Dr Asangba Tzudir
One of the greatest challenges which Naga society is facing today is the maintenance of social order in contrast to social chaos or disorder. The challenge is to build a stable state of society where the various components of the society work together while maintaining the status quo that includes social structures, political institutions, social relations, interactions and behaviour, and cultural aspects which includes norms, beliefs and values.
Ironically, the linkages of our social structure are not linked properly which is evident from the unending social and political unrest, which today has become a normalized condition. This has happened because of the convergence of ‘politics’ and ‘socio-economics’ in almost every sphere of our human activity. A linkage in the building of social structure that is supposed to provide a social order finds itself intricately ‘mislinked’ or unlinked.
A by-product of our own creation and its doggedness is because we as humans within the normalized condition of disordered order fail to realize the values associated with humans as a moral being and the struggle for a dignified living. Morality, which lies at the core of human values, finds misplaced. The understanding of a pleasurable life and its pursuit in contrast to a life of “natural sweetness” has come to make the modern conditioning of man and society.
Thus, even though there is talk about the need for drastic changes in every sphere of human activity, be it social, political, culture, religion and morality, the current predicament is such that the lack in commonness and a sense of collective belongingness makes the possibility of creating or bringing change/s a difficult proposition. Looking from the wider societal spectrum of change the idea of the larger good and well-being of the community as a whole is sacrificed within the social disorder which finds itself lost to the ‘mislinked’ relationship between ‘politics’ and ‘socio-economics’ of life.
A revolutionary recreation is thus needed for a social re-ordering out of chaos and disorder. Having been normalised and accepted, also pushed in a way by the modern conditioning, the disorder has become the order. However, this social re-ordering calls for weaving a new moral fabric by institutionalising it within the family towards reinvigorating a life of “natural sweetness.”
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. Besides, in tune with the present times, a well informed orientation of the political, social and its associated economics needs to be located within a fine blueprint that expresses the language of freedom and aspirations in order to create a social order free of violence and disorder.
Our society is going through a process of depressing uncertainty and seemingly pushed within a ‘programming’ of the ‘modernised mind’ even as the social concern is largely reduced to status and its associated living. As such, a greater responsibility is demanded to unshackle the existing normalised disordered condition and weave a new story build upon a moral fabric linking it with the great societal order.
(Dr. Asangba Tzudir contributes a weekly guest editorial to the Morung Express. Comments can be emailed to asangtz@gmail.com)
