Prof. B. M. Hegde,
Vice Chancellor,
M.A.H.E University,
Manipal-576 119.

Man started living in groups, mostly on the banks of rivers, close to fertile ground. This is the beginning of the present concept of a society. Having been a hunter-gatherer until then, he took to ploughing the field to increase the yield of food articles to feed all the members of the society, the real beginning of altruism. Until then he lived only on food that grew on the land, in addition to the animals he hunted. In such a sustenance society, our ancestors followed the dharma (obligations) of a just order. Even food distribution was equitable, bearing in mind the varied needs of different sections of the people. Pregnant ladies got relatively better food and the old and the infirm were spared of the burden of sharing in the collection of food.

Although the stress of living in such unfriendly surroundings could have been worse than today, not knowing where their next meal came from, the camaraderie and the sense of belonging in such large groups (families) must have more than offset any distressful effects of the environment on the human system.

May be, in our present concept, our forefathers did not set the river Ganges on fire in areas of science and technology, but neither do we seem to have much to write home about our ultimate achievements in the same fields even today. Our palpable gains are not a match to the overt and covert fallout of the same science and technology. The inhuman qualities of head and heart that the present era seems to have built around us threaten to be the forerunners of our doom! It was Emerson who wrote that “if human race were to have an end it shall certainly be through the present day civilization”. One could not agree more. He has hit the bull’s eye.

The earlier we reverse this trend the better for mankind. Trouble started for man from the day the monetary economy was conceived. Today money is our God and making money is our religion. Nothing else really matters. The goal thus achieved, the means do not seem to bother us any more. When society respects only money, the younger generation, nay all of us, are in a hurry to make it big fast, irrespective of what we do. Ethics and good manners are things of the past. Fair means to earn money are also forgotten. In this game merit and authenticity are the two prime casualties. All the crime in society is connected directly or indirectly to money. Greed, passion, pride and ego play the most dominant role in our lives; consequently, society as a whole suffers with the less endowed and less fortunate being the worst victims of this new mania.

There is, at least, one scientific study that has proved the point about money being at the root of all our troubles. “Failure of Scientific Medicine-the “Innu” Community Study” was an excellent exposure of the fallacies of the monetary economy, published in the Journal of Canadian Family Physician years ago.

The “Innu”s were an aboriginal race living in a group of islands off the coast of Saskatchewan in Canada. They had their detailed records on stone slabs. Innus lived long and had hardly any major illness in their natural habitat. Their end came usually because of old age. Centenarians were a common sight then. Their sustenance economy was egalitarian. They lived like a large family without any dependence or fear, except that of predation. Their problems started first in 1732 AD when a priest from mainland Canada brought the love of God and consequent dependence. Years later came the Williams Company dealing in hide to tech the Innu the barter trade. Eventually monetary economy came to Innuland when they became citizens of Canada like any other Caucasian.

With the onset of monetary economy, life totally changed for the Innu. Now they have all the conceivable diseases that a Canadian Caucasian is heir to, just about ten to twenty years prematurely. These precocious illnesses could be traced back to the origin of the monetary economy and acculturation. Recently many scientific studies have repeatedly shown that negative human feelings like greed, jealousy, hatred, and anger are at the root of all human illnesses and misery; while love, camaraderie, compassion and altruism could even reverse diseases! Man, perforce, acquires all the negative feelings in a society that respects only money. Most societies have given a go by to ethics and authenticity as yardsticks for respect and have, instead, replaced them with money or things that money could get.

Most societies have modified their educational systems to suit the present philosophy of dog-eat-dog concept. Knowledge and arrogance have replaced wisdom and humility, which were the catch phrases in education of yore. We have very few seekers in the educational institutions, we have instead degree crazy youth in a hurry to get labelled, to start earning money by fair means or foul. Adam Smith's original definition of total education as that process which prepares a man to " act justly, skillfully, and magnanimously under all circumstances of peace and war" does no longer hold good. We now have the banking type of education where text books are printed like coins in a mint and the printed knowledge (not wisdom) is deposited in the students head to be used to earn a living, just as people deposit currency notes printed in the mint in their bank accounts for day today living! The real education should be the midwifery type where the teacher makes the student want to learn for himself, bringing to surface the best that is already in him, just as the midwife, standing by the side of the pregnant mother, encourages her, coaxes her, cajoles her, empathizing with her to make her deliver at the end of it all. The latter really inculcates humility in the student and makes him realize that wisdom is truly humble because it knows no more!

Another area of society that makes man inhuman is the game of power, mostly political power that gives one an edge over the millions of his countrymen. We have over the years built institutions, basically to empower the powers-that-be to ride roughshod on everyone else in society. Be it democracy, aristocracy, plutocracy, autocracy or communism, the system is so built that it is advantageous to those in power. They would then mould it in such a way to get what they want under all circumstances of peace and war. The four pillars that the so-called democracy has built around it-the parliament, the judiciary, the media, and the bureaucracy- each has its own agenda to safeguard its self interest and rights, least concerned about the hapless victims in society, the common man. Elections are but a farce in truth; the cunning politicians could easily manipulate them. The politicians are special class the world over that "make even murder look respectable" and get away with it. While they normally promise a bridge even where there is no river, "they could give solidity even to pure air".

Ritualistic religion is another fraud on the public. While in theology all religions preach the same philosophy of universal love, and each one is full of wonderful ideals, in practice they hate one another, basically because the rituals built around each religion are done to safeguard the individual ambitions of the leaders to have manipulative power over the poor people. Obviously the more people they have in their fold the better for them! There is no religion that I know of that preaches hatred. All of them, without exception, have such laudable ideals that any religion could be as good as any other, provided one uses religion for his personal development and happiness. When religion is used as a surrogate method to have power over others the problem for society starts. How I wish each one of us understood his own religion in depth to love other religions equally well.

One at times wonders if it is good to have a sober society that follows all the norms of good behaviour! Life might become monotonous and boring in such a set up would be a good argument against the above line of thinking. If one were to extend this thinking a little further and vote for continuing the present "civilization" to continue unabated, there would be no future for mankind. Today even high school students in the West, aged around fifteen, settle individual scores taking recourse to parental guns! Young children, starved of parental love, try to depend on drugs and tobacco. Unfortunately for the business economy-advertising tobacco to the young would fetch the Pulitzer award. The chief of BAT Company got the award a couple of years ago for the best manager. This kind of moral dichotomy can not and would not last long. We need transparency in our dealings. We must not just be authentic but appear to be authentic as well for the future good of mankind and to save it from annihilation as predicted by Emerson. Love all to live well.