Our topic of discussion today is broad one that encompasses many things. Firstly it has catholic youths as its first target and their actions towards morality. Social media is blown very well in the topic because of its effect on the youth especially on attacking their level of morality. That social media is blown in the topic does not mean that it does the whole thing but rather, it does more. I will eventually touch other aspects or things that drag our morality to the dust. I tried to narrow this down in just the below definitions and ways by which our morality as youths can be degenerated and possible solutions to this new era disease. Continue Reading..........
WHAT IS MORALITY?
Morality maybe defined in different ways by different people depending on their culture, tradition, religion and even their field of life. Morality (from Latin: moralis, means, 'manner, character, proper behaviour') is the differentiation of intentions, decisions and actions between those that are distinguished as proper and those that are improper. Morality can be a body of standards or principles derived from a code of conduct from a particular philosophy, religion or culture, or it can derive from a standard that a person believes should be universal. Morality may also be specifically synonymous with "goodness" or "rightness". Can we name some things our Culture as Igbos and more especially as Ndi Nsukka and to narrow it down more, Ndi Ede-Oballa uphold as morality?
WHAT IS MORAL DECADENCE?
Moral decadence can be explained in many ways but we will take only few. It is the decay of morality. It can also be called, immorality. Immorality is the active opposition to morality (i.e. opposition to that which is good or right). Amorality on its own side is variously defined as an unawareness of, indifference toward, or disbelief in any particular set of moral standards or principles. Any other definition can also be welcomed. In the lives of many youths, there is nothing moral in them again. Talk of their ways of addressing people, ways of dressing, ways of behaviour, ways of using the internet, ways of going to Church and so on. One can no longer lay hand on anything on them as morality and this is a pure manifestation of the moral decadence in them. Our forbearers and many of our parents did not live is this way. What is now the problem?
WHAT CAUSES MORAL DECADENCE?
Many things cause this moral decadence in our society these days and some of them come as little things and gradually they will form addiction. Some may not even be noticed as such for in our local dialect we normally say, Onye yiko maru. These things are always with us and that is why they are very dangerous. Some of them are:
PEER GROUP: Some of both English and Igbo adages have proved this right and I am also proving it right because of my personal experiences. ”Tell me your friend and I will tell you whom you are”, “Birds of a feather flock together” and “Odugodu kpobe, odugodu goru”. These are proofs of the effect of peer group on our morality. I of a person have my own personal experience about it during my secondary school days. The influence of the discussion among peers dig deep into the formation of the person. Many positive things are being learnt there but the negative ones stick more than the positive ones.
SOCIAL MEDIA: This is a serious aspect that has destroyed many of our youths. This is not because social media is evil in itself but the misuse and mismanagement of it. Social media came to make things easier for us but we have decided to take the other side of the two edged sword. In life we are always faced with the positive and negative results of any decision we take, the problem lies now in the one we pick among the two results. When we talk about this social media, we extend it to ICT in full. Many cannot go to any other site again in the internet except pornographic sites. This issue of pornography is as deadly as anything bad for it destroys the psyche. They sick more than anything in the mind and always reflect back more than anything else. How do we manage our Facebook. How do we share our time in the day to accommodate these social media? Some are always online. They fall sick each time their phones are not charged or when they lack data (though this issue of free mode has worsen the case). How do you manage your WhatsApp? Some have gone to many places to get subscription or hotspot and they ended up being subscribed instead of their phone. Many things have gone wrong with our use of social media and our morality is crying against that today. We have sacrificed our morality to the Altar of social media. Some of the stupid dresses we learn these days are learn there. Some use it as a porn site and they will be sending nude pictures anyhow in the social media forgetting that these things are to be guarded for they are sacred right from the old. That was the first place Adam and Eve covered when their eyes were opened but we cover our heads now and leave them open. Girls will learn a lot of padding there and use it to confuse men. Too bad. I have not exhausted all about it but just to accommodate other things that are affecting our morality. We do not care about what the things we watch do to our psyche.
POOR PARENTAL CARE: I have written an article on this because of how urgent and important it is. Since family is the first school and the first church a child attends in life, the morality of that child solely depends on the background the child have. Some parents have left the primary assignment of training their children in the hands of house maids and school teachers which sometimes end up deforming the child. Being over busy in working for what you will use in training your children and leaving the same children not trained is very problematic to the morality of the society. We are seriously losing it from the grass root and it is really destroying us now. Parents are no longer interested on what their children watch on the televisions.
BEING OBSTINATE: Some of us are too stubborn that they are not ready to take any correction in life. Someone will be going in a wrong direction and another will try to call the person back but the person will insist. (Obi Eze gba nee motor egbuo gu).
FAILURE IN OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM: The system of education in Nigeria has failed us too much. It has turn to a situation where the carnal knowledge of the students give them wonderful results. Those who supposed to be teaching us morality are now teaching us decadence. Students also here are not even helping matters for they are no longer interested in the knowledge but the paper work called certificate and that is making them to accept any way that leads to it no matter the implication. To worsen it all, even when our teachers are making effort to make us better, we choose to mar ourselves. How can a secondary school child be going to school by 09:00am and we will expect his/her morality to be protected? And they come out from families. How can students who do not stay in the classroom to learn uphold his/her morality? At the end, who is fooling who?
Lack of Holiness of life: Our church these days is now the church of only few fathers and many mothers who pray to God for the betterment of their children and those children will be elsewhere trying to kill themselves. (a story has it of a mother busy praying for her daughter’s long life and prosperity in the church and that same child was in a boys house shouting, Baby Kill Me!) Our youths are no longer prayerful, our youths are no longer spiritual. Some of us here have not gone for confession for years, months now. Some have lost the taste of the Holy Communion for they cannot remember last time they received it. When things get hard for the person, he/she will run to a prayer house to get magic in the name of miracle. It is a pity.
LAZINESS: Some of our youths are not ready to be useful in life. They do not like stressful life. They like to enjoy what others prepared and they will never prepare for another. They sit beside the main road and be counting cars and motorcycles. They know the names of every latest car in town but they do not have a verve of a bicycle.
THE EFFECT OF MORAL DECADENCE
This issue of moral decadence and its effects are all over the place. We cannot deny it for we are both directly and indirectly seeing the effect. And some of them are below:
LOSS OF LIFE: The problem here is that many who are innocent sometimes are involved in this issue. Think of an innocent man who trained his own children very well and they are responsible in the society being killed by an untrained children on the way as he travels. Some of our youths have lost their lives because of the nature of the morality we have among them these days.
LOSS OF FUTURE: Many have lost their future because of this particular thing called moral decadence. Many ladies have lost their would have been husbands because the type of life they live. Many lads have also done the same because of the group they follow and the outcome of it. They join one group or the other and they will end up becoming village touts.
INCREASE IN EVIL IN THE SOCIETY: Our society is now turning to another thing because of the way people are living their lives especially our youths. Increase in kidnapping, arm robbery, murder, abortion, stealing and many others. If we still have our morality intact, these would not have grown like this in our society. People do not keep their property anyhow in their houses any longer, why? (Where I pack my Bike).
INCREASE IN PREGNANCY OUT OF WEDLOCK: Pregnancy is always a gift from God but the gift normally comes through the union of the sexual organs of male and female. Since our youths have refused to control their sexual urge, we will continue to have many children out of wedlock. Pregnancy is never a sin but if what is done to get it is done in the wrong time, place and with wrong person, that thing is the sin not the pregnancy. If we do not value sex again as what is meant for married people, then we will also have the gifts meant for married people.
INCREASE IN ABORTION: Some persons will never accept the blame of their actions but they will always like to take glory even from other persons’ good works. The rate by which people do abortion these days is now alarming. Instead of attacking the problem of self-control, they will leave that to abort an innocent child or children. Many who are alive today are denying others entrance into the same world.
INCREASE IN BROKEN HOMES: Many couples are not living in peace and some are no longer living together because of what they lived their lives as youths and the way they are still living their lives as couples. One thing is that, to form a habit or character is as easy as anything but to stop is as hard as cutting a diamond with an iron. Some during their youthful age almost tested every man/woman that greeted them on the way and now it is now very difficult for them to control themselves. Some cannot not stay with only a woman because of what they have formed, likewise some women. Some destroyed their wombs, some gave their sperm to one spiritual kingdom and all are now hurting them in their older age.
INCREASE IN UNHAPPY MARRIAGE: Some are now married to people they have never loved to be with forever. They just wanted to play game and the gift of God pregnancy was given them and they are now forced to marry each other. Some of them marry but will continue to regret it till their death. Had it been you controlled yourself, you would not have landed yourself in that mess for unhappy marriage is the worst hell anyone can be in this world.
INCREASE IN PENTECOSTALISM: After destroying ourselves, we will be going from this prayer house to another to see if God will do something but when we were being called back, we rejected the call. Many also, after living a loose and stupid life will form men and women of God.
INCREASE IN POVERTY: Many young men and women who have not known anything in this world are now married and they are faced with the challenges of seeing to the needs of family hood and that make the number of poor family to grow more.
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
It is only death that has no possible solution in this world, for this reason, I will give some suggested solutions to our problem with regards to moral decadence in our society.
KNOW THE KIND OF PEOPLE YOU KEEP: If you see that the group you are following do not give you anything good that you will be proud to say or do before any person, try and avoid that so that you will make it in life. Do not follow those that you are better than always but combine them with those better than you so that you can upgrade. Do not think that that group is always the best, check others who are do well and try that and it will help you.
POSITIVE USE OF THE NEW REVOLUTION ICT: Majority of our problems is from the internet. Internet is meant for our good but we are just busy taking the bad aspect of it. Do not allow technology to take your life rather take the life of technology by your own life. Utilize the wonderful goodness about technology. I for a person have blog and I write things there. I read news from whatsApp, facebook and other sources. I also post my articles there also. You can as well do more than that. Allocate time for it, do not spend your precious time on them rather, use them in your free periods and never allow every time to be your free period. Do not be online 24 hours, it will not pay you rather, it pays the owner.
KNOWING, AS FUTURE PARENTS THAT THERE ARE A LOT TO DO: The fact that the world is turning to another thing can be changed by our help as future parents. If this thing we are experiencing now is not good for us, we can change it by helping to form a good moral lives of our children. Therefore, these days’ future parents should wake up and take their duties seriously for the family is the foundation of life. Family can be held responsible for the high level of moral decadence in our society today because of the nature of parents these days.
Being open to new positive things in life: As we know, all these we have done and the ones we will still do are not new to us but many do not want to change. The earlier the better for us. Remaining in our bad way of life will never pay us, but it will increase our sorrows. Let us change for good than remain in doom.
WAKING UP TO OUR STANDARD OF EDUCATION: Since we have known that even the government and teachers are not helping matters with regards to our education, we should wake up and do something on our own. Take our academic life very seriously. It will help us not them who are destroying us. We must not do all that our lecturers or teachers want us to do especially the bad ones. Some of us who are going to be in that position soon, should try and make the world better.
BE HARD WORKING: If we continue to wait for the government to employ us, we may wait forever. Even those who are unemployable are still waiting for government to employ them. Stand up to your feet, go and learn work or business even if you are a graduate. It does not remove your graduate from you. You are going to be useless if you continue to brag about being a graduate. Many have done that and they do not have work, do not thing you are better than them. If you know you are not good in academics, go into business of handiwork on time than wasting your life by writing jamb for 10 years. It is not a must you get federal university, you can as well get polytechnic or college of education. Find something doing.
BEING IN GOOD TERMS WITH GOD: Some of us are always good in looking for whom to be blamed for our failure. They will always like to attribute everything to the spiritual power when they are the ones causing trouble for themselves. Reconcile your life with God who created you and many things will change in your life. Go to confession regularly and receive communion as the physical food you eat. Live a good life, be sincere always and you will see the blessing of God on you. Be spiritual. When I talk about being spiritual, it is not living in the church or falling during adoration but living a Holy life and God will never desert you.
CONCLUSION
It is not always easy to flow against the current but it is still not impossible. It is on this ground that I request you to flow against the current and live a good moral life and you will be happy forever. You will lose nothing by being good rather you will gain a lot.
THESE ARE FROM ONE LETTER WORD TO TEN LETTER WORDS WE SHOULD KNOW.
I…………………………………………….Avoid it.
We…………………………………………Use it.
Ego…………………………………………Kill it.
Love………………………………………..Value it.
Smile……………………………………….Keep it.
Gossip………………………………………Ignore it.
Success……………………………………..Achieve it.
Jealousy…………………………………….Distance it.
Knowledge…………………………………Acquire it.
Confidence…………………………………Have it.
We pray with Mary the mother of every youth to help us on our journey towards heaven, so that all our efforts in this life may not be in vain. We ask these and every other intentions we have through our Lord Jesus Christ who lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit one God forever and ever. AMEN. THANKS.
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