The biggest dilemma of our society is the people are being more outdated in approximately all spheres of life. They deal with all sorts of activities in a conservative and traditional way. Though we are advanced in material aspects of life like having modern technology and devices, non-materially we are far from thinking and acting in the modern way, which as a result creates a vacuum and disturbs social life.
William Ogburn, a prominent sociologist, coined the term “cultural lag” indicating the gap which occurs between the material and non-material aspects of culture. He noted that when the material form of culture exceeds the non-material, the gap consequently comes into existence, creating differences and uneasiness within the social environment.
For Ogburn material parts of culture penetrate rapidly within the social settings but, non-material parts like thoughts and minds of people take much time to transform or change. It is because the people strictly adhere to their traditional intangible cultural patterns and at no cost are willing to adopt the updated and new thoughts. In this scenario the society stays in the state of social inertia and triggering incompatibility.
The above statement blatantly reflects our social milieu. People hardly tend to update patterns of life or think in the universal context. The situation is evident from the orientation of our people towards reproducing large numbers of children without thinking of their future contingencies or their health, education and other basic needs.
The conservative narrative is still in vogue especially in the rural areas that “sons are guns”, reproducing children to show their male supremacy to opponents and others living nearby. Though this concept is quite traditional and now the states need a skilled human resource. Consequently, the unchecked population growth is proving a liability and exacerbating the national burden regrettably.
Additionally, there are a number of our cultural patterns, which have become completely obsolete in developed countries but which we are still practising, that definitely lead society towards ignorance and poor development.
Culturally the people still favour the joint family system, though it has been discarded by the socially and technologically advanced countries sometime before. Similarly, endogamous marriages are common, however, scientifically such marriages carry incredible genetic disorders in the offspring with itself.
Moreover, patriarchal and autocratic family structures are still very common, letting the young educated members be kept away from the family decisions; which resultantly have unpleasant impacts on the family relations. In addition, the tribalism and caste system is practised with full vigour, rejecting merit and personal achievements.
Lack of social adaptability is the root cause of all social evils in our society. Maximum issues can be resolved if the people change their behavior and come out from the existing thoughts, and view their immediate world in the prism of modern trends and adaptability, change their lifestyles and accept the realities of the modern world. Such practices and experiences will definitely guarantee long-lasting and permanent ease, pleasure and development in the society.
Furthermore, women, though half of the population, have been confined to the four walls of the house. This is another traditional practice and still continues. This practice is very old and had been a feature of the pre-technological era, when hectic work used to be carried out through physical power. Definitely men are physically stronger than women, but in the technological era when the entire system is operated through a click of a button or key, there is no need for strong men. So, in this context carrying such temperament and considering women as inferior is quite pathetic. A question that always arises in this domain is what a man can do and woman cannot in this post-industrial era?
In the same way our thinking about getting an education and job obtainability is yet quite outdated. The world is transforming its education system and nurturing their youth to become job creators, but we are still thinking in the conservative way and getting education for job seeking rather than to become job creators ironically. Additionally, the developed world is searching for new job opportunities and we are still trapped in fewer conventional job structures.
Moreover, in the political arena our thoughts and targets are so traditional that so far we could not understand the true meaning of politics. Our demands from our political representatives are still the same as they were decades ago. The people do not demand for collective interest but ask for personal gain and temporary interest, which as a result spoils society and that can best be observed in our social settings.
Furthermore, such traditional practice is common in our daily interactions. People frequently communicate that “no one dies of hunger” but the UN reports that around 25000 individuals die of hunger per day, nevertheless, the fantasy remains between the layman and expert regarding the definition of the concept.
Religiously there are a number of beliefs and rituals, practiced strictly but in a literal way they are not part of religion, but our traditional cultural traits. Thus in this context these practices and the many other practices should be revisited through the golden revelations of Islam like ijma, ijtihad and qiyas, so that to present a true and updated picture of Islam to the world.
Lack of social adaptability is the root cause of all social evils in our society. Maximum issues can be resolved if the people change their behavior and come out from the existing thoughts, and view their immediate world in the prism of modern trends and adaptability, change their lifestyles and accept the realities of the modern world. Such practices and experiences will definitely guarantee long-lasting and permanent ease, please and development in the society.
