MORALITY IN DECLINE

Morals in western society and many countries are falling very fast in just a few decades. For examples, disrespect to the elders, cheating on exams, vandalism, sexual behaviour, fashions that focus on showing as much skin as possible, dancing is more stimulated sex (freak dance) and many others. Many people blame the entertainment media that show pop stars who are being sexy and scenes of violence in movies in order to become popular. The result of society’ preoccupation with violence and sex is not shocking anymore. The reasons are because the producers of entertainment media argue that they are only giving people what they want as an artistic creation. On the other hand, rising divorce rates and social misfits and also the rising of digital communication technology that really affects the society mainstream.

            All of these are the facts that we are facing today. Regarding some of those ads, it also became evident that roots had strongly taken place in our society. It is quite marked that having "fun" is more important than being traditional; values such as hard work and fidelity. Then the massive thrust of mass media like television and theatres that taught generations today that sex, and alternative lifestyles, marital infidelity, and divorce are all to be accepted as normal. The violence from Hollywood movies has also inundated the minds of our society, and has taken root as well. We have allowed Hollywood movies to flood our homes with garbage sitcoms and other movies that endorse and glorify these strange values.

            It is the matter of fact that our society is most influenced by information technology and mass media in every aspect. They create any kind of things that affect the society. The mentality that is created by technology and mass media is more powerful than any other religious teaching and cultural habits. In this age of technology and mass media, we have to control and have the ability to use these things for the good of our society, without being used by them or we use them for its corruption and degradation. We can see apparently a state of self centred ideology where the upcoming generations desire all their parents have without the hard work. I can say that we will fall much faster if we do not return to our original roots or we will reclaim our roots and our morality and take back what has been stolen from us by the liberal and immoral tenets that have soaked the minds of the today’s generations and the coming up generations after us.

            In the New Dialogue of Institute for Advanced technology in Humanity, Virginia (IATH), participants are persuaded that there is a major cause of the current moral crisis deserving special scrutiny. It is a cause in the sense of a triggering event which has brought about great change and, in the process, has thrown persons and society out of the practice of thinking about collective problems from a moral point of view. The cause is the new economic order of global market capitalism. The new way of thinking is a form of economic rationality that we have termed the "rationality of cash flow capitalism” which is an amoral way of thinking.[1] In other words, economical capitalism mindset has created and changed the global market and affect the person and social morality.

            The questions arise here: “who is responsible to control our moral behaviour? What is the solution we can do in facing moral crisis today?” The answer is that each of us is responsible to control ourselves and also collaborate with others to get to the bottom of these problems. However, the government should make a policy to control it for the good of all. It has to be taken seriously as the participants of the New Dialogue have started the dialogue process by focusing attention on the set of problems emerging in the new economic order that impact on society and the natural world. We should look at what it is doing to persons, to human communities and societies around the globe, and to the natural world, evaluate them and examine its moral roots in order to provide the economic benefits it produces. For this reason we should be critical to the current economic paradigm and the rationality by which it operates.

            In summary, the lack of a common moral ground what many people today see and experience as a crisis in society, must be recognized that the crisis is decisively moral and spiritual in nature and personal, not just social, and must be resolved first at those deeper personal levels. It means that each person must be ready to ask in economic or business situations whether some personal self restraint is necessary in the economic sphere in order to achieve a more moral community and global society. Each of us should do what we can to bring about a human and moral form of capitalism as the legacy that our society will live under and export to other parts of the world. Therefore, we have to be more critical toward everything that’s showed by mass media, not just following what’s going on in our society, but to get positive aspect from them and to build it up. In other words the economical capitalism system should have a certain moral boundaries which are necessary to maintain stable economic and social institutions that will help navigate the global economic system to a more human and for our common well.

[1] NN, Cause of the Moral Crisis, in http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/cecmpe/crisiscause.html

(Accessed on December 24, 2009 at 11.45 am)

Ateneo de Manila University, 2010

COPING WITH STRESS

A lot of people suffer from stress. It is not healthy. Stress can affect everyone because of many reasons, such as socio-economic status, age, work/job, etc. It is an unavoidable consequence of our lives.  On the other hand, it can be positive to challenge someone to do the best and work hard, but most of the time it affects negatively someone’s life and also life in a society. The American Institute of Stress (AIS) defines stress to be the most common health problem in every industrialized country in the world that causes heart disease, cancer and liver disease.  The AIS estimates that job related stress costs the US industry 300 billion dollars a year. How do we deal with stress? There are some ways such as exercise, stop smoking, meditation and deep breathing and many other methods can be used.  

            Stress is a normal part of our life that can happen to everyone and not all stress is bad.  Each of us experiences stress in our lives every now and then. However, when we begin feeling out of control or having trouble coping with stressors, we may suffer. We can find many ways of identifying the stress in our life and then make a plan for dealing with it in a healthy way. We can deal with stress by using the healthy skills or by coming up with our own ways to cope.  In short, no one can avoid stress in his or her life. Everyone must deal with stress and it's our choice how to react.  If we need more help, reach out to others, such as our friends, family, relatives and neighbor who can be help us to overcome the stress.     

            There are several reasons that cause stress. According to a report on website run by St. Botanica,[1] the first reason is frustration which can be caused by their workplace, a relationship, social issues or moral and philosophical response to society. The second reason is conflicts which happen when people are in confusion or a difficult situation to decide something essential in their lives. For instance, a working mother may be stressed out because she is not able to give proper time to her baby and at the same time, she feels that her job is also important. Moreover, a study conducted by another web site,changemind.org[2] points out that there are some causes of stress, such as threat, fear, uncertainty, and cognitive dissonance. Threat includes physical threats, social threats, financial threat, and so on which can raise fear. Uncertainty when we are unable to predict, therefore, we are not in control, and may make someone feel threatened by that which is causing the uncertainty; and cognitive dissonance when there is a gap between what we do and what we think. In short, psychologically, stress is a state of emotion that is caused by any kind of feeling in reacting to something happening in one’s life.

            Some people deal with stress positively by looking at it as a challenge. Stress can be a positive thing that it can challenge us to go beyond or transcend boundaries and ideas we had about ourselves. In challenge, we focus on gain as opposed to focusing on potential for harm and threat. It involves judgments that the demands of the stressor situation can be met and overcome without overtaxing resources. In this sense challenge may facilitate rather than damage cognitive and emotional coping. On the other hand, stress can become negative if we are feeling overwhelmed by difficult circumstances and trying to escape or ignore it instead of facing the problems in our lives by looking for such things like, smoking, consuming drugs, going to night clubs, drinking alcohol, etc.

            To deal with stress is not a matter of avoiding the problems, but we have to face it and to look for the solution. There are many ways to control our stress, but first of all, we should learn how to handle stressful feelings, create time out in our lives, and learn how to relate to ourselves in a different way. Finally, we should realize that life is filled with all kinds of problems, but we should be able to attune ourselves to the fact that, we should take one step at a time in our struggles. ***

[1] NN, Stress, http://www.ayurvediccure.com/depression/stress.htm

, Accessed on January 29, 2010 at 09.00 p.m.

[2] NN, Causes of Stress, http://changingminds.org/explanations/stress/stress_causes.htm

, Accessed on January 30, 2010 at 07.30 p.m.

Ateneo de Manila University, 2010

CONSERVATION AND RECYCLING

Preservation of the earth’s precious natural resources through recycling has become the habit of many countries. Recycling our waste of natural resources accomplishes two things: first, it reduces the amount of natural resources and second, it cuts down on the amount of landfill needed. Recycling already started in New York in 1897, but people did not become aware of it until the first Earth Day was held in 1970. The reason is the quick dismissing supply of the earth’s natural resources and space for landfills was running out. Many countries have had recycling programs, which are even more aggressive recycling campaign in the mid 1970s than the USA. Nevertheless, the fact that recycling programs have not solved the problems is still problematic because of some reasons. For instance, some fast food restaurants in South Korea use disposable program and recyclable containers made of aluminium. The problem is the recycled materials drive down the prices so that it reduces the benefit or income of the company or country.
Conservation and recycling is an environmental issue that entitles environment responsibility in us all. The problem of global warming calls our attention to look for solution on how to save our earth as a place of living. It is a matter of fact that climate change has influenced every aspect of our lives. Nowadays, almost everyone is talking about environment and how important our earth is, but many people do not know how to take care of the earth in a proper way. There are many websites, crafts, and books that talk about environmental issues. It helps us to know that conservation and recycling is one way of taking care of our planet. It is important not only for us now, but also for the next generation because they are the ones that will be living in it in the future.
This knowledge and understanding should motivate us to reduce, reuse and recycle because there are a lot of benefits that can come from recycling. For examples, we can collect, reuse or sell cans, papers, aluminium foil, pie pans, lawn furniture, styrofoam, plastic bags, separate the garbage and many others. Simple changes that a person can make in everyday living can make a most definite impact on our world by reducing waste and making sure that anything that can be recycled or reused gets to the proper place. Even adopting one or two of these easy to do ideas will make a difference and will cause a person to become more environmentally aware.
In addition, to be responsible to our environment is not only simply taking out the garbage, but it’s something more. A report of a website, Canada Earth Day from a brochure for Earth Day 2007[1] proves some practical suggestions about being environmentally responsible such as: reduce home energy use and save money; choose locally grown and organically produced food; donate our time and money to an environmental charity or initiative of your choice; choose public transit or the most fuel-efficient vehicle possible and commit to driving less–get healthy with active transportation such as walking or biking; plant native species of trees; shrubs and plants to reduce our lawn cover and enhance the carbon absorbing capacity of the Earth; consider the environment when making purchases; try eating meat-free once a week; consider the environment when making work-related decisions; replace toxic chemical cleaners and pesticides with natural non-toxic alternatives; and subscribe to renewable energy utilities, which promote the use of wind, solar and small scale hydro-electricity generation.
In summary, a recycling program is one good step in taking care of our use of natural resources. It is one of the ways to reduce our habit of consuming natural resources and just use something that we really need. The rising of global warming with the climate change reminds us that we have to consider the natural world around us and the toll human being’s reliance and dependence on Earth’s resources has taken. We should work on recycling materials with less environmental impact and higher economic efficiency by finely prioritizing reuse and recycling processes. ***

[1] NN, Earth Day Canada, http://www.ronancorr.com/web_projects/print_materials/assets/pdfs/order_form.pdf, Accessed on February 2, 2010, at 8.00 p.m.