Ian Boyne

Jamaicans will be filling up the churches today as they did on Good Friday, but in day-to-day Jamaican life, it is not the values of Christianity which inform decisions and actions. We have largely become a post-Christian society, despite the trappings of fundamentalist religiosity.

Our social and ethical crisis is evident everywhere: Our schools are dens of criminality, sexual perversion and illiteracy. Our police force is rife with corruption; our politics is tribalistic, nihilistic and uninspiring; our popular culture is largely decadent; our churches are either in a time warp, irrelevant or just mirroring North American materialistic values, and our youth largely aimless, hedonistic and demotivated.

People's National Party vice-president, Dr Peter Phillips, one of the sharpest minds in the local politics who, fortunately for us, has been given a voice in The Sunday Gleaner, wrote a noteworthy piece last Sunday. Titled 'The Future of Progressive Politics in Jamaica', Phillips, himself an able representative of the progressive forces, wrote that, "Jamaica bears all the marks of a society in crisis."

Insightfully linking our crisis to the general 'end of ideology' phenomenon since the close of the Cold War in the West, Phillips notes that, "Without a grand vision of nation building and the inspiration derived from a clearly stated political philosophy or ideology, it is difficult to mobilise the kind of selfless commitment to the political process which was typical of the early period of nationalist politics." Phillips bemoans the fact that "Instead of speaking to the high ideals of politics and of nation building and self-reliance, politics is reduced to proclaiming opportunities for personal benefits. Notions of the collective and of community have disappeared, and individualism and materialism reign triumphant. Political activists who previously acted out of love of community and country now demanded pay in hard cash." These are significant observations which bear repeating and much analysis.

The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) can seriously relate to this phenomenon, as the Government it forms is on the eve of presenting its post-election budget.

Reasoned with the nation

Perhaps sensing the mood of the country, Prime Minister Bruce Golding made a broadcast last week 'reasoning' with the nation. Your guess is as good as mine as to what kind of reasoning mood the people are in after voting in a new government with much expectation an improved standard of living.

If we don't deal with the fundamental and profound things which Dr Phillips raised in his article last Sunday - and which I have consistently raised for years - we will never be able to meet our most pressing challenges.

At this Easter season, with its message of self-sacrifice, giving, suffering, pain, anguish but eventual resurrection - hope - we would do well to ponder the nature of our crisis and the way forward.

The Easter themes of humility, even humiliation, of forgiveness and reconciliation have a lot to say to Jamaicans. If leaders were truly to adopt a self-sacrificial attitude; if they were to enter politics to serve and uplift the people rather than uplifting themselves and advancing their careers and massaging their egos, what a difference we would experience. The issue is not so much which politician is 'thiefing' how much money from what project, or which party has the most corrupt and greedy politicians.

The larger issue is building a culture where people enter politics to fulfil an ideological commitment (no, ideology is not a bad word!): Where people enter politics because of a philosophy of service; a philosophy which says those who have should give back; that we are our brother's keeper; that we have a responsibility and a moral obligation to help others.

Today, many see politics as an opportunity to 'profile', to large up themselves and to engage in self-aggrandisement, or even self-actualisation.

The corruption and the greed are easier to follow that kind of spirit and motivation than the spirit of self-sacrifice and service which, as the Easter story goes, Jesus exhibited when He was on earth. If we are to solve our fundamental social and ethical crisis, we have to mount an effective national mobilisation campaign aimed at re-culturising our people. This is why the dancehall is too important and influential a space for us to neglect it or to subject it to the kind of facile and jaundiced 'analysis' which has been coming out of the University of the West Indies.

Fresh Start initiative

Actors from 'Taula Rodona' take part in a 'Via Crucis' procession during Holy Week in Palma de Mallorca in the Spanish island of Mallorca, April 6 last year. - File

Peter Phillips is perceptive in seeing that "It would seem that the solutions to problems such as inter- and intra-community violence, teenage pregnancy and nihilistic sexual codes of behaviour can only be tackled on the basis of widespread popular mobilisation and community building that was implicit in Michael Manley's notion of a 'politics of participation'."

I am hoping that the Fresh Start initiative engineered by the prime minister will be done properly this time and will be heavily funded to create the kind of impact which is needed to resocialise the people.

And the Government can't afford to treat this as a Cinderella matter and just hope, like the Patterson administration, that enough people of goodwill will simply come together to bring about a change. The Government has to realise that its fiscal and monetary targets are directly related to its ability to change the mindset of the people.

Do you think a people who see life as merely the maximisation of pleasure and comfort will be the kind of people ready to make sacrifices to cut the nation's energy bill? Price has never been effective in cutting energy consumption here. People will simply do more 'juggling' or cut education and other things to get the money to enjoy their consumption.

In a bling and show-off culture, whom do you think will be listening to any budget speech urging people to carpool or to use the public transportation system? Can you envision people parking their luxury cars and SUVs to do that? (And how many of the politicians will do it?) Who will care about designing energy-efficient homes?

Balance of payments challenges

Who is willing to cut down on his luxuries to enable the country to deal with its balance of payments challenges? Which group of workers will be willing to tighten their belts, bite the bullet and 'put the country first' in making wage claims? You think the public sector workers are in a mood for 'reasonable dialogue' which demonstrates why the country simply cannot afford to pay them what the Government acknowledges are their reasonable demands? Do you think they will take increases below the inflation rate in 'the national interest'?

Do people really take serious this concept of 'national interest' anyway? With no ideology outside of sensual gratification and personal advancement, how can a people meaningfully relate to national interest?

What is it in our culture which would make a 55-year-old man, faced with a sexy, voluptuous 15-year-old in economic need, resist the temptation to sex? The fact that 'the law' made by some group of men says she is underage and should not be having sex? The fact that the Bible says sex outside of marriage is wrong, when 'sensible people' ridicule the Bible anyway and the Breakfast Club had John Shelby Spong on radio last Thursday pointing to the many contradictions in the biblical Easter story?

Why should the policeman, wanting money to support his various babymothers and to buy his flashy car, not take the money from the drug don or harass motorists on the road? Because those things are 'against the law'? Why should the stepfather not molest his 14-year-old stepdaughter whom he is feeding - because that is awful, nasty and wicked? In whose eyes? asks the sex-addicted stepfather?

In a dancehall culture where murder is glorified and romanticised, why should the ghetto youth bury the hatchet, forgive and reconcile with people who have killed his relatives and harmed members of his community?

In the name of what should he restrain himself? Why should we be alarmed by reports from anthropologist Herbert Gayle that doctors, lawyers and politicians were seen frolicking at a party for drug dons, and why should we be shocked that elected officials and business people are involved in the drug trade to enhance their financial position?

In the name of what ideology or principle should they feel guilt? If multiple sexual partners are OK; if 'stealing love on the side' is legitimised, and if having a number of women with one's wife is 'par for the course', why should one worry about little incidentals like the age of the sexual partner or whether they are related to one or not? Aren't these just taboos which are soon to go as the taboo of the middle-class man living with his woman without marriage, or the middle-class girl who is pregnant and unmarried? Or the taboo about not having sex until one is married? Where do we draw the line? And who sets the moral thermometer?

Western society crumbling

In a brilliant paper titled 'Myth, Magic and Mystery: Defending the Hidden Order of the Rule of Law', David Barnhizer and Daniel Barnhizer show that Western society is crumbling socially because it no longer subscribes to the religious and philosophical ideologies which would ground its ethical foundations.

"Wittingly or not, we have used the philosophical and religious assumptions of the Western Judeo-Christian tradition and embedded them deeply in the fabric of political organisation and values implemented through the Rule of Law. Considerably more fragile than we care to admit, the Rule of Law requires artifice, self-deception and hypocrisy to hold together. This is because no human or political construct can withstand the impact of pure Reason or the requirement of all its premises, principles values and decisions be grounded on demonstrably sound evidence."

In other words, as Joseph Campbell said famously, we need myths to live by. Some say the Easter story of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is a myth, but for centuries it has held societies together and provided a moral compass. Dostoevsky warned us that when God was dead, all things would be permitted.

If God is dead and the Christian narrative has outlived its credibility, then our social and ethical crisis is made that much deeper and more catastrophic. Something to consider at Easter.

Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist who may be reached at ianboyne1@yahoo.com.