BRINGING BACK THE DAYS OF MORALITY
A friend asked, "Are we living in an immoral world today?" or "Are we just living the best way we can?" But I would like to add, "Is living the best way devoid of good morals?" "Is it impossible to live to the full without being immoral?" "What does it mean to live the best way we can?" It all depends on what an individual calls "best way." Whatever you call the best way must be beneficial to the self-realisation of the other, positive development of the other person, and must guarantee the safety of the other.
If there is anything I would desire to witness again, it would be the days of good morals: days when parents were still in charge of their children, when the mere look of the mother to the child sends a powerful message of discipline. Yeah, I am talking about the Nigerian mother. I am talking of those good days when the home was a place of formation. Beautiful old days when decency had not gone down the drain. I could remember growing up when girls were very conscious of their privacy. It was such a precious thing to guard, and virginity was a thing to be proud of. Those days when girls were taught how to sit.
One good thing about good morals is their societal impact. And that is why, in most Nigerian cultures, it is believed that a person does not train a child, and that a child belongs to the community. That sounds like a communist way of thought, right? But it is not so much a communist thought but a communal aspect of the Nigerian people. When a child is good, society has great potential to be a livable place; but when it is the contrary, it becomes a living hell.
The recent development in Nigeria's government has turned young girls from the age of twelve into prostitutes and young boys into criminals and street touts. Looking around, I see young people without direction, driven solely by the passion to acquire everything material and nothing developmental to the human person. And a society whose large percentage of youths tilts towards "lack of morals" closes itself off to development, especially human development. When a person is ill-formed, the society at large on the long-run, begins to malfunction, because a person is the building block of every society.
Another striking thing about the days of good morals is serenity, peace, and security. It breeds trust; trustworthy people are after integrity. it breeds a sense of responsibility and work, and those busy have no time to cause trouble in society.
As an idealist, I believe that ideas are the smallest building block that forms a human person, while the human person is the smallest identifiable building component of a society. And so, ideas truly rule the world, but not without action. Negative ideas accumulate into a negative mindset, this mindset gives rise to negative actions, which erect a terrible society.
There is everything good about good morals and nothing to lose; it benefits an individual and is a vehicle of development for a society.