Nature and Destiny of Mankind

The nature and destiny of mankind

Debarshi Dey

The points made in the feature “Growth, Stability and Order in Human Society” by Prof G Venkataraman and published in www.radiosai.org portal can be broadly summarized into:

1.       We are living in a fascinating age where the reach of the ‘machines’ is climbing mind dizzying heights, so much so, soon we think that the human race will become redundant as far as menial repetitive jobs are concerned.

2.       Computerization and automation will soon reach a level, when there will be little room left for humans to do the jobs that they do now.

3.       Capitalism has been the driving force of this rapid process mechanization of modes of production.

4.       To an extent Capitalism has led to better living standards for all, albeit some people profited more than others.

5.       Present avatar of “free market capitalism” is leading to a situation of “winner takes all” leaving only crumbs for the rest. Basically, what it means is that Trickle-down theory is bogus.

6.       “Financial industry” a pivotal institution of the present day “free-market” capitalism, is at best wealth creation by huge risk taking, at worst, it is cheating.

7.       Free-market is the 7-star luxury palace in which kama, krodha, and all their friends live! It is basically giving unhindered free-ride to “greed”.

8.       OF THE 1%, BY THE 1%, FOR THE 1%: The upper 1 percent of Americans are now taking in nearly a quarter of the nation’s income every year. Of all the costs imposed on our society by the top 1 percent, perhaps the greatest is this: the erosion of our sense of identity, in which fair play, equality of opportunity, and a sense of community are so important.

9.   As I view the crass materialism around me, I am reminded of what my mother once told me: “Suffering and deprivation is good for the soul.”

When the end approaches and we look back on our lives, will we regret the latest mobile phone or luxury car we did not acquire?

Or would we prefer to die at peace with ourselves, knowing that we have lived lives filled with love, friendship and goodwill, that we have helped some of our fellow voyagers along the way and that we have tried our best to leave this world a slightly better place than we have found it?

10.   Rampant environmental pollution as a result of Free-market capitalism.

11.   Solution: Gandhiji’sSarvodaya-each of us is a trustee of God and must use whatever gift God has given us to serve God by seeing God in all including lower beings, and Nature

12.   Where Nature is concerned, excessive growth always leads to instability.

13.   Sustainability, stability and order are in some sense inter-related. Translated to the realm of socio-economics, it means that we simply cannot have endless growth and at the same time a stable as well as an ordered society.

14.   There is a higher reason to shun unlimited growth and endless consumption since it is fundamentally contrary to the purpose for which God created humans. Our job is not to grow our desires and fill the pockets of billionaires but to evolve spiritually.

15.   The time has come to not only place socio-economics but indeed all human endeavors, especially in the area of science and technology on a sound moral footing. A good starting point would be to develop a macro-economic model of sarvodaya, especially because sarvodaya would lead to not only economic fairness but also sustainability, both in the social as well as ecological sense. Above all, it would have a moral basis.

My thoughts:

To understand and provide a solution to the list of malaise that ails our civilization, it is imperative we make an effort to understand and analyze the basic nature of human race, the conditions that we finds ourselves in and the deep underlying urges that shape our personality and makes us do what we do. Let us for a moment set aside the ideal image of mankind, the idea of what he should be, and examine what he is in reality.

The human condition, with all its faults and fallacies, has to be understood with empathy and also with sympathy. If it appears that mankind is not in harmony with the rest of Nature, the question that begs for an answer is - why is it so? Lamenting about it or going on a guilt ride will not be very helpful in finding the solutions.

Even if we are not too happy about it, the reality that confronts us can be summarized in the following points:

         i.            Man’s quest to subordinate nature is instinctive and almost uncompromising;

       ii.            the march of technology to encompass ever new possibilities is unstoppable;

      iii.            the  scope of mechanization and automation will only increase with our increasing understanding of how ‘matter’ works in all its myriads of ways;

     iv.            Man’s insatiable thirst for ‘wealth’ is as primordial and universal as a mother’s love for her child.

The love of power and the power of love has been eternally in conflict and it comes out through the vivid stories and tales enshrined in the myths and mythologies of almost all cultures. While the spirit longs for the victory of love, the flesh gives way to the victory of power. And most of us are torn in between.

       v.            Intelligence, skill and opportunity were, are, and will be distributed rather arbitrarily, sometimes with little apparent rhyme or logic. Inequality, it seems is woven in the fabric of the human race!

What are the underlying factors that give shape to the deepest urges and drive the order of things around us?

1.       The human condition is a paradoxical one. In the finite limited body, we are possessed with a mind that is seeking all the time to break through its limitations. Caged in finiteness, it is always in search of the infinite. Isn’t it fascinating that our minds, which are of course matter in its subtlest form, could come up with the idea of ‘infinity’? Be it in our quest for reaching the depths of the oceans or scale the heights of the Alps and the Himalayas, whether we want to enter the impenetrable Amazon rain forest or lay our footprints on the jarred surface of lifeless Mars, whether we want to amass as much wealth as possible, or merge our embodied souls in the ocean of Super-consciousness, all of these are myriad manifestations of the primordial and unquenchable thirst of our little mind for the ‘infinity’. For most of us, exploring the heights of geography or spirituality is too much hard work. So we settle for the relatively easier option, pursuit of ‘things’, symbolized by money, positions of influence and material possessions.

2.       “Greed” though a very fundamental human emotion, is not always the driving power for man’s quest for wealth. Many times we seek wealth as a measure of success and deservedness. I am earning a salary that takes care of my needs. However I am not totally satisfied with it. Not because I am ‘greedy’, but because I think I am worthy of a higher value. This happens because of two things. I compare my worth with my peers and the value they are getting. And because today’s society primarily measures value in terms of one’s monetary worth and end up shaping our self-perception, our aspirations and our place in it!

3.       Another reason why men, as it were, get lost in their quest for ‘wealth’ is alienation. Increasingly we are living in a world where we are getting alienated from our surroundings and getting alone in spite of the overwhelming connectedness brought about by technology. There is a gaping hole in our lives which only gets larger with every passing day. We travel to far-off cities to study and work, we seldom meet our relatives and families around whom we grew up, and we can hardly find a friend to whom we can bare our soul. The culture which had nourished so many previous generations of ours, we find little connection to it any longer. Severed from the roots we float about as individuals and disconnected agents. Money, wealth and things become a convenient way to fill up that gaping hole. The higher we go up the ladder, the more isolated it gets, and more we want to substitute the connections we have lost with money, exotic travels and consumer goods.

4.       For much of the thousands of years the race of homo-sapiens have inhabited this blue planet, it has been at the mercy of Mother Nature. The story of his survival in the face of almost impossible odds of disease, deprivation and deadly animals, is indeed a fascinating story of the unbeatable human spirit! In many parts of the world for most of history, we learnt to co-opt with the laws and rules of Mother Nature, understanding them rather intuitively. Our relationship to Mother Nature was one of awe, wonder and fear. But things started changing since the Age of Enlightenment in Europe. Over the centuries, most of the mysterious laws of Mother Nature lay revealed, and we found ourselves able to manipulate them to the extent that we no longer had to submit to Her whims and fancies unquestioningly or ‘superstitiously’. Cholera along with small-pox and many other diseases were no longer a “Divine retribution”. Thunderstorms and Earth-quakes were no longer “divine” phenomenon. The deep and profound atomic and cellular mysteries were demystified to the extent that we can now play around with them harnessing their power to make tools and machines that remained outside the pale of human imagination even a few decades ago. While it is true that even as the frontiers of science and reason is galloping at an unimaginable pace, bringing more and more territory under its purview, new mysteries and new questions are emerging perhaps at an even faster rate! But for the common man, unperturbed by the unsolved mysteries or paradoxical implications of latest findings of Science and Nature, the ever widening sphere of Science has come as a blessing! Not only did it help him get over the vagaries of Mother Nature in a significant way, but it has also empowered him like never before! Geography began to lose its relevance. Time and space, for good or for bad, is also losing its erstwhile sanctity. Many of the deadly diseases lie banished. So many men had never lived for so many years ever before. Though the occasional fury of Mother Nature expressed through tsunamis, tornadoes and fierce floods takes us off balance and shows us our place in the scheme of things, we overcome the shock soon enough, dust ourselves and get up and get going. However much we might feel guilty of this urge to subordinate Mother Nature, driven by our unputdownable urge to exist and prosper, we cannot deny it. Deep within ourselves we know, in spite of our recent successes, that we still remain highly vulnerable to Mother Nature’s forces. The impressions of history lie buried deep within us, almost organically. Hence we are all the more anxious to win this battle! If we have tasted recent success, though not unalloyed and perfect, it has only emboldened us for more! 

5.       Automation and mechanization can be reviled. But it too cannot be wished away. The human race is a creature of the mind as much of the flesh. Right from the invention of the wheel to the invention of the supersonic jet and with everything in between, man has been tireless and relentless in his endeavor to make his life easier. If there is anything that can be done by a machine, it will be done by a machine. Even if it comes at the cost of jobs of a vast number of people. Do we need to be weary of this? I don’t think so. At one time, before the invention of electric fan, we have seen pictures of lanky dark boys of the colonial era, pushing and pulling the large swinging fans hanging from the ceiling. Those jobs were gone once the Electric fans came into vogue. This is true for almost all the machines we now have around us – they now do the job which at some point of time were done by human beings! Similarly, most of the jobs that we prize now, which requires little imagination and innovation, will (and not might) be done by sophisticated machines tomorrow.  This is the reality and it cannot be changed! What can be done about it? We will explore that later!

6.       Inequality is another inherent fact of human condition. We are and will remain deeply unequal in almost all aspects and dimensions. In matters of physical constitution and prowess, intellectual abilities, in matters of resource and opportunity, cultural and historical heritage, parentage and nurture, and also in our ‘spiritual quotient’, we see that there has been a perhaps a cruel arbitrariness in their distribution among the human race. This unbelievable variation in our built, make-up and destiny is hardly seen in any other species! We may explain this away with metaphysical concepts like Karma and Divine Providence- but it does not mollify or take away the harsh reality of how iniquitous and non-egalitarian human fate is. As mankind progresses towards more abilities and capabilities, it is only natural that the “intelligent” and better-placed ones will benefit more from them, and might even exploit the relatively weaker sections for their “self-interest” as they perceive it. Again this is almost an irreversible trend in human affairs, to the justified consternation of many of us. But we will accomplish little if we deny the naked truths of the human condition. On the contrary, once we accept and embrace the reality, can we find a way to work on it and come up with solutions that are not only idealistic and desirable, but achievable and in tune with human nature.

7.       “Free-market capitalism” to the dismay of many of us, is becoming the default economic system of our planet. Though there are countries and communities, which are still holding on to other forms of economies (like much of Latin America, Iran, etc.), the spread and extent of “free-market” capitalism is getting wider and wider. In spite of its many evident failures, as rightly pointed out by ever so many eminent Economists, it is still not only relevant, but is being adopted by increasing number of nations, primarily because there are no credible alternative to it. Communism and Socialism of the 19^th and 20^th century has been a cruel joke and was rightly discarded by most of humanity after some very costly flirtations with these ideas. But before we critique the system of “free-market capitalism”, let us try to understand the source of its strength.

The features of Free-market capitalism that deeply appeals the human psyche are namely-

-the promise of freedom and fairness,

-the legitimacy of individual aspiration and

-a promise of a better future solely dependent on one’s initiative and enterprise.

In spite of its follies and failures, its setbacks are seen to be aberrations, which right “regulations” can set right. Rather amazingly it feeds on the self-perception of the “individual ego”, where the individual is the sole sovereign. Also in modern science and in the culture of reason and rationality it finds a loyal ally! 

No other alternative system has been able to reflect and connect with the psychology of the human mind in the last few centuries as has the idea of Free Market Economy. Hence, in spite of the fiercest criticisms and manifest failures, it never ceases in getting its takers. So much so, some want to sugar coat it with the term “Compassionate Capitalism”, if only to salvage their sense of guilt.

Now let us ponder on how we can make the best of the situation we find ourselves in? Is it really that bleak? Can we do better than only complain and cry foul? Can we find in it hidden possibilities? Without asking impossible things of the human nature, understanding the deeper urges that shape human decisions, can we seek to change our perception of things and see a new reality emerge?

1.       Moral exhortation can only help so much in our effort to loosen the suffocating grip of pursuit of money and wealth. But an increasing and unbiased understanding of what money is and how social mores shape our desires and aspirations can go a long way in doing just that. I am not an economist, but using my commonsense, I see that “money” is the most successful abstract symbol ever created by humanity. Its universal worship is the biggest of all superstitions we have ever witnessed! But alas! So few of us actually see money for what it really is, including many of the Economists and policy makers! Even in the best of situations, the money value we attach to anything is a crude way to find out its exchange value in the market in a given context! I often wonder that one can buy a copy of the life-transforming Bhagawad Gita for Rs 50 while a movie ticket at one of the city multiplexes is worth Rs 200!  That is, going by the market price, the eternal message of the Lord is only a quarter of the ‘value’ of the latest Bollywood flick! Unless we give up our fixations on money values and understand that “worth” is seldom reflected correctly by the rupee value stamped on it, much of our blinkered vision and our near pathological obsession with money will not be corrected. To bring our hang-over with ‘money’ within reasonable limits we must make a concerted effort to stop confusing ‘price’ with ‘value’.

2.       Man is inherently aspirational. He is never fully satisfied with his present condition, whether physical or metaphysical. His life is a ceaseless saga of trying to get over his sense of discontentment. He has to live for something bigger than himself. There have been numerous occasions in the distant past, in the not so distant past and in the present times, when we have seen intelligent people pursuing an aspiration other than that of narrow and ruthless personal ambition! It might be a political ideal, a battle for social justice or an endeavor to achieve spiritual heights. There are many examples when individuals have chartered a path different from the ones which could have made them ‘materially’ richer. If we want to free man from being besieged by the self-defeating pursuit of wealth and ambition, we have to offer him alternative ideals that are worth striving for, that are achievable and that are in sync with his mental makeup.

3.       Wealth creation is an inevitable economic process. It is not only a legitimate human ambition but it also enhances social interaction and is a productive way to express human ingenuity. While it is true that “trickle-down theory” of capitalism has failed to live up to its promise, and the chasm between the rich and the poor has widened almost everywhere, this trend is somewhat paradoxical if not untenable. Ultimately, the big guys will have to manufacture service or goods that should have a large enough market of consumers to keep their wealth growing. It is in the ultimate interest of the big guys to have a distribution of resources so that the markets of consumers do not shrink. What it will perhaps translate to is we will have a situation when the gap between the rich and the poor will increase, but the relatively poor of future generations will still be better off than the relatively poor of previous generations. While market forces will take care of this macro-economic feature, society and thought leaders should inculcate in the uber-rich a spirit of social contract. There have been examples of such successful and generous entrepreneurs in different cultures, communities and times. In fact going in the future we should create a culture of this social responsibility among successful people, not only because it is good to be so, but because it is ultimately in their own “self-interest”. As a society, we need to give more premium to moral reputation and upright character, than sheer professional success. The wealthy people should not be taken on a guilt ride, but should be exposed to the higher joys of life.

4.        Another assumption we have about ourselves, especially when we consider an economic model is that we are driven by rational self-interest. However, it is becoming increasingly clear, that we are not as “rational” as we would like to consider ourselves. What really matters to us is emotional well-being. What matters to us is to have a meaningful existence. To be connected to our surrounding. To be loved an appreciated. And in a complicated and confused way, we collated all these distinct urges of the human mind and soul under the guise of rationality and sought to fulfill them in terms of wealth and money. To wean man away from the maddening turf of mindless completion, his emotional and spiritual dimension needs to be nurtured and social and cultural conditions created where one can openly recognize and respond to one’s emotional and spiritual needs, just as today’s society constantly re-affirms and re-enforces our material and sensual needs .

5.       A major assumption under which we operate today is that we are the masters of our fate. That we are solely responsible for the decisions and choices we make. But new research and findings of our cognitive abilities are shedding new light in this area and making us aware that it is far more complicated than we earlier thought. Many of our “conscious” decisions actually spring from our unconscious baggage, over which we have little control. Many of our actions are also driven by the evolutionary urges, cleverly giving us the illusion of being in charge and operating under “free-will”! This is the trick Nature plays on us, and we are almost all the time willing participants to this. In the Bhagawad Gita, Arjuna almost helplessly asks the Lord, impelled by what does man commit mistakes, as if possessed by some invisible power. The Lord answered poignantly that it is because of inordinate desire and anger (BG 3.36-3.37). But isn’t it Nature working out its destiny by implanting “desire” in Man’s heart? It is critical to understand why we behave the way we do to come up with a way to change course and make amend. The truth is, most of us, in our present level of consciousness or state of mind, is under the sway of forces far more powerful than we realize. Much of the things we do, we do it thinking it’s our choice, while the truth is most of us are for most of the time actually puppets in the hands of invisible and invincible forces! This is a radical idea with far reaching implications. Unless we accept this fundamental facet of our condition, it will be impossible to bring about any meaningful alteration in the way we behave.

6.       Increasing automation should not be only seen as a curse or evil. Automation and rapid mechanization is often perceived as an alarming trend. Alarming it might be, but it cannot be wished away. Whether we like it or not, the clock will not be turned back. It is true that increasing mechanization will perhaps take us further away from the rhythm and harmony of Mother Nature, it might lead us to further alienation. It might also lead us to zones (as the concept of Singularity proposes) which we haven’t yet thought of. But if we cannot change it and have to live with it, how do we make the best of it? For one, the fear of people losing jobs to machines should not be one of complete concern. In fact it might be turned into a huge opportunity for mankind to finally invest in things which actually makes human life worthwhile! Let the computers of tomorrow do the job of chartered accountants, even as we solve the problems of cancer and consciousness! The creative and imaginative faculty is unique to humans. However majority of men and women immersed in unthinking, repetitive and tedious work finds little time and opportunity to adequately manifest his or her creative faculties! If all the drudgery can be done by machines, if the necessities of food, clothing and housing can be taken care of mostly by the machines, we as human race can finally get time to make something truly worthwhile in keeping with the possibilities inherent in us! The more active among us can take up sports more ardently, we can have many more expert musicians and creative performers among us, the more thoughtful among us can devote more time to critical and creative thinking shedding light on intractable mysteries, many more of us can investigate more deeply into the spiritual mysteries that lie hidden inside us that can be revealed only by sincere sadhana. Of course all these will not happen just if we have more machines, but definitely if we think on these lines, if we do not lament the increasing trend in automation but see the opportunities concealed in that reality, we can define a path for us that will take us there!

7.        Finally the question of morality. The ultimate morality is in recognizing our innate humanity. If our myths and mythologies, the lives of Avatars and enlightened Masters, say one thing unabashedly and u hesitatingly, it is that the human race, at the end of the day is a riddle wrapped in enigma! What is right and moral today, might become wrong and immoral tomorrow. The framework of right and wrong, just and unjust are hardly constant across different cultures and times. In this ever changing chimera of moral compass, how do we ascertain what is right and what is wrong? Even when everything changes, and there is nothing absolute to hold on to, there is one thing which remains constant, through all time and space. It is Love. The shepherd of Nazareth told us to love one another as we love ourselves. That is the fundamental essence of all morality. And to be truly able to love another, we have to first learn to love ourselves. Unless our own cup is filled with the wine of contentment, how can we share it with others? And what is Love if not complete understanding and unconditional embracing of the beloved? We have to embrace, accept and understand ourselves as we are, not as we should be. Because it is only when we understand ourselves as we are, we become conscious of our weaknesses. And when we are cognizant of our limitations, can we make an effort to transcend them and finally reclaim our Divine heritage, which we have almost lost sight of!