Moral decay of society:

Reversing the trend

By Lionel Wijesiri

Sri Lanka is at a crossroads. Alcoholism, drug abuse, teen pregnancy, abortion, domestic violence, child abuse, pornography, rape, robbery and murder are increasingly reported.

The benefits of learning, character building, moral education and religion seem to have been lost, resulting in a rudderless, sometimes murderous element, pervading our society. Can we put an end to this moral decay? John Ruskin, British social commentator gave us one answer. He said: “Let us reform our religions and schools and we shall find little reform necessary in our prisons.” Ruskin is not wrong, but it’s a long-term solution. I believe there is a better way. Adopting sound, non-sexist, non-racial and evergreen wisdom from our glorious past! It can be used to commence regenerating the shredded moral fibre of this country.

Change should start from the family

Let us start from the beginning. What is this morality to which we should aspire? Morality refers to the concept of human ethics which pertains to matters of right or wrong – also referred to as good and evil – used within three contexts: individual conscience, systems of principles, and judgements– sometimes called moral values – shared within a cultural, religious or political grouping.

Albert Schweitzer, author of On the Edge of the Primeval Forest and the Decay and Restoration of Civilisation has this to say on the matter: “Ethics are nothing but reverence for life. This is what gives me the fundamental principle of morality, namely that good consists in maintaining, promoting and enhancing life, and that destroying, injuring and limiting life is evil”.

Decay

Ironically, while the moral decay of society could be considered more subjective than the other topics we study, such as natural disasters, economics and geopolitics, I believe anyone with a reasonably discerning spirit can see that moral decay is happening at an alarming and noticeable rate.

We need only watch the news and observe the people around us to see it. The decay of our accepted morals began slowly, and it has taken several decades for us to reach the place we are now at. Not unlike the proverbial “frog in a boiling pot of water,” the heat was slowly turned up until we looked around and realised how dangerous a situation we are now in. Recently, however, it seems society’s morals are declining faster than ever.

Talk to a young person who attends a school (private or public), and ask what the morals are like among his or her peers. If the person is candid with you, then prepare to be shocked by the language and attitudes of today’s youth.

If you are an adult 30 years or older, chances are you will note an obvious difference between the morals of youth today and those when you went to school.

Today’s schools are not as worried about children bringing chewing gum to school, but, rather, about them bringing drugs to school. Profanity, rather than being confined to locker rooms and playgrounds, is now commonplace in halls and classrooms. Without adding to the debate about whether the entertainment industry reflects society, or vice versa, I will just say that anyone can easily see that the entertainment industry has dramatically changed over the years (particularly television shows and movies).

We have gone from the days when it was risqué to say something like “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” in a movie, to the modern-day vulgar terms being dropped often and unashamedly. Consider the stark contrast in TV shows such as Leave It to Beaver, Father Knows Best, The Brady Bunch, The Cosby Show, Little House on the Prairie, Gilligan’s Island, and many more to the likes of what the television industry considers entertainment today. Explicit sexual scenes, nudity, extreme violence, adultery, drug use, disobedient children, and a host of other equally nasty themes are prevalent (and arguably more the norm than not) in today’s movies and television shows.

It is quite difficult for a decent family to find a good movie to watch together without compromising their values. Unfortunately, it is a sad reality that many families readily compromise their values and accepts that this is just “how it is.”

Truth

This is the bursting of a dam of potential trouble that has been building for years. The collapse of families and communities leaves in its wake un-socialised young people, deprived of parental care, who on average - and yes, there are exceptions - do worse than their peers at school, are more susceptible to drug and alcohol abuse, less likely to find stable employment and more likely to land in jail.

Many yearn for relief

The truth is, it is not their fault. They are the victims of the tsunami of wishful thinking that washed across the country with children without the responsibility of parenthood, social order without the responsibility of citizenship, liberty without the responsibility of morality and self-esteem without the responsibility of work and earned achievement.

What has happened morally in the West decades ago is what is happening in our country today. Good and otherwise sensible people are persuaded that they could spend more than they earn, incur debt at unprecedented levels and consume the world’s resources without thinking about who will pay the bill and when.

It has been the culture of the “free lunch” in a world where there are no free lunches.

We have been spending our moral capital with the same reckless abandon that we have been spending our financial capital. Sigmund Freud was right. The precondition of civilisation is the ability to defer the gratification of instinct.

There are large parts in our society where religion is a thing of the past and there is no counter-voice to the culture of “buy it, spend it, wear it, and flaunt it, because you’re worth it”.

In the 1820s, in Britain and America, a similar phenomenon occurred. People were moving from villages to cities. Families were disrupted. Young people were separated from their parents and no longer under their control. Alcohol consumption rose dramatically. So did violence. In the 1820s it was unsafe to walk on the streets of London because of pickpockets by day and “unruly ruffians” by night.

What happened over the next 30 years was a massive shift in public opinion. There was an unprecedented growth in charities, friendly societies, working men’s institutes, temperance groups, church and synagogue associations, Sunday schools, YMCA buildings and moral campaigns of every shape and size, fighting child labour or inhuman working conditions. The common factor was their focus on the building of moral character, self-discipline, will-power and personal responsibility.

It worked. Within a single generation, crime rates came down and social order was restored. What was achieved was nothing less than the “going back to the moral society” - much of it driven by religious and social leaders.

Lesson

This is a lesson for us. How do we recreate a moral society! How should we start it? Much can and must be done by the government, but they alone cannot change lives.

A government cannot make solid marriages or turn feckless individuals into responsible citizens.

That needs another kind of change agent. It needs religious and social leaders, not as preachers, but as shapers of behaviour and tutors in morality in self-restraint and pursuit of the common good.

The culture of greed and moral decay we are witnessing stretches right up into corporate boardrooms and the political field. It also embraces large parts of the media. It is not just its damaged youth, but the country that needs a moral reformation.

Here is the good news, even in the face of such moral degradation. Many are seeking answers. Many are yearning for relief. Only good people can make a difference by pointing individuals and our nation back to the good old days.