The Importance of Cultivation of Moral Norms and Ethics in Our Society

Chinese scholar Gu Yanwu once said, a sense of shame is of the utmost importance, one will know what is right and what should be abstained from, and that without the cultivation of moral norms and ethics, we can hardly expect a society to be nice enough for people to lead a harmonious life. Undoubtedly, the morals are of great value like the road guiding the people to move toward the bright magnificence! Therefore, what really matters is the cultivation of moral norms and ethics in our society. In recent years, however it’ s a pity to see that nation’ s overall morality has been declining. If you pay some attention, you could easily point out some improper behaviors happening around: young men refusing to give seats to the old on buses; shoppers jamming into queue instead of waiting in line; crude riders neglecting red lights, etc. So why did these problems come out?

As analysts have figured out, this trend of degradation mainly originated from faulty education. For decades, Chinese schools simply infuse bookish knowledge to their students, while moral cultivation becomes a kind of formalism; on the other hand, children are naturally influenced by their family and other adults in the society, most of whom are too sophisticated to be considered as eligible moral models. Meanwhile, with the fast development of the society, people tend to focus on their own interests and are too busy to care for others.

Facing such disappointing condition, you may ask: how can we do to make things better? As far as I am concerned, we must following these three steps to build up moral norms and ethics. First of all: self-shaping. That’ s to say, we should manage ourselves well, and try to shape our own moral norms and ethics as perfect as possible no matter in small or big matters. The second step: family-shaping, to behave as the model for your family members and help to influence their moral standards through strict discipline. The third: organization-shaping. If you are leading people, such as being a manager or national president, you could reinforce your whole organization’ s moral situation with policy and your own action. Even if you’ re no leader, you’ ll have a positive impact on the society if only you manage yourself well and try to influence others as much as possible.

To make a brief summary, the cultivation of moral norms and ethics is of great importance and necessity to our society, which reflects the past, shapes the present and models for the future. Everyone in our society should restrain him or her to right disciplines in order to make it a better place to live in.