I received an email from a concerned mother who wrote the following, “Today, grownups, too, are insecure and fearful. How can we raise children to be confident? What can we rely on? Laws are broken, basic morals don’t exist, lies, pornography, and filth are everywhere, and everyone is angry and tormented by life.”
She is right, everything is corrupt today, morals do not exist, and pornography, filth, and lies are our daily reality. What she does not realize is that there have never been better times. We have always been corrupt; it is just much more overt today.
It may be frightening to watch, but the sobriety we must endure is an opportunity to break through the smog that has blinded us and clogged our hearts and minds. Now we can finally open ourselves to the true solution to all our problems.
Only when we feel we have no choice but to change will we agree to take the necessary steps. In the case of today’s societal depravity, the only solution is education toward consideration and mutual responsibility. It may seem impossible, but neither is persisting in the present situation, which is only getting worse, so we seem to have no other choice.
It must not be compulsory education, such as was practiced in Communist Russia. Education toward kindness and consideration must come from the realization that we have no other choice if we want a functioning society.
The first step in changing society for the better is the realization by a critical mass of people that the current situation cannot continue as it is. After that, people will become more attentive to a message of mutual consideration, kindness, and other ideas that require thinking positively about others.
Also, it is imperative that the process takes place on a social level and not on a personal level. One person alone cannot change one’s behavior for the better if the social environment is negative. But if an entire community decides to change, nothing will stop it.
There is no question that everyone will eventually realize that we need to change ourselves to improve the situation. The only question is how long it will take us to realize that we cannot help but work on ourselves. It may take a long time, with many hardships along the way, or it may be very quick if we realize that we cannot improve our lives unless we improve ourselves.
An educational process does not mean sitting in a class in front of a teacher or anything like that. “Education” means learning about human nature, about the interconnectedness of the world, and about how we all affect one another. As a result, we will realize that we should be careful not to harm one another because when we harm others, we harm ourselves. It is a learning process, but it should come alongside living our lives and changing as we go, gradually and mutually improving our relation toward others.
The first step toward a positive change, therefore, is awareness of our situation. The next step is to develop mutual consideration and finally mutual care for one another.