Reviving Ethics within Pakistan

As I said in an earlier post, a human being is a "consciousness " being, which means that the state of consciousness is sufficient enough to define an individual in any part of the world, including Pakistan. Among other entities residing in the consciousness including intellect and aesthetics, the ethical sense; the sense of being 'right' and 'wrong' plays the most important role in building a personality.

Society and State: Ontology

Collectivism exists in two forms (1) Society and (2) State. A 'society' is formed when individuals having diverse personalities interact with each other.  A 'state' is a group of individuals within a society who hold some sort of authority over other individuals. The state, therefore, can be thought of a subset of a society enjoying some sense of 'authority'. Normally, the state constitutes a very minute portion of a society e.g. the individuals working for government, army etc may amount to less than 2% of total Pakistani population. Although state is the part of a society technically, in the rest of this blog, the word 'society' will be used to refer that 98% portion of the population that does not have any authority and hence not included in the state

The Birth of a Revolution:

Whether it's a society or a state, the basic entity is an individual itself. What happens is that each individual positively evolves according to his own moral and ethical sense. This means that I have a set of moral code of conduct for myself and I will try to rectify my behavior according to that code of conduct. This process is obviously subjective to each individual, meaning something that seems 'right' to me might not look so to you. Nevertheless, this process of positive evolution should be appreciated in a society.  Imagine yourself going  through this process of transformation in your personality; when you go to public places, your interaction with other members of the society will propagate this affect within a society. The same effect will also propagate simultaneously within a state if you're a government servant for instance, as you'll try to change things under your authority as well. In short, the point of origin of a moral and ethical revolution is an individual itself, while this revolution makes its way into the society and the state simultaneously.

The critical point is reached when the consciousness of a person fails to develop his/her moral and ethical sense. If not cured, this can lead to the point where, rather than transforming my personality, I will try to change my moral code of conduct.  I have decided not to change myself, therefore whatever I am doing is 'right'. This means that rather than rectifying my personality I am changing the definition of 'righteousness'. The Pakistani society is also following the same trend. For instance, if you're standing in a queue waiting for your turn, this act of 'nobility' is interpreted as  'stupidity'. If you're bribing someone, this act is considered as a positive way of 'assimilating' within a society. The society, rather than rectifying itself, is changing the basic human ethical and moral values. The same effect can also be felt within a state. The government lies to a mob, by temporarily accepting its demands, and when the mob disperses and the tension is diffused, the government reverts to its original stance while this whole act is considered as 'good statesmanship'.

Constitution and Ethics:

It is usually considered that the role of constitution is to protect an individual within the society. The reality is anything but apposite. The role of constitution is to protect the basic human ethical and moral values from the negative effect of society/state itself. The constitution keeps the ethical values as a reference while enforcing the society and the state to adapt accordingly. For instance, if I kill you, the constitution won't punish me because it has some special sympathy for the victim (you) or some special grudge against me. The subjects are not important here. I am being punished simply because I have violated the sacred ethical value of protecting the humanity. This means that nothing is supreme than human ethics; not me, not you, not the system, not the state, not the government, not even the constitution itself if it fails to protect those ethics.

Conclusion:

As an individual if I want to bring some positive change in the society and a state, the starting point is to look deep into my consciousness and revive its ethical and moral senses. Rather than clouding the judgment of our next generation by giving them excuse to 'fit' in a corrupt society, we should teach our children not to earn a single penny from illegal sources even if they're starving to death.  This will merely be a starting point of a lengthy process of which there is but NO alternative!