In today’s world, we want to make tradition our own choice. We don’t want to have life’s choices written in stone for us to follow.
We want to forge our own paths, to live out our own tastes.
It’s the 21st century and the world has never been more open to new ideas, new behavioral patterns and loosely defined moral standards.
Liberalism, as defined by the Oxford dictionary, is willingness to respect or accept behavior or opinions different from one’s own; openness to new ideas.
It is eating away the magnificence of the cultural system instituted by our African forefathers and religion as well.
Old fades out
Over history, our perceptions have changed from time to time. We have allowed ourselves to be shaped by new information.
Our willingness to accept new discoveries has enabled us to change perspective.
Think of this:
It was once widely accepted that Earth was flat, until Pythagoras proposed that it is round. Then came Aristotle, who declared it to be a sphere.
The same philosopher Aristotle argued against empty space, and so it was believed for sometime that there was no such thing as empty space (the vacuum).
Centuries later, Torricelli and Blaise Pascal would disprove this belief using experiments with compelling evidence.
In the 17th century, Sir Isaac Newton opened our eyes to the force of gravity.
Then in the 20th century came Albert Einstein, with the general theory of relativity, which holds a different interpretation of gravity. The theory is now accepted as the scientific explanation for gravitational attraction.
This is the cycle of our age. New replaces old. Old fades out.
Danger lurks in the feat of tech and science
We open our doors to the new – which is more persuasive and appears to be truer. We then kick out and shut our doors to the old.
Information, technology and science have surely opened the way for us to achieve things perceived only as fiction before. But danger lurks within this same feat.
Now more than ever, we are open to new ideas, new improvements, new enhancements, new fashion, new everything.
Old culture overwritten
Culture in Africa is one of the victims of modern age liberalism.
It is now more difficult than ever to hold on to African cultural beliefs.
The preservation of culture relies much on an unchanging perspective about life, one that is defined by beliefs.
Whenever such beliefs are challenged by external, intellectual and more liberal arguments, cultural morals begin to lose hold on the people. New behavioral patterns begin to emerge.
The old cultural system, where the manner of conduct was defined, showing what was acceptable and what was considered taboo is fading out.
The rules have been overwritten, and liberalism is the new moral. Everyone gets to decide what is acceptable to them as guided by their feelings and convictions.
Acceptable has now become what you want it to be or what you make it. It’s the new order.
An old granny today will hold hands over her mouth in dismay, upon seeing a heavily tattooed hand, or face with a number of piercings.
And there’s a lot more stuff we’re doing, that would spark the same reaction.
But hey, its a different world now. Does it have to be this way though?