The international press and media are full of reports that the rates of burglary, crime, murder, suicide and racially motivated violence are on the increase in this or that country. Layoffs from work, rapid changes in people's financial status, the thwarting of people's individual goals and the sudden occurrence of a global depression are leading to breakdowns in collective values and collective order as well as raising questions about the limits on the attainment of wealth, pleasure and power.This does not indicate an absence of clear societal norms and values. Yet it shows that individuals lack a sense of social regulation. Traditional values which have always been believed to keep families and society intact have been ignored, disrupted or undermined. As a result of this, people remain unguided in the choices they make in their personal and community life in many situations.
Looking at the current crises, traditional social contacts and cultural values no longer give a sense of authoritative normative regulation or consensus over social regulation in the larger society. Individuals now want to achieve beyond their means. They are so committed to achieving their goals and desires that when they encounter obstacles, they seem unable to adopt alternative goals and may readily turn to deviant means such as crime to achieve them. Extreme value is attached to the personal attainment of wealth and success at the expense of everything -- friends, family and moral values. This leads to individuals' alienation from one another, and dehumanizing strategies are used by individuals and organizations for gain. This kind of understanding has profoundly changed not only the way people live but the way society is organized. It has brought the destruction of the old family and community values promising a better world. This is the reality of individualistic, materialist and capitalist understandings.
The understanding of a traditional society was criticized on the grounds that goals are limited by social order and morality. In contrast, the understanding of modern society was presented with its promise of unchecked desires, deregulation and disengagement. Normative social values became less present in individual life. This has led to unlimited desires, unachievable goals and unhappiness. Having more leads to wanting more. Pursuing unattainable or unlimited goals condemns individuals to chronic dissatisfaction and unhappiness.
Against all these elements, social, political and religious leaders emerge and speak. However, this has failed to have the desired effect on people because, while preaching about frugality, moderation, limiting our passions and desires, and on our values, these leaders were staying in the best hotels, flying in their private jets and helicopters, and producing a new social elite, not to mention the scandalous "treatments" they receive in massage parlors. So faith and society started to lose their moderating role.
Now, in the face of the latest economic and social crises, we should all question ourselves about over-consumption, social disintegration and the social disorders of our affluent societies. Do we have more than we truly need? Food, clothing, home appliances, cars and excessive luxury in our houses vary in size, color, form and price. Is the life or society we live in ideal or is it plagued by social disorder? Is our affluent lifestyle really perfect for us and those around us? Social disintegration and the individual or social problems we go through arise from indulging in too much material accumulation, over-consumption and our detachment from traditional (moral) values. We talk about environmental degradation and pollution. What about moral pollution? Erosion of good old small-town values, for instance?
In the face of social, economic and individual crises, (see, for example, the murder of 57 people in the US this month alone), families and communities need to spend more time and effort on strengthening the bonds within the family. A good, strong family relationship does not just mean money spent on family members. Family members, especially children, need more time, care, understanding and compassion.
As for administrators, they need to focus more on the sources of tension and unhappiness in society. The relations between production, cost-benefit, social welfare systems and social norms need to be carefully revised. While doing this, indeed, we must not sacrifice our individuality and our freedom of choice. However, free will without moral choice and values may reduce humanity to machines without purpose, and in that there is scant chance of bettering ourselves. Without moral guidance, people in complex societies cease to exist as true human beings.
Concerned citizens, civil society organizations and governments across the world rally to offer concepts and approaches to the current crises. There is obviously hope for a better and sustainable society and future. We need to first recognize the problems confronting the stability of our societies, then turn to valid remedies to recover from them. Social disintegration is not inevitable. People have already been given what is needed.
