Values are irreplaceable personal and societal resources. They give dispersed populations a sense of identity, purpose, and direction in addition to helping to bind them together as civilizations. The values provide people’s lives, which are by nature chaotic, a collective sense of purpose since they are the results of long-standing experiments with a track record of success. Despite variations resulting from various historical and cultural evolutionary paths, real values in all societies strive for the ultimate individual and societal wellbeing.
The foundation of our social environment was long held by the concepts of naturalism and humanism. The most respected cultural values were those of honesty, integrity, truthfulness, sincerity, compassion, diligence, piety, and selflessness. The people found the virtues, saints, and sages to be most appealing, and they served as a source of societal inspiration.
But as we rush towards materialism, we are eschewing the moral standards that have earned us the title of being the crown of animals. Degenerative cognitive and behavioural tendencies are replacing the high ideals that have long characterised our civilization. Human worth, dignity, and values are becoming increasingly muddled and eventually change into harmful societal conceptions. Individual identities are becoming more and more contaminated by toxic tendencies based on false and self-centred beliefs. Morals and good manners are becoming outdated. Social interaction is being progressively invaded by avaricious and philistine traits.
Altruistic and selfless values are being destroyed by the flames of jealousy and hate. The entire foundation of our civilization is being eaten away by the plague of aggressiveness and hubris. Politics, religion, and spirituality have become lucrative industries. Public afflictions, worries, hopes, and vulnerabilities are systematically capitalised on. Instead of emulating simplicity, devotion, and honesty, we prefer to associate with the dishonest and deceitful. We appreciate famously powerful and influential gangsters more than we esteem philosophers and devout souls. The most lucrative virtues in our day are hypocrisy, sycophancy, and deceit.
As a securing factor in kinship, financial interests are replacing emotional values. The two things we seek in life most are easy comfort and cheap popularity.
Even if the majority of us technically advocate modesty and simplicity, we yearn for a luxury lifestyle. Most of us have several personalities, and the majority of what we do on a daily basis is characterised by the highest level of hypocrisy. A person’s personality is frequently wrongly assessed based on their words and clothing rather than by a complex interplay of their thoughts and actions. As a result, dishonesty is typical.
We are more than comfortable with worries, insecurities, hopes, and half-baked rhetoric that led us down a dead-end path instead of being informed by reasonable conversation with clear aims. Most parents encourage their kids to be clever and deceitful since these traits are seen as indicators of intellect. These harmful inclinations spread to the extent of acceptability. Moreover, our society is becoming a disorderly throng as a result of our complacent attitude toward collapsing ideals.
What is sapping the fundamental moral principles? This societal deterioration is caused by a mad rush toward consumerism, poor education, a fixation with social media, and the incapacity of socialisation organisations.
The metastasizing virulent tendencies have made it imperative to change this terrible destiny. Restructuring the socialisation institutions would assist in achieving this goal. Families must uphold moral principles since kids are prone to emulate what they see. In addition, parents need to keep an eye on the social media sites and peer groups their kids interact with. Schools should place a strong focus on teaching students moral and ethical values in their broadest meaning. Genuine ideals must be promoted by the media as well. Each person and organisation may contribute to giving new life to lofty societal goals that would otherwise be suffocating.
