Economic growth and decay has
been happening across the globe from place to place, from region to region,
from country to country. Economic wealth and power has been shifting like sand
over the land, settling at different places at its own rhyme and reason. Based
on the limited known history of the past couple of thousand years and not
necessarily in the correct sequence of time, we have seen that; once upon a
time the civilisation in the Euphrates - Tigris held sway, the people in the
Indus – Saraswati river basin held the envy of the world, the Egyptians and also
the Chinese took over, the Middle East Muslims too became powerful, for a while
the Mongols held the reins, and post that the Romans, the Greeks, the British and
finally the Europeans and the Americans have held and lost power.
When we look at it from a
philosophical point of view the positives that emerge seems to suggest that
wealth and power is the biggest equiliser in the world and doesn’t remain the
mainstay of any region or race nor individual for a very long time. Everybody
gets a shot at it, everybody gets the opportunity to hold it and then pass it
on. It appears like a supremely justifiable democratic idea where everybody is considered
equal and the strongest or most capable person or group or race or region at
any particular point of time gets recognised as the leader. It has become like
a game of pass-the-ball around the globe and we humans dimwits at worse or
unwittingly at best are being played with. Obviously I do sound negative about
this grossly harmless phenomenon; my objection could be overly estimated but
not unnecessary though. The pursuit of wealth and power has undoubtedly brought
in material progress and it has fueled innovation and development, across the
globe. My complaint against this natural
spectacle is both at the macro and micro levels.
It has caused too much destruction: The known history of the
world is fraught with wars and killings for the sole motive of seizing land, power
and wealth. Humans either in regional or ethnic groups have fought each other,
coveting or usurping from one another. Quite possibly the very first migration
of the human species had taken place to seek independent power and wealth. The
most initial motives could have been unhindered power or access over land for
hunting, grazing and cultivation. With the increase in agricultural and animal production
came trading, which further evolved into the exchange value of goods and the needs
for common exchange standard using gold and such other precious metals and
gems. The accumulations of such universally exchangeable commodity lead to the
concept of financial wealth. Predictably this wealth got accumulated in the
hands of a capable few which fueled greed and envy in others who were deprived,
and the practice of appropriating and grabbing by hook or crook took roots. Humans
when seized by negative emotions have never stopped to stoop to the lowest
levels. Every action to acquire the power and wealth very soon became
acceptable to the species and was very easily considered reasonable. Over time,
wealth and power came to be treated as a commodity to be defended and all
fighting skills developed by the species to be used against nature and wild
animals, were required to be unleashed against its own kind. Most of the times,
large scale wars erupted, giving a free rein to mass killing, wherein the pain
and sufferings let loose on the population was accepted as a part of the game
plan and justified under ‘no pain no gain’ ideology. Soldiers, weaponry and
destructive skills too got appreciated in society. Even today we can see that
there is destruction and suffering on this planet for the sake of power and
wealth. Countries even if not directly related to the local issues of fighting,
end up taking sides for strategic interests and supply arms and ammunitions to
ensure that fighting goes on. Countries have also calibrated themselves and sometimes
their strategy has been to issue threats of wars which also serve the purpose
of bringing their targets to their knees. At the individual levels too, theft
and looting continues unabated, and the scene has moved on into the internet as
well.
It has not brought universal dignified living: The pursuit and
achievement of wealth and power has become esoteric in its application, in a
sense that only a few accomplish success, are able to understand it and are
capable of managing or manipulating it. The curse of unequal distribution of
wealth has been with humans since the beginning. The disparity in the ownership
or spread of wealth is extremely glaring. Today by and large, it is commonly seen that less
than 1 % of the global population whom we designate the rich class owns upto 50%
of the global wealth (Oxfam 2015). It seems farcical that a handful (8 of them)
of billionaires own assets equal to the bottom 50% of the world’s population
(Oxfam 2017). The bottom of the population does not seem to have enough money
to even scratch out a reasonably respectable living. They cannot have one
dignified meal in a day, they do not have a roof over their heads, they are not
protected against illness, and they do not have a regular earning work. We
write about this, we discuss and debate it, governments try to reach out to the
poor through poverty elevation programs, the rich take pride in philanthropy, but
truth be told, we humans are not ashamed of this inequality. That is because of
the philosophy behind wealth creation, that nobody has permanent rights over
it, wealth changes hands irrespective of colour creed and ethnicity, everybody can
have a go at it and illegal methods to acquire wealth are not unheard of. Such
thinking legitimizes depravity, permits poverty and applauds hoarding. Supporters
advocate that it is meant to encourage humans to work more and work smarter. We
should however also try to rationalize that while over the millenniums the
volumes of wealth in human hands has increased but we have not been able to
eradicate poverty from human existence. We humans have entrapped ourselves in vague
inhuman philosophies that we do not feel an iota of remorse when we see another
human dying of hunger, illness, weather and war.
It increases stress and ego problems: I think we were very happy
and possibly we congratulated ourselves about our ingenuity and wisdom when we conceived
the thought of pursuit of wealth for each one of us as an enterprise to do with
all our might. Probably we thought that our body and mind were mere machines
which could be made to do almost about anything in this world. When we humans endorsed
the pursuit of wealth we dehumanized ourselves. Undoubtedly our body and mind
is capable of extra-ordinary feats and sometimes beyond our imaginations and
belief. However each one of us has our own physical and mental limitations,
both internal and external. We are not similar in our capabilities even though
we may have similar dreams and aspirations. Each one of us is unique and quite
possibly we may have talents which are special, however all of us may not be
good enough to pursue the cut-throat world of wealth and power. It is a human
tragedy and of our own creation that the chase of economic bounty has become
the topmost sought after profession right from the moment we start our
schooling. We have magnificently succeeded in putting the poet, the painter,
the cook, the soldier, the cleaner, all into the same basket along with the
commercial genius. Everybody has to go through the same grind, same goals and
same learnings. We want all of them to earn immense wealth during their life
time. While the commercial genius succeeds easily, the rest do not. This
outcome makes someone extremely arrogant and conceited while the rest suffer
from stress related health problems. As a species we have to do much more in
building parallel avenues in life, unrelated to wealth and power, where the
special talents within us are encouraged, highlighted and appreciated, wherein those
who do not value wealth and power also enjoy the same status as those that do, where
a human being is feted and not the ego, where life in its diversity is celebrated
instead of wealth and power.
Conclusion: I would like to close with a thought that is
very close to my heart, “can we be more than mere human beings?” We are not
just individual persons. We may hold individual personal freedom and privacy very
primary and dear to our hearts, but yet our policies and practices, our
philosophies and strategies cannot and should not be individual centric. We
need to balance our abilities and our desires for the sake of universal benefit
and advantage. Can we rise above our parochial myopic interests, can we embrace
life and all its dimensions, can we be sensitive towards the needs of this
environment that sustains us, can we love and take care of everything around
us? Can we?
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