THE LAST WORD (PART 5)

Over the past 13,000 years during the time humans learnt to take-over the reins of this planet, the two concepts that he has relied upon to stabilize himself are materialism and religion. Both these concepts are similar philosophically. The foundations of both are based on the understanding that nothing is more important than matter, and its movement, modification, exchange, for the betterment of living. Though there are other concepts like socialism, spirituality, etc., however they have been tried, tested and finally relegated to the sidelines because such concepts were considered failures in giving a meaning to and objective for living. Materialism on the other hand comprehensively objectifies living in a manner in which the human mind can easily comprehend. The importance that it gives to material possession, its acquisition and exchange, simplifies the process of living into achievable goals, into journeys towards those marked goals, and then share the experience which motivates others to move forward similarly. Whatever remaining beyond material possessions that humans cannot comprehend, he has bundled together into another material set of ideas called religion, where a God (or Gods) is created who is represented as the owner of everything which is not understood. Over the millenniums the field of influence of God has been diminishing because of the onslaught of science, however still a fairly large area remains under Gods control and suzerainty.  This God is also made out to be a material concept and along with being a benign personality God is supposed to be master of everything in this universe, omnipresent, onmiscient, omnipotent, and keeps track of events since the beginning of time, knows the reasons and can justify everything that is happening around today. God is thus an entity worthy of fear and worship. Rituals are worked out with the intention of keeping God happy and satisfied, so as to make human living easy in a transactional manner.  To make the concept more palatable, God is also personalized to suit the thought processes of certain communities and also regions. 

Today when we view the mess that we have created in and around our lives, we find that the cause has been materialism and religion. Materialism has failed us because we never visualized that in the course of our consumption spree we would be scrapping at the bottom of the barrel and also that every unit of our consumption would carry an environmental consequence. Materialism never trained us for such situations. Materialism doesn’t believe in the spiritual world, it simply rests on the groundwork that physical comfort at whatever costs is more important than spiritual values. It is time that we reassessed the reality around us and reengineered the living experience. To this end I have already argued for sustainable economic policies which can curb the unchecked consumerism and bring a balance between the availability of resources and the impact of its consumption. There are a couple of other topics that I wish to deliberate upon.

Let us bring the focus on spirituality:

Physics lays bare the fact that all objects that seem to look tangible are infact not. All elements contain atoms which in tern consist of of neutrons and protons, which when drilled down further are known to be mere waves without mass. These are held together by some energy which infact has a mass. At a nanoscience level these are intangible concepts and which have not yet been completely explored and explained. As and when more light is thrown on this subject all our religious concepts would have to be debunked one by one and God would have to be shifted to a smaller table along with his limited remaining contractors and followers. However the more we decipher the universe around us, the cause and scale of facts about the varied phenomenon in the universe would continue remain a mystery.

Spirituality concerns itself with universal life and all universal phenomenon as we observe it, trying to make sense of the universe at the level of the spirit, considering life and time in its entirety, embracing all forms of life, while at the same time acknowledging the unknown facts. All spiritual thought leaders lay tremendous emphasis on being aware and urge everyone for insignificant prominence to individual ego. Ego is an intangible sense of self that seeks and worships materialism. Spiritualism is more aligned with science and with increased knowledge through research is going to be of much prominence in the future. We humans have to move towards a better understanding of our lives and of the universe around us which religion does not cater to. Religion is dogmatic while spirituality is uplifting. Religion is narrow while spirituality is broad. Religion is based on fear while spirituality is based on freedom. It will reduce the single-minded devotion towards materialistic approach. It will bring about an embrace of all life forms in our thoughts and actions. It will guide in crafting sustainable development models for the planet.

Physicists also claim that energy in this universe merely gets converted from one form to another and cannot be destroyed. The equivalent theory in spiritual terms is that whatever goes around comes around. Whatever we give around, would come around back to us. If we pass around destruction, we will get back destruction. If we pass peace around, we will get back peace. Thus our life on this planet is grossly dependent on our deeds. At a macro level we can witness that our environment changes and hits back at us because of our deeds. At a micro level our personal situation our abilities, our health condition, our mental strength, the people around us are all a direct result and consequence of our deeds. We should call this as karmanomics theory.

Let us focus on a Happiness Index:

Happiness is a fleeting notion and a subjective concept. It is most complex, unstable and unpredictable. Because of the illusive real nature of happiness, it has always been defined in relation to other concepts for example a definition which I have liked amongst the several that I have come across is by Jennifer Moss, “Happiness includes contentment, well-being, and the emotional flexibility to experience a full range of emotions”. When happiness is linked to contentment, it is either ignored or rejected by the materialists because then it goes against their fundamental thought process.

Since it has defied a logical standalone definition as a phenomenon, happiness has stayed in the hands of philosophers, spiritual leaders, and religious contractors, all outside the purview of science.   However of late happiness has become important to several groups. Borrowing from the words of Daniel Gilbert of Harvard University, “Psychologists want to understand what people feel, economists want to know what people value and neuroscientists want to know how people’s brain responds to rewards. Having three separate disciplines all interested in a single topic has put that topic on the scientific map. Governments all over the world are rushing to figure out how to measure and increase the happiness of their citizens”.

Life on this planet is made up of temporary elements, temporary circumstances and a temporary environment; therefore there is a constant struggle to survive merely for the sake of existence. Happiness is a moment of balance in between the temporariness surrounding us and the desire of a continued and meaningful presence. The basic idea of happiness is deeply complicated but then all spiritual leaders say that the basic purpose of life itself is just to be happy. Due to its inherent complexities, we have been ignoring it for far too long and permitting decay in our lives in the pursuit of false and disastrous objectives.

It is most necessary to measure happiness, and we should think in terms of letting governments make rules to promote happiness in society. Let us continue with individual growth, let every individual try to be better, let every individual compete but at being happy. Let us give more importance to peace within our own mind, peace with personal situation, peace with the environment, peace with every life form and peace with other individuals. Let individuals with similar levels of happiness stay together. We need to recalibrate our lifestyles so that money can continue merely as a form of exchange, not as a form of social status. Let us engage in having a meaningful vision about our future on this planet, let us engage in creating a sense of purpose within our lives to move towards that vision, and let us engage in generating strong relationships within us humans and all other life forms on this planet to be fully happy.

Unfortunately like every other idea, happiness too has its opposition. People misinterpret that happiness is an end and not a means forgetting that what’s really important is the journey. Happiness is imagined to being cheerful, joyous and content all the time and always having a smile on your face but happiness is not the absence of suffering, but the ability to handle it and bounce back from it.

Concluding lines: We have to learn to love life in all its facets and forms, it is the only solution. We have to focus on the true meaning of love. We should love all life forms, love the planet, love and respect existence. Love flowers when there is respect. It is time for a spiritual awakening.

CAN WE TAKE A U-TURN (PART 4)

The history of the human species, while living on this planet, has taken several twists and turns. Our curiosity to understand and make a sense of our lives within and without is astoundingly enormous. We have experimented on so many fronts, starting with tools for hunting of wild animals, gathering of various forest produce for food to cultivating trees and plants, managing and using fire, winning and losing wars, staying in communities, systems of governance, creating economic policies, developing medicinal drugs, the list is unending. While we have deciphered quite a lot, yet when we look at the rest of what is around us, we realise that what we know is only a miniscule portion of the entire knowledge which the universe holds in its embrace. As a species we continue to make marginal progress on several fronts even though it may appear that we have come a very long way since the time we were cave dwellers. In this and the following chapter, it is my intention to flag certain facts, highlight them in a way so that we ponder over them, and which would show us that the path which we have taken is wrought with blunders.

We desperately need Sustainable Economic Solutions:

Economics is the field of knowledge which studies and predicts human behaviour in relation to generation of income, utilisation of resources and creation of wealth. It talks of humanity as a single unit and not each individual per-se. Therefore while every individual is permitted to behave in a slightly different manner, a study of their combined movement would depict a certain specific trend. When such known trends are mapped to prodding and specific stimulus the resultant predictions take the form of economic theories. Unfortunately all our combined human wisdom over the millennium has never considered or evaluated sustainable existence. When economists discuss sustainable economics, they imagine and take for granted that materialistic growth can be sustained indefinitely provided certain criteria are constant available and matched for example the rate of inflation, perineal availability of resources and perineal desire for wealth. Some very common understandings are ignored like the exploitation of certain resources causes imbalance in the environment adversely impacting living conditions, that the pursuit of wealth is merely greed and does not result in happiness.  Our materialistic economic policies have to change. We need to wade away from current policies that exploit. Discard them. Why are we juggling with fanciful ideas of growth and GDP, trade and commerce, financial and military strength, when we continue to have people struggling below the poverty line, homeless and hungry, tired and depressed, unhappy and stressed out? Why is it that even the most developed country cannot get itself rid of its poor? Mind well that I am not referring to the poor migrants. Why is it that in every country the rich continue to become richer and the wedge between the poor and the rich continues to widen? We humans have become insensitive to the point of selfishness that we equate the weak and the helpless to lazy and unimaginative. We humans consider that poverty is the deserved end result of being non-productive, ignoring the truth that our policies are bent to favour the cunning opportunist, the sharp corrupter, and those fortunate to be born into facilities. We humans are under the impression that there no limit to growing rich, but where do we find wealth making us happy. We humans encourage desires and dreams which are specifically focused towards exploitation of other humans and the natural resources that support us, but we have never stopped to acknowledge that we are cutting at own feet. We are all sabotaging our existence, marching towards self-destruction. The entire definition of development needs a shift from materialistic objectives to sustainable living objectives.

The right wing view point subscribers across the world are on the rise currently, nationalism and protectionism of small groups is a fear induced theory which is steeped in nostalgia of the past. Their time under the sun could be short lived. The future is going to be held by those subscribers who would look at humanity as a whole and try to work solutions for the planet instead of continents. They would have to soon take over.

Our immediate concern is that our economists should develop economic theories that maps unending human desires against scarce and limited resources, that maps all human desires to sustainable – non-sustainable categories and discourages the latter, that maps exceptional individual talent and capability to a respectable living conditions for all, that maps the cost-benefit of human activity to its impact on the environment, that stimulate and encourage enthusiastic sharing instead of forceful taxes, that prize and reward happiness instead of wealth.

Let us be more than individuals:

Each one of us needs to ask ourselves a simple rational question, why do we consider ourselves independent and individual, why are we not thinking about ourselves collectively as a species? Why do we assume that individually we can survive and it is not necessary to imagine a collective existence? If that had been correct, we could have atleast had a few dinosaurs walking with us today. Each one of us have become a narcissist and extremely narrow-minded. This has made us irresponsible in the pursuit of our desires, we have scant respect for the environment that sustains us, and it has become inconsequential for us that our individual actions impacts the environment and all other life forms directly and indirectly. Honestly and yet sadly, our behaviour on this planet has become like that of an alien coloniser, a foreigner from outer space who expects to go back home after mining this planet of all its resources.

Even if we don’t realise it we have to acknowledge that this planet is not our personal property. Infact the concept of ownership of land has misled us into believing that we can do anything we want with it. We need to accept that we share this planet with scores of other species lining on the land, in the sea and in the air. We are responsible to keep this planet intact and viable for other creatures, like the insects, animals, birds, fishes, plants, trees and also micro-organisms like bacteria, to survive.  Over the ages we have never given any major importance to such a thought. We fight with animals over forest land and easily dispose them off instead of curtailing our needs. We have cut and destroyed trees to make furniture and paper instead of restricting our needs. We have breed birds and animals to kill them just to feed ourselves instead of curbing our appetite.  We have polluted the atmosphere by burning fossil fuel instead of limiting our desires.

We give so much of prominence to the satisfaction and fulfilment of our individual desires that we have waged war with our own kind over land, power and gold. Such has been the strength of our irresponsible attitude that it isn’t too hard to imagine that in the immediate future we could be once again going to war against ourselves over shortage of liveable habitats and water just to survive. When it comes to gratification of our desires, there are no full-stops. Our recklessness and arrogance has brought about situations where our survival is at stake, and when it comes to survival we think very individualistically. Today we can witness our narrowmindedness which has brought forth protectionism and the refusal to accept migrants, building up tension internationally.

There is a desperate need to consider a U-turn on our thinking and our policies. Let each one of us aspire to be a better human, willing to sacrifice our personal cravings for the common good of all creatures partaking this planet with us.

Understand nature, understand the nature of energy.

Primarily we humans need to markdown ourselves, our self-importance and ego. We need to scale down our pomposity.  We consider ourselves as all powerful on this planet. It could come as a shock to an average human if he is explained that at the micro level all his physicality consists of mere waves and nothing solid. Scientists are clear that all particles on this planet can be broken down into atoms and at the minutest level these are waves bound together by some energy which give them certain characteristics. Scientists say that they have been able to understand a miniscule 5% of what life and its surroundings are. This makes us insignificant to the scheme of the universe and if truth is to be told then it is that ‘we hardly matter’. Yet we humans remain happily ignorant and indifferent to this reality. Spiritual thought leaders have also been saying the same things that life has no essential meaning but we humans chose to align ourselves towards religion which gives us an artificial purpose for living.

Everything on this planet is purely energy. This energy changes from one form to another but cannot be destroyed and doesn’t disappear. Change in energies is sometimes a normal process for example the eating and digestion of food inside the body, or the evaporation of water and its downpour as rain. During changes certain energies can coexist for example plants using water and sunlight to grow while other end up destroying each other for example fire burns the forest into ashes. When we humans in the quest of our satisfying our desires, go about mindlessly and quickly converting energies without assessing the impact that it has on the planet and over our life and lives of all creatures sharing this planet with us, we carry a great risk of bringing about situations which are non-reversible in nature and the resultant form of energy won’t accept us nor permit us to coexist. The life energy around and within us would then mutate itself, giving rise to new species and quite possibly we humans may cease to exist. We therefore need to balance. Balance our needs and desires, balance the energies and their compatibilities, and balance our comforts and our well-being, our existence along with those of other species on this planet. This is the only planet and the only environment where we can exist and survive, because the design of life and living organisms on this planet is unique, which is dependent on the environment available. Even if we humans wish to colonise another planet then we won’t continue to remain the same and rather the energy within us would mutate to become compatible with the environment of the other planet.


(To be continued)

THE GOOD THAT WE HAVE ACHIEVED (PART 3)

Having discussed the adverse fallouts of our precipitous existence on this planet let us now look at whatever can be considered as positive impacts or consequences of our prodigious evolution. When we consider a broad birds-eye view of human presence on Earth one thing is very clear that all through time humans have always been living for the present moment, innocently albeit rather irrationally. Assuming (since there is no evidence) that there were no equal or more intelligent life forms who walked this planet before us, who could visualise about the future and could plan for a sustainable survival, it is very apparent that every life forms were created and destroyed by the forces of nature and the predatory behaviour of other life forms.  We humans too do not deserve to suffer a different fate. As long as we survive, we would continue to focus on satisfying our immediate needs with all our might. 

Notwithstanding the collateral damage that such a narrow, imprudent, single-minded endeavour generates, we humans have also managed to pull off certain extraordinary feats which have helped us to pull along for over 13,000 years. These features have developed slowly over the millenniums and we definitely deserve to take credit and a bow.

Getting better at Synchronized-Living

Controversial though it may sound, I consider that we humans have been evolving from being selfish freaks. Let us look at this from the aspect of urbanization. From the time when we were hunters-gatherers-cave dwellers to the time when we learnt to live in nomadic small groups, onward to vagabond communities, then with the advent of agriculture into villages and subsequently with trade commerce into towns and finally with industrialization we developed metropolitan cities, we have gradually and in a subtle manner been learning that more we help each other the more we make our personal lives better. The common narrative is a lamentation that smaller societies of villages and towns have a more personal touch; folks knew each other and were eager to help in times of need. It follows that in cities people have become impersonal, out of touch with each other, and after the invention of smart phone with internet people have gone into their individual personal cocoons, oblivious to the plight of his fellow citizen. However I see it differently. No community, village, town or metro city can survive without a major arrangement for things like water supply, sewage handling, roads, cleanliness, etc. All these tasks need to be organised. A governing body becomes essential, elections become essential. Even during the early days of human evolution, say 6000 – 8000 years ago, during the times Mesopotamian and Indus civilisations flourished and traded with each other through land and sea, and much later even before the dawn of electricity, towns had their common cultural practices, place of worship and religious practices, people who were skilled in different tasks, production and distribution of food produce, taxes, etc., we humans were evolving slowly to coexist better. Collective living is a creature, a wild animal, which needs planning, handling and care. Today considering the size of cities and the volumes of population which they cater to, doesn’t make the administration any simpler, rather with varied heightened needs, demands and the enormous scale, it has become extremely complex. And yet cities survive and attract more and more population. This, what we call urbanization one such feat and it cannot be achieved through selfishness. Sharing of work, making individual compromises for a common good, shouldering responsibilities and becoming accountable is a must. Of course we have had monarchies, we had individuals with gigantic egos, we have seen wars, we have seen rage and rampage, invasion and destruction for satisfaction of personal ego, but such behavior has been reducing in proportion though not wiped out. By and large, we are witness to the fact that majority people are peace loving, compassionate, willing to compromise, and the proportion of such people has been increasing over the ages.

Insatiable urge for Innovation

Innovation is the discovery of a better or refined process, product or thought aimed at making living easier, and whose primary intent is enabling ease of achieving ones desires. Innovation is the fruit from the churning of intelligence, the crown of human endeavor. The earliest innovations could be identified as fire, use of colour in cave hieroglyphs, sharpening stone tools, the wheel and the concept of God and religion. Later on innovations came in the form of came spoken language, agriculture, molding various metals into tools, gourmet culinary, garment clothing, two-storied buildings, barter system, herbal medicines and medical procedures, and also the concept of marriage. Much later originated the written languages, medicinal drugs, telephone, electricity, steam and combustion engine, widespread use of plastic, etc. The striving for innovation continues and we have seen how the modern internet has changed life on this planet.  

Once upon a time innovation was an innocent advancement of ideas meant undoubtedly to make human life easier, however over the past couple of centuries especially post the industrial revolution, innovation has adopted a pseudonym and is disguised in two different ways; it has now become synonymous with Science and it is fashionably undertaken to exploit some commercial value. This makes it counterproductive and instead of making life easier it is become a tool for exploitation and to stifle a sustainable lifestyle. Further we waste a lot of resources in the pursuit of innovation. Some of the innovations are unhealthy but their ill effects are known only in the long run and not immediately.

Nevertheless we have to acknowledge that innovation and technology advancements has led to increase in production and therefore also the reduction in prices, thus enabling consumption by waste majority of human population. Producers taking advantage under monopolistic conditions find it difficult. Innovation in the field of health care has helped several of us to lead a better life. Education has spread widely and we humans have become more aware of our surroundings and what it takes to develop a new product or process.

A rather strange spectacle that can be seen on our planet is that all kinds of development spread out pretty fast across to all continents. It is naïve to assume that innovations took root simultaneously at several places. But it is quite apparent that all new ideas were and are being used in every corner of Earth. Let us take the example of large scale farming of a particular produce or crop. It is irrelevant whether it was the Neanderthals or the Humanoids who first practiced this, but cropping based agriculture did not remain contained to one single region.

Spread of Material Prosperity

An overwhelming majority of us human live for and swear by materialistic conditions. Progress for us means unadulterated materialism. All our efforts right from the time we learn to handle ourselves is directed towards improving the material conditions of our lives and those around us. We call ourselves prosperous by the amount of money we earn, and have managed to put away, by the size of our houses, cars, and other gadgets, by the texture and quantity of our clothing and food. We value monetary abundance as richness and the sole purpose of living.  To that extent we can say that money is a great leveler. It reaches every person who wishes to pursue it and do not remain the domain of a few.

From such a perspective, post the WW2, on a very general and generous scale, it can be said that the human population has grown in wealth and become healthy and are living longer. Notwithstanding the fact that there are still pockets of poverty widespread on this planet, the number of people living a reasonably good quality of life is much more than ever. The general levels of money in circulation have increased across most territories and the people living in isolation and in destitute conditions are proportionately less. We critically analyze the rate of growth in each country, but we overlook the fact that the size of GDP has been increasing along with and inspite of the increase in population. Obviously the GDP is owned by the people and it is they who are contributing towards it.

Even when we look at the economically weaker sections of society, there is a fairly decent public distribution system in place for food and health in most countries today. Food, medicine and health reach all those who cannot afford to spend a lot of money. Of course there is a handsome level of corruption which goes hand in hand, but for the moment let us chose to keep that aside. Avoidance of death of a human being due to hunger and lack of medical facilities has been a major cherished governmental aim across the continents. How so much ever we may argue about the manner and extent of these goals, and undoubtedly there is immense scope for improvement, but their utility and achievement cannot be denied.


                                                                            To be continued...........