The Man and Society

The moral system

Social behaviour si very important for everybody. People would know social rules and the moral system. For me, the moral system is based on some rules and forms of behaviour, which are polite, and with which we can show our respect to other people.

Each generation behaves differently. We can see a lot of differences in behaving between younger and older people. Each of these generations grows up in a different years, in a different time, with different rules and each of them has other view, other opinions, almost on everything.

There are many various relationships between people. One can get into a relationship with people he spends the most of time – with parents, with siblings, with friends, but also with teachers at schools. Unfortunately, not everybody has a good relationships with others... There are for example many children, who have problems with their parents, because they don´t understand each other. Because of this, kids run away from home, get into a dangerous groups, start to live the „street life“ with many traps, they steal to gain some money, food, or clothes or they easily become involved with drugs, maybe...

I can say I have a good relationship with my parents... Yes, there are also some arguments between us, nothing is without a small conflict, but my parents are understanding, and they want only the best for me. I also have to say, that they look at the present modern things quite well – they respect for example my going to discotheques, modern music, today´s fashion style, and they respect my needs and decisions.

But, I have also two brothers – they are at puberta now... To be honest, sometimes it is very hard to live in one children room with two teenagers, who think that they know everything perfectly. We have a lot of disagreements with my 16 years old brother, mainly. I am sure I was the same some time ago, but now I think about some problems and situations in a different way, more intelligently and maybe more adultly... I know my brothers will grow up one day, and then they begin to behave in an other way, but waiting for this time is quite horror for me now :D

ETHICS is the study of morals. It is also called morality or moral law because it is about what is right and what is not, and how we decide what to do. Everybody have the right to life, the right to freedom from injury and the right to privacy. People must avoid from (to refrain) rape, murder, slander, stealing, assault, fraud.

Ethics are taught in families. Our parents give us examples how to behave since we are born. Then we learn ethics at schools. My class teacher on a primary school often used to say that she is our second mum. In my opinion she really was. Similarly, than my own mum, my teacher gave me also a lot of advice, which I remember to these days. It was quite good to compare my opinions with her opinions, and think of other ways for finding solutions. I can say she influenced me. She is really intelligent, and she is one of my ideals.

But let´s go back to ethics... We had lessons of ethics on a primary school, and also in the first two years on this school. We learned about manners, polite behaviour, topics for conversations, we talked about our priorities. In one word, we were talking about the etiquette during all those lessons.


Etiquette

ETIQUETTE – is the formal rules of correct or polite behaviour in society or among members of a particular profession. It includes greetings, behaviour at meetings, etiquette of visitors or how to behave when we are in another country...

Greetings can be formal or informal. Greetings are the beginings of conversation, not only in cases when people know each other, but also at introducing, at meetings. It is really important to use a right greeting in a different situations we get into. For example – we can´t say „Hi, Bob!“ to our employer when we come to work in morning  And we won´t talk formally with our friends, in our age, with the same crazy ideas, will we?

There are certain rules how to be polite greeting each other. For example:
• younger people greet the older first
• man greets woman first
• children always greet adults first

In North America there is no set of rules who greets the first.

Congratulations are also types of showing respect, or showing that we like somebody, that we want to share somebody´s happines or important moments in his life. We congratulate to people when they have their birthday, when they finish the school, when they achieve some success, ...
There are also some important rules at the dining table. It is impolite to talk with your mouth full of food, or to pick your teeth with your fingers. You also shouldn´t eat with your fingers or to smoke during the eating. Loud belching at the table is really nasty!!!

Each country has its own culture, and it is connected with different rules or different etiquette. It is really necessary to know some important etiquett rules of country we are going to travel to, before we do it. The same gestures and behaviour have sometimes the different meanings – what we think is impolite in our country, in the other it can be a sign of respect, for example belching: In our country belching at the table is impolite, but if you loudly belch at the table in China or Japan, you show the cook that the meal was really tasty.

Conversation helps people to know each other better. Expect of decision for a right style of speech (formal or informal) it is good to distinguish some conversation topics. There are so many topics we can talk about, from family to sport, or to politics... It is a well known fact, that the „weather“ is general topic for conversation – you can talk about the weather with your boyfriend and the same with your boss. 


Rules and norms – laws and their breaking

Social problems are typical for the whole society. Not everybody has a great family or people who care about him, when he is passing through his the worse life event. These kinds of social issues can appear because of this aspects:
-sexual discrimination
-teenage pregnancies
-gay rights
-homelessness
-drug abuse
-animal rights
-racism
-class

Society is divided into three main social groups: the upper class, the middle class, and the lower working class. This is known as the class system. Many people don’t like this class system. Most people know which class they belong to and are able to recognize others by the way they speak, their clothes, their interests and even the type of food they eat.

Wealth doesn’t mean that you belong to the upper-class society because social class is not only about money, but also about behaviour and attitudes. Society takes care of its members. Many countries support the idea of government money paid to people who are unemployed, for example.


CRIME

Everybody must know what their rights and duties are. Everyone who lives in a society must keep the rules of the society. Every society has it own moral rules of behaviour. Society has a right to expect people to obey the law. If anybody doesn’t and they are a danger to society, they can be locked up. No man is born as a criminal. His environment makes him what he is. A criminal must pay for his crime. The price he has to pay depends on the seriousness of the crime. A person should be punished very severely for a serious crime, but less severely for a lesser crime. He can be put in a jail (prison) for a small crime, but for murder, he should pay with his life. Some people are demanding the return of capital punishment for murder. I don’t agree with a capital punishment and with any corporal punishments. When he comes out of jail, he doesn’t commit any crimes. Criminal should do social welfare work or community service. Criminals are ill; they are patients with a disease.

Some crimes threaten human life:

-speeding – driving the fastest speed you are legally allowed to drive at
-kidnapping – the crime of taking sb away by force and demanding money for his/her safe return
-mugging – the crime of attacking and robbing sb in the street
-theft – the crime of stealing something
-robbery – the crime of stealing money or other things from a bank, shop, or person, especially using violence or threats
-burglary – the crime of entering a building illegally in order to steal
-manslaughter – the crime of killing sb without intending to do so
-murder – when someone is deliberately killed
-fraud – cheating sb in order to get money, etc. illegally
-rape – the crime of forcing someone to have sex, especially by using violence
Someone who commits crimes:

criminal, offender, thief, robber, burglar, shoplifter, attacker, mugger, murderer, rapist

Punishments:

-sentence – a punishment given by a judge in a court
-fine – an amount of money that you must pay as a punishment
-penalty – a general word for a punishment given to someone who has broken a law, rule or agreement
-death sentence/ death penalty/ capital punishment
-community service – unpaid work helping other people that someone does as punishment for a crime
-corporal punishment – when someone punishes a child by hitting them