Love and Respect for Humanity

In the previous post Injustice: The demon of doom, we discovered that the only way we can suppress injustice in the world is by instilling the virtue of ‘love and respect for humanity’ in every human under the sun. However, a world population of 7 billion people is not a small village. No wonder injustice has continued to blossom, threatening to bring our society to its knees. I'll remain optimistic in the knowledge that the only thing that doesn’t have a solution here on earth is death. Hopefully, we’ll implement the much needed solution.

Maybe you’re reasoning together with me and thinking, what if we introduce a ‘World Social Ethics Organization’ just like World Health Organization and mandate this organization to ensure every child born to the world is given social ethics doses(lessons) for the first eighteen years of their life. In the same way WHO is involved in the process of immunization, where children are mandated to receive some crucial jabs within the first five years or so of their life. Oh! that sounds like a brilliant idea though ambitious; I’m sure every human populated nation would embrace the idea. Which government in the world would decline to invest in necessary structures to realize moral cleansing?

However, I hate to burst your bubble too soon; though I think this is quite an excellent idea, its flame might be too weak to stand the wind of present day reality. Lessons of ethics are more effective when delivered practically rather than theoretically. We can have our children hammered with facts and importance of love and respect for humanity by social ethics teachers only to return home to find parents and elders who’re living quite an opposite gospel. Though with passing of years and flushing-off of the bad models some positive change may be attained, I’m not sure how long that would take.

What this tells us is that if social ethics lessons were to have an impact in our society, there has to be joint effort across the board. The older ones must learn and practice ‘love and respect for humanity’ so as to make the learning process of the younger ones much effective. However, this is easier said than done; there is a common saying that goes, ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks’. I’ve not examined recent trends yet to find whether this saying has been overruled neither do I want to sound prejudiced. So I’ll analyze our case in isolation to help us understand why it’s hard to instill ‘love and respect for humanity’ in adults.

Basically, by the time someone attains the age of majority say 18-21 years, their souls happen to have braced many storms and currents. And the wear and tear keeps on aggravating with the passing of time, depending on their circumstances. As we speak, most adult souls have suffered many stings and are too wounded to be considered healthy. Stings of all manner of injustice; betrayal, hatred, rejection, victimization, marginalization you name it, inflicted by fellow human being(s) or world systems. You can imagine sitting these ailing souls down to implore them to love and respect all humanity; it would sound ridiculous. Though I’ll be quick to note that there are few special and adorable God-fearing souls who have been deeply wounded, yet they still embrace moral virtues like love and respect for humanity. However, we’re focusing on the big picture here, numbers going to billions, so it’s good to appreciate the worldwide reality. This means that before we think of administering any ethics lessons (doses) to the world population, we need to nurse the wounded souls first so that our ‘new wine’ may land in healthy (wine)skins.

Lest you drift from our path, allow me to lift you back onto the track. – We’ve embarked on a mission to suppress injustice in our society. We’ve realized the only way we can achieve this is by instilling love and respect for humanity in every human soul on earth. However, it’s quite difficult to sell our agenda of ‘love and respect for humanity’ to a people who’ve already suffered or are suffering injustice in the hands of fellow human beings. So we’re saying, we need to nurse their wounds first and then deliver ethics lessons to them. – It’s paramount that we bequeath our future generations a just society.

To achieve fast and lasting healing, the political, social and economic institutions must be sound and effective. Hence leaders in all sectors of society must rise to the occasion and justify their status. There are certain values and qualities that are must-haves for every leader who’s worth their salt. On the same note, there are set responsibilities and accompanying expectations that every leader must meet. From the family level all the way to the national level, leaders must rise up and deliver; if we’re to arrest the ethical woes that are tearing down our society and dragging us backwards.

One requirement that is of utmost importance in a leader is that he/she must have a strong character. So even if one is a victim of injustice and carries a severely wounded soul, he/she must be a passionate champion of ethics; this is a mandatory requirement for every leader who’s interested in posterity. Leadership is not a position for weaklings; a leader must wear a strong character even if it means leasing one – were it possible.

Leaders are the hope of the world, from the family level all the way to the national level. They must do everything humanly possible to offer us a society where the level of equity and fairness is beyond reproach. With the wounds nursed and souls at peace then we can hammer our social ethics lessons into every citizen of the world for posterity purposes.

I didn’t want to say this but I’m compelled to do so; ‘Injustice can only be fought from the top, down to the bottom not the other way round.’ Leaders, it’s your call to ensure there is justice in your sphere of influence. Train your followers ‘love and respect for humanity’ practically, even if you yourself are in the hands of a mugger and your feet are off the ground dangling helplessly. As long as you’re a leader, your ethical responsibility beckons regardless of the prevailing climate. Every leadership instructor (from the nurturing mother to the teacher to the clergy to the life coach) should make it their business to remind leaders of their ethical responsibility; the future of the world depends on it.