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According to the principle idea
advanced by MeniMeng Tzu (c.372-c289) known under his Latin name Mencius; every
human being is born good: hence if man maintains his original nature, he will
remain good. In man’s original nature, there is a sense of shame, a sense or
courtesy and a sense of right and wrong. If a man relies only on his sense of
perception without subjecting them to the control of mind, he fails into evil
ways and prevents his original nature.
The bane of moral decadence in
our society today is the erosion of that sense of shame, courtesy and right and
wrong in the past three decades. The cultural erosion and reorientation of our
traditional core values of honesty, integrity, equity communal social
responsibility and good behavior has left us in this dire state of social and
cultural corrosion. By allowing the desire for personal gain and aggrandizement
to overcome our righteousness and sense of social obligation, we have fallen
into the evil ways and thus, perverted our original nature. By relying on our
sense of perception without subjecting them to control of mind we have
neglected out traditions and values without asking questions about our children
and grand children’s future in a cultureless society.
Just two days ago, I watched
teenagers as they stood and gossiped while an elder, a pregnant woman and I
cleaned and swept the hall that we used for a social function. When asked to
help with the cleaning in the presence of their parents, they ignored the plea
for help from the pregnant mother, walked to the other end of the hall and
waited for their parents to come take them home. All the parent could volunteer
as they walked pass with her teens was that we should better go get a vacuum
cleaner for the job. The mother practically trampled and voided our Cultural
Rule 101 that youths should never stand and watch adults and elders do what
they could and should do. The question on my mind then was; what kind of
parents will these teenagers be? What kind of husbands and wives will they turn
to? Our traditional vales are sinking and we are facing cultural death.
When I was young, I saw myself as
a tribal elder in training. I learned about those ancient arts, culture and
traditions. I observed the customs of my people, cultivated the habit of
respect of the elders, and participated in communal social responsibility
programs. That was before internet and globalization.
Technology has brought a global
media influence to even the most isolated villages in Nigeria so that parents and
custodians of our cultures and traditions have been caught up in the web of
cultural erosion. Worried elders say young people and some adults suffer a
disconnect that gets some of the blame for chronic problems in native society –
alcoholism, cultism, domestic violence, ritual killings get-rich-quick
syndrome, etc. But nobody is fighting back. Villages have watched cultural dances,
festivals and stories of our fore fathers disappear, replaced by hip hop and
movies characterized by violence and sex.
Prior to this present state of cultural
erosion, parents that were held in high esteem in our society were those that
were determined to cultivate their children’s moral ethics at the early stage
that they took extreme caution with their speech and behavior in front of them.
Once upon a time, parents never lied to their kids or tried to live extravagant
lives beyond their income just to be seen as belonging to that cancerous strata
of the society that have now thrown ethics and integrity to the winds. In those
days, parents threaten not to buy Christmas clothes for kids that fail to excel
in their studies. Just pause and search your memory for the last time you saw
your nephews and nieces being denied of the things they value most for rude behavior,
disrespect to parents/elders, improper dressing, lackadaisical attitude to
studies, etc.
Those good old days are long
gone. Nowadays, it is the parents that remind their kids of how rich their
neighbors and peers are, warning that they should better do something to get
rich quick or will forever remain poor. These days, parents are the ones
soliciting and searching for “special centers” to register their wards for WEAC
and JAMB for “guaranteed” success by all means possible. Parents are the ones raising
huge sums of money to bribe admission officers and lectures for the children to
gain admission and pass exams respectively at colleges. What a transformation!
What happened to the innate
goodness and sense of social obligation we were born with? How could it have
come to this? In Mencius own language, the original good human nature is the
“heart of the child” or the untainted heart. If un-perverted, the original
childlike heart will lead him towards good, just as “water naturally flows downwards”.
If already perverted, man can only attain salvation by returning to his
original nature.
The question is how do we return
to the original nature of goodness before this cultural and social erosion? How
do we return to the good old days before the quest for material wealth took
control and led us to this present state of decadence? How do we save our
valued cultures and traditions? How do we save our children form this looming
cultural death?
The reverting to the original
nature of sense of shame, courtesy, mercy, right and wrong, will constitute the
four good beginnings of processes and actions that will halt this devastating
cultural and moral erosion in our society and parents should see this as a
clarion call to action. According to Mencius, the sense of mercy is the
beginning of humanity. With this sense, pension officers will stop demanding “egunge” form retirees in order to
process their gratuity and pensions.
The sense of shame should led man
to righteousness. With this sense, we should know how to respect our elders,
colleagues, our constitution and the rule of law. It is because of the absence
of sense of shame that corrupt government officials, criminals, Yahoo Boys,
ritual killers are hailed by our communities, given chieftaincy titles while the
hard working and law abiding citizens are treated with outmost disrespect. It
is because of the absence of shame that our president, members of the state and
federal houses and governors were sworn into offices in the floored election of
2007.
The sense of courtesy, if allowed
to develop, will give us sense of decorum. This will make our political office
holders humble and to start acting within the confines of the laws as servants
of the people. The sense of courtesy will lead us back to those valued traditional
rites and customs that we have neglected - those cultures that had restrained
our fore parents from taking the evil ways and perverting their original nature
of goodness.
The sense of right and wrong is
the foundation of wisdom. This will restore the right sense in parents and
elders in their actions and inactions that sets the standards for the future
generations. Was it not our people that say that; “A boy sent by his father to
steal does not go stealthily but breaks the door with his feet.” What are we
expecting from the next generation that is being nurtured with election
rigging, disrespect to the rule of law, anarchy, corruption, ineffective school
system, decay and erosion in traditional communal institutions like the
churches, mosques, town unions, families and marriages?
It was our departure from our
original nature to seek personal gains that brought about disorder and
unhappiness in the society. Greed led to strife as men both in and outside public
service went after profit and fight for personal benefits. So, as with our four
limbs, these four senses must be allowed to develop once more to their proper
health proportions if we cultivate them; otherwise, they wither away through
misuse and desuetude as has been the case in our societies. The result of which
has been the cultural erosion eating away the hearts and minds of our society
just as physical erosion is devastating our arable lands, roads and family
homes.
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Authors 
Posted by Robot| 13.06.2008 10:27