Recently, in this newspaper, both Don Robotham and Ian Boyne diagnosed a "crisis of values" as a fundamental problem of Jamaican society.
Last Sunday, Robotham, professor of sociology, wrote: "The problems of the PNP are inseparable from the problems of Jamaican society in general; the same applies to the problems inside the JLP. The crisis in the PNP is only a political expression of the crisis in values in Jamaican society."
In his In Focus column of March 23, church leader Ian Boyne wrote: "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."
It is not surprising to hear Boyne, the churchman, speak of the crucial role of values for social order and social success, but it is interesting to hear Don Robotham and Trevor Munroe, both former Marxists (and, therefore, believers in dialectical materialism, that the economy is fundamental, and that norms and values are part of the superstructure), now identify our national problem as fundamentally a crisis of values.
Robotham and Boyne are absolutely right! Our core values determine our behaviour and, if there is a problem with Jamaican human behaviour, then the problem is with our core values and the failure of the social institutions which transmit proper core values to Jamaicans.
Protecting the 'national interest'
One problem with writing on this subject is that it makes one sound like a prude (a preachy fundamentalist right-wing conservative) rather than like someone performing a radical critique of modern Jamaican society.
The fact is that without the right value system, development is meaningless and Jamaica is going nowhere!
In this time of global food crisis and global energy crisis, the countries which survive will be those whose citizens pull together and make sacrifices to protect the 'national interest', which nowadays must be defined as the interest of the vast majority, including the poorest members.
There is a marked similarity between the PNP 'Emergency Production Plan' of the mid-1970s (the 'alternative-to-the-IMF' path crafted by the late Professor George Beckford and others) and this JLP's 2008 budget with its slogan, 'Grow what you eat and eat what you grow'.
But whichever party is in power, pulling through this crisis is going to mean sacrifices on the part of us Jamaicans, and if that is ever to happen, it means we must own the norms and values which will lead to personal sacrifice.
We Jamaicans love wheat flour and what it can make - hard-dough bread and dumplin' and cake, etc. But let's face it, one day we just are not going to be able to afford to import wheat. On that day, we are going to have to eat cassava and like it!
We Jamaicans love our electrical appliances, but one day we will not be able to afford to buy the oil to run our generators, and we are going to have to find another way to generate electricity, or do without our newfangled gadgets.
We Jamaicans love to drive around in our private cars, but we have to face up to the fact that one day we are going to have to find another way to get around.
If Jamaica's interest means that we must conserve electricity and treated water, and avoid eating imported food, then it means not doing stuff that we might otherwise do; it means denying ourselves, which is another way of saying sacrifice.
But we are a people not given to denying ourselves. If it feels good, we want to do it, and if we itch, we must scratch.
Discipline and self-control
Discipline and self-control are not Jamaican national values. And so we have high rates of obesity and illegal drug use and AIDS, and 80 per cent of Jamaican children are born out of wedlock.
If the goals of this 2008 JLP budget are to be attained (or any budget a PNP government might put forward), Jamaicans will have recognised that their long-term self-interest is identical to the national interest; and we are going to have to find a self-control and a self-discipline not commonly seen except in national heroes.
Such a revolution in norms and values must begin with the government members themselves - in the cars they drive, the food they eat, the homes they live in and the salaries they pay themselves.
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and a Roman Catholic deacon.
