“Where wealth accumulates values decay”
The erosion of values is causing havoc in our society. Cases of murder, kidnapping, forgery, dowry deaths etc. are on the high. Why? Money……Money my friends is the root cause of all these problems. Thus, value education is imperative in today’s world.
‘All things in nature are dependent on one another!’ ‘Man is an integral part of nature!’
I SEE………… INTERESTING! Environmental pollution, ecological devastation, ozone depletion, rivers filled with industrial wastes, concrete jungles in the cities-all these things , tell us, just how much we love mother earth ! After all, I can’t stop to think about rivers and trees when my next door neighbour is buying a luxury car and planning to go on a world tour Eh !
Love, Friendship and Universal Brotherhood, what do these words mean anyway? Ah! Let’s see! People from the villages and small towns have started moving to the big cities, in order to make money. This has lead to the collapse of the joint family system. “Daddy’ and ‘Mummy’, both have to work and young siblings have to fight for the attention of their parents. Thus, instead of loving each other, they learn to compete against each other.
Every day parents also remind their children that if they don’t work hard they are going to be left behind in the game of life. Their friends are going to move ahead. These are the values which parents of the 21st century inculcate in their children. Instead of teaching them to feel happy for their friends, they teach them how to envy them. Deplorable!
In earlier times people used to do everything on their own. This disciplined their minds. Now of course, we have machines. If one gadget stops working, you can always buy another. Thus, hard work, patience, discipline, persistence etc. are forgotten values. And people want to increase their bank balance so that they can keep buying more machines.
What can people do? They are human after all. Advertisements and films convert desires into needs. A person who does not use a deo- spray, a hair dye or an anti –dandruff shampoo is scoffed at, in most ad – films! As if he had committed a crime against humanity!
Sharing, mutual love and understanding, co-operation etc are forgotten ideals!
Thus, value education in schools and colleges can help in reforming our society and restoring our faith in humanity.
In the words of economist J.C. Kumarappa “Our life is something higher than material possessions. The personality of an individual does not require for its development, the satisfaction of a multiplicity of wants. In fact the simpler the life, the more conducive it is to exercising the higher faculties.”
You've hit the nail on the head! How many people think of values in these terms? Values for Indians means wearing expensive sarees and heavy make-up and perform aarti in the morning! As long as you fold your nail-painted, gold-ringed hands respectfully to your elders, you are a good woman. That's what people see on TV and hunger for. Money, money, money. And its all MORAL. It's Laxmi. This is society where it is quite OK if you take a child to watch a movie like Gajini to see murder, violence and revenge -- parents would never even dream of it as vulgar or damaging for their child -- but a swimsuit kissing scene is vulgar. Are children born in Banarasi silk? A child is intelligent if s/he scores more marks in class than the other children; interest in the subject itself doesn't matter and one mark less brands that child dumb. People have forgotten the values the way you describe them.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I too believe that "Value Educaion" should be a compulsory subject in schools and colleges -- including Xth and XIIth board exams, all honours degrees, all professional institutions like medical and engineering colleges.
ReplyDeleteWow, it's incredible how much I disagree with some of your points.
ReplyDeleteThen again, it must be remembered that the world is not the same what it was earlier. If I try living without a cellphone, my parents are driven up a wall, fearing for my safety because they are unable to keep tabs on me. If I try living without TV and Internet, then as a journalist, I fall behind on latest happenings and lose my professional edge. If I don't move around in my car, I have to be forced to endure the filthy people in buses or lose my hard-earned money to an overcharging auto-riksha. If I try living without a fridge, or a gas stove (as versus a coal or wood stove) or a microwave, I am unable to conduct my culinary businesses with a good level of efficiency (it would take a minute for me to get instant tea from a microwave, as versus the three minutes it would take on even a gas stove). Material possession do matter. To pretend otherwise is... well, I personally cannot see how one can live without them.
All kinds of changes and shifts happened for a reason. Would you blame people for moving from villages to cities to earn better? How can you blame them for wanting to seek material comforts?
If we are aware of good qualities, of values and noble principles... then we, instead of bemoaning the way things are, we should strive for keeping those values in spite of the way things are.
Either roll with the blows and mould yourselve according to the pressures of the times, or stand firm and true to one's beliefs despite the pressures of the times. Being nostalgic for times gone by and shaking one's head sadly for the modern-day malaises we notice these days... won't fetch us anything except for sadness and a deep sense of dissatisfcation.
Just my $0.02