Each day in life comes with its own peculiar challenges, which are either acute or less acute. The nature of these impediments determine the nature of approach and solution required. Man's natural disposition as a moral being suggest that his actions should take a form that is not detrimental to himself and others, and always act within the ambit of moral stipulations. Knowing what one ought or ought not to do is possible and somewhat accessible in one's conscience through reason. In our global environs lie many contentious issues, ways of living labelled palatable that cause moral earthquakes.

Relaxing in the living room, eagerly looking forward to being in the know of burning world issues on a certain news channel, my attention was drawn to a controversy in France. It was reported that an Administrative High Court in France rescinded an earlier legal order that prohibited women from putting on "burkini," especially in the beach. A burkini is basically a swimsuit worn by women to facilitate swimming, surfing or playing in/beside the waters without being unclad. It is in contrast to the common bikini also worn by women in such viccinities that expose most of their body parts and leave little or nothing to the imagination.

Notwithstanding the stock in trade, some women in France (French and non-French) opted for the burkini beach attire for reasons not unrelated to their values. Values are internally chosen principles or philosophy of behaviour/living that essentially enhances one's life, which become externally knowable by exhibition. They chose not to jump on the bandwagon, wore what covered their bodies whilst having a good time. You do not really have to dispose your rudimentary beliefs in the waste bin in order to relax and unwind. Value-based enjoyment is advisable.

One could contend that if my fundamental values approve a certain line of action, it follows that one should live and act it. Although this argument is valid, it becomes unsound when such a cherished life-guide gravitates toward marring you instead of making you. Hence, it becomes needful for you and I to re-assess those deep-seated idiosyncracies, values, ideologies, philosophies, beliefs, perceptions, views we hold dear (no matter how perfect we think they are) and verify their suitability to purposeful living.

Like those courageous women in France, the onus is on us to stand against any current of behaviour or way of life that contradicts our conscience, through words and action. Doing this is paramount especially in this era of widespread assent to same-sex marriage, sexual recklessness, dishonesty, infidelity, financial mismanagement, malfeasance, oppression of the poor, fraud. Current information says that in Cincinatti, State of Ohio, in the United States of America, one person dies every three hours of hard drugs overdose. What a situation!

It is time to in your own little space react, decide, and act conscientiously. You needn't conform to the popular, peers-approved lifestyle with an undertone of misfortune for your tomorrow. In the Barrack Obama parlance, let's declare thus: To those that foster out-of-place values, we will defeat you! And to those that foster conscientiousness and good values wherever they find themselves, we support you!


Kaycee Naze
(Rational Pen)

Nice line of thought. Though its not easy that why most times we follow the trend

cc:lalasticlala

Amhappy:
Nice line of thought. Though its not easy that why most times we follow the trend

Nonetheless, we must try and win for sanity to pervade our world.

^^^^
Sanity lost the battle a thousand years ago.… How many people have succumbed to the powerful draw of the crowd? Innumerable. Welcome to the federal republic of insanity.

cc:lalasticlala
Kindly forward to front page. This article does justice to the widespread lamentation concerning the downturn of morality presently, makes clear a key causal factor, and proposes a workable solution. It indeed conforms to Nairaland's goal to better our world.

Cuddlebugie:
^^^^
Sanity lost the battle a thousand years ago.… How many people have succumbed to the powerful draw of the crowd? Innumerable. Welcome to the federal republic of insanity.

This innumerable number should indeed be a source of concern. That virtually everybody is disclined to morality does not make the status-quo worth condoning. For us that are considerably morally awake, we must endeavour to reorientate those in a condition of moral slumber and passivity.

cc:lalasticlala

Kayceenaz:

This innumerable number should indeed be a source of concern. That virtually everybody is disclined to morality does not make the status-quo worth condoning. For us that are considerably morally awake, we must endeavour to reorientate those in a condition of moral slumber and passivity.

Some things will never change, no matter how hard you try, you know? Research have shown human beings do not have as much control over their thoughts and actions as they are made to believe. We are biologically wired to conform and our instinct to follow the crowd will affect our decisions. As you know, the greatest fear of those who follow the crowd is isolation and conformity is their survival kit....
Now, not many of us have the confidence to stand out and be the leader of a pack. Some would rather follow the pack, like birds in a flock or sheep in a pasture and no matter how hard you try to reoreintate and wake them from their 'moral slumber', they'd still compromise on themselves to fit in. They'd give away who they really are in the hopes of pleasing others.

I still don't understand how choosing to wear either a bikini or a burkini becomes a debate of morality.

Lasticlala

cc:lalasticlala

Cuddlebugie:

Some things will never change, no matter how hard you try, you know? Research have shown human beings do not have as much control over their thoughts and actions as they are made to believe. We are biologically wired to conform and our instinct to follow the crowd will affect our decisions

To paraphrase you, we (human beings) have an herd instinct. I disagree. Not every human being has this instinct.

As you know, the greatest fear of those who follow the crowd is isolation and conformity is their survival kit....

Now, not many of us have the confidence to stand out and be the leader of a pack. Some would rather follow the pack, like birds in a flock or sheep in a pasture and no matter how hard you try to reoreintate and wake them from their 'moral slumber', they'd still compromise on themselves to fit in. They'd give away who they really are in the hopes of pleasing others.

Again, not everybody has the desire to be part of any pack. To be the leader of a pack, you must first belong to a pack.

Hmm, my mind has been stimulated. Seriously speaking, the way our world is going, right now, is something to be wary of. The concept of morality is a debatable one, but nonetheless, there's beauty in truth. We've seen situations where it's either you conform or be annihilated. In the case of the French women and the burkini, I personally, think that deciding to stand out despite the pressure, is as a result of what they hold so dearly -- in terms of religion and faith; these are deciding factors.


We have nuns, and monks, practicing celibacy and sexual purity, based on the concept of their beliefs, or their religion.
Anything that doesn't have a source won't stand the test of time. Morality must be borne out of the tenets of one's faith or beliefs.

Ishilove:

To paraphrase you, we (human beings) have an herd instinct. I disagree. Not every human being has this instinct.


Again, not everybody has the desire to be part of any pack. To be the leader of a pack, you must first belong to a pack.

Seest thou a man who isn't naturally encoded to conform? You should run, he's no human . WE are social beings, dear Ishilove and as such, WE have a natural tendency to conform. We are prewired this way.
Take for example, you and a group of friends are told to go into a room and wait until further instructions are given. You weren't told to sit or anything but there are unoccupied seats in the room. After about ten minutes, one of your friends decide to sit, slowly more and more people also decide to take a seat also, what do you do and whatever your answer is, what is it called?

You should know that there are two types of conformity (the good and the bad type ). The first one is compliance, an outward behaviour in which a person goes along with the attitudes and viewpoints of the majority in order to be socially accepted. Now that's crowd/herd mentality. The other form of conformity is Internalisation, a behaviour in which a person adopts the viewpoints and attitudes of a group and makes them their own. Unlike compliance, in which conformity is purely for social acceptance, the person conforms because they believe the group’s viewpoint.

Ishilove:

To paraphrase you, we (human beings) have an herd instinct. I disagree. Not every human being has this instinct.

Again, not everybody has the desire to be part of any pack. To be the leader of a pack, you must first belong to a pack.

Even the most individualistic human being on the planet still has some degree of conformity in him or her. By the very fact that one is on Nairaland and doing what other people do–which is to read and comment–is, too, a form of conformity. Going to school, getting married, working a corporate job–all of these things are forms of herd mentality and rigid conformity to a general standard.

It's inevitable.

Cuddlebugie:
Seest thou a man who isn't naturally encoded to conform? You should run, he's no human . WE are social beings, dear Ishilove and as such, WE have a natural tendency to conform. We are prewired this way.
Take for example, you and a group of friends are told to go into a room and wait until further instructions are given. You weren't told to sit or anything but there are unoccupied seats in the room. After about ten minutes, one of your friends decide to sit, slowly more and more people also decide to take a seat also, what do you do and whatever your answer is, what is it called?

You should know that there are two types of conformity (the good and the bad type ). The first one is compliance, an outward behaviour in which a person goes along with the attitudes and viewpoints of the majority in order to be socially accepted. Now that's crowd/herd mentality. The other form of conformity is Internalisation, a behaviour in which a person adopts the viewpoints and attitudes of a group and makes them their own. Unlike compliance, in which conformity is purely for social acceptance, the person conforms because they believe the group’s viewpoint.

Such a person is not necessarily inhuman. I would say that a person not naturally predisposed to conformity represents the peak of humanity. Why do you think all of earth's geniuses were/are mostly–if not all–Bohemians?

It's unarguable though that there are varying degrees of conformity in individuals, and that various factors also determine how conformist a group of people would be. For example, many members of a communist society would certainly be more conforming than their counterparts in a capitalist/mixed economy state.

OP what is happening in France has nothing to do with war on morality rather it is about suppressing Islam.

France is a country which believe in separation of church /religious belief and state. They believe religion should be private even though religious freedom is guaranteed in their constitution.

Now after the Charlie hebdo attack and other attacks motivated by IsIS and Islamic terrorism the French officials began to crack down on Muslims with more force.

They believe Islam is not compatible with their Freedom and constitution. They see Islam as a motivation for terrorism and misogyny and they see the use of Burka(face covering) and burkini as a symbol of suppression of women and a religious symbol which they believe should be private.

Now France like most western countries believe in freedom and gender equality.

So personally I see this their crackdown on Burkini as hypocrisy because if they truly believe in the right of all women, Then Muslim women should be allowed to wear what they want unless they are being forced by parents or husbands as the case may be.

This issue is not about morality or bikini but about the effect of religious motivated terrorism in France.

ps : Burkini is not the only thing they banned they Also banned the burka which I think is reasonable.

cc: lalasticlala

Cuddlebugie:

Some things will never change, no matter how hard you try, you know? Research have shown human beings do not have as much control over their thoughts and actions as they are made to believe. We are biologically wired to conform and our instinct to follow the crowd will affect our decisions. As you know, the greatest fear of those who follow the crowd is isolation and conformity is their survival kit....
Now, not many of us have the confidence to stand out and be the leader of a pack. Some would rather follow the pack, like birds in a flock or sheep in a pasture and no matter how hard you try to reoreintate and wake them from their 'moral slumber', they'd still compromise on themselves to fit in. They'd give away who they really are in the hopes of pleasing others.

I beg to differ with such " biological research," because it does not suffice in postulating all the possibilities in moral behaviour as a result of its rudimentary preoccupation with life and default processes that sustain it. Instead, psychology largely does due to its fundamental concern with human mental state of affairs and possible triggers or causes for such. In this case, such conformist attitude is to a great extent not inherent in any human. It is a psychological anomaly that can be rectified, once an apt form of rectification is deployed.

Thus, most people that tend to follow the crowd learnt it, implying that they can unlearn such and relearn. Research has also show that the human mind is malleable, that is, it can be bent to this or that direction. Given this fact, it follows that mental orientation can prove effective in remedying a "follow-follow" mentality that is in opposition to morality.

DarkRebel69:
I still don't understand how choosing to wear either a bikini or a burkini becomes a debate of morality.

It is a debate of morality, because such beach wears border on the appropriateness of cladding one's self with either of them. Some schools of thought see nothing ethically wrong with putting on a bikini in a beach that exposes virtually every part of the female body, whereas others are opposed to it and prefer a burkini instead due to its very little revealing pattern.

Humanistme:
OP what is happening in France has nothing to do with war on morality rather it is about suppressing Islam.

France is a country which believe in separation of church /religious belief and state. They believe religion should be private even though religious freedom is guaranteed in their constitution.

Now after the Charlie hebdo attack and other attacks motivated by IsIS and Islamic terrorism the French officials began to crack down on Muslims with more force.

They believe Islam is not compatible with their Freedom and constitution. They see Islam as a motivation for terrorism and misogyny and they see the use of Burka(face covering) and burkini as a symbol of suppression of women and a religious symbol which they believe should be private.

Now France like most western countries believe in freedom and gender equality.

So personally I see this their crackdown on Burkini as hypocrisy because if they truly believe in the right of all women, Then Muslim women should be allowed to wear what they want unless they are being forced by parents or husbands as the case may be.

This issue is not about morality or bikini but about the effect of religious motivated terrorism in France.

ps : Burkini is not the only thing they banned they Also banned the burka which I think is reasonable.

I disagree with you. It has something to do with morality. You seem to forget that religion and morality are inseparable. In fact, the latter significantly gives the former its content. In as much as Islam has come to be tied with terrorism and the French government perhaps subtly trying to cut it to size, there is a moral problem due to collision of what is deemed right to wear on the beach by the French authority (bikini) and most Islam adherents (burkini).

Even terrorism--in this case--is a moral issue, as it raises eyebrows about the wrongness of wanton taking of human lives due to religious fanaticism. Going by your submission, the French authorities reckon this as inappropriate, hence the "crackdown on Muslims," by extension, Islam. Thus, where religion is in play, the subject of morality usually ensues.

Dear friends, in order not to get so engrossed in the debate on the validity or invalidity of conformism and lose sight of the kernel of this discussion, the above article, in simple terms, condemns immorality of any sort and calls for us to be inclined to doing what is right (living highly discliplined lives) even when it seems or is inconvenient. That is the key to making our immediate environment and our world a better place.

cc:lalasticlala

Kayceenaz:

I disagree with you. It has something to do with morality. You seem to forget that religion and morality are inseparable. In fact, the latter significantly gives the former its content. In as much as Islam has come to be tied with terrorism and the French government perhaps subtly trying to cut it to size, there is a moral problem due to collision of what is deemed right to wear on the beach by the French authority (bikini) and most Islam adherents (burkini).

Even terrorism--in this case--is a moral issue, as it raises eyebrows about the wrongness of wanton taking of human lives due to religious fanaticism. Going by your submission, the French authorities reckon this as inappropriate, hence the "crackdown on Muslims," by extension, Islam. Thus, where religion is in play, the subject of morality usually ensues.

Is Islam the only religion practiced in france?
why did they wait until after the attacks to ban the Burka and burkini. Morality is subjective and can exist independent of religion.

cc:Lalasticlala Front page material.

cc:lalasticlala Front page material.

Lalasticlala

cc:lalasticlala

cc: lalasticlala, front page material.

cc:lalasticlala

cc:lalasticlala Kindly forward to front page