Dangers of passive permission and relaxing principles

Negativity yields no positive results

Continually there comes before us the question of tolerance.  Men, after all, are individuals, and none thinks alike, otherwise we would find ourselves in hopeless friction and fighting without sincere tolerance to allow the give-and-take of living side by side with differing ideas and  people.

There should be no tolerance for intolerance.  However, there are some things that do not deserve tolerance.  There should be no tolerance for corruption, no tolerance for lawlessness and no tolerance for tyranny.  Instead we should look critically at the type of so-called tolerance that possess more of laziness and complacency than it does of honest open-mindedness.

If wouldn’t tolerate a vicious animal or dangerous epidemic why then should we tolerate influences which are dangerous to our morals and manners or to the principles on which freedom is founded?  It is not only a privilege but it is our inescapable obligation to rise in righteous resentment and rigorous resistance when the law is being flaunted, when outlawed evils are invited in, or when reprehensible practices are passively permitted.  Perhaps there have always been those who would flaunt and defraud; but when a society begins to look upon such things with cynical acceptance, when men begin to justify things that nobody should do on the assumption that everybody is doing them, then we have cause for concern.

It isn’t only the fact that an evil deed is done, bad as that may be, but the fact that it doesn’t meet more reaction, the fact that it is easily tolerated; that should be a serious concern.  Diseases, germs and viruses are everywhere and will always make inroads where there is an opening.  And the greatest danger comes perhaps not in the presence of the germs bad as that may be, but in the lowered resistance that permits them to enter in and do their damage without meeting effective antitoxins.

Basically, there are no new evils in the world, and age, society, or city, is without evil but the critical issue comes when evil is met with cynical acceptance or passive permission just as it is done with Galamsey.

Today there are some people in this country with a disposition that the means justifies the end, no matter how drastic or deceptive that may be. Superficially, and in isolated cases, this may sometimes be true, but it is never true where fundamental principles are compromised, where truth is ignored or where human rights are set aside. For those who would sacrifice human rights to achieve allegedly desirable ends, it should be known that “While they promise liberty, they, themselves are the servants of corruption; for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought into bondage.” II Peter 2:19.

In these perilous times we need to learn that two essentials for a good and effective life are flexibility and firmness; flexibility in some things and an absolute immovability in others.

Frequently, we hear that times have changed. Young people say it. Others do also. In some ways it is true. But it is a statement that can be seriously deceptive. Many things have changed, either for better or for worse. There is a new process, in packaging, promotion; travel, fashion; tools and techniques. Almost every outward aspect of life has changed, and those who attempt to do business as it was once done in the past would not  likely stay long in business. The pace of life has changed. We live in a faster and different world, both a worse and better world, and in some ways we have to adjust to the times and be flexible enough to face realities.

The pace has changed; yes. But not the purpose or the principles. Let no one be deceived about flexibility as to fundamental principles. We cannot afford to be flexible in matters of honesty and land degradation. We cannot afford to be flexible in matters of virtue, old-fashioned as the word may seem. Flexibility must not mean setting aside considerate manners,  sound morals,  honourable obligations, or setting aside the commandments or tampering with the basic laws of life.

We must discriminate as to change and know when it is safe to be flexible and where we must be firmly fixed. To change the facing and the fashions is one thing, but to tamper with the foundations is another.

The age-old, God-given rules of honesty, morality, responsibility “commandments” if that’s what we want to call them, and even the inner voice called conscience, are still what they have always been, no matter how times have changed, how modern we feel or how flexible some things may seem.

God bless our homeland Ghana and make us wise to save it from ourselves.

Email: samueleghan@gmail.com

By Samuel Enos Eghan