Is the world losing its moral conscience?

Communicative events around the world in the last few years on moral issues have shocked the sensibilities of many in our societies. A few weeks ago, the Supreme Court of the United States of America legalised same sex marriage in all its 50 states. The constitutional courts of countries such as Uruguay, South Korea, South Africa and the US states of Colorado and Washington have all legalised adultery.

Uruguay, in 2013, became the first country to create a legal marijuana market while Jamaica and some states in the US have decriminalised the personal use of the drug. Again, Cuba, Uruguay and some European states have legalised abortion up to the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. And now the national ethics council of Germany is pushing for incest between siblings to be legalised!!

There is no denying the fact that acts widely considered as ‘immoral’ in our societies such as adultery, abortion, drug addiction, incest and homosexuality have always been with humans.

Almost on a daily basis we are inundated with scandalous acts reported in our news media. The point here is, if individuals are already suffering physical and psychological consequences of such acts privately, how would society cope if these practices are legalised? The fact remains that however ‘convincing’ the reasons behind the legalisation of these acts, traditional society utterly frowns upon them and that is why those who engage in them mostly do so privately fearing social sanctions.

Human rights

Aggressive human right advocacy and activism is a major factor in the legalisation of these ‘unpalatable’ human practices. There is no doubt that the universal declaration of human rights by the United Nations has generally protected the interest of humanity. But with the legalising of same sex marriage and calls for legalisation of incest in our society, it is obvious that human rights activism and advocacy is going too far.

There is an Akan adage which literally translates thus: When you see your neighbour’s beard catch fire you must fetch a bowl of water on standby in case the fire begins to spread.

As Africans, we need to be concerned about this ‘disturbing’ development in the Western and other parts of the world. We must be reminded that certain rich and powerful individuals and groups in society are well connected to the corridors of power in high places and have the wherewithal to push their agenda and influence crucial decisions concerning legalising certain acts.

I think we have not forgotten so soon as Ghanaians how the Western world almost succeeded in forcing Ghana to legalise homosexuality in return for financial aid a few years ago. Nobody knows the new form by which they would attempt to push this agenda through.

Media messages

Again, considering the fact that media content is influenced by the ideology of those in power in society, our media houses need to scrutinise media messages, especially foreign content, whether they may be beneficial or harmful for public consumption. This is because constant projection and depiction of certain acts and practices in our news media might be received as social reality.

If the films and soap operas we watch constantly project Western and foreign values then it would not be long for our youth to embrace these values and consider them as the norm while discarding our cherished traditional values as outdated, unfashionable and backward.

The situation is even worse with new media, especially the Internet, Facebook, Whatsapp etc., where there is almost an unlimited access to content. Can we imagine a Ghanaian society in the next 30 years in which half of the adult population is engaged in same sex marriage, incest and legalised abortion and almost half the population of our youth abusing substances of all kinds? What a ‘crazy’ society we will have then.

Traditions and customs

Much as everyone has the right to express themselves in society, we need to be mindful of the fact that we were born into families with age-old cherished traditions and customs which guide our moral psyche. As Africans and Ghanaians for that matter, we shouldn’t succumb to pressure to adopt any unhealthy lifestyles that would be injurious to our traditional practices in the name of modernity, enlightenment and human rights.

Though such acts and practices already exist in our societies with their attendant problems, legalising them takes it to a dangerous level that could plunge our society into an unprecedented and unimaginable moral decadence!

The world has a duty to preserve healthy age-old customs and practices which are fast becoming ‘endangered species’ in our societies. After all, one thing that differentiates humans from all other species is our conscience, our ability to reason! We cannot afford to trade our conscience for ‘modern lifestyles,’ 21st century ‘enlightenment,’ and the right to express ourselves “freely!”
• The writer is a lecturer, Ghana Institute of Journalism
Accra.