Dr Asangba Tzudir
It is excruciatingly painful to witness the degree of corrupt practices that is prevalent today. Corruption in various forms has been with mankind from earliest times. Only that it has reached astounding proportions. Today it has become a rampant part of human life and occurs in multiple manifestations finding close associations with fraud, dishonesty, bribery, unlawful practices, abuse of power, to name a few. It has spread its amorphous tentacles in every possible sphere of human activity. This ubiquitous phenomenon is intensified by the question of livelihood and ‘well-being’, social status and survival in the evolution of a socially perceived and accepted status of living.
It is quite ironic for it seems like a natural inclination to hate corruption but willfully endorses it the moment one becomes a ‘beneficiary.’ In context, corruption is also mellowed down by certain local socio-cultural practices which are a ‘normal business’ and in the emergence of a lazy society and easy life yet status conscious, corruption will only continue to rise spectacularly.
There are normative ethical theories which illuminates on the moral dimension of human activities. In theory, these are moral compasses which should effectively talk with one’s conscience. Central to it is the human ‘will’ which operates within the domain of ‘akrasia’ or ‘weakness of the will’ where an individual is made to act contrary to one’s better judgment thereby choosing to do the ‘wrong’ consciously. In theory, there is space for liberation from the weakened ‘will’ but in practice the ‘will’ becomes too weak.
As such, the shouts against corruption only get stifled even as it gets normalized while effortlessly learning to live with it. A commentator lamented in a social media platform about the sorry state of the conscience even of those who are considered as the moral custodians. Is it a case of “Paradise Lost”? Even Jesus Christ has cautioned in unequivocal terms when He said, “Iniquity there shall be in this World; woe unto you if you be the cause of it.”
The moral condition and the way it is being conditioned has not only weakened the will, but has also doused’ the conflict between the right and wrong; good and bad. Rather, it has narrowed down to whether it is beneficial or not. Within such an existential reality, there is hardly any immediate space for realization and retrospection on the part of those causing it. Furthermore, in the evolution of the corrupt system, the existence of the right door is also threatened and which only makes way for all the wrong doors.
Within the question of why ‘we’ need to be moral, corruption became a necessary evil, and today it is slowly becoming a normalized necessity.
(Dr. Asangba Tzudir contributes a weekly guest editorial to The Morung Express. Comments can be emailed to asangtz@gmail.com)
