“Unfortunately, the quest for moral

foundations makes things only worse”

~Ronnie de Sousa

Moral and ethics are of high importance in determining the nature of

a society or a culture. Morals and ethics are used as complimentary terms
but they mean different in literal sense.

Morals define personal character and refer to the beliefs that a

person practices when he interacts in personal and social relationships.
The conduct exhibited by the person in personal-social behaviors gives a
correct evaluation of his morals. Morals identify the way a person lives.
Ethics are the codes or standards of conduct expected by the group to
which the individual belongs.

In other words, ethics are the set of principals or the theory that
decide a person’s moral values. Ethics can also be defined as the manual
defining the code of morals. The presence of qualities showing high ethics
in a person is termed as morality. More commonly, people associate the
term moral with the lesson learnt from a story or a fable.

Morals more strongly are based on social values of good and bad.
Thus good morals can be distinguished from bad morals. It is correct to
define them as the norms and the customs that guide the conduct and the
way of life towards good, and beliefs are exhibited through acts of good
and bad deeds.

Now ethics are the actions of a person in conscious and represent his
free form of being not by seeing how they are performed, but seeking a
judgment on whether the act is ethically right or wrong. Ethics and morals
are conceptually different but lead to the same outcome of determining
the social system and intend to promise a life of excellence for present
and future generations.
 A person with good morals is involved in good deeds and always knows
it inside. A person doing bad deeds at the same time may always consider
it right in adaptation to the society he lives but is actually having bad
morals. If the ethical and moral values of a person have declined, he will
never feel any shame of fear in performing a wrong deed or even a heinous
crime as it is something appropriate by his morals and ethics. Most of the
times, it is experiences and the way a person is brought up that decide his
actions and hence his morality and ethics.

Social ethics and moral values have been deteriorating over time. As
a result, the numbers of crimes like murders, thefts, gang rapes, kidnaps,
molestation, incidents of snatch and run and illegal practices like
terrorism, hoarding, drug abuse etc. have seen multifold increase in just
few years.

Practicality and shrewdness have taken the shape of greed, jealousy,

negative competition and temptation for easy money which is completely
detrimental to a happy and healthy social life.

Humans have lost patience and have become selfish in their motives
and hence ethics and morals have declined and lost value in their lives.

If we want to see a society that has a very low crime rate and where
all humans can live safe, we have to look into the morals and the ethics
that our sculptures and religious masters preach. We have to take the
responsibility of making our society and in turn our earth a beautiful place
where all humans can live a life of respect and dignity with no fears in
their mind.

Idris Saddi
MPI 1 - 3

2021-2022