LITERATURE-LIGHT AND DELIGHT
37. PROGRESS AND CHANGE- WHAT IS IN IT?
Change- what is so special about it?
Change is supposed to bring in or indicate progress.
It is a general feeling among people, actively promoted by interested groups, that Indian society has been backward, stagnant and resists change and progress.. They cite the example of the 'progressive' West. All these words- progress, backward,stagnant, change- are loaded and cannot be defined objectively. They can be explained only by one's own perspective, standard, assumptions.
The idea of progress originated in the 19th century, triggered by two developments- Darwin's theory of evolution, and the contact of the Europeans with other people, due to colonial expansion.This was in the background of the various discoveries and inventions in material science. Seeing other people in different modes of living than them, they decided they were superior and the others were 'primitive'. At the height of imperialist power, British colonialists propounded the idea of 'White man's burden'- that it was their divine mission to convert the others to their religion, and way of life. At one time, even advertisements for the 'Pears' soap were based on this theme- as if using that soap would make the people 'progressive'.
The basic idea was that man was primitive, and progressively became civilised. And such progress is the sign of the survival of the fittest! However, no one has ever proved how primitive nature could become refined or advanced on its own. Could an idiot become a genius? Or an ape write a Hamlet, given a million years? If so why do we still have apes as apes? And why does idiocy still persist ?
The basic idea was that man was primitive, and progressively became civilised. And such progress is the sign of the survival of the fittest! However, no one has ever proved how primitive nature could become refined or advanced on its own. Could an idiot become a genius? Or an ape write a Hamlet, given a million years? If so why do we still have apes as apes? And why does idiocy still persist ?
Prior to 19th century, no great thinker in any part of the world thought in these terms. India, Greece and Egypt were the centres of ancient civilisations and no thinker or philosopher there ever thought of their ancestors as primitive or of themselves as more advanced than them. On the contrary, they always referred to the ancients with the greatest respect. Tolkappiam, the oldest extant Tamil work on grammar speaks of still more ancient authorities and works. The Rishis of the Vedas refer to more ancient Rishis and say 'thus have we heard'.
Man lives in two worlds- the world of nature and the world of thought or consciousness. As a creature of nature, he has learned to dominate it through his thought power. But that very domination now is threatening to spell his doom: he has interfered with nature without knowing the consequences, and now finds nature corners him everywhere. He has nearly exhausted the fossil fuels, and all natural minerals and metals and in the process polluted the earth and atmosphere;new sources of energy are even more dangerous for humanity; he has made agriculture so dependent on chemicals that he has poisoned the soil and water and the people who consume the produce. All the natural gifts essential for life- soil, water, air- stand polluted. No one really knows where the process will end; those who think deeply are alarmed. But the powers that run the show have invented outrageous measures of progress like 'GDP' which do not reckon the actual costs, and the value of things which are lost but irreplaceable or non-renewable.
But in his consciousness modern man is still primitive: all his scientific skill he has fully used to develop weapons of destruction and now he has enough to destroy the world several times over.Unlimited capacity for self destruction is the ultimate result of man's progress so far. 'Primitive' men killed each other in combat with crude weapons; modern man can go up in the plane and drop atomic bombs on thousands of civilians- this is progress! Oh shit!
The ancient civilisations kept the external life simple, but had a richly varied life of thought. See the incredible variety, range and depth of ancient thought in any field. See their endless debates in speculative philosophy or their creations in creative arts. Just see their literature. Has such sublime poetry been written subsequently? If we take the overall quality of intellectual life, there has only been a progressive deterioration! In India, all philosophers subsequent to Sankara have either agreed with him or differed from him- but he has remained the reference point! All the philosophies of the world of all times and countries can be explained with reference to him! Those who differ from him differ among themselves too! What is progress here?
Because man has a part that is aligned to external nature, he is not able to evolve fully in his conscious part. Real progress for man consists in thus overcoming his lower nature. This has been the real theme of all ancient civilisations. Know thyself, said Socrates. The Egyptians induced that idea through their Mysteries. Indian Rishis asked you to investigate your own mind and psyche and realise your true identity with the Reality that is.
What modern civilisation has done is to obscure the ultimate questions of life, and make man forget the real issues and while away his time in the ordinary pleasures of life, magnified or multiplied a hundred times. But his economic and social arrangements do not guarantee even that to every one. Old age, disease and death confront everyone. With all his arrogant talk about progress, even the greatest scientist has to bow before these forces which he neither understands, nor controls, but does not have the humility or honesty to admit.. Modern civilisation, in the name of progress, has made life comfortable, but that comfort itself has now turned into mass illness: all modern illnesses like heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, depression, anxiety, the various types of psychoses and neuroses- all are attributed to modern lifestyle and there is no so called advanced society which is free from them. Yet, to attain that level of progress with all attending problems is advocated as progress by greedy corporates and their academic mercenaries and media, and ignorantly swallowed by the third world, aided by an educational system designed by the greedy exploiters themselves. We do not even have the sense to see through them. And, while 'science' has not found a remedy or cure for these illnesses , economists treat the astronomical cost of treatment as contributing to the GDP! Ill health boosts economic welfare! This is our progress!
Take the man-made religions of the world- Buddhism, Christianity, Islam. Can any follower of these religions claim that he has 'progressed' beyond the Buddha, Christ, or Mohammad? They are trying to follow them, at best "imitate" them! (Judaism was also man-made- made by Moses. But he was superseded by Jesus Christ, though this is not accepted by the Jews.) So, by definition, progress is ruled out in these religions.
Ironically, this is the position with the leftists too, who are bitter critics of religion, and who consider and promote themselves as 'progressive'! Can any of them claim to have progressed beyond Marx and his 19th century theories? By the very definition, no Marxist can be more progressive than Marx! To claim so will be the communist equivalent of blasphemy! Marxism is the most stagnant of all philosophies!
On the other hand, all the more ancient religions of the world- Hinduism,the old Greek religion, the Celtic and other unnamed ones, and what the Christians contemptuously dismissed as 'Paganism' -which were really nameless till modern times, and which were not the creation of any man, allowed endless progress by way of variety, individual variation and endless refinement. This was achieved because they never developed a rigid theory or doctrine in any matter, but just stated the idea and left it to be developed.Thus the scope for 'progress' is infinite in them. See how the idea of Atman and Brahman is dealt with in the Upanishads! Do they ever make them a fixed dogma? All the thousand strands of Indian philosophy have arisen from them! And yet more thousands may arise in the future! Has it happened anywhere else? Can it happen? Yet the leftists,secularists and self-styled moderns, who have not studied these, criticise our religion as being stagnant!
Poetry in the ancient world was mainly religious-philosophical.In the Western tradition, Homer is the universally acknowledged master. In the last 3000 years, has any one,anywhere, equalled or exceeded him? Or at least made such a claim? Can the moderns make such a claim now? And what about a Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, Goethe ? Can the moderns claim to have progressed beyond them in the art? Can they at least imitate them? Again by definition, western poetry is deterioration, not progress.
The same is the case in India too. Has any one in all these thousands of years written anything nearing Valmiki, Vyasa, Kalidasa , and the scores of others? The moderns are only busy stealing and copying their ideas, without even an acknowledgement! Or criticising them!
If you take modern sciences like psychology, the Western scientists are plainly stealing old Hindu ideas and introducing them as new ones, with new names and labels. Our knowledge level is so pathetically low that most cannot even discern their origin, but we applaud the thieves and imitators as originators! Here, progress is just restatement of stolen ideas.
If we take main sciences like physics, astrophysics etc- what is considered progress here is actually continuous negation of previous theories and ideas by newer ones, till we have reached a stage where nothing is certain any more! Physics started with the idea of 'matter', but now there is no matter! They said the universe started with Big Bang,but they do not know what started it, and what was before that! Any answer they give would be equally absurd. The observable universe is constantly exceeding man's capacity to observe! There is just no limit! This is an unsolvable question in both philosophy and science; but the philosophers had the humility to accept that; the scientists are arrogant in their ignorance, and get paid for that by idiotic public! Biologists cannot account for origin of life; evolutionists cannot account for consciousness. So, all our scientific progress has only resulted in huge uncertainty everywhere, but that itself is hailed as an achievement because so much of plain basic ignorance is couched in specialised jargon which few can understand out side that limited area of specialisation. Jargon is the weapon of mass cheating in the name of science. All these are speculative theories, and none is a proven fact. This is progress in science.
The very notion of progress of humankind from a primitive state is an unproven hypothesis. The isolated communities were first observed by the Christian missionaries and reported; the early anthropologists considered them as primitive,and erected their theories that this was the state of mankind in the beginning and we progressed gradually from this state. But later anthropologists disputed this and held that they were but the remnants- the dropouts who got isolated from the mainline and degenerated! Just as modern psychologists have observed sick minds and animals and propounded their psychological theories about healthy humans on that basis, the anthropologists had also taken degenerate communities as their models for the whole of humanity! It is like tasting thousand rotten mangoes and theorising about the taste of mango in general!
The basic problems of life have been the same; human nature has been the same. In the name of progress, modern man has obscured both. In the place of nature, we have virtual reality now! For a large portion of humanity, fulfilment of even the basic human needs remain beyond reach , and even dream.Those sections of the world which claim progress are shamelessly exploiting them further. The rest of the world is busy senselessly imitating them. Thus, in the name of progress and change, we are embracing collective disaster! But the world GDP is growing! Well done, scientists!;well done, economists!; well done , statesmen! May your tribe increase!
Note:
If we observe carefully, what many conscientious thinkers advocate as the best practices to adopt to save nature are but a return to some'primitive' state from which science took us forward!
eg. Organic farming: nothing but chemical free agriculture, natural seeds etc
Rain water harvesting: rain is the purest source of fresh water, and now the only source, as all the surface water and ground water stand polluted!
Banning plastic: reversal to use of bio-degradable material!
All these were what we practiced in the time of our grandfather; they were ridiculed as primitive, but they are now coming back, in the name of fashion, or science itself!
But oh sure, it makes money for some, while it makes sense for the many!
Making money out of misery is modern economics!
Take the man-made religions of the world- Buddhism, Christianity, Islam. Can any follower of these religions claim that he has 'progressed' beyond the Buddha, Christ, or Mohammad? They are trying to follow them, at best "imitate" them! (Judaism was also man-made- made by Moses. But he was superseded by Jesus Christ, though this is not accepted by the Jews.) So, by definition, progress is ruled out in these religions.
Ironically, this is the position with the leftists too, who are bitter critics of religion, and who consider and promote themselves as 'progressive'! Can any of them claim to have progressed beyond Marx and his 19th century theories? By the very definition, no Marxist can be more progressive than Marx! To claim so will be the communist equivalent of blasphemy! Marxism is the most stagnant of all philosophies!
On the other hand, all the more ancient religions of the world- Hinduism,the old Greek religion, the Celtic and other unnamed ones, and what the Christians contemptuously dismissed as 'Paganism' -which were really nameless till modern times, and which were not the creation of any man, allowed endless progress by way of variety, individual variation and endless refinement. This was achieved because they never developed a rigid theory or doctrine in any matter, but just stated the idea and left it to be developed.Thus the scope for 'progress' is infinite in them. See how the idea of Atman and Brahman is dealt with in the Upanishads! Do they ever make them a fixed dogma? All the thousand strands of Indian philosophy have arisen from them! And yet more thousands may arise in the future! Has it happened anywhere else? Can it happen? Yet the leftists,secularists and self-styled moderns, who have not studied these, criticise our religion as being stagnant!
Poetry in the ancient world was mainly religious-philosophical.In the Western tradition, Homer is the universally acknowledged master. In the last 3000 years, has any one,anywhere, equalled or exceeded him? Or at least made such a claim? Can the moderns make such a claim now? And what about a Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, Goethe ? Can the moderns claim to have progressed beyond them in the art? Can they at least imitate them? Again by definition, western poetry is deterioration, not progress.
The same is the case in India too. Has any one in all these thousands of years written anything nearing Valmiki, Vyasa, Kalidasa , and the scores of others? The moderns are only busy stealing and copying their ideas, without even an acknowledgement! Or criticising them!
If you take modern sciences like psychology, the Western scientists are plainly stealing old Hindu ideas and introducing them as new ones, with new names and labels. Our knowledge level is so pathetically low that most cannot even discern their origin, but we applaud the thieves and imitators as originators! Here, progress is just restatement of stolen ideas.
If we take main sciences like physics, astrophysics etc- what is considered progress here is actually continuous negation of previous theories and ideas by newer ones, till we have reached a stage where nothing is certain any more! Physics started with the idea of 'matter', but now there is no matter! They said the universe started with Big Bang,but they do not know what started it, and what was before that! Any answer they give would be equally absurd. The observable universe is constantly exceeding man's capacity to observe! There is just no limit! This is an unsolvable question in both philosophy and science; but the philosophers had the humility to accept that; the scientists are arrogant in their ignorance, and get paid for that by idiotic public! Biologists cannot account for origin of life; evolutionists cannot account for consciousness. So, all our scientific progress has only resulted in huge uncertainty everywhere, but that itself is hailed as an achievement because so much of plain basic ignorance is couched in specialised jargon which few can understand out side that limited area of specialisation. Jargon is the weapon of mass cheating in the name of science. All these are speculative theories, and none is a proven fact. This is progress in science.
The very notion of progress of humankind from a primitive state is an unproven hypothesis. The isolated communities were first observed by the Christian missionaries and reported; the early anthropologists considered them as primitive,and erected their theories that this was the state of mankind in the beginning and we progressed gradually from this state. But later anthropologists disputed this and held that they were but the remnants- the dropouts who got isolated from the mainline and degenerated! Just as modern psychologists have observed sick minds and animals and propounded their psychological theories about healthy humans on that basis, the anthropologists had also taken degenerate communities as their models for the whole of humanity! It is like tasting thousand rotten mangoes and theorising about the taste of mango in general!
The basic problems of life have been the same; human nature has been the same. In the name of progress, modern man has obscured both. In the place of nature, we have virtual reality now! For a large portion of humanity, fulfilment of even the basic human needs remain beyond reach , and even dream.Those sections of the world which claim progress are shamelessly exploiting them further. The rest of the world is busy senselessly imitating them. Thus, in the name of progress and change, we are embracing collective disaster! But the world GDP is growing! Well done, scientists!;well done, economists!; well done , statesmen! May your tribe increase!
Note:
If we observe carefully, what many conscientious thinkers advocate as the best practices to adopt to save nature are but a return to some'primitive' state from which science took us forward!
eg. Organic farming: nothing but chemical free agriculture, natural seeds etc
Rain water harvesting: rain is the purest source of fresh water, and now the only source, as all the surface water and ground water stand polluted!
Banning plastic: reversal to use of bio-degradable material!
All these were what we practiced in the time of our grandfather; they were ridiculed as primitive, but they are now coming back, in the name of fashion, or science itself!
But oh sure, it makes money for some, while it makes sense for the many!
Making money out of misery is modern economics!
