It is being said from time immemorial that Wisdom is application of knowledge. In a philosophical level, it would be quite interesting to argue that Wisdom is superior to Knowledge or the other way, Wisdom is not possible without Knowledge etc. My contention here is slightly different. I wish to highlight value deterioration which is happening to an undesired extent to the most acceptable concepts prevalent in the society, probably, which run the Society.
Paradigm shift of ‘Wisdom’ in ‘Democracy’
If you ask people from democratic nations, probably they may tell that the system has gone into so much corruption even to the extent of corruption becoming the most prominent feature of democracy. Corruption has become part of democracy, and a fact accepted by citizens. In other words a culture of corruption emerges and not only Govt employees, Bureaucrats and Politicians, but also common men also start becoming faithful followers & reinforcers of the corruption mechanism. In Govt. buses of Karnataka (I’ve not seen this technic in Kerala Govt. buses and don’t have much experience with other state Govt. Buses), for short distance travels, don’t be surprised if conductors don’t issue tickets. They may give you a rebate of 25%-30% of the ticket rate and keep the money in their pockets. Passengers happy; conductor more happy. When I ask for ticket by giving back the Rs. 2 coin offered me as rebate, the guy looks at me with an uncopyable facial expression, probably uttering ‘what an idiot sir jee’. The people around me joins with the conductor to look at this real time stupid in front of them. My friends working in some Arabian countries have told me that Indian drivers who drive public transport buses there also adopt this technique.
So this democratic pattern – the pattern of corruption, becomes contagious, which gets enrooted in the minds of Citizens who have to uphold the value of Democracy through the power of their ballot. The danger is that the democracy so evolved would become corrupt by (the evolved) design. The news on purchase of Votes by money, muscle, liquor, free supply of food items, household items etc. have always been there in the air of Indian democracy. Horse-trade in Parliament House also gets celebrated here. Caste based politics and leading Political Parties helping in establishing a new ‘Varna’ system by creating a permanent Ruling Class and Rulers’ Families, providing platform for continued enjoyment of powers to the former kings (of Princely States) and their successors in the Democratic system are other banes.
‘Wisdom’ of ‘Religions’: paradigm shift in this millennium
We can look at another equally powerful concept called religion (in India, add the term ‘Caste’ too). In the application level, I feel it has a striking difference from the concept of Democracy. Democracy, even in it’s weakest form, in the public, is better than any other form of Governments. But occupation public affairs by religions has always emerged scary. Probably the aim of all religions, before it was institutionalised, must had been creation of socially acceptable and moral life style and norms, where each one in the society complements the other. But the transformation it has received through ages has only resulted in the clash of ideologies. In other words, the compendiums on the principles of social & personal life under different umbrellas, in reality, led to Ethnocentric views and unproductive clashes.
Need of religions and propagation of religious ideologies during the beginning of civilizations is understandable. But in today’s world where the intellectual evolution enabled man to apply his conscience in his day today affairs, or in otherwords, when intellectual evolution and social learning can embed moral principles in man, it is time to view the dogmatic principles only from academic point of view; or to be more liberal or politically correct, only as part of a person’s private value system (in other words, ‘Religion’ should at no time emerge into the mainstream social life). Does the concept ‘Religion’ really deserve public attention and social emotional backing as vehicle for its journey through ages?, especially in this millennium of great scientific progress. Unfortunately, though there are no empirical study noticed, general feeling is that religious spirit or religiosity is on the increase, especially during the last few years, in many Nations.
In this connection, it would be interesting to read a Study comparing religious belief and I.Q conducted by Prof. Helmuth Nyborg, former professor of developmental psychology at Aarhus University, Denmark, brought out in Wikipedia, which states that higher IQ countries had more atheists (read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religiosity_and_intelligence#Studies_comparing_religious_belief_and_I.Q )
Great loss in Translation
When ‘concepts’ gets implemented, due to the ineffective ‘translations’ or ‘translations’ which emphasize only on certain aspects, the true spirit of the knowledge itself is lost. Accordingly Democracy becomes an establishment for indulging in unlimited corruption and Religion becomes an instrument for differentiating people.
Avoiding Translation & Transmission losses
Bring back Values:
I have an upper middle-class friend from one of the most undeveloped states in India, which was notorious for corruption by Politicians. He has a lot of ideas on ‘living successfully’. One of such ideas goes like this:
“If, at the political/ bureaucratic level, through scams, some Billion Rupees can be made. After some time, the authorities may find your scam and put you behind the bars. So what, 5 years in Jail, with all facilities there (thanks to your purchasing power). After that you are free…. and you are rich.. probably you are 200 years ahead of all people of the same era.!!!!”
This is invariably the value system possessed by my friend and many others like him. In a world lead by Finance, the relative worth of a person is determined by (relative) weight of his pocket.
Regaining social values (not values based on economics & finance) is of paramount importance at this point of time; which is impossible without regaining (or if not available earlier, creating) positive personal values.
Know the power of your Ballot
In most of the states of India, the biggest democracy, election victory is determined by the money spent during the time of election…. quantity of cash, liquour, rice etc. given to voters immediately before the election day can ensure that the past acts of politicians and political parties are forgotten or forgiven and votes are casted in favour of them.
In india, you can see hundreds of political parties – many regional parties and a few national parties… majority of them lacking a vision for nation building, some of them having criminals contesting from prison cells; murderers, rapists, goons, those who are having billions of $ in Swiss Banks.. You can see parties lacking inner-party democracy here for the building of a democratic Nation.
Ability to respond is Responsibility (thanks to the one who defined it like this)
Ability to respond is Responsibility (thanks to the one who defined it like this)
There had been a lot of criticism against strikes, especially student strikes in the state of Kerala. Strike is a democratic form of protesting, questioning… bringing in corrective measures by the direct involvement of citizens in the democratic process. Look at the states which are considered to be peaceful, check to what extent social equality and justice is provided to people??
Your Political Leaders and Ruthless Business Class (who else run democracy… other than Corporates, globally..) are always here to praise a society of castrated youth, who will never question their intentions & actions, who will never study anything and understand the world, some who study but wont learn anything, other than earning degrees and money…. They will deprive you of your education and in that void, pour religion and caste; they will deprive you of any kind of employment, in that void they will make you dependent on them; they are really scared of you, so they scare you for their continued ‘victorious strides’. Castrating the majority youth and keeping the remaining others with them is the most effective method to cling on to power to eternity.
Your Political Leaders and Ruthless Business Class (who else run democracy… other than Corporates, globally..) are always here to praise a society of castrated youth, who will never question their intentions & actions, who will never study anything and understand the world, some who study but wont learn anything, other than earning degrees and money…. They will deprive you of your education and in that void, pour religion and caste; they will deprive you of any kind of employment, in that void they will make you dependent on them; they are really scared of you, so they scare you for their continued ‘victorious strides’. Castrating the majority youth and keeping the remaining others with them is the most effective method to cling on to power to eternity.
Write ups on Social entropy indicates that the principle of entropy will be applicable in social systems (eg. Nation) as well. It can mean that the degree of disorderliness will increase continuously to an uncontrollable extent….Then? time for a change… We have the examples from Egypt, Tunisia,… on what happened when the ruling class continued corruption, tyranny without knowing the increasing entropy.
Be aware of your environment, question, take up your rights, take initiative to lead the change, be the leader yourself, my self- every one a leader of change for good…. let the real wisdom triumph.
Be aware of your environment, question, take up your rights, take initiative to lead the change, be the leader yourself, my self- every one a leader of change for good…. let the real wisdom triumph.
nullity oracles 