Where Did We Go Wrong?

 "When a people cast away their identity, they do so to stifle their own development".
Today, our society has shed off its originality and uniqueness, hunting for other ways of living our own lives. We have agreed to be led and ordered by how others live their lives.

Today, we see indiscipline on our streets, workplaces and our homes cannot be an oversight. What caused the filth, actions of indiscipline and irresponsibility that exist and persist in our society today? The answer is, we have refused to be a people conscious of who we are, what we know ourselves to be, what we share and pride in and finally who others know us to be. We have ceased to look within ourselves for the problems, support and solutions to our problems. Everyone is refusing to be who they should be (responsibilities).

  Our children have no respect for the elderly and no shame for any ill act, because, they have met a society who has refused to be known for something. Right from the home, parents have refused to be parents. They have refused to be the first hand socialization agents, the very carriers of societal values. Children have come to meet homes with busy parents who they only see twice a day. Our society, which once had parents who instilled discipline and right values in their wards to be carry to the larger society. Today, most parents themselves live their lives on social media and immediately introduce their children to this order. Have parents failed to teach their wards the good values of yesterday? Could that be why the young ones have no respect for the older people? Even to the extent of disrespecting the leaders of our societies today?

From the home, in our schools today, what are the young people learning? Have our teachers today lost their positions and roles as teachers? Schools are not solely established for academics but they are also meant for the reinforcement and teaching of good values. Could it be that teachers do not make the school a place of learning? Have we disrobed teachers of their abilities to show our students the values we share as a people? Indiscipline has reached its peak in our schools today. Students today can verbally abuse teachers and leaders. Beyond these, there are a number of students who engage in some social vices right from their schools and further carry them to the bigger society.

Has the media failed us? Has our media today showed and propagated what we dreaded yesterday? Does the media and its operators consider their varied audiences? How much work goes into coming up with media contents today? The media remains a rather strong agent of socialization today. Is the media performing its roles of mirroring the ills of society and teaching their audiences what we stand for and what we wish to see as a people. The media is still potent in carrying societal values and laws. Has the media subscribed to something else other than its core responsibilities? What do the younger generation see on the media? What is the message communicated? Could that be why we witness the alarming rates of promiscuity, vices and indiscipline we see today? Should the media rise to its responsibilities and project our identity and values as a people, there could be great change in our society today.

What part have the leaders of our societies to play in what we witness today? Leaders live exemplary lives worthy of emulation for followers. What went wrong today? What has power and fame caused us to do to our own identity as a people? We witness lots of loops right from amongst the decision makers. Corruption and verbal assaults are what is battered on the platforms of leadership. Leaders come from amongst the people, but what do they show when they assume offices of authority? Could it be that the younger generation see little of good examples amongst some leaders? When leaders lead and not in words but actions, they set examples for the upcoming members of our society who want to step in their shoes when they are no more. Be the walking rules and regulations guiding our the lives of other members of society. Maybe, just maybe, our children and young people would learn better.
  Collectively, we have failed ourselves. We are the cause of our own problems today. When did we stop talking against unlawful disposal of rubbish, the rising level of promiscuity and assaults which have flooded our societies today? Have we lost our abilities to be one another's check ? We have willfully dropped our responsibilities of being the protectors of our own identities?  We are the cause.

We perceive them, permit them and participate in what is destroying us today. We have wished to be who we are not and we seem not to see a better society today. We look very playful in the eyes of the onlookers; those who we want to be like. Because they know by experience the power of uniqueness and identity in the process of development. Let's get to the source and live differently from today. We need to frown on what is wrong. Let us teach our children and students right. We should direct the young ones to know and do the right things. It is now or we forever lose the power to create the change we want to see.



Written by
Veronica Ewurama Agyiri

Image- Yen.com