The death of society

Everyday incidents against the weaker sections of society prove that our moral standards lack adequacy


Sana Malik September 26, 2021

An alarming increase has been noted in cases of violent crime in Pakistan, and much of it is targeted against women. Despite what statistics inform us there are many human rights groups which posit of a bigger possibility that many crimes committed are not reported at all. Our recent headlines are the tragedies of heinous crimes against Noor, Saima and Quratulain and more recently the Minar-e-Pakistan incident of assault, clearly proving our systemic failure as a society to protect our women.

Year after year Pakistan is ranked by the Global Gender Gap Index as the most dangerous country in terms of gender inequality. Despite our local laws, ratification to international conventions, civil society organisations meant to counter the growing menace, we have constantly proven our incompetence to defend our women. Violent crime appears more dominant than ever. Our efforts to attain equality, progress and democratic governance seem to have clearly failed in rendering a society fit for living.

Under the circumstances, we must ask: have the ‘so called’ principles of modern society enabled us to better understand solutions to the consequences of inequality or have we exacerbated the situation by simply normalising abusive incidents?

We now stress the importance of the plight of sufferers and shift the discourse onto victimhood and allowance for exercising individuality, but the truth of postmodern times is that communities, some more so than others, have progressively become grounded in chaos and disorder. Our sense of morality has come under major threat as a result of which our individual consciousness is subjected to impairment. Sadly, the lines between right and wrong have profoundly blurred.

Moral codes develop through a process of cultural evolution. Societies have experimented with moral systems and codes of ethics overtime which are believed to be beneficial. The increased statistics of crime and delinquency however demand introspection at all levels of society to assess where we may have erred in allowing for the opportunities for brutal killings.

Moral degradation has shifted our values, which has paved the way for evil and impunity to prevail. Societies are now increasingly complex with the magnitude and speed of transformation it has undergone standing unparalleled. Our social, economic, political, religious and cultural institutions seem to be undergoing a process of transformation themselves. For societies at the cusp of traditional structures and radical reforms, the ones suffering are countries like Pakistan where people continue to live in a state of predicament.

Everyday incidents against the weaker sections of society prove that our moral standards lack adequacy when faced with the challenges of undergoing transition. This seems to be counter-intuitive against the ‘so called’ values of safeguarding humanity we are striving to preserve. In reality, destructive behaviour appears overtly visible and their effects felt everywhere, every day. The integrity and sanctity of what being human meant only seems to have deteriorated and lost somewhere in our claims for achieving civility and utopian ideals.

Rather than seeking external aid in trying to fight against the plight, the only response to deter growing crime is to recover foundations of ethicality. We need to channelise efforts in mobilisation, ensuring that amoral standards of behaviours do not take precedence and become status quo. Our goal should be to purposefully infuse and attain ‘morality-centred’ development objectives at an individual and communal level. The world may be in a flux, however a right does not become a wrong and vice versa, and morality will forever be universal. It is now or never that we reinstate and restore fundamental principles so that humanity does not gasp for critical components needed to keep its conscience alive.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 26th, 2021.

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