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Citizens being encouraged to ignore their innate sense of what is right

May 25, 2014 Letters

Dear Editor,
Since a few hundred years B.C., when the Greeks experimented with a form of egalitarian rule, democracy has been practised by various states which have realised its efficacy over other systems that entailed some form of autocratic rule in producing an equitable society where all citizens could participate in national decision-making.
This is all to the good, as the system has produced many of the great liberal nations of the world, and contributed to evenhanded rule and freedom that has spurred vast advances in economic and social growth.
But one of the negative results of this political arrangement is that we now find that the principle of giving power to the masses is that it is being used by those in authority to determine what is right in many crucial areas of national life.  By this politicians aim to satisfy the greatest number of their constituents, giving them the best chance of retaining power.
One instance of this is the current movement in many societies to decide whether to legalise marijuana, which is illegal in many countries, and the use of which is addictive and known to lead to more harmful drugs. As far as the trend that is showing, the chances are that this will succeed as more people become more dissolute and depressed, and feel that this drug will ease their problems because of the sense of euphoria that it engenders.
Another example is the effort being made in many countries to legalise same-sex relationships, which has heretofore  been always condemned as an abomination to the human condition, and surely an unnatural practice that has produced endless disease and despair.
This is what is happening in many nations, even those who would have us believe that they are more advanced, civilised and progressive.  Citizens are being encouraged to ignore their innate sense of what is right for this principle of what the majority prefers.
Shouldn’t we be exploring what standards we should be using to determine what is integrally right or wrong?  Should we not be consulting with those who have been known to be able to guide us morally, as well as the dictates of our own conscience to determine these standards, and use these to guide us into what we should be adopting as legal?
There are various means available to all human beings to judge right from wrong, which would result in everlasting benefit, rather than the temporal advantage that these compromises to our consciences encourage.  Deductive reasoning, intuition, the virtues that are inborn, and religious tenets are all instruments that we can invoke in every instance when we need to determine what will lead to the common good?
Let us not discredit these and blindly follow those who basically seek our political support, and end up in the proverbial ditch.  If we really care for our people, let us at least strive to educate them on how to make the right choices and then we can trust their judgement in any movement towards the formation of a just society.
 Roy Paul

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