Essay 010 (traditional values have been lost)

People nowadays work hard to buy more things. This has generally made our lives more comfortable, but many traditional values and customs have been lost and this s a pity.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

Essay

In pursuit of material comforts, modern man strives to achieve better financial status. This may be, sometimes at the cost of ignoring traditional value systems and customs. However, I believe, although a minority falls into this category, the major portion of the society still upholds traditional values in the midst of material prosperity.

It is sometimes said that respect for elderly parents, which was a traditional value does not find any place in today’s families. This is purely a based on the wrong assumption that old parents should be allowed to interfere into the affairs of their children and make decisions for them. In fact, today’s parents respect the freedom of their children and in turn, children are more independent and stand on their feet earlier than before. Today’s children maintain a friendly relationship with their parents but that does not mean that they do not respect them. Today, respect for parents is borne out of children’s freedom and not a result of fear, which in many instances used to be the case in the past. Such attitude of today’s generation is sometimes misinterpreted as lack of respect for their parents. What one can derive from this example is that traditional values remain unchanged, although their expressions may take different forms in the passage of time.

Visiting neighbourhood houses used to be a favourite custom for people in the past, which helped them in fostering friendly relationship with one’s neighbours. However, this is not possible today, since people are too busy as they work for long hours outside their homes to meet the ever-increasing demands of modern life. But this has been effectively compensated by the formation of neighbourhood clubs and similar groups where people meet during weekends and engage in many entertainment and social activities. This provides them greater opportunities to develop a friendly relationship with their neighbours.

Man’s quest for material prosperity does not always lead to the loss of traditional values, which can be clearly proved by our own experiences to that effect. Although the circumstances change, man remains the same old ethical being.

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