Moral and Ethical Degradation, Academia, and the Nexus of Power and Resources
The entire world is grappling with an emerging issue of moral and ethical degradation. The acts of group-instigated and individual-based brutal assault on innocent people and the spreading of hatred and extremist orientations are shocking societies around the world. The fundamental human values and the moral and ethical principles are diminishing rapidly, paving the way for the individuals to construct their personal and group values, morals, and ethical doctrines that are based on their frustrations and dissatisfactions. Academia, educational systems, educational institutions, and teachers are popularly held responsible for this social degradation, deeming these institutions and systems to have failed to nurture a younger generation that could contribute to the common good of human society.
However, both consciously and unconsciously, societies avoid accepting the ultimate root causes and realities behind the hindrances that are handicapping the academia for instilling fundamental human values, moral principles, and ethical standards in younger generations. The stark reality of capitalism is that everything revolves around resources and power, and all other domains of society, including academia, are subordinate and are expected to safeguard the interests of resources and powers. The contemporary academia in the world is desolately dependent on resources for its survival, which are granted by the powers; therefore, resources and powers have the absolute upper hand over the academia to dictate the terms. The current revolutionized academia is bombarded with a curriculum around the world that is obsessively focused on skills and attitudes that can only generate more resources and contribute to the interest of the powers. Human developments in educational institutions are swiftly turning into mechanical endeavors of indoctrinating skills needed for resource generation and ways of extracting maximum productivity from humans. The teaching of human values, moral principle and ethical standards are becoming abandoned properties.
The nexus of power and resources has submerged the independence of academia, institutions, and educational systems right from the grassroots to the highest cadres. The ground reality in societies is that economists, business professionals, administrators, and politicians are deciding the fate of education, focusing on the single-point agenda of developing the abilities to generate resources. A person who has never taught a lesson in the real context of a classroom dictates to the educationists what to teach and what not to teach, and how to teach and how not to teach. A person who has never written a two-pager intellectual paper evaluates the worth of scientific research by educationists and determines the amount of workload and effort behind a scholarly work. Again, the single point evaluation criterion is generation of resources and facilitating the interest of powers. Resources and powers are sisters/brothers, unavoidable for each other, and always compensate each other. Concentration of resources generates powers, and the powers use their influences for generating more resources. When I talk about powers, it does not refer to a particular source rather, it refers to the multisectoral ladders and hierarchies that start from the very grassroots level to the highest international paradigm.
The current scenario is pushing the academia itself to the extent of doubting the worth of human values, morality, and ethical principles that have historically been the foundations of education and human development. The youth and the protégées in education are posing critical questions about the worth and value of the fundamental human values and moral and ethical principles in today’s life. The professors and teachers internally acknowledge the questions but provide a measured and diplomatic response without explicitly endorsing the premises.
The situation is leading the societies to the duality of values where individuals are developing two sets of personal values, one in which they really believe is the key to success in life and the other one to be only proclaimed in public speeches and media to portray the self as a noble personality. The first set of personal values are hidden and primarily about how to be more resourceful and powerful in life irrespective of adhering to the values and moral and ethical principles. The second set of personal values are the cosmetic values, moral and ethical principles that are decorated by emotional words and are forcefully propagated but not believed. This dichotomy of thinking processes in the human brain is clearly detaching values, morality, and ethical principles from material success and ways of gaining power. This internal personality chaos with two contrasting sets of personal values leads to the realm of “ether/or thinking”. The paradox of the duality of personal values makes a person extremely susceptible to easily discarding the moral and ethical principles for gaining more resources or power for self or for the group to which he/she is emotionally attached.
Coming back to the point, the current academia cannot be held solely responsible for the situation as it is being played at a much higher level of resource and power. Yes, today’s docile academia does not have the courage to stand firm and distinguish between right and wrong, for which it is partially responsible. The current academia does not have the courage of Socrates, Semmelweis, Bruno, Galilei, Bu Ali Sina, Ibn Khaldun, and many others for their moral principles.
The ecosystems and the need for ecological balance are often debated for the survival of the universe, which is critical, but the socio-systems of humans and the sociological balance are often neglected. The dependency chains and food chains in an eco-system are the cornerstone for survival; similarly, there are chains of social ingredients and processes that are essential for social cohesion. Like the ecosystems, if interferences are made in the dependency chain of ethics, morality, values, resources, and powers of the social system, there is always a danger of social disasters. Therefore, power quarters in societies must address this social imbalance between power and resources and values, ethics, and morality to avoid social anarchy that is alarmingly increasing. The current socio-economic evolution of world societies is heading towards a situation where people will abandon morality, ethics, and values, and in pursuing the lust for power and resources, the hostile acts, that were considered unethical and immoral in the past will become the new normal. This negative trend will inflict irreparable losses on world societies, and humanity will collectively suffer, and there will be no exceptions.
