Tit for tat battle

THE EDITOR: We the citizenry of our twin-island State have always enjoyed the benefits of a free society. Our democratic freedom has never been threatened. We boast of being a very liberal society where true democracy and freedom prevail. However, the word freedom carries a lot of connotations eg we cannot be free to infringe the rights of other persons. So therefore, there must be limitations to the degree of freedom civil society enjoys — freedom cannot be absolute.

What has been occurring in our nation state today is that we have allowed that liberalism to degenerate into licentiousness where there is now a complete breakdown in law and order from top to bottom; oiur moral standard has gone in shambles; our society can be said to be in a state of ‘anomie’ ie, there is no longer any set standard by which anyone can regulate their behaviour.

There is a breakdown in the home and family values; there is a conspicious absence of discipline amongst students in the nation’s schools; our teachers are now ocmplaining of being threatened with violence by their students and now the crininals seem to have the coutnry under siege carrying out their nefarious activities with impunity. As observed, even language that was once felt to be too coarse for polite conversation has now become the main stream vernacular. As a nation, our internal stability has been severely weakened.

Therefore the question must now be asked: How did our nation reach this perilous position? There is an old dictum which says: “Man is an event that cannot judge itself, but for better or worse, is left to the judgement of others.” The problems that face our society today did not come overnight. It has long been in the making.

The warning signals were always there but we paid no heed. It was always business as usual. We must now admit that most of the problems in our contemporary society today, are self created. As a people, we need to re-examine ourselves. Permissive progressivism simply means that there is too much permissiveness in our society — we have taken too much for granted.

Our leaders have failed to grapple with the urgent political, economic and social problems that challenge the stability of the country. Now the stresses and tensions are about to overstrain the body politic. Government and Opposition are now locked in a “tit for tat battle”: you must give me this, if I am to give you that. While all this is taking place, the country is left to the whims and fancies of the lawless in our society — Rome is on fire while the fiddling goes on.

VICTOR ARCHIE
Trincity