CHANGING OUR ATTITUDES: BAD ATTITUDES HAVE BECOME THE WORLD’S GREATEST CHALLENGE. Much as we can, we cannot because we fail to alter our attitudes to suit the altitude of time. We live in a global village where technology has risen to some level almost getting to its acme. The world has now become a global village where one can sit in his or her comfort zone and access information from distant places. Thanks to I.C.T – Information Communication Technology, we have internets and its associated media networks such as facebook, twitter, viber, tango, skype, hi5, etc. that have made it possible in bringing the world closer to its users. To enjoy life to the fullest, there is the need for us to change or modify our attitudes. When I talk of changing our attitudes, I refer to Africans most especially who are at the mercies of underdevelopment, poverty, famine, corruption, ethnocentrism, favouritism, nepotism and uncontrollable diseases. Let us ask ourselves these questions: “Why do some countries suffer whiles others enjoy or benefit? Why are some people rich and others poor? Why are some people employed whiles others are unemployed? Why are some countries or people respected than others in the world? Why are some people rejected whiles others are accepted by many? Nevertheless, these are rhetorical questions. Hitherto, you may have answers to some or all of them or you are still contemplating about them. Phenomena happen for a reason no matter how beautiful, awkward, mundane or enigmatic it may seem to be. Changing one’s attitude may seem cumbersome someway somehow to some extent because attitudes are intertwined with one’s personality. To borrow knowledge from psychology, personality development and behavioural disorders contribute immensely towards altering or maintaining an individual’s attitude. According to wordweb dictionary, “attitude is defined as a mental state involving beliefs and feelings and values and dispositions to act in certain ways”. To deduce from this, I see attitude as a general feeling or an opinion about something. For me, attitude is subjective thus incumbent on the individual’s inherent dispositions. I will first delve into what personality is and its deviations so that we comprehend the full conceptual meaning of an individual’s attitude. Personality is defined by Psychologist Dzoretzky, (1972) “as a whole person, not just a part”. Moreover, Hart et al, (2003) defines personality “as the enduring, organized, dynamic system that influences thoughts, emotions and behaviours. To extrapolate from the above definitions of personality, I will define personality as the consistent and enduring ways of behaviour such as thinking, acting and feeling exhibited by an individual over a long period which makes him or her distinct from other people. Personality and attitude are similar but different concepts that must be investigated with meticulous attention. For me, it is difficult or impossible to change one’s personality in totality. In contrast, I also opine that although changing one’s attitude is cumbersome, it is relatively possible. That notwithstanding, I think a person’s personality can be modified. To modify means to make small changes to something: to make a minor change or alterations to something, or change slightly especially in order to improve. Attitude is usually short term thus something that can be altered or changed in its whole for the better. Attitude concurrently move with an individual’s demeanour or behaviour thus they are seen as inseparable. Captivatingly, there is an Akan adage that “Attitude is like pregnancy”. Nevertheless, attitudes can never be hidden for interminable periods; whatever you do, your attitude will show up. For me, there are two types of attitudes; namely, positive attitude and negative attitude. Positive attitude always align itself with societal expectations. Society will always want us to behave well so that we can enjoy life to the fullest and live happily with each other especially those around us. Society binds us to conform to rules, norms and values in pursuance of achieving our goals. Nonetheless, society fails to provide us with the opportunities and the means of attaining these goals. Let me narrow this to Africa. What do we see in slum areas of Africa? What have become of our youth who are deprived thus unemployed? Because people lack the means to attain their goals, they tend to develop the notion of “by hook or crook attitude” where they substitute the well acceptable attitudes or means of attaining success or goals with nefarious and crook means. Let’s take a place like Circle and Abobo-Ajame in Ghana and Ivory Coast respectively for instance, there is an incessant increment in crime rate and the rate continue to shoot up day in and day out. People from such areas most especially the youth, engage in nefarious activities because they feel they want to make ends meet. Such people struggle “to keep their heads above waters” by engaging in deviant activities such as prostitution, arm robbery, child trafficking, street pick pocketing, kidnapping, confident trickery and among others. Moreover, in Africa, cities like Cape town and Lagos in South Africa and Nigeria respectively cannot be written off in the books high crime rate. Why all these social problems? What have we done and what have we not done to curb this social scourge? Generally, it even more disheartening that most of these perpetrators do these things not of their will, sometimes unintentionally under the influence of strict social forces. After all, some scholars may posit that the actions of most of them are innocuous. Contemporarily, most functionalists are of the view that these bad attitudes exhibited by miscreants and hooligans are functional to society. Moreover, functionalists Davis and Moore support the assertion that stratification is functional to society. According to some functionalists for instance, criminal activities such as arm robbery and prostitution, creates employment in society. For them there wouldn’t have been police agencies, security agencies and prison services for people to be employed as police officers, prison officers and among others if there wasn’t any recorded incidence of crime. Consequently, I hold in contrast view to their assertion. Everybody can have a nice place of work at any time where there is a peaceful milieu. Could you imagine living in an environment free from vagabonds, miscreants and hooligans? How will daily living be like? What if people change their attitudes for the better thus they rather assist in nation building? If people are well employed and earn good remuneration, will there be any cause for alarm? Most of the attitudes characteristic of these deviants is not genetically inherited; rather they are socially acquired and learned. People who exhibit bad attitude are mostly influenced by the complexities of life and its challenges. The socio-political system has failed many countries in the world in their quest to develop. People are poor, deprived, vulnerable and marginalised sometimes not because of their attitudes but because they lack opportunities to climb up the social ladder. People in certain parts of the world are born with poverty and they live in poverty till they die. For example, with the caste system in India, the untouchables are deemed as unfit or outcast in the society. It’s cumbersome for people in such caste group to progress in life. They are not allowed to mingle with the Sudra’s, Kshatriya’s and the other caste group in society. In South Africa, before the break of the colonial rule apathy seemed to put people into two main races in society; that is white and black people in society. This made status ascription reign over status achievement during the period of apathy in South Africa. The same can be said of segregation of whites and blacks in the United States of Africa during the era of the Trans Atlantic slave trade. In some parts of Europe such as Great Britain and Germany there still persists some form of racism. In as much as there will always be a class society with its associated deprivation, we can still break the chains of negative attitudes towards each other. We must all be united as one people in one world and help each other in times of need. The “system” that we all point fingers to, is no other person than ourselves. It is we who constitute the system. One can name all the various social institutions we have; political, religious, economic, marriage and family, educational, and health. These institutions are being managed by us. The works and functions of these institutions will determine how the social system operates. When people manage social institutions with negative attitudes, it goes on by logical conclusion to affect the entire social structure or system hence leading to disequilibrium, dysfunction, chaos, disorder and anarchy in society. If the police should continue taking bribes with reasons best known to them, if judges should be biased in their judgement of cases, if politicians should continue to fail in their promises by corrupting their people, what then do we say we have done to our own selves? We will be doing ourselves no good than harm. “We must be the change we wish to see in the world” (Mahatma Gandhi) thus we can at best do, is to salvage ourselves from preventable tragedies; changing our bad attitudes for the better. To draw curtains, my advice to all is that we must adopt positive attitudes in all our endeavours. We must not succumb to the fear of not making it in life. Furthermore, I beseech you to sow the seeds of determination, diligence and resilience so that you will be able to reap the rewards of self-fulfilment, success and achievement. The distance between dreams and achievement can only be travelled in the vehicle of hard work and determination. According to Yuichiro Miura (1970) - the man who skied down mountain Everest, “If you wish strongly, have courage and endurance, then you can get to the summit of your dream”. Nevertheless, if you are not lighting any candles, do not complain about living in the dark. Never doubt yourself, however doubt whom you will. You must have the determination and the will in order to succeed. You work joyfully, when you are bound to your ambition. Strive for success, not perfection; chase excellence and success will follow. Our creator (God or Allah) has not given us the spirit of fear, so why do you have to fear or panic in the quest of working hard to achieve something? Rather, God has given those who believe in His son Jesus Christ the authority and power to triumph over scorpions, serpents, trials, temptations and situations. You are a conqueror and a victor, just believe and confess it and you shall receive it by faith. You must wake up from your slumber and fight for a just course. You cannot wallow in the morass of angst of not making it. We must develop positive attitudes towards each other. Educating ourselves to becoming enlightened as opined by Italian sociologist Antonio Gramsci can unravel the darkness that surrounds us thus help change our bad social system for the better. Do not confuse yourself with the sayings of some people who buy into the philosophy that an individual’s progress in life depends on his caste, class or race. This is a fallacy of hasty generalization thus I hold in contrast view to this assertion. Contemporarily, status ascription is now becoming a thing of the past because many people have enlightened to challenge the status quo; people are now becoming positive in their attitudes towards education and work. For less developed countries to advance, their citizens must develop positive attitudes towards everything especially on jobs. Less developed countries can model positive attitudes or cultures from their counterparts who are more advanced. The youth must be encouraged to engage in entrepreneurship and self established businesses. Both employers and employees must be punctual at work, diligent and avoid bribery, corruption and defalcation of resources of their place of work. African leaders, European leaders, Australasian leaders, Asian leaders, North American leaders, South American leaders and all leaders of the world in the various international bodies including the United Nations, European Union, African Union, ECOWAS and among others must fulfil all their promises to their people when they are given the mandate by their people to take up such positions of trust. More so, favouritism and nepotism must be avoided in place of work; employers must desist from such acts. Employment should be given to people based on merits and eagerness to work. Consequently, this will go a long way to boost organisational productivity. Religious leaders must sideline themselves from politics and must be an epitome of peace for their people to emulate. Husbands must stop beating their wives. Furthermore, child abuse, rape, incest, domestic violence and examination malpractices must be detested and abhorred. Also, health practitioners especially doctors must be faithful and sincere towards treating their patients. Nothing can change us if only we change our attitudes for the better. Finally as Martin Luther King Jnr. reiterates, “Everyman must decide to walk in the light of creative altruism or walk in the darkness of destructive selfishness”. I see it as a choice when it comes to an individual altering his or her attitude however the choice must be now. Author: Dickson Boateng Denkyi (a.k.a Philosopher) University of Ghana, Legon
Posted on: Thu, 27 Jun 2013 03:01:27 +0000
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