Living in hard times
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Living in hard times

We fallen victim to a collective neurosis

Post by on Saturday, February 12, 2022

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We live in hard times. That much one can gather from the fact that everyone seems to be complaining about something or other. Some of our problems may be real, some imaginary, but what worries me is that a large proportion seems to be of a moral nature. At some point in our quest to stay abreast with modern life we have lost our moral compass. We have blurred the line between right and wrong, and then straddled it, then erased it, and ultimately forgot it was ever there.

I know morality is no longer a pursuit that many care to spend time and effort on, but let me tell you one thing. Without a modicum of morality, the very fabric of society comes apart. Take for example the case of the man who goes to a government department to finish some routine business, then discovers to his horror that he cannot get a signature or a stamped paper without bribing someone. This is not just morally reprehensible, it undermines the basic trust between citizen and government, and it wastes valuable time and effort.

I am horrified by the accounts of bribery and deceit I read in the newspapers every day. I am shocked that for all the efforts lawmen make to enforce the right punishment on offenders, the avalanche of offences never ends. It seems to me that crime has lost its stigma; that it has become a professional risk, something that the educated and the powerful can slip into at any moment without much remorse.

When did this happen and how do we end it? I don't know whom to blame. Is it the fast pace of life; is it the economic crisis? Or have we fallen victim to a collective neurosis that we need to address?

(The Author is a Writer

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