A few thoughts at the onset of summers:
1.
A person is more or less guided by his perceived sense of immortality. In his active life he is rarely thinking about death; he believes he might be endowed with an endless life. A miracle could happen – that is the implicit, underlying belief. As such, he is not careful about the long-term implications of his own actions – on him as well as his family and community. When this happens en masse it poses a challenge to the human civilization that we are facing today – private tyrannies escalating into public tyrannies of the powerful elite on the powerless. Is there a way by which humans could continually be alert to their mortality and yet be able to lead happy, sociable and creative lives? Well the idea could lead one to religious indoctrination but that clearly is not the way. The problem is the constant remembrance of mortality could pin one down to a very narrow space full of loathsome grief. That is not the idea as well. The thought essentially is: to know wholesomely that one shall die and as such, one must accept death as ones end and the intervening life is to enjoy the universe among people in the best possible manner without aspiring too much or too less and, this is not possible without causing least hurt to others. The life thus spent can be a reason of happiness to one as well as to the others who are interconnected for the life spent is on enjoyments and merriments [they obviously multiply when experienced against the knowledge of extinction] rather than on accumulations and achievements [they obviously pale in the context of extinction].
2.
Modernity is approximately 250 years old. It has thrived on the burgeoning industrial societies all across the globe. Industry is all about producing more at least cost and selling all that has been produced irrespective of the real requirement and in the process making and accumulating enormous private wealth. To legitimize these actions there have to be supportive nation state structures and those have happened under our very nose irrespective of the extent to which industry has destroyed the nature. We are constantly talking of shifting climatic and weather patterns, irreversible impacts of global warming and signing various energy and environmental protocols without following any of their provisions or doing anything about the root causes. To top these, one has to add the stockpile of nuclear arsenal that we have compiled already including the underground tests that are being carried out regularly by the powerful group of nation states. Industrial society has accelerated greed, competition, consumption, war and reckless and hedonistic lifestyles like never before. Above all, it has concentrated wealth, access to privileges and power to live in style among a few who are actually running the corporations as well as the nation states – directly and indirectly. Industrial society has not made us happy. Smokestacks and factories have not made us happy. Banks have not made us happy. Departmental stores and shopping malls have not made us happy. Gizmos and gadgets have not made us happy. Investments and insurance policies have not made us happy. Huge apartments have not made us happy. What will make us happy? We know what will make us happy. Yet we will not be allowed to choose them as that might bring down the edifice of corporations and nation states which sell us false dreams. The fact is: we have to make a return. That will require tremendous energy and resolve. We have to start with collaboration and not competition.
3.
Great men have said that it is education that can solve most of our problems. How believable are they when we find the most educated out of our lot enslaved by the powerful elite in their corporations and institutions working at their beck and call to enhance their power and wealth? The universities today in their bid to raise capital are selling themselves to industries and then there are industry universities selling education at hefty sums. But there must be some education away from these well-known centres of education, like, understanding and appreciating the classics and epics, learning to do algebra and arithmetic, learning farming and fishing, learning yoga and music so on and so forth from the masters in the field as one would do in community learning, which is the crucible of all great learning. Think for a moment: the greatest works of art – in all fields – including philosophy have been achieved much before modernity had set in. Of course, modernity has given us some of the greatest works of scientific thought.
4.
There is an increasingly growing nexus between the politicians, industry leaders, writers, artistes, entertainers and intelligentsia and this is most obviously visible in the regularly carried photographs of party scenes in the national dailies. Our idea of a suffering; impoverished and marginalised and yet, an irreverential and revolutionary intellectual at sincere work to snatch among all odds the magic whiff of amorphous truth has been attacked forever. Nowadays we almost doubt the credentials of an intellectual inherently. That is not to say that one is jealous of a successful intellectual, no. The issue is: increasingly the writers, artistes, entertainers and intelligentsia are looking for a strange commercial patronage more than acceptance of their works with their respective audience. To be able to succeed by doing mediocre work and being in return able to create entry barriers for the struggling lot one needs a peculiar kind of commercial patronage by the powerful elite which requires a constant networking at these party circuits. However, this can be argued that intellectuals, contrary to popular perception, have always been ideological and socio-cultural managers on behalf of the powerful elite.
1.
A person is more or less guided by his perceived sense of immortality. In his active life he is rarely thinking about death; he believes he might be endowed with an endless life. A miracle could happen – that is the implicit, underlying belief. As such, he is not careful about the long-term implications of his own actions – on him as well as his family and community. When this happens en masse it poses a challenge to the human civilization that we are facing today – private tyrannies escalating into public tyrannies of the powerful elite on the powerless. Is there a way by which humans could continually be alert to their mortality and yet be able to lead happy, sociable and creative lives? Well the idea could lead one to religious indoctrination but that clearly is not the way. The problem is the constant remembrance of mortality could pin one down to a very narrow space full of loathsome grief. That is not the idea as well. The thought essentially is: to know wholesomely that one shall die and as such, one must accept death as ones end and the intervening life is to enjoy the universe among people in the best possible manner without aspiring too much or too less and, this is not possible without causing least hurt to others. The life thus spent can be a reason of happiness to one as well as to the others who are interconnected for the life spent is on enjoyments and merriments [they obviously multiply when experienced against the knowledge of extinction] rather than on accumulations and achievements [they obviously pale in the context of extinction].
2.
Modernity is approximately 250 years old. It has thrived on the burgeoning industrial societies all across the globe. Industry is all about producing more at least cost and selling all that has been produced irrespective of the real requirement and in the process making and accumulating enormous private wealth. To legitimize these actions there have to be supportive nation state structures and those have happened under our very nose irrespective of the extent to which industry has destroyed the nature. We are constantly talking of shifting climatic and weather patterns, irreversible impacts of global warming and signing various energy and environmental protocols without following any of their provisions or doing anything about the root causes. To top these, one has to add the stockpile of nuclear arsenal that we have compiled already including the underground tests that are being carried out regularly by the powerful group of nation states. Industrial society has accelerated greed, competition, consumption, war and reckless and hedonistic lifestyles like never before. Above all, it has concentrated wealth, access to privileges and power to live in style among a few who are actually running the corporations as well as the nation states – directly and indirectly. Industrial society has not made us happy. Smokestacks and factories have not made us happy. Banks have not made us happy. Departmental stores and shopping malls have not made us happy. Gizmos and gadgets have not made us happy. Investments and insurance policies have not made us happy. Huge apartments have not made us happy. What will make us happy? We know what will make us happy. Yet we will not be allowed to choose them as that might bring down the edifice of corporations and nation states which sell us false dreams. The fact is: we have to make a return. That will require tremendous energy and resolve. We have to start with collaboration and not competition.
3.
Great men have said that it is education that can solve most of our problems. How believable are they when we find the most educated out of our lot enslaved by the powerful elite in their corporations and institutions working at their beck and call to enhance their power and wealth? The universities today in their bid to raise capital are selling themselves to industries and then there are industry universities selling education at hefty sums. But there must be some education away from these well-known centres of education, like, understanding and appreciating the classics and epics, learning to do algebra and arithmetic, learning farming and fishing, learning yoga and music so on and so forth from the masters in the field as one would do in community learning, which is the crucible of all great learning. Think for a moment: the greatest works of art – in all fields – including philosophy have been achieved much before modernity had set in. Of course, modernity has given us some of the greatest works of scientific thought.
4.
There is an increasingly growing nexus between the politicians, industry leaders, writers, artistes, entertainers and intelligentsia and this is most obviously visible in the regularly carried photographs of party scenes in the national dailies. Our idea of a suffering; impoverished and marginalised and yet, an irreverential and revolutionary intellectual at sincere work to snatch among all odds the magic whiff of amorphous truth has been attacked forever. Nowadays we almost doubt the credentials of an intellectual inherently. That is not to say that one is jealous of a successful intellectual, no. The issue is: increasingly the writers, artistes, entertainers and intelligentsia are looking for a strange commercial patronage more than acceptance of their works with their respective audience. To be able to succeed by doing mediocre work and being in return able to create entry barriers for the struggling lot one needs a peculiar kind of commercial patronage by the powerful elite which requires a constant networking at these party circuits. However, this can be argued that intellectuals, contrary to popular perception, have always been ideological and socio-cultural managers on behalf of the powerful elite.
