morality
Cedric Mayson Spirit Level Being good is not just an individual matter. Morality is also a communal problem demanding a communal answer because our dos and don’ts are determined by the society we live in. Just as many South Africans still live in racial enclaves that direct their politics and behaviour, so is our ethical approach heavily influenced by peer groups. This is quite obvious in schools. Kids are pressured to follow the trend of the other kids, whether it is the latest in shoes, clothes or music. So many wear their caps back to front that you wonder if the peak was actually designed to keep the sun out of their eyes or off their necks. Scholars gang up to mock or bully people, flirt to impress their friends, play around with tobacco and other drugs, steal, lie, adopt selfish motives as the way to behave, and become slaves of their sexual urges “because everyone does it”. They are the products of the society we have made. Some schools manage to build up a counter culture that is moral and free and builds alternative communities that enable the kids to be far happier, but it is a struggle. A struggle for the nation. Adults find the same. In a work situation, family, society, church or neighbourhood where honesty, caring for others and delight in the achievement of everyone is the norm, people will be fulfilled. It is much more difficult when surrounded by clock-watchers, cheats, conversation directed solely by self-interest, and dirt. Modern Western behaviour focuses so much on aggressive competition, selling yourself, beating your rivals, getting ahead, making a quicker buck, that the sense of getting our act together as a community has largely been destroyed. Love, truth, justice and progress are the fruit of communal concern: confine them to individualistic ambitions and they corrupt us and cripple our country.
Who constructs the climate of opinion in which communities find their direction? Mass media are a dominant influence on public opinion, for their news stories, advertisements and their opinion pieces. The United Kingdom newspapers available in our shops are an interesting commentary on Western society. Do people read such outrageous material to fantasise about the life they don’t intend to live, or to encourage them in it? It apparently sells newspapers, but is UK society really as bad as it boasts? In South Africa also, stories of anti- social behaviour, the breakdown of morals, dishonesty and crime are dominant. In theory people can be horrified and say “not for me”, but the constant portrayal of dirty tricks, dishonesty, crime, irresponsible sex and violence that is thrown at children all day long in TV programmes is a major factor in developing immoral unethical attitudes and practices. In this conference age, perhaps we should have a widely based conference on the media as a social force of transformation? Religion is another influence. It is now popular not to believe in God. Many people in all religious traditions have become fed up with the teaching or practices of the church, mosque, synagogue, temple or traditional customs and no longer take part in them, except for funerals or an occasional festival. They can no longer accept the way in which faith is presented and have left the regular community of believers and become individuals tossed about on the ocean of unbelief. This is understandable, but it leaves a major gap in many lives. People used to associate goodness with God, but if God doesn’t exist, ethical behaviour is up for grabs. Some former religious people manage this transition well and are strongly moral, but others experience a spiritual deterioration when they are cut off from a community that regularly polishes up its vision and values. Because we are all spiritual creatures this erosion of religion has left a major gap in our experience, and since nature doesn’t like a vacuum other forces have rushed in to occupy the space. Most of these are absolutist political creeds like fascism and nationalism, or absolutist fundamentalist sects like “born again” Christianity and some conservative Jewish, Islamic and Hindu systems. Their emotional approach imposes an intellectual slavery, laying down the law on every subject affecting personal morality (including charity), while promoting the flourishing of social immorality on a huge scale. Many of these groups encourage the dictatorship of the wealthy and endorse systems that are exterminating the poor of the world. Invariably, they provide a religious motive for the wars that plague us, cold or hot. In South Africa today it is the negative influence of anti-social, unethical communities, not just bad people, which imperil the transformation of our country. What we need is a rebirth of spiritual strength based on a vision of what we can do collectively. Fifteen years ago we believed we could liberate South Africa by acting together, and we did. Moral regeneration must put personal goodness into the context of positive communities, where we can work together to build an environment that makes being good an easy pleasure.