Imagine a third world country: torn by civil war; with a stagnating economy verging on full-paralysis; governance failure in every single aspect of public and private life; and, the youth of which are not only fleeing an unknown future, but a mind devouring reality of a present wrapped in a toxic air sphere of doom and gloom with a distinct apocalyptic cognitively-irremediable signature that a future may altogether not be possible. Such are the life circumstances in Country X. Alas! Country X’s woes and tribulations don’t end there, nevertheless. They are aggravated and further multiplied, for it is in the Age of the Imbecile that these calamities have befallen Country X.
There’s a Chinese saying, “in crisis there is opportunity,” that even the infamous deity Imbecile has heard of. Sad news! Particularly for Country X, as Imbecile made his move to seize his lot just a little bit faster than everybody else. The accumulation of calamities on an epic scale, with Imbecile keen to overwhelm prudence and silence common sense, the infernal shadows of the underworld creeped on Country X’s society.
As such the social underworld rose and took over Country X. “Every man [and/or woman] to himself,” has become the new moral creed of the populace therein. All five fundamental Confucian human relationships were utterly subverted—if not extinguished. The citizen, beholding an endless trail of inexplicable failures, no longer trusts his government to deliver on its most basic obligations. The father perceives his son a burdensome liability, rather than a grace. An elder brother never misses an opportunity to subdue and take advantage of his younger siblings. The husband abandons his sacrosanct post as the guardian and provider for his wife; he tasks her to provide for herself by any means possible; whether through labor or escorting other men; and, it wouldn’t be far-fetched an idea for him to entertain that she might provide for his financial needs via the latter means [emphasis added]. Oh, and friendship, what a laughable notion for the inhabitants of Country X! To them, a ‘friend’ is a person who either owes a service or is entitled to one from another—be it monetary, or in any other form.
To add a cherry on top, the social underworld found in the government of Country X an executing arm of its will and ends, instead of being the executive branch serving the best interest of the people. Every depravity is state-sponsored in the said country: from child labor to extortive behavior of business owners; corruption to fraud; and, drugs trade to prostitution [emphasis added]. And the people, the easily suggestible crowd, saw in bandwagoning a most expedient means for survival—a bogus adaptation mechanism.
As for Imbecile, he found himself the perfect accomplice in devising that masterwork of the devil i.e. the social underworld; that is no other than Lust: for, “The vice of the social underworld gives a sham satisfaction to the human desire for sensual life,” (Münsterberg 161). All the while the populace, the crowd, remains absent-minded and easily suggestible; unaware of its partaking in reducing marital life to ruins and demolishing the establishment of ‘the household’; completely ignorant to the fact that,
“The infectious germs which it [the social underworld] spreads in the realm of culture may ultimately be more dangerous to the inner health of the nation than any physical diseases. The battle against vice and crime in the world of the body ought to be paralleled by a battle against superstition and humbug in the world of the mind.” (Münsterberg 161)
In fine, the social underworld has completely eroded human fellowship, morality, and common sense in Country X. What Country X is in dire need of—above all else—at present is a nationwide social rehabilitation; since no reformation, neither rebuilding, nor any remedy for any given calamity could be remotely feasible if the social health is not fully restored therein.
Reference
Münsterberg, Hugo. Psychology and Social Sanity. Apple Books; New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1914.
