“When hard work
loses its appeal
When doing
things right is no longer popular
When following
due process is not the ‘in’ thing anymore
Shouldn’t we
fear the worst?”
I wasn’t around then. But I go into my special world.
I go into my big world of imagination. Into my special place that makes
neverland look like ‘unspecial’. And there I get to travel back in time. I
travel back to the time when our fathers were boy and mothers were girls. And I
see a society that works. I saw a place where there was pride in wearing old
fashioned shoes as long as you bought them yourself. I saw a place where owning
a vespa motorcycle would attract girls because you were no longer daddy’s
little boy. I saw a place where girls who weren’t the partying crazy type were
respected for their disciplined lifestyles. I saw a place where young employees
were willing to wait their turns in climbing the ladder.
Well.. then I get jolted back into reality. And I’m
back in this world. A ‘microwave’ world. A world where it’s just ‘me, myself
and I’. Where only riches matter, how it’s achieved is not important. Where
only fun is important, at what expense doesn’t matter.
Ambition can’t be
questioned, the problem however is motive and methodology.
In life, what feels good feels good. Simple. And that
is a simple fact moralists and religious leaders fail to see. So I won’t buy
into the whole ‘why’re you doing it’ thing. But my opinion is that in obtaining
what feels good, in doing what comes naturally, shouldn’t the long run somehow
be considered? It’s understandable that a man wants to fool around with his
scantily clad secretary but what about the consequences on his wife and
children? What about the falls it will bring to his finances? What about the
spiritual implications - if he has any spiritual reality that is?
There’s financial misappropriation and graft in high
levels of government and important organisations. And it’s become the norm. But
if bad has become the norm, does that mean we have simply given up on good?
The truth is there’s no one to bell the cat. No one to
take the first step in tackling the seeming rot in the moral fabric of the
world we live in. Because the first to act often swims against the tide and I
can assure you that’s not an easy feat. The sacrifices abound. The hits and
body slams for being different. However, as hard and difficult as it might seem,
it is necessary. If we keep exploiting things at face value and taking
advantage of every seeming avenue to have instant fun and gratification, what
world would be left to those who are to come? What would be left of this planet
when our children arrive? And would they curse or bless our memory?
