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Inequality and Injustice
How did the gross inequalities we encounter daily come about? Survival of the
fittest? The reality is that if a person is born with more, he usually is closer
to his dreams than one who isn’t. He does not have to be fitter than the rest.
You and I may dream of a better job, a new car and a new house. There is a large
part of humanity that dreams of food, shelter and good health, or has stopped
dreaming of those things altogether, because they are too much to ask for. Will
their children have a better chance? If we want equality and justice, we must
offset nature and natural conditions. We must improve the natural conditions of
the less fortunate. This is quite a straightforward idea but it simply has not
been implemented because it is mainly the less fortunate who have almost doubled
in the past centuries. And the rate of increase of world population itself is
increasing (1930-1960, 1 billion increase; 1960-1999, 3 billion increase).
Don't these people know that they will have even less than what they have now if
they proliferate as they are doing now? Don't they know that they deserve more?
They know all that, better than we do. They know the stark realities of poverty,
hunger and malnutrition. But they have gotten used to it. They have gotten used
to living below human dignity. Most of them do not know how it is to be treated
with basic human dignity. They simply don't know that they are entitled to
better lives. Some of these people may get enlightened but they are too few, and
it is often too late. Whatever they do for the good of their brethren is more
than offset by the sheer cruelty of life itself. So the majority get used to
their undignified, unfair, unremarkable and unwanted lives. It is the most
pathetic thing in the world. When one of them dies a dog’s death, what is the
point in crying over it, or feeling sorry, since they can do nothing about it.
They simply cannot be sure that it isn't going to be their turn tomorrow. Being
inhuman is their way of survival. They can only afford to be heartless and
self-centered. Can those of us who have been treated with human dignity and
better lives let this continue to happen and make more and more of humanity
hopeless and pathetic? Ought we not to see that something has gone wrong,
terribly wrong, somewhere, that we don't value human life the way it should be?
The majority of mankind has gotten used to living pathetically. Offspring born
to them are going to live like them, probably worse. The roots of inequality
will remain. The hopelessness and dispensability of the majority of mankind will
remain. If we want to remove these, we should not allow those who have gotten
used to an inhuman lifestyle to pass on a similar lifestyle to their offspring.
They can have as many offspring as they desire and they can teach those
offspring nothing but to live the pathetic life that they lived. The most
heart-stopping event that happens in this process is the conversion of an
innocent new human being, full of possibilities, talents, capabilities,
possessing a right to a good life and to the best that humanity has to offer,
into a creature that can hardly be called a human being. His or her
transformation from human to inhuman is what we must stop. This has to be our
greatest cause for concern.
Did they have a choice? No. They were told: “This is all we have for you. This
is how people are supposed to live. You are like us, you are one of us, and you
don't have a right to anything else.” He was basically taught that living with
unfair treatment, lack of opportunities and with less than human dignity was
normal. He was taught that unfair treatment was fair. He was fooled into
believing that inhuman treatment was all that he deserved. What is worse is that
these already low and prevalent standards are becoming lower and more prevalent
with pollution, overpopulation, unemployment, etc. on the one hand and with an
increasing frequency of floods, famines, droughts, etc. on the other hand. What
is much worse is that successive generations will be increasingly told that all
this is normal, that it's all part of life. Isn't it crystal clear that life
will continue to get harder for the majority of humankind unless future
generations think that they deserve a better treatment? If we don't value a good
quality life for our kind, the human kind, who else will? If not, future
generations will be told that their horrid lives are normal. They will be told
that life is supposed to be horrid. But we know how good life can be. And unless
we ensure the goodness of life for future generations by stringent measures, we
are not preserving the quality of life; we are letting it deteriorate. The way
it has deteriorated for the majority of our kind.
What is needed is a conviction of the sense of fairness required in securing the
right to all the best that can be had for every individual member of mankind.
The conviction that it is not normal, that it is abnormal for the majority of
mankind to get far less in terms of conveniences, technologies, opportunities
and so on. It is abnormal for the majority of mankind to be cut off from
enjoying the fruits of human progress, first and foremost of which is the high
quality of living which a human deserves, especially when one such human being
can do a whole lot more now than ever before. Every newborn member of humanity
ought to be treated nobly, because he or she can do much more now than anyone
ever before, thanks to human progress. What is generally thought to be the
minimum standard of life is in reality much below minimum, because no one takes
into account the factor of human progress. The lowest of human standards should
mean, at the very least, good quality food, shelter and hygiene, freedom of
expression, choice of work, a safe work environment and a high capacity to buy
the latest technology. This may sound too impossible, but it is inhuman and
unfair to make people toil for a lifetime for the capacity to buy the latest
technology when there are those who can have it in the wink of an eye and hence
be more efficient, productive and dominant over those who cannot.
If poverty was less widespread, we would have been more concerned about reducing
it. But as is the case today, poverty is too widespread and trying to eliminate
it looks like foolishness. Few care anymore. Even the poor are more or less
resigned to their fate. They worry about their condition only when they hear and
see how people in the developed countries live happy, wonderful lives of their
choosing, with very few worries. Only then are they pinpricked out of their
poverty-stricken existence. As a result, some of them aspire for better lives
and some build up on the hatred towards those in developing countries. But most
of the people continue to remain resigned to their fate. The hatred group has
come into prominence over the past few years. They are called terrorists, and
they like to kill the people who are better off than they are, on large scales,
infuse terror into the prosperous public and ultimately breakup their feeling of
security and destroy their wonderful lives, finally bringing them to live
horrible lives similar to their own. Unless the whole world stands together as
one in accepting a good standard of life as the norm, terrorism will prove too
much to contain. It’s a case of overall balance. As long as there’s jealousy and
hatred on one side, peace cannot be maintained on the other.
Why has technology not reduced poverty? Technology is not worth more than human
life. Human life is worth more than technology. Let technology measure up to
existing human needs before new human needs spring up, instead of human needs
adjusting to what technology can offer or human dignity lowering to what
technology can accommodate. Technology has never been able to catch up with the
needs of an increasing human population. The more that technology provides, the
more the people will multiply and there is never going to be a balance between
the two. The majority of humankind has gotten used to living with too little.
The moment technology and progress come to their aid, they feel like they can
give vent to all those pent-up frustrations. They just want that moment when
they can feel, think and believe that life has been good to them, even if it
hasn't and revel in those moments for as long as they can. What happens later as
a consequence matters much less to them. They have got used to the worst of life
and they are not afraid of what lies ahead. They will always go back to what
they are used to, what they are comfortable with. If we allow their offspring to
get comfortable with a similar type of environment, we can be sure that they
will be part of a multiplying section of humanity, always living in poverty and
spreading the indignities and horrors that life has treated them with.
Comte, Spencer and Sumner, prominent sociological thinkers, were advocates of
the ‘Survival of the Fittest’ theme, which is the theme that is largely followed
in the world today. The idea that social struggle was the key to the future has
resulted in the highly competitive economic system of today. This system, as we
know, has brought us to the brink of disaster as much as it has helped us to
enjoy the fruits of progress. In fact, this system has led us to overexploit
some resources and neglect others, thus upsetting the balance of nature besides
creating masses of poverty. ‘Survival of the fittest’ is an inadequate theme for
us to follow. It has helped us reach great heights of progress for long. To
sustain it, the approach has to be self-sustainability. Life should be only as
much as can be sustained. Laws preventing unsustainable life is the only hope of
humanity.
This is heaven. You are in heaven. Or you can buy heaven for yourself. The best
of human ingenuity and progress is quite within your reach. I know that the
majority of mankind is not amongst you. They are not in your class. Good Food.
Good Climate. Good technology. You are in heaven. I cannot, honestly cannot
imagine a higher state of existence. It’s all in your reach. Just this simple
state of living is what you and I have to extend to the reach of the rest of
mankind. To them, they who are more in number, more in suffering, more in pain
and agony. If we secure, we can feel safe; we can predict the outcome. We secure
our roads, our houses, and our future. Why don’t we apply this security
principle on a broader scale to secure and protect something that’s much more in
need of being secured? And what could that be! Secure ourselves. Secure our
future rights before we are born. So here is the truth: A perfect world and a
perfect life for everyone is one of the easiest and most natural things that
mankind can achieve. It is what must be achieved.
The complete truth is: Poverty and suffering is kept in existence by societal
codes of behavior and conduct. These codes tell people that helping the poor
will put them in the right with God. And so the poor remain so that the rich can
put themselves ‘in the right’ with God. If we are going to help the poor so as
to erase the suffering and disparity, the poor will remain because they are
hence nurtured by society. India is such a strong example. Helping the poor is
such a strong concept here that the poor have always remained strong in numbers.
Always. We know that life is not perfect. Now we know why it is not. We know
that whatever “-ism” we follow, it just doesn’t deliver on its promises or on
what we expect of it. The answer is simple. Humanity has to take full
responsibility regarding its own destiny. We have to frame better laws. We have
to stop depending on ideologies that just don’t deliver. We have to stop
thinking that God is taking care of us. No one is taking care of anyone. The
better-equipped ones and the more self-centered ones are the ones who get along
and in many cases the only ones who manage to survive.
The ultimate argument of culture and society for giving us rules and regulations
is: ‘it’s for your own good.’ If a person has enough money to live well for a
good number of years, then the threat to survival is reduced and hence the need
to follow rules and regulations laid down by society to ensure self-survival is
reduced, too. Therefore, money does give immunity against the forces of culture
by eliminating the need to follow rules and regulations of society. Rules of
society ought to be obeyed, but the need to obey these rules for simple survival
should not be too great. Nor should the rules be too inhibitive and stifling
regarding human nature and self-expression. In every country, it is often the
poorest of the poor who find the rules toughest to obey. All societies are
inhibitive in varying proportions. While communism and dictatorship are regarded
unacceptable, forms of capitalism in the U.S.A and Europe are regarded
acceptable. Rules laid down in all these places do inhibit a lot of humans from
growing up to their full potential or having a fair share of life. Even the
unacceptable features of today’s democracies ought to be removed if we want a
fairer, more just world. We have devised many schemes to protect the poor, but
they have not been really successful. Anyone weak is entitled to protection.
Protection that they most often do not get. Hence, all the weak cannot be
protected. We could make everyone weak by restricting everyone in some way or
other. Alternatively, we could make everyone strong. Let us identify the factors
that make people weak. What are we waiting for? The diseases that cause humans
to be weak are not cancer or heart disease. We know what it is already. It is a
hot climate, a suppressive environment and culture, and a lack of money to
conquer those conditions. Not preventing the birth of humans into these
conditions means not checking the spread of the diseases that make humanity
weak.
How far have you reached in life? Do you have your dream job, drive your dream
car and live your dream life? Dreams are seldom reality. But you keep trying to
make your dreams reality. That is why you do whatever you do, everyday, whether
you like it or not. But at every moment that you are toiling for that dream job,
car or life, somebody is enjoying that very job, driving that very car or living
that very life. Why? He was born with a whole lot more than you were. You are
taught that you have to toil to make your dreams reality while he is taught that
good things are a part of life. Does it seem fair? The farther your dreams are
from reality, the farther your children’s dreams will be from reality. Not that
their dreams are different, but because their reality will be more competitive
and harsher. If your dreams ever come true, it will be usually at the expense of
your children’s dreams. Or you will have to give up your dreams so that your
children’s dreams come true.
Why is there so much suffering in the world? Why so many disparities? The answer
is simple. We do not care enough to make a real difference. All we care about is
what rewards God will give us or the fame that will come to us or the gratitude
of those we help or just for the sake of keeping tradition or some other selfish
reason. All this is hard work. The easy work is to strike at the very roots of
disparity and suffering. But we don’t even think about and find out the roots
because we would be opposed by those who seek fame, gratitude, acceptance in
society and other selfish things through the pretence of helping the poor and
the suffering. The poor must exist to satisfy their ego and selfishness. This is
similar to the truth expressed by the proverb: Where there is forward motion,
there is turbulence. The other reason why we cannot or do not find out and
strike at the roots is that we have been conditioned to believe that it is close
to impossible by society. Society people often do ‘good’ and ‘charitable’ deeds
only to fulfill their selfish desires. Selfishness is the root of all suffering.
It can also be the root of all good. Though the former has been said through the
ages, it is not the complete truth.
It is hard for people who live carefree lives to imagine how it is like for the
majority of human beings who have to live otherwise. The sheer hopelessness into
which a human being is born today is something we can choose to forget. But it
is there as inescapable reality for the masses. They have no one to turn to.
They cannot understand why they are treated so badly by life. To quell those
thoughts, a culture and tradition has sprung up, centuries ago, around the place
they lived, which told them, and previous generations, to accept the hardships
of life as normal. That authority should not be questioned. Without a tradition
or culture such as this, human beings would not survive in that region as a
race.
It is a very disturbing thought that people often do horrible things for money.
But it is also quite true that only the rich get what a human being deserves
from life. What does a human really deserve? It is not just one or two unfair
strokes in life, but a uniformly unfair life by which a person dies bit by bit.
Let's face it: Everyone of us bears the brunt of everyday life, wearing out bit
by bit each day. The richer you are, the lesser you have to wear out each day.
The longer and better your life would be. People dying like animals on the
street ... People living like kings on the same street ... What disparity!
Something has gone terribly wrong with our value system. Taking from the rich
and giving to the poor has never worked, but somehow that is what most existing
systems aim to do. Will it ever work? Aren't we taking a little too much liberty
with the lives of the rich as well as the poor? We cannot help regulating
people. The few who get what they deserve as a human being, i.e., a reasonably
fair treatment are either living in a rich society or living corruptibly in a
poor one. Since the majority live in poor societies, the majority of those whom
life treats fairly tend to be corrupt. Such is the state of humanity. It gets
harder each day to live righteously. More and more of mankind become dispensable
each day as technology grows exponentially. There is lesser and lesser dirty
work that has to be done by humans. But accordingly, human population has to
come down. But since the opposite is happening, mankind is pulled in two
opposite directions, that of technology and efficiency and that of old-fashionedness
and inefficiency.
Bringing down the cost of goods will only result in low quality goods. Focusing
on a few special categories of goods will only make the government and people
debt-ridden. In such situations, people escape from reality in many ways.
Alcohol, drugs, illicit sex, etc. are examples. Even religion. Why are
underdeveloped countries so religious? Religion is more an escape from reality
than a free choice of faith. It is also a means to discipline a population
uncontrollable in many ways. It is the only solace of the poorest. At least God,
they feel, think and believe, will be fair to them. Even if life isn't. Religion
says: “Those who enjoy life on earth will suffer after death in hell. Those who
suffer here will enjoy life after death.” Most people interpret religion in this
manner. It’s confusing. To be honest: Why do we have all the facilities to make
life better and then why do we hesitate to enjoy what we have and then why do we
propagate ourselves and make all the progress we have achieved worthless? We
progress and then we make that progress futile. We progress again and again we
make that progress futile. WHY? We progress when we feel sad about our
conditions to the extent that even religion says we ought to live well. When we
therefore begin to progress and achieve living conditions close to heaven on
earth, Religion changes it’s stance. Listen to me: Religion changes it’s stance.
Religion, the solid everlasting, infallible, truthful, dependable entity that it
claims to be, changes its stance. What stance does it take? It now says, you
know what it is: that those who suffer here will have eternal joyful lives in
heaven and those who enjoy life here will suffer in hell. The progress rate
slows, besides that the population increases because religion accepts sexual
pleasure as right. Take notice! It hardly accepts any other pleasure as right.
See the tactics of religion! Why did religion change its stance? If there is
heaven on earth, then what good is religion? If mankind is perfectly happy here,
then they are less desirous of being in heaven after death, and consequently
less inclined towards religion. To make life harder and not easier is therefore,
in the interest of religion.
Instead of thinking as a nation, that we might be lucky if we strike oil or
lucky if we strike gold… Lucky if World Bank loans, or lucky if MNC’s invest in
us or lucky if the value of our currency goes up or lucky if the monsoon is in
our favor or lucky if the rains were good this year... Lucky if we got a good
minister/governor or lucky if the tourists were in good numbers – let us instead
give more value to every human being. The life of no human being should be at
the mercy of any of these factors, however promising. Let us bring a human being
into this world when there is not just enough for his survival but also for his
growth and productivity. The emphasis of most nations today is on the survival
of its people rather than availability of opportunities for the proper growth
and maximum productivity of every newborn child. Is it there or not? If it is
not there, won’t the child be denied equal opportunities such as proper
schooling, proper nutrition, choice of work and so on?
Let us reach for the stars so that we may at least touch the treetops. The
situation is so bad in today’s world that unemployment, poverty and ignorance
are considered as permanent features of any society. Think of the innocence of
the child. Think of how he did not even ask for a life, to be born, much less
into the maltreatment presently meted out to him. Think of how much he differs
from those who were born into rich families. Or does he? He is just like them,
only difference being the lack of money. While others were born with a lot of
money in the bank or elsewhere, he was born with nothing, either in the bank or
anywhere else. Is he only one person, an isolated case? No. 60% of the world
lives below the poverty line. That’s 3.6 billion people who are suffering the
same fate. The fact that escapes us is that more than 60% of the babies being
born every second, minute, hour or day are born to these very people and are in
all probability going to live out that very fate. If we at least begin to
recognize this fact, we would suddenly feel the urgency in stopping this as
quickly as possible. This catastrophe that is facing us and is continuing to
face us without relent, is also the parent of many other disasters that we face
today, foresee in the future and that alarm us, while we do not still see the
real catastrophe causing all others. If we do see it, we would want to run for
cover, so great are its implications. The grossness of the unequal treatment
that is going to face one newborn child born every second into poverty, for the
rest of his or her life will become absolutely incomprehensible. All this talk
of poverty and suffering is sickening. Only if we would remove it all. Then, we
would not have to talk about it again. Poverty could become an extinct word.
When humans are taught to live with less than what they need and deserve and
don't know or think appropriate for themselves a better treatment, they usually
don't think that their children need or deserve anything better. Nor can they do
anything about it. They think it is okay to be treated unfairly and without
dignity. They think it is okay for their children to be treated the same. This
unfair treatment will not be acceptable to every one. A life of constant
suppression at the bottom of society will build up resentment in their hearts.
This resentment expresses itself as crime, communal disharmony, religious
extremism and even overpopulation. We know of two examples in history when
population increased dramatically after the people of a region experienced
severe threats to their existence. One, the Great Leap Forward, a concentrated
national development project in China in the 1950s, caused great losses of life
and the people responded with a 3% annual population growth rate in 1963. The
second one is a recent one; that of the Sept. 11 attacks. The following baby
boom in the USA shows how people respond in general when they feel threatened.
This sort of a threat is a constant factor in the lives of the poor. Their
existence is threatened by poverty, government policy, inflation, and so on.
These changes affect the poor more than anyone else. In such a scenario of
existence, it is only normal for humans to multiply. The result will be that
there won’t be enough even for survival, forget human dignity, forget equality
of opportunities.
In short, unfair treatment leads to the buildup of resentment that expresses
itself in the form of communal disharmony, religious extremism and
overpopulation. Of these, overpopulation particularly causes more unfair
treatment that keeps the whole cycle repeating over and over again, the
byproducts being greater injustice and insecurity. Prevention, as they say, is
better than cure. We don’t have to wipe away every tear from the face of every
man and woman. They can do it by themselves. It’s the children who should not
have to cry. Instead of wiping away tears, let us not let the tears come, then
we won’t have to wipe them.
We know this: No one gets exactly what he or she deserves. Some people get more
than they deserve while others get less than they deserve. Why? Luck? No. Not
luck, but money. Being born with more, makes the person better equipped to
snatch more than his share while the less equipped (less money) cannot do the
snatching which consists of socially acceptable snatching. The poor, the less
equipped and the ones born into poverty are all the one and the same. They
cannot afford to do socially acceptable snatching. They are often not even
equipped to do the socially unacceptable snatching either, but the rich manage
even this type of snatching better than the poor, simply because they are better
equipped for it. The poor amass. Finally, they do the worst and most
unacceptable types of snatching and find themselves branded as criminals by
society. All the while the real criminals pass off as not just normal people but
as people worthy of admiration and respect just because they make snatching from
society look respectable and right and can afford to do it that way. The person
who can get his way is the person who seems right in the eyes of society but has
bent its accepted norms and rules to the maximum possible extent. He is admired
and respected. Is it right? It’s obvious that such people are closing their eyes
to the rules and customs that others have to follow. Yet, instead of treating
them for what they are, wretched thieves, we admire them … the way they speak,
act and live, besides trying our best to imitate them as completely as possible.
Why aren’t we improving the state of the world? Let’s beware that there is
always the danger that stagnation in human progress could mean degradation
taking us in the direction of Stone Age. There is a Jewish proverb, which says
that if you are not growing, you are actually becoming smaller. That seems to be
quite true in the case of humanity. If we don’t progress, we may be quietly
slipping towards our own doom. Either way, the present state of humanity clearly
does not warrant any complacency on our part. The reluctance to act causes
everything to remain in disarray. The reluctance to think is further reinforced
by this state of disorder and disarray that one has to live in. The reluctance
to give up superstition and blind faith is further reinforced by this reluctance
to think. The reluctance to travel the path of progress is further reinforced by
the reluctance to part with superstition. Therefore, reluctance towards
advancement and progress begins with the climatic force, which initially causes
the reluctance to act.
We often think that children live carefree lives. It’s true. Even in the slums,
children are quite carefree, except when they’re dying of hunger, in which case
they would be scarcely moving. Children are carefree because they want to enjoy
whatever they’ve got and also because they are far less able to change their
situation. We adults worry because we possess much more ability to transform and
better our lives and most often are not able to use these abilities to the
maximum. For all those who wish to be their best, I have this advice: Try being
in a slightly cold climate and see yourself come alive. But that wont be enough.
Proper food and shelter are also needed. For all these needs to be fulfilled,
money is a must. If humans are not treated well they will only be trouble to
themselves and to others. Everyone ignores the depth of unequal treatment in
this world as long as it doesn’t concern him/her. It hits me sometimes but all I
can do is groan and forget. Unequal treatment based on color is what hits me the
most. It is worse in the less developed and less modern countries than in the
developed ones. In the developed countries, they get to be treated like humans,
at the least. In the underdeveloped countries, they cannot even be treated like
human beings owing to lack of adequate resources, while the group considered
superior gets to be treated like humans. Due to lack of money and resources, the
unequal treatment gets aggravated in the developing countries, with the excluded
group getting hardly anything at all in life.
When normal, healthy, thinking individuals improve the environment that they
live in, in some way or other, they do it for everyone. Not just themselves.
Those who are not normal, healthy or sensible also get the benefits of these
improvements. As a result, they become better equipped only to spread and affect
the world with their own abnormality, unhealthiness or stale thoughts. The very
efforts to improve the lot of the less fortunate will not lead to the intended
results because of the above given reason. Those who try to do good hence find
themselves in a dilemma. If they do good, it ultimately leads to harm. If they
don’t do good, their race is still headed towards doom. This dilemma exists in
today’s world because progress is not aimed at the grassroots level of human
life, i.e., childhood and because too many compromises are made on such efforts.
Only two types of groups exist in developing societies: the group considered
‘normal’ and the group considered ‘inferior.’ There is hardly any superior
group. But there will be a few considered superior such as film stars and
politicians who hardly accomplish anything at all of usefulness to their
society, but are simply held in awe because of the way they talk, act and live.
Why are there only two groups: normal and inferior? Here again the reason is
that there is not enough for all. To be considered normal, the family you are
born into, your color, your sex, etc. are what matters. All these are beyond
your control and are pre-determined. Yet these are the very factors that society
checks to decide whether a person can be considered normal or inferior. If you
fail any of these checks, you go down to inferior status. In reality, you are
normal if you are a human being and you are inferior if you act like an animal
(break laws, abuse others, etc.) It is totally under your control. You choose to
be inferior or normal. You can even choose to be superior if your acts are far
better compared to either animals or humans. Yet, the choice is still yours. But
in the developing society, being inferior is not your choice at all. You can do
nothing about it if without acting in any inferior manner, you are still labeled
as inferior at birth and throughout your life by everyone you know. This would
lead to a denial of opportunities for growth in all spheres throughout your
life. Consequently your productivity will be lower, which causes society members
to reaffirm faith in their concept of who’s superior and who’s inferior,
reinforcing the inferior status given to that particular color, gender, gender,
community, etc., keeping that group forever in poverty and oblivion.
Is it really security that we are after? Life can end at any moment and by any
cause. Once it is over, we do not know what happens. But if we go by what our
senses tell us, once life is over, it is OVER. There is no more happiness or
pleasure in life. Or maybe there is. We simply don’t know. Let's do something
that will satisfy us in our lives - but can we always satisfy ourselves? That
depends on our needs and desires as well as the capacities which nature has
endowed us with to fulfill them. This capacity depends not so much on genetics
and talents as much as in the facilities surrounding a person that will help him
to do what he or she wishes to. If it is ensured that these facilities are
present before his or her conception and consequent birth happens, then this
individual can be said to have been fairly dealt by life. If not, the individual
is faced with a bundle of lies and superstitions that try to fool him that life
has been fair, these lies and superstitions being the very seeds sown in him
which will later sprout, grow and turn him or her into one of the innumerable
instruments propagating and maintaining in order the countless forms of
camouflaged evils of all forms in society.
As the truth fades, it loses its attraction and is discarded. We, as a human
race have not found the solution to global problems because we don’t like the
craggy old truth. But however old, the truth doesn’t die, simply because it is
the mountain peak in the landscape, forgotten because it is too familiar. But
how much ever we ignore it, it will still be bigger and greater and immortal
compared to us. It doesn’t interfere in our business. It doesn’t tell us when
we’re right or wrong. It just stands there to remind us that if you’re great, it
shows. If you’re right, it shows. If you’re wrong, it shows.
Nuclear Holocaust – Something that has shook up our perspective on life. We try
to go on as before, but we know that we live in a world much changed. We don’t
know when ‘IT’ will happen … if it will happen at all… At no point in time can
we be completely certain that it will not happen. The world is full of
injustices, inequalities and insecurities. Fool yourself and be happy. Everyone
who claims to be happy has mastered the art of looking the other way. All of us
want to be happy. We can either cleanup the world and be truly happy or we can
master the art of looking the other way and be happy. I am sad because everyone
of us has chosen the latter because we think it is easier. It is not. Ask
yourself why happiness doesn’t last. Unhappiness spreads as contagiously as
happiness does. Your happiness based on looking the other way will not last
because the causes of unhappiness will affect you or those near to you at some
point. At that point, if you continue to look the other way, the causes of
unhappiness will start causing unhappiness. First, to those close to you, and
then to you and there ends your happiness – yours and others’. The circle of
happiness with you at the center and your contacts has shrunk to just you and
then vanished when you became unhappy. If this hasn’t taught you a lesson, you
will again start becoming happy by looking the other way, following quick fixes
(the world is full of quick fixes) and spread the happiness to your contacts,
who will in turn spread it to their contacts and your happiness circle grows in
size. Until the next time. For, as you would readily agree with me, the world is
full of causes for unhappiness. Globalization is being pursued as the end to all
suffering for most people. But this also means for most people their happiness
will be lost more often, because the outer periphery of contacts will be in
touch with more contacts. Contacts having grimmer and harsher causes of
unhappiness. If we are going to fight, happiness vs. unhappiness, happiness
might win because most people prefer it, but it’s going to take a long, long
time and because it’s a fight, the costs are going to be steep.
We have fought to secure equality, justice and harmony. But we have failed. We
have a very sorry-looking history as a human race. There will be wretchedness
and strife because that is the way of nature. That is our natural state. Human
beings are not all the same. There are extremes of characters. Though
intrinsically, man, like any other living creature will be good to those of his
own species, when the need arises to fight for or defend one’s territory, loved
ones, beliefs or one’s own life, his or her character turns unpleasant. We need
to do this, as humans, on an increasingly frequent basis with the population
explosion on the horizon. There is going to be a shortage of access to and
availability of the resources needed for even basic survival in the developing
countries while the developed countries will be more affected by a shortage of
the resources needed for activities other than basic survival. So, there is
going to be an ethical clash here. The developed countries will use the finite
and rapidly vanishing natural resources to support activities other than basic
survival, such as modern conveniences, industrial activity and scientific
research while these very resources would be claimed by the developing countries
for the basic survival of its teeming millions. Either the standard of living
and the rate of scientific progress in the developed countries has to go down,
or the teeming millions in the developing countries will have to suffer the
neglect of their basic survival needs. The rate of scientific progress and the
standard of living of the developed countries will have to decrease in
accordance to the sustenance of the lives of millions of human beings in
developing countries. It is already happening today. The true nature and cause
of all kinds of international disputes, between developed and developing nations
is this. It is the same universal principle. As quantity increases, quality
decreases.
The problems of the world remain because people think that they are incapable of
finding real solutions and pushing through for their implementation. We are
afraid of the possibilities of bloodshed and revolutions. But listen! In this
book has been presented a bloodless and potentially effective solution to all
problems afflicting mankind. Further progress is not needed. Only extension of
the fruits of progress is needed. That is what is intended. And that is what
needs to be achieved. How can we just keep trying for more progress without
first ensuring that the fruits of progress are reaching all? It’s like a train
with no tracks to guide it, accelerating forever. Sooner or later, it is bound
to hit some obstacle and destroy itself. Children should not be born into
poverty because they cannot do anything about it. They cannot help but be
adversely affected by a life of poverty. The future lies in the hands of
children. If we give them a good life now, they will have fewer resentments and
frustrations. They will be better able to control themselves, think rationally
and act for the common good as well as for their own good. If we neglect them,
they will be at the mercy of nature and society, which will not treat everyone
equally, giving too much to some and too little to others. Nature cannot be
trusted anymore because it runs the world on the principle of survival of the
fittest which is always in clash with mankind's declared ideals of equality and
justice. Man has the power to remove poverty from the face of the earth. Let us
secure the future of humanity by securing the future of children. LET US SECURE
THE CHILD!!!
Is a Perfect World Possible? >
Envy and Hatred >
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