Moral Responsibility

By Volodymyr Kish

I am at that stage in life where I am prone to pondering the philosophical underpinnings of my life and trying to find the reasons for not only why I do the things I do, but why humans in general behave the way they do.  Undoubtedly, some of you at this point will skip reading the rest of this column convinced that dear Vlodko has finally teetered over the edge into premature senility trying to find the meaning of “life, the universe, and everything!”  Bear with me – I am not proposing to engage in self-absorbed navel-gazing.

My motivation in pursuing this line of thought is driven by my increasing awareness of the fact that our modern society, blessed with a level of freedom and free will that is unparalleled in human history, is increasingly pursuing behaviours that that are putting the continuance of human existence on this planet at great risk.

The past several centuries of human social, political, scientific and economic evolution have resulted in phenomenal progress in advancing what we call “civilization”.  The overall well-being of the human race has improved in leaps and bounds, and though there are great disparities in quality of life throughout the world, most people would agree that we are living in an age that our ancestors from even only a few generations back would consider extremely privileged.

Ironically, all these great advances in our materialistic well-being are also posing a dire threat to the future of this planet.  Between climate change, the exhaustion of non-renewable resources, the pollution of our ecosphere, uncontrolled population explosion and the globalization and corporatization of the economy, we have put the future of Mankind on a collision course with extinction.  Although we have progressed by leaps in bounds in the pragmatic aspects of life, we have, if anything regressed in the spiritual and ethical dimension of our humanity.

In generations past, human behaviour was strongly governed by tradition, religion and the implicit social contracts of the society and time we lived in.  However much we may look back critically at historical social and political constructs that governed the lives of our ancestors, they did provide a stable context for their lives that were generally sustainable and in harmony with the physical world around them. 

Today, most of those stabilizing influences have disappeared.  Religions and religious beliefs have shifted to the margins of society and have minimal impact on most peoples’ lives.  Traditions are no longer looked upon as a blueprint for constructing our lives, but as quaint folkloric elements to be admired as cultural and anachronistic historical artefacts.  The ethics and moral principles of our parents and ancestors are viewed as archaic and out of tune with today’s freedoms and relativistic value systems.  The wisdom and life experiences of our elders, once respected and valued, are now ignored and largely viewed as irrelevant.

We have become a society addicted to constant change, and that constant change breeds an unfortunate perception amongst the younger generations that nothing is absolute – everything is relative, everything is open to question, all values and principles should be viewed as morally equivalent. 

The other corrosive result of accelerating and rampant change is that our perspectives have become dangerously narrowed within the dimension of time.  We ignore the past and seldom think of anything but the immediate future.  In the field of business, nobody does long-term planning anymore.  The focus is totally on the next quarter’s bottom line, or at best annual performance.  The day of the five or ten-year plan has long gone, to the great detriment of long-term economic stability.

In our personal lives, we seldom plan our futures on a long-term basis.  We seek our gratification now.  We mortgage and indebt ourselves to the hilt to enjoy our lives now.  Our media and the prevalent consumerist driven economy create enormous psychological pressures on us to spend and consume at a rate that is clearly unsustainable.  And we do. And the planet suffers and our children and grandchildren will pay a heavy price for our profligacy and short-sightedness.

In our mad dash for prosperity and affluence we have sacrificed our sense of moral responsibility. We have foolishly discarded the accumulated wisdom, values and legacy of our forefathers in favour of transient self-gratification.  It is time to stop trying to create artificial paradises here on earth now, and spend more time reflecting on how we got here, where we want to go and what kind of a world we want to leave for our children and grandchildren.  Morality, ethics and a sense of responsibility must become part of the equation as to how we conduct our lives.  If we don’t, the end might be nearer than we think.