IN DEFENCE OF PUBLIC MORALITY

"The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next."

- Abraham Lincoln

There is a conspiracy against public morality. Or should I say all moralities? All over the world to varying degrees and measure values and morals are under attacks, persistent, relentless assault from philosophers, ideologues, educators, activists and other proponents of varied agendas.

We were taught to believe in right and wrong, in moral absolutism, the value of human lives, in denials of your own wishes and desires for the good of the whole, in avoidance of evil deeds against others, self control...

Now we are told that nothing is absolute and all values are relative. We are now told that even truth is not true enough but mere "social construct" by the ruling classes and power holders for the capture and control of others. That there is no moral absolutes and if you believe anything is good for you then it is right and okay - even if it is damaging to others. That your truth is your own truth and not your neighbour and if it works for you then it is okay. That you must not judge or condemn whatever makes another person happy...

These are the ideological propositions that are turning the nations upside down especially Europe and America.
Although we see these today and their ruinous effects on society they didn't start today. The foundation was laid several years ago by philosophers and these ideas made it to the education curriculum of our classroom disguised as Values clarification, Sex education, personal liberation ideology etc.

Two philosophers of the eighteenth and nineteenth century have been most culpable in this social upheavals: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) and Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

These were dangerous men whose dangerous ideas unleashed powerful social forces that convulsed the world. He was devoted essentially to his own feelings and gave free rein to them. He believes in the General Will and supported the abolition of individual will, family, religious ideals and all agencies of change. He was a "scurrilous, egotistical man devoid of the capacity to love women and children." (Gairdner 1992)

Here was a man who surrendered his own five children to an orphanage where they surely died. He hated the family and canvased for its abolition to "make way for an abstract man living in an utopian State." This was one of the men whose ideas shaped the "progress" of the Enlightenment thinking and rationalism especially his idea of Romanticism. He was the major ideological influence behind the French Revolution of 1789 and was regarded as hero by the revolutionaries. Every member of the Revolutionary Core had a copy of Rousseau's book, *Emile* where he declares:

"All that I feel to be right, is right; whatever I feel to be wrong, is wrong."

That was the kind of sociopath, moral anarchist whose ideas seized the world and captured our universities. You would then understand why the French Revolution was so bloody with its Reign of Terror and bloody purges and guillotines.

Rousseau hated Christianity with a passion and the traditional family institution. Friedrich Nietzsche was the second whose dangerous ideas and philosophy of the "superman" and "will to power" propelled the Nazis and served as ideological fulcrum for them to gain power. When you read Nazi ideologues you can see the ideas of Nietzsche permeating their works. It is not surprising that Adolf Hitler met with Nietzsche's sister to collect his ideas and writings and also visited his grave.

Nietzsche hated Christianity and democracy if anyone ever did. He believes that they created the "herd morality" which will hinder the superior race to emerge. He sees humanity as made of two classes - master and slaves and that the masters have subjected themselves to the slave/ herd morality for too long because of Christianity. A man who càlled himself the "old artillery man" and "the Antichrist" he believes that Roman Caesars in their weakness made way for Christianity:

"Without the Roman Caesars and Roman society the madness of Christianity would never have come to the fore" [ Friedrich Nietzsche, *The Will to Power, 874]*

How about that? Yet, Nietzsche was the son of a pastor.

Yet it was not Christianity that was mad, it was Nietzsche himself. A religion that gave birth to popular democracy, universal basic education for all, Reformation etc and the best in the Arts and Science of all time could not be mad. It was Nietzsche himself and his ideas and ideology that are sick and demented. Any wonder that the Nazis lost in the battlefields of Europe even though most Nazi soldiers went to the battlefields with the books and writings of Nietzsche. Any wonder that Nietzsche himself lost his mind before he died while still working on the book I quoted from.

Here then is the wonder of wonders. Nietzsche may be mad and dead but his ideas are now alive and running rampant in our world, universities today. He is now credited as the father of Postmodernist thought and philosophy.

That is how we arrived here. Lincoln was right. He has been vindicated: " the philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next".

Nietzsche was a professor in a university in Germany so he was sheltered to concoct his terrible ideas that brought woes on humanity.Today Nietzsche is still alive. Rousseau is well and alive because their ideas are alive.

The Gay Movements now want the family abolished and all heterosexual marriages and the government of the Western nations seem to be supporting them. Gay marriage is now on the same pedestal with normal traditional marriage.

Radical feminism now see marriage as an injustice against women and childbirth, the glory of womanhood, as a burden from a patriarchal society.
Everyone is now devoted to his or her pleasures and what makes him feel good. Personal individual Rights are now what matters not Responsibility or national duties.

Depravities and indulgence are now what matter to an apostate generation under the influence of Nietzsche.

The politician who " snatch, grab and run with it" because he is concerned only with winning either by foul or fair means.

The pastor who buries charms and sacrifices under his altar to bring crowds and more money.

The Nollywood actress who deliberately leaks her own sex tape to garner popularity so as to attract higher rating and notoriety for bigger roles.

The CBN governor and Accountant General of a nation in dire economic straits who is under probe for amassing billions of naira he would never need.

A retired general who issues orders to entire traditional rulers of a state - Edide, Ejoko - like kindergarten children been disciplined for misbehaviour, in a master - slave relationship...

These are the disciples of Nietzsche and Rousseau who see the rest of us as slaves and they as the masters. But Rousseau was wrong. The French Revolution is a proof.

Nietzsche was not right and the disastrous way he ended and the Nazi's calamitous collapse are the best proofs.

Results are not usually the best gauge to judge truth. Time probably is a better judge. What appears like a result today may be failure tomorrow. A book may be a bestseller in one generation and be completely unregarded by the next. "By their fruits you shall know them" says the Master. But fruits take time to develop to be seen.

I believe in public morality. Society is built on morals - public morality not hedonism of individual pleasures to the detriment of the whole.

What you do affect others; what I do affects you. Same with nations. Cameroon opens her dam and lives are lost in Nigeria. That is how it is.
Your actions affect others for good or ill.

Like the pillars of the Temple, they stand alone but they collectively support the weight of the building. Pull down a single one and the whole house collapses. We stand together even though we may appear to stand alone. Your actions touch others even if you can't see it.

Your sex tape affects others and destroys them beyond your imagination. Must another soul be ruined because you must rise in your acting career? Must another life be sacrificed because your star must shine? Then I prophesy to you that if you destroy one single soul to embellish your own star that star too will go down in ignominy "unwept and unsung as a flower that is cut in its bloom" before all eyes.

Away with ruinous philosophy that could not sustain even those who developed it. Let us return to the values of our fathers, values of public morality and collective responsibility.
This is best captured in the Golden Rule: "Do to others as you would want them to do to you". Or as the Orientals put it: " Don't do to others what you will not like to be done to you."

Happy Sunday.