The Ukrainian Center of Political Management has just launched a book entitled The Legal Basis of the Defense of Personal Values and Social Morality, a ground-breaking book containing every normative-legal act aimed at protecting social morality ever adopted in Ukraine. Research libraries, university and college libraries, and social services have already received this 400-page book.
Now prominent experts in psychology, philosophy, and sociology have gathered to discuss the question of the effectiveness (or lack of) of a large number of our draft laws, the potential impact of scholarly and public circles on forming the civic stance of the younger generation, and to search for an answer to the age- old question, “What to do?”
Scholars emphasize that the category of morality touches every aspect of people’s lives — personal, professional, and public. But its core remains the concrete person and his/her values, where the morality or immorality of his/her behavior originates. According to Dmytro Dmytruk, director of the Social Monitoring Center, the research that his center has been conducting in the last 13 years shows that during this period Ukrainians’ basic values, such as health, the family, and relations with relatives, have not changed. Most people continue to regard them as most important. Another positive thing is that the number of citizens who say that labor has increased in value in their lives has increased by 20 percent.
“We asked people questions about the limits of morality: which actions, in their opinion, exceed the permissible limit, i.e., those that they could never justify,” Dmytruk explained. “The research showed that there is a double morality in society: on the one hand, people say that they consider certain phenomena (murder, theft, etc.) absolutely inadmissible, but at the same time if they touch on their personal experience, people may allow them. In general, politicians are those who best demonstrate double standards of morality. And don’t forget that politics is a reflection of society.”
Experts agree that if the existing situation cannot be improved, much more attention should be paid to the upbringing of the younger generation — forming their personalities — because only people’s personal core, consisting of their views, beliefs, and principles, may be the main obstacle to negative external influence. Psychologist Dr. Heorhii Ball, who heads the methodology and theory laboratory at the H. Kostiuk Institute of Psychology at Ukraine’s Academy of Pedagogical Sciences (APN) calls it the personality’s immunity.
“If an individual has immunity (a developed personality) the impact exerted upon him/her is not essential,” Dr. Ball. “You can raise a person only by exposing him/her to the finest examples of national and world culture, not just as a consumer but as a participant. We should be assigning a greater role to extracurricular education so that children can join different creative centers according to their abilities. Experience proves that a different kind of lifestyle becomes uninteresting to them.”
It is disturbing to learn that Ukrainian schoolchildren in grades five to seven spend most of their time in front of the television: an average of five hours a day. Just imagine how many times beer ads are aired during this time period. Sociological research has already determined that nearly one-third of schoolchildren under 16 consume beer systematically. These are just some of the phenomena associated with educational losses stemming from uncontrolled pastimes among schoolchildren.
How much remains beyond our attention? There is another disturbing trend: sociological data show that while 4 percent of respondents answered “I will never defend the country if it is under threat” in 1994, 12 percent said the same thing in 2006.
Scholars believe that, besides involving children in creative work, participation in public life may also be a solution. “The morality of individual people may not increase very much as a result of participation in civic organizations, but the morality of society will generally grow. Thus, the more children involved in socially useful work, the better it will be for society,” says psychologist Olha Petrunko, Senior Associate Professor at the Institute of Social and Political Psychology at the APN. As an example, she named the 95-year-old Plast scouting organization, which has proved its effectiveness in bringing up young people. Unfortunately, no more than three percent of people (adults and children) are involved in public life in Ukraine today.
Experts agree that Ukraine is very much in need of special inter- branch programs with national- patriotic content, which would unite the efforts of different ministries and departments, and public organizations. But unfortunately, as the recent discussions showed, state officials and scholars barely hear each other. The mass media, were also criticized, especially television, which is justly accused of lacking an academic approach to explanations of social phenomena, being led by readers and viewers, as well as producing a mass product that is not always of high quality.
The experts of Ukraine’s Institute of Sociology stress that today it is not science but pseudo- sciences that are establishing the country’s spiritual values: 16 percent of Ukrainians believe in astrology, 20 percent, in dreams, and 28 percent, in the “evil eye.” Academics place part of the blame on the mass media, which are fostering these kinds of interests. Of course it is difficult to ban them, but we should be listening attentively to Dr. Ball. “You can write about anything, but you should never forget about the most important values — preserving life and improving its quality.”
