Reconciling Moral Values and Modernity

It took a twinkle of an eye and a click of the hand for one of the numerous satanic societal happenings behind the doors to be brought out to the public. The Malicka affair as it has come to be referred to is the act that finally broke the camel’s back. It was an epitomic revelation of the cankerworm that has been eating deep into the morals of our society for the past years. We are talking here about the inhumane sexual exploitation of young girls by mature men. Marie -Therese Abena Ondoa, Minister of Women Empowerment and the Family in a media outing, expressed her indignation challenging the legal department to act within the precincts of its responsibilities. The man at the centre of accusation who had earlier acted as if what he did was a non-event, finally expressed remorse as the immoral act gained popularity both on the social media and within official circles. Whether or not it was a confession of duress is no longer the issue. The damage has been done; now is time for society to pick up the pieces.
The persistent collapse of morals is incidentally blamed on a number of factors some of which are: the absence of parental care, bad companies, rush for easy life and the poor usage of the social media. Some of the factors can be packaged into what has become known as modernity. In effect, people want to do things differently to show that they are more civilized. They want to demonstrate that what happened in the past was primitive. Is that how modernity ought to be, is the question on many minds. Modernity as defined by some sociologists is supposed to be the “self-definition of a generation about its own technological innovation, governance, and socioeconomics.” It is society’s conception of engaging in organizational and knowledge advances that make its immediate predecessors appear antiquated or, at least, surpassed. Modernity as a concept is not supposed to be a factor of destruction. Once it produces negative tentacles, it’s a revelation of bad interpretation and poor usage.
Now that the consequences of being modern have become so damaging to social life; there is urgent need to redefine the way things ought to be done. From every indication, one of the first aspects of the so-called modernity to be tackled is inevitably the social media. Whereas t...