{"id":114229,"date":"2021-05-13T15:46:41","date_gmt":"2021-05-13T22:46:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=114229"},"modified":"2021-05-13T15:46:41","modified_gmt":"2021-05-13T22:46:41","slug":"has-the-covid-pandemic-exposed-the-lack-of-a-social-conscience-within-the-sri-lankan-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/05\/13\/has-the-covid-pandemic-exposed-the-lack-of-a-social-conscience-within-the-sri-lankan-society\/","title":{"rendered":"Has the COVID Pandemic exposed the lack of a social conscience within the Sri Lankan society?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Raj Gonsalkorale<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The\nnorms of society are the sum of our collective values and priorities \u2013 as\nsociety shapes us, we shape society. In addition to a sense of right and wrong\nfor personal action, individuals possess a sense of right and wrong for\ncollective action \u2013 what might be called social conscience. Individual\nconscience compels us to act morally in our daily lives, avoiding or helping to\nrelieve the immediate suffering of others, whereas social conscience compels us\nto insist on moral action from the wider institutions of society and to seek\nthe transformation of social structures that cause suffering<\/em>. – Myshele Goldberg,\nUniversity of Strathclyde and the Centre for Human Ecology<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nwider society\u2019s response and collective behaviour during the COVID pandemic in\nSri Lanka, especially since the New Year period and in the last few weeks has\ncast doubts on the values of our society and its lack of a social conscience as\na society. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nbattle against COVID has been left almost entirely to the government and its\nmany institutions, and hardly any civil society leaders, religious leaders, the\nmedia, and above all, political leaders outside of the government have appealed\nto what is left in us as a social conscience to behave responsibly and\nrationally to contain the spread of the COVID virus. It appears that the COVID\ncontainment issue has always been someone else\u2019s responsibility and not that of\nthe society itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much\nof the publicity given and criticisms made, have been against the government\nand its entities charged with managing the spread. Where there have been\nlapses, it is within everyone\u2019s rights to level such criticisms. However, no\ngovernment, this government or any other could totally manage the behaviour of\nits citizens, and in a democracy this is more so than in authoritarian States.\nSocietal behaviour is a value based phenomenon and misbehaviour is a reflection\non the worth of its values and a clear sign of a question mark on the social\nconscience of a society. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\nis social conscience, and why is it relevant asks Myshele Goldberg. She says conscience\ncan be described as internalised values: a person\u2019s intuitive \u2018moral compass.\u2019\nWhile rational, philosophical, or religious arguments are often used as\njustifications, conscience itself is primarily emotional: we associate feelings\nof pleasure and pride with right action, and feelings of guilt and shame with\nwrong action. These emotions help to motivate choices and behaviour, playing an\nimportant role in the maintenance and transformation of social norms<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While\nit is understandable for small traders to have made use of the opportunities\nthey have to sell their wares and earn a living during Aluth Avurudu, it was an\nunconscionable phenomenon to have witnessed the crowds that thronged to Nuwara\nEliya and places like Horton Plains and to have created a breeding ground for\nCOVID. Conducting Horse races certainly demonstrated that people were living by\nthe adage Newa Gilunath Band Chune\u201d, (let\u2019s dance even if the ship sinks), symbolic\nof the Titanic catastrophe, which has now become a reality in the country. Besides\nthe Nuwara Eliya revelry, neither did most ordinary folk observe any health\nguidelines relating to wearing masks or observing social distancing in this\nbreeding ground and everywhere else in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nidiocy overtakes logic and common sense, it says a lot about the state of mind\nof the Sri Lankan society during a critical stage of the Pandemic in the\ncountry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Opposition political parties and the phoenix that has risen\nfrom the dead, unlike the Phoenix in mythology where a new\nphoenix rises from the ashes of its dead predecessor, symbolising rebirth,\nhope, renewal, progress, end of oppression, and eternity, the Sri Lankan\nphoenix in the form of the defeated UNP leader is attempting to make political\ncapital out of the plight of the pandemic without offering any hope to the\npeople in the country. It is ironic that this leader who led his party to the\nworst ever election defeat of any major political party in the post-independence\nhistory of the country, polling less than 300,000 votes in the entire country,\nand which failed to win enough votes to secure a seat in Parliament, is now set\nto enter Parliament from the back door. If it comes to pass, it would be a\nmacabre reward for ruining his party and it is a reflection of his values, that\nof his party and the values of the society in tolerating it. Neither the\ngovernment nor or other political parties, nor the media has thought it\nappropriate to highlight this moral and ethical degradation of values, assuming\nof course that there are any values left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nregard to the responsibility of the society to safeguard themselves, their\nloved ones and others around them, neither has the Opposition leadership ever\nappealed to the people to behave in a more responsible manner and heed the\nadvice of health authorities in the country. Instead, the focus has been solely\non the government action and inaction, and not once any appeals to the people\nof the country to observe the health guidelines and to act with caution and\nrestraint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nis indeed depressing that a country that boasts of the influence of four great\nreligions and boasts even more loudly of the influence of its Buddhist heritage,\nhave not been able to develop a social conscience and a moral compass to chart\nand manage its behaviour<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If\nwe did have a worthwhile social conscience and then understood that social\nconscience, we could have made better choices to help shape society according\nto our values. This extends not just in respect of the COVID response but very\nbroadly to the status of the society as a whole. In the Sri Lankan society\ntoday, one could question its value base and whether the real teachings of the\nage old religions are practiced as the teachers intended. Many would argue that\nsuperficial manifestations dominate society although few would be willing or\nare able to move away from such superficial manifestations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nSinhala Buddhist heritage is all but cultural and not true to the philosophy of\nthe teachings. There would be Buddhists who chant the five precepts but hardly\npractice them. Ignorance and lip service surrounds the Metta, Karuna, Muditha\nand Upeksha tenants. They are either not understood and therefore not practiced\nor they have become discussion topics only for academic pursuits. The world of\nIslam wishes to go back to what proponents term the real teachings\u201d of the Prophet,\nand Sri Lanka too has witnessed a movement in this direction. The Easter\nbombing in Sri Lanka, and the very recent massacre of school children in\nAfghanistan defy any belief that the Prophet would have endorsed such murderous\nactivity in His name. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Myshele\nGoldberg goes on to say that the words conscience and consciousness are\noften used interchangeably, but they are not the same. Consciousness, as used\nin expressions such as \u2018raising consciousness,\u2019 describes a person\u2019s knowledge\nand awareness, and consciousness implies a process of value judgement,\nclassifying situations broadly into right, wrong, or neutral\u201d.  <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One\ncan argue that there cannot be a consciousness without a conscience and that\nconsciousness is the expression of one\u2019s conscience.  In the Sri Lankan context, if the behaviour\nof a significant segment of the wider society during the last few weeks,\nbeginning with the Aluth Avurudu celebrations, and the behaviour of Opposition\npoliticians, civil society leaders, religious leaders and other opinion makers\nincluding the media could be understood as an expression of their conscience, then,\nit does raise a significant question about the values and value judgement of the\nSri Lankan society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nCOVID Pandemic is a health related issue and it needs to be directed by health\nauthorities. Politicians of all hues, religious leaders, civil society leaders,\nthe media, must appeal to the general public to heed the advice of health\nauthorities, and assist the government of the day to manage the Pandemic on the\nbasis of health advice while doing the utmost to ensure that the lives and\nlivelihoods of ordinary people of the country are safeguarded while acting\nwithin health guidelines parameters. Dogs may bark while the Caravan keeps\nmoving, but, the opinion leaders of the country should not bark like the Dogs\nbut instead assist to move the Caravan forward for the benefit of the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Raj Gonsalkorale The norms of society are the sum of our collective values and priorities \u2013 as society shapes us, we shape society. In addition to a sense of right and wrong for personal action, individuals possess a sense of right and wrong for collective action \u2013 what might be called social conscience. Individual […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-raj-gonsalkorale"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114229\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}