Giving in to indiscipline

By Peter Espeut

I am going to make a big assumption: that well-thinking Jamaicans agree that what we need now is more discipline, not less. I'm going to assume that reasonable, rational Jamaicans agree that people should be discouraged from bad driving and speeding (which will lead to tragedy). Many people experience a rush of blood when they drive at high speed, or overtake a line of traffic. These dangerous drivers ignore long-term consequences and invest in short-term thrills.

Exhilaration can become addictive, and self-discipline means using reason to determine the best course of action, even when that action opposes one's desires. Indiscipline is when we give in to our base desires for pleasure, power and possessions.

Indiscipline abounds in Jamaica: people eat themselves into obesity and heart attacks; abandon reason by abusing drugs; and politicians disregard the law and due process in the name of helping the poor.

Jamaica has a high tolerance for indiscipline. Every criminal act and every corrupt practice have apologists, ready to offer a defence or a creative rationalisation: youthful exuberance, breaking through red tape, going through the proper channels would take too long, it wasn't a moral breach, only a procedural breach, no law was broken, he did it to help poor people, the other side did it too and worse, 'is de runnin's', 'man haffi eat a food', the police won't come down here so we need a garrison, 'a him proteck we'.

Oftentimes we give in to indiscipline, and are ready to excuse undisciplined persons. There is no talk of any programme to build discipline in our nation. The Values and Attitudes campaign has long been abandoned.

Possibly the high point of this phenomenon was presented in this newspaper two days ago. One of the most pervasive types of indiscipline in Jamaica is sexual indiscipline. We have an official and legal age of consent for girls, but every year hundreds of underage girls get pregnant. Please note, the crime is not underage girls getting pregnant; the crime is underage girls engaging in illicit sexual intercourse, which, in some cases, results in pregnancy.

GLEANER OFF BASE

In its editorial on Wednesday, The Gleaner reveals that "it is estimated that around three-quarters of those in the 15-19 age group are sexually active. Boys have their first sexual encounter somewhere between ages 13 and 14, while the girls start having sex at about 14 or 15", which is, of course, below the legal age of consent.

And what does The Gleaner advocate in its Wednesday editorial as the preferred response to this widespread sexual indiscipline? Yes, tell them about abstinence, but we must "help young people to negotiate sex". The Gleaner supports the call to distribute condoms in schools, and lauds as "truth-telling" the call by the Rev Eniola Davis for the use of "contraceptives, including condoms and the morning-after pill," by the young.

Of course, the morning-after pill is not a contraceptive (it does not prevent conception), but produces an abortion; that is real truth-telling.

But what The Gleaner, and the Rev Eniola Davis, and Dr Valerie Knight, chairman of the National Family Planning Board, are advocating is giving in to sexual indiscipline. The law prescribes that girls under 16 must abstain from sexual intercourse. Are we to now encourage young women to break the law? Next, we'll give in to corrupt politicians.

Right opposite The Gleaner editorial was George Davis' excellent column telling of a security guard at the Sagicor Shopping Centre in Spanish Town discovering in the male restroom a schoolboy in khaki and epaulettes being straddled by a girl in school uniform. The Gleaner, I'm sure, was happy with the smiling girl's declaration to the guard: "It's all right, enuh, him have on a condom." The policy is already working!

And again on the same spread, the The Gleaner elevated to the status of Letter of the Day these sentiments: "It is time that the Government take a new approach and come down hard on women who are having children for whom they cannot provide. Government must adopt a policy of forced contraception and should pay scant regard to the complaint of religious and other bleeding-heart groups."

Sexual activity - like fast driving - is exhilarating, and practitioners often ignore long-term consequences and invest in short-term thrills. Self-discipline is the assertion of willpower over our more base desires. In most cultures, it has been noted that self-discipline is the ultimate path towards success.

Jamaica is headed for abject failure, if we are not there already.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and Roman Catholic deacon. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.