Dr Asangba Tzüdir
One of the greatest challenges which our society is facing today is the maintenance of social order. It is a kind of order which is in contrast to social chaos or disorder, and refers to a stable state of society. But ironically, the linkages of our social structure is not linked properly which is evident from the unending social unrest. A chronic ailment that is ‘accepted’ as ‘normal’ for so long. This has happened because of the convergence of ‘politics’ and ‘socio-economics’ in almost every sphere of our activity. A linkage in the building of social structure that is supposed to provide social order finds itself intricately ‘mislinked.’ It is our own creation and its doggedness is because we as humans have failed to realize the values associated with humans, of life and living. Morality, which lies at the core of human values, finds itself questionable. We seek change in the social, political, culture, religion and the moral domain but values of morality in all these domains is sacrificed at the altar of materialism, selfishness and greed. It seems like our sense of moral judgment, of the ‘rightness’ and ‘wrongness’ of our actions finds itself lost to the ‘mislinked’ relationship between ‘politics’ and ‘socio-economics’ of life. This is largely the cause of the existing social disorder.
A revolutionary recreation is thus needed for a social restructuring towards the creation of the desired social order. And at the base of the social structure moral values should take centre stage providing governance to the structure. Only then there will be change followed by a social order. These social linkages, more so, the ‘relational’ aspects between politics and ‘socio-economics’ need to be properly linked by the principle and values of morality in order to create a desirable pattern of a socially ordered living. And of course, in tune with the present times, a well informed orientation of the political, socio-cultural and its associated economics needs to be complemented well by principles and values of ethics in order to create a social order.
Our society is going through a process of evolution and technological changes have had a tremendous impact on our lifestyles offering more freedom and choices. This has created a space for the merger of material desire and material pursuits. But sadly it has drawn us away from real life human values and thereby the absence of ‘care’ and ‘concern’ for the ‘other’ except within the frame of means-end relationship. We live in interesting times which can also be called as the supposed normal, a disordered normal that ‘exists’ without meaning and purpose wherein our value system finds comfortably nestled in materialism. Moreover, the existing social unrest is also because often greed blinds our wisdom to sensibly address the consequences of our choices. As such greater responsibility is demanded of our choices and actions. This concerns each and every section of the society, be it the government, groups or the individual. Time is ripe for a moral appraisal to reorient our ‘politics’ and ‘socio-economic’ compass towards a valued based life and to restore the real normal social order.
(Dr. Asangba Tzüdir contributes a weekly guest editorial to The Morung Express. Comments can be mailed to asangtz@gmail.com)
