentment, and better relationships with other people?
Are we happier and more secure when our moral values take a nose dive? Well lets see,what has come from it when it does?
Here are some:
1.heightened mistrust amongst ourselves.
2. insecurity,
3.failed relationships,
4.children growing up without a father or a mother,
5.pandemics of sexually transmitted diseases,
6.unwanted pregnancies,
7. drug addictions,
8.murders.
9.rape,
10.violence.
All these realities clearly do not spell satisfaction and success but failure in society. One major cause for this confusion is moral relativism, a widespread view that standards vary according to personal or cultural preferences.
By abandoning fixed moral standards, we reap the grim and growing harvest of misery and death as families are torn apart by infidelity and millions suffer because of xyz.
Moral relativism sounds sophisticated,but it ain't. Man's conscience or right to make correct decisions are under assault as never before. And at times we just don't care where that assault is coming from,we just ignore it and learn to live with it.
Take corruption for example. Nothing ever gets done unless someone's palm gets greased. French lawyer, Arnaud Montebourg,wrote:"Corruption is like a heavy pollution that weighs on people’s spirits which enabling one to pass an exam, get you a driver’s license, land a contract, or win a lawsuit, it's in your face."
British magazine The Economist at one time reckoned that "10 percent of every $25 billion spent in international arms trade every year serves to bribe potential customers. Crony capitalism whereby corrupt business practices favours a privileged few who have good connections—is said to have ruined the economies of entire countries...corruption is but one form of oppression."
Yep two powerful forces stoke the fires of corruption and they are selfishness and greed. In our country,South Africa, it has become more the acceptable norm and a way of life,than the exception. And they justify bribery simply because they themselves benefit from it.
From dishonesty,disrespect for the law,disrespect for law enforcement,lack of moral belief, cheapened standards of life,sexual harassment,scientific fraud,religious hypocrisy,child exploitation and abuse,STD's,tax evasions,drugs in sport,vandalism,entertainment violence,televised news violence,extreme fighting or the ultimate fighting, abuse of your parents and vice versa,violent video games,etc.
Have we completely lost our sense of that which is right and wrong when looking at all suchlike these things mentioned above?
Reference:
1.Sir William Watson, English poet.
2.British magazine The Economist.
3.French lawyer, Arnaud Montebourg.
4.Political writer Zbigniew Brzezinski.
5.The Lonely Conservative.
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