Requiem for Morals and Ethics
Featured image courtesy AFP/Getty Images
- - on 02/23/2016
“An established morality is as necessary as good government to the welfare of society. Societies disintegrate from within more frequently than they are broken up by external pressures”- Judge Patrick Arthur Devlin
Given the manner in which this land is touted as the “Miracle of Asia” by some, living in a state of utopia, as well as branded and marketed as a Buddhist country; the cradle of Theravada Buddhism, first-time visitors to this land may be pardoned, if they expect to see, the majority of its citizenry claiming to be Buddhists, walking around with halos, over their heads.
The reality behind this facade of pious sobriety is, a much depraved society, manifesting all its ugly forms, making the stark absence of, an established morality in this country, obvious.
The seemingly ceaseless propensity towards moral degeneration is all around us today. Not a day goes by, without a murder, rape, child abuse, thuggery, drug abuse related offences, sexual harassment of women, antics of corrupt-to-the core politicians, journalists, the police and some in academia; medical, legal, education etc., being reported. Most even make it to the headlines.
Much like the clichéd ‘2500 year old culture’ of this land, which remains today as material ruins of ancient monuments and edifices; so is our moral culture; in ruins. Hence ‘culture’ as in refinement of the mind, morals and taste, is deafening in its absence.
In a society driven by greed for wealth and power at any cost, ‘culture’ in the moral sense, holds no water anymore. With once highly respected and revered professions, including medicine, legal, education, and the media today, infested with those, morally corrupt to the core, caught up in the trammels of materialism, where does one look to, for examples set by leaders, to be emulated?
The few of those who, still value and uphold all that is decent are, held hostage by a society of ceaseless depravity. Their voices are unheard and thus, are unable to turn the tide of the ever increasing permissive conditions, piling up all around us.
