Hedonism fuelling underclass behaviors

CRIME OF PASSION

The incidences of underclass behaviour are on the increase in Uganda. Increased incidences of teenage pregnancy, rape, defilement, domestic violence, petty theft, aggravated robbery, forced early marriages, prostitution, violent crimes, bribery, infidelity, sodomy, ineptitude, alcoholism, drug abuse and several other callous behaviours such as child sacrifices, are beginning to reshape the immoral landscape of Uganda. 

It appears that the increasing socio-economic inequities are enforcing the collapse of the foundational commitment to societal moral responsibilities. But for all that it is, the rape and murder of the 9 years old Anisha “Nisha” Nambi in Kanyanya Quarter Zone, Kawembe division on August 31, 2013, has epitomized the absurdity of underclass madness.

A major problematic discourse is underway in our society. It is the false imagination that at least, somehow, many Ugandans are born again religious fanatics and therefore, moral beings. The church is no longer viewed by many as the moral authority it once was. There is a bigger moral crisis in Uganda which usually hides behind the veil of seeming loyalty to Church. “Devout” Christians are two-faced, now. They have one foot in church and another in the devil’s shrine. 

It appears that many people have resorted to placing their feet in many different worship places simultaneously because of drying faith. The truth of the matter is that the authority of religious institutions can no longer hold the moral fabrics of our society neatly in place.

People no longer believe in public good as portrayed in old teachings of the Bible. Not even in the Qur'an. Ugandans now are self absorbed, listen more to their own survival instincts; devoting more time to the incarnations of the pending perils that accompany then in life – Gloom!

It is this development of institutional despondency that drives men and women to callousness.

The end act, so malevolent as if moral sense has been completely estranged from their daily lives. Their hearts grow cold and their mental faculties are transformed into a sophisticated workshop in which evil is plotted and piloted. These are people who, for a lack of concepts, may be consigned as social reprobates, outliers from the mainstream society. Their mannerisms are depraved, scornful, and insurgent; their perceptions, utterly distorted. Mortiferous!

The American sociologist, Lawrence M Mead in his 1986 book, Beyond Entitlement, described the urban underclass as a group of dysfunctional people who are not only poor but behaviorally deficient. Other sociologists like Erik Olik Wright attributed underclass to social agents who are economically oppressed but consistently exploited within a given class system. In all, the consensus is that underclass mannerisms are exhibited majorly by the lowly in society – those who occupy the lowest possible social rung in society.

The above analogies may become exclusive of the Ugandan social class formation. Here and there, we have sporadic and yet equal spread of underclass behaviour emanating from every section of society and across class. 

A professor impregnating a student; a pastor sodomizing; politicians robbing the public; legal experts squandering the laws; mothers dying of pregnancy; priests fecundating nuns; bailiffs auctioning ambulance….!

Herein, lay the explanation – hedonism. Hedonism is the sole urge – the undercurrent impulse that drives many Ugandans to commit crimes. Most of these crimes are by category, crimes of passion – to satisfy a pernicious, uncontrollable desire – an insatiable void of covetousness. The killer of Nisha endured it; the leaders of this country have it, the peasants in the village have it and so are the religious leaders.

The debased ways of our society speaks to its own end – that pleasure is the only intrinsic good. The ethics of service, which summons the evaluation of action decisions for greater public utility, have become an inconvenience unto thee. They rape and kill first and think of the consequences later. Likewise, they ransack; swindle and render public utilities dysfunctional and even plot to evict common sense from public discourses to commit pleasure.

The circumstance of the untimely death of 9 years old Nisha must be amplified by the media to reawaken this morally decrepitated society. It is vital to evict this addiction of pleasure out of our mainstream so we can readmit the moral rational being which distinguishes us from mammalian elements in the wilderness.

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