ARE WRITERS PROMOTING WRONG VALUES?

With the alarming rate at which crime grows in our present day society, one is left but to wonder whether we still have an element of humanity running through our veins. The inhuman nature of man has continued to encroach into his sense of humanity and has made him nothing but a mirage of his true self which is a total opposite of whom he really was supposed to be. The disturbing headlines carried by our national dailies is a clear indication that our morals have gone to sleep on the bed of civilization and our conscience have been put to bed by the lullabies of contemporary literature which has fed us nothing but junk leaving us to vomit and defecate all manners of inhuman activities which cannot be thought of even among the animals.

Our cherished possessions, norms and values have been thrown into the gutters simply because the creative and critical thinkers (writers) who are the primary custodians of morals and values have failed in their capacity to remind us of their very existence and this left us to grope in the dark in search of our true identity which has been lost to the cold arms of death in the hands of our writers. They have succeeded in blindfolding our sense of sanity and have used sweet rhymes and figures of speech to blindly guide us into what they call civilization which in the real sense is taking us back to where we came from (fashion wise). What is the difference between today’s man and his extinct South African ape ancestors? (That is if he ever existed anyway).

Literature according to Arthur Krystal means “not only what is written but what is voiced, expressed, and invented in whatever form- in which case maps, sermons, comic strips, cartoons, speeches, photographs, movies, war memorials and music.” Let me quickly add that whatsoever happens in the life of man, what he does, how he is entertained is strictly rooted in literature.

We have attributed the problem of moral decadence in our society to the invention of computers and the internet. This innocent work of literature have been so abused by our so called writers who have hijacked the major advantages of this brilliant invention and have used it in propagating their evil desires for the common man, our writers have used this medium to quietly gain control over the life of the youths who are supposed to be the future custodians and guardians of our norms and values.

Have we ever wondered why or how the rate of rape cases keep increasing despite the penalties attached to it? I bleed in my heart when I read of matured men deflowering toddlers; for God’s sake what enticed the man to the baby in the first place. Was it her diapers? Men take pride in complaining about how ladies dress putting sensitive parts of their bodies on display to all and sundry and they claim they were enticed by such dressings. Our grandparents lived with women who were virtually naked and yet never thought of committing such atrocities. It was not because they were uncivilized as we think they were, they had a virtue we have neglected; the fear of God, something we lack in our generation. 

Have we ever wondered why the rate at which people steal is getting to an alarming rate or why our youths are engaged in addictions more than ever before? What do you expect when youngsters are led to believe that these and many others are what makes one social. It is a criterion for acceptance into the hood. 

Just because sex sells doesn’t mean all our lives should revolve around it. For God’s sake, what has the advert of a toothbrush got to do with a half naked lady? I can’t seem to place the connection. We read, watch and hear nothing but sex, sex, and sex. With the rate at which we are going, I really fear for the future generation. Our parents have always boasted of how moral they were in their days but I wonder what we would boast of to the future generation. The future generation has every right to lay a curse on us because we have failed to pass on the baton of morality to them.

Mathew Arnold criticized English popular education for doing little or nothing to touch children’s nature of good and to mold them. He repeatedly emphasized on the needs that man needs to be moralized. The best and fastest way to teach man is to give him instances he can easily relate with. Man learns faster by imitation.

In our society of today, arrogance is applauded and indiscipline is rewarded. People no longer want to engage their lives in something meaningful rather they believe in making it the easy way just like their favorite character in the pages of a novel or on the scenes displayed on a screen. What has happened to the dignity of labor? 

It should be noted that the source of a man’s inspiration determines his output. When one is inspired by the evil, then what else is there to expect if not the obvious. What one feeds on is what his body derives its nutritional needs from. Some writers are nothing but gluttons who are devout worshipers of “the god of the stomach.”

I am lost in thought, I can’t seem to place it anywhere, and it is an aberration. How can the panacea be the problem, how can the antidote be more dangerous than the venom, is there really a hope for us all? 

We have lost our ways in the sweet lines of literature and have got confused in the rhymes of the writers, we have forsaken our roots, it's time we revisit yesterday and learn from the ways of the wise.