Economics and politics –the
holons in social engineering.
In the past century three
major areas have influenced and impacted to a great extent in the field of
social engineering.
They have been history, economics and politics along
with all their theories, ideologies, ideas, and tall claims and counter claims;
credible achievements as well as criticisms of all sorts.
These three have used both
physical resources involving a huge spectrum of benefits and boon from science
and technology and psychological associations and affinities of religions,
cultures traditions and many regional identities to fulfill their objectives of
social engineering.
But what is the stated
objective of all these social engineering methods?
In short create, influence and impact the symphony of life
through rhythm of the body, the melody of the mind, and the harmony of the soul
all vibrating with the joy of tasting aesthetically through our senses and
sensibilities and not necessarily to satisfy any social theory or ism or ideology.
“The beauty and mystery of this world only emerges through
affection, attention, interest and compassion . . . open your eyes wide and
actually see this world by attending to its colors, details and irony.” ― Orhan Pamuk.
Mantra is simple we must look at everything and everyone
without any preconceived notion or bias.
We must be aware that everything has multiple dimensions of
which we may not be always aware of.
Besides, every dimension may have multiple inherent dynamics
as well as dynamics emanating from specific circumstances.
Always remember that we all mostly do what a] we can do, b] what
we want to do and/or c] what we are destined to do.
We must realize our inherent qualities /attributes both
strengths and weaknesses and try our best to consciously acquire attitudes
which prioritize humaneness and sociability over the rest.
Whatever we do we must make sure whether it enhances or gives
pleasure to our body, mind and spirit/soul.
With all these in the background along with our acquired
knowledge/experience for whatever they are worth and humility as the fine print
we develop our perspective to understand life, then serendipity will shower us
with blessing to perceive better.
Reality
is neither any axiomatic certainty nor is it a frozen faith to be scrupulously
followed by blinkered believes operating within fixed fences or identity cages
but it is mostly contextually shaped by relationships and how we relate to
others and things and environment etc . No human being can be know all or
omniscient personality to dictate anything to the rest but we all need to
respect certain time cherished and time tested values for the good of everyone.
All
said and done reality is neither any axiomatic certainty nor is it a frozen
faith to be scrupulously followed by blinkered believes operating within fixed
fences or identity cages but it is mostly contextually shaped by relationships
and how we relate to others and things and environment etc . No human being can
be know all or omniscient personality to dictate anything to the rest but we
all need to respect certain time cherished and time tested values for the good
of everyone.
Can we discern or develop or
design some special leadership qualities
and suggest and expect some specific
wisdom as an outcome of these social engineering methods?
Before we go deep into our
expectations and designs we shall try to understand at a very basic level and
in very general terms what these three- history, economics and politics- stand
for and how they operate whether in isolation or as an integral and interwoven
whole unit.
History to be used as a reference manual for all good, best, bad and ugly activities,
behaviors, events, issues , ideas that have impacted humanity;
Economics to be used as a blue print to remove the
material inadequacies and inequalities
and refine the living experience buy providing equal opportunities and more
comforts for the maximum number;
Politics to be used as a enabling platform to execute
the blue print as well as ensure that
people do not feel alienated from all other non economics related life
experiences with which they have sentimental and sensitive attachment like
regional and religious affinity based cultural and traditional practices which
may give them psychological comforts and
a sense of belonging historically to a group and live in a purely psychological
comfort zone.
All these three are
inextricably interwoven but must be respected only for what they are and are
meant for and not beyond or over emphasis of one over the other.
Whenever that happens then
the delicate balance is lost as each one of these three may derive their
strength, significance, sustenance as well as mileage from the other.
Maria Mitchell
says, “The world of learning is so broad,
and the human soul is so limited in power! We reach forth and strain every
nerve, but we seize only a bit of the curtain that hides the infinite from us.”
Most importantly all these
must factor in and allow two important aspects of evolutionary treads namely,
constantly evolving aspirations and trends of life and the emerging new
technologies which facilitate many activities to render life more comfortable.
But when either or all of the
three i.e. history, economics and politics are distorted, dented or dubiously
misused, then, the social fabric is disturbed and it sets on the course of some
destructive mode.
Usually vested interest
groups either abuse political power, destroy economic progress without making
scientific approaches to economic problems and sometimes some groups also generate
histrionic reactions to historical blunders and all these three are not at all
good for peace, prosperity and harmony.
Simone
Weil, French social philosopher, mystic and activist in her work ‘Gravity and
Grace’
“The world is the closed door. It is a
barrier. And at the same time it is the way through.
Two prisoners whose cells adjoin communicate with each other by knocking on the wall. The wall is the thing which separates them but it is also their means of communication. … Every separation is a link.”
Two prisoners whose cells adjoin communicate with each other by knocking on the wall. The wall is the thing which separates them but it is also their means of communication. … Every separation is a link.”
Economics
To a very great extent economics is all
about unbiased observations, unprejudiced perceptions, doing away with
defensive statistical justifications, cutting off camouflaging irrelevant
logical fallacies, chaffing off bombastic jargons, curtailing the instinct to
churn out untested or untestable theories
and instead engage in interpretations of all the observed facts
uninfluenced by any ideological affiliations taking into consideration
various factors that impact and/or involved in these facts appropriate to the
context and relevant to the region.
Life is an unmapped atlas which gets its
maps based on our choices, beliefs, actions, reactions, thoughts, attitudes etc
and it is our hands to make each one of these continents as great and as good
as possible
A
non specialist common observer’s point of view:-
In
the present scenario of globalized socio economic structures it is wise not to
take pride in exclusion or suffer isolation in any domain for whatever
ideological or nationalistic reasons or belief systems or religious bigotry
and instead it is advisable, at least, to feign to be a part of global
aspirations and activities.
However,
at the same time it is equally true that at present international lobbies,
mafias do not exercise that much of an impact especially where the political
dispensation is sane and concerned about its nation’s economic and social
welfare along with its ability to contribute and its utility to international
economic activities through institutional policy driven developmental
activities without being xenophobic for any internal political considerations
and/or for appeasing certain religious
bigots.
When
such a clean structured development process is in place what is vital is proper
leadership in decision making authority and perfect vision with various arms of
the government carrying out the vision with synergy and concomitant
cooperation.
In
such a situation no individual bureaucrat , much less a professional, manning
any particular institution is indispensable, however great or smart or
qualified or hyped or well connected he/she may be, if he/she happens to
not to fit into the scheme of things and fails to operate with synergy.
Essence of progress is in policies,
performances and programs and political decision making and
does not hinge on one or two professionals executing them or manning them.
All
professionals in various ministries and departments must remember that they are
the executing arm of the policy decisions taken by the parliament or similar
authorities.
It
is also preferable that top posts to important institutions are decided on
various factors relevant to vision and mission of the institution and the
interests of the nation and its citizens; and not on personal whims or media
sponsored publicity or hype [while the former is a benign cancer the latter is
a malign cancer and hence both must be avoided].
Besides
like life itself, modern economics is too complex and operates with multiple
dimensions and myriad dynamics involving various factors and keeps changing its
patterns like those of a kaleidoscope in a monkey’s hand.
So,
it is possible still that any nation could be trapped into trouble equipped
with all the accumulated knowledge of past patterns of operations of economics.
That’s
why whatever the theoretical and technical expertise were, no one could prevent
nor avoid the great recession of boom to bust from 2007 to 2009.
Awareness
and alertness to welcome or ward off things that emerge from various
manipulations and scheming of international politics and economics along with
intra national relationships is more important for economic stability and
strength.
Politics and political Leadership
Ideal Political Leadership in Modern Times- a peep into its simple dimensions.
The
hall mark of a leader with vision, principles and values is not to be bothered
by media manipulations and stereotyped systems erection and instead go
about his vision as Barbara Marciniak said, “Everything changes when
you start to emit your own frequency rather than absorbing the frequencies
around you, when you start imprinting your intent on the universe rather than
receiving an imprint from existence.”
It
is fine and excellent but political leadership is not about being a know all
expert on everything it is more about willingness and intention to do what is
of greater importance for the common good of as many people as possible,
ensuring economic development, infrastructure facilities.
In
short facilitating and providing opportunities for those who want to participate
in the process of growth and development.
Political
leadership is all about willingness to learn and know about areas of which they
do not have domain knowledge and also feel the pulse and grasp the importance
of managing all available and useful and usable resources human, natural,
technological, international help etc and put them to optimum utilization for
intended developmental agenda and most importantly not let political
correctness and media generated perception to interfere in this process.
Political
leaders across the world have the natural knack for administration and
expedient adjustments especially in the present complicated and complex world
if they are clear about their vision and mission and a good team.
This
requires naturally therefore, that in an age of knowledge, information
and hyper technology driven life it is imperative that they also use all these
through data, surveys, and technological domains putting aside their halo of
ego and herd of yes men and media mafia then their aura announces that they are
unique leaders with great potential.
Modern
day political leaders have the advantage of expert professionals in every field
that they can listen to and learn from.
Political
power is a stimulus and that provides a space for a leader’s response and
responsibility to create growth and better situation, “Between
stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose
our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” — Viktor
Frankl
Wisdom
is to live in:- 1. Present context doing contextually relevant things and to 2.
Practice eternal values 3. With global perspective to 4. Bequeath a livable
planet, 5. A lovable society 6. With lovely infrastructures and 7.
Improved living conditions.
Leadership that is
needed is one that delivers political wisdom and economic prosperity
LEADERSHIP IS
Linking
[synergizing]
Everyone’s
[synthesizing based on interrelatedness]
Abilities/ Aspirations
[inherent attributes and skills]
Dharmically
[value based on wholesome perception]
Emotionally
[compassionate attitude-feel at heart ]
Rationally
[reason with head]
Soulfully
[realization of oneness in spirit and purpose-spiritually and socially]
Highlighting
the [prioritizing]
Importance
of [contextual relevance of]
Performance
[karma-activities based on all the above].
Everything
about life, including life itself, is not so much about chronological longevity
[which in any case cannot be stretched beyond a limit] but enhancing the
intrinsic values and synderesical [synderesis] qualities.
More
frequently we indulge, interfere or are indifferent rather than involving with
humanitarian concerns.
We
suffer from two extremes of unloving criticism and uncritical love.
Greater
than anything else is the attitude of humility, tolerance and real wisdom
evolving from them.
We
need to evolve many behavior patterns to make life better on planet Earth [which
itself is a wrong word used for something which has more than 70 per cent
water] which has unfortunately been divided by the atlas of national boundaries
and spoiled by excessive dominance of human species.
However,
evolution fortunately has ensured in all spheres and in all its manifestations
that variety has been held in tact which human beings unfortunately have misunderstood
as differences.
No
one is either big or pig. All are morsels of biochemical organism infused with
energy and interrelated in many ways than individual human brains can
understand or have bothered to understand.
Love
for any language, art, culture, tradition, religion etc need not necessarily
lead to either identity veneration or vilification.
It
is not what language we speak, what tradition we follow, what culture we love
that matter.
What
ultimately matters is how we treat others? How we treat other species? How
compassionate are we? How humanitarian are we?
But
I feel while everyone has every right to feel euphoric about something close to
their emotions, heart and mind, such attitude also must ensure to imbibe a
spontaneous or subconscious or studiously developed sense of humility and
tolerance towards others and what others are trying to say and wanting to say
with all sense of humor and subtle sarcasm.
These
alone can bring many of us out of both egocentric and ethnocentric whirlpools
of self deceptions and complexes [either superior or inferior].
There
could be multiple versions of wisdom in various forms imparted through myriad
scriptures and religious practices.
Real Universal Wisdom
But
real universal wisdom in my humble opinion may be like this whether sanctioned
or sanctified by either social mores or religious morality.
Wisdom is the work shop where works of evolutionary
trends and experiences of everyone in it emerge to express wisely the essence
of everything to enlighten everyone;
A
wisdom which prioritizes living in
the present context and along with practicing certain time tested values which
have relevance in present context but with global perspective to bequeath a
livable planet, a lovable society with lovely infrastructures and improved
living conditions;
A
wisdom that evaluates
everything and everyone with contextual relevance and based on the inherent
attributes or merits of what or who is being evaluated without extrapolating
any presumptions, opinions, judgments, perceptions, expectations,
ideologies, doctrines, identity based ideology and so on;
A
wisdom which is willing to make
minor adjustments, small compromises, spontaneous cooperation to create
compatible and conducive atmosphere with humility devoid of any egocentric or
ethnocentric pride;
A
wisdom with
the realization and a perspective that must be aware that life is a constant
process of learning of the multiple dimensions of many things and the various
dynamics of those dimensions involving the constant interaction and
interrelationship with everyone and everything.
A
wisdom that is willing to
accommodate multiple methods or means of life with some overall tolerant
attitude embedded on humanitarian concerns towards all human life and
environmental or natural concern towards all other species.
A
wisdom that gets its clarity of
understanding through a churning process that takes into consideration several
aspects from the practical to the philosophical to all the fantasies of the
mind.
History
When we talk of history, obviously it cannot
be divorced from individuals, institutions, issues, ideologies that have formed
and framed a major part of history.
Therefore, history includes predominantly the
multiple social systems that have been experimented; the political systems that
have been tried and tested; the socio-religious cultural systems that have
prevailed; and the multitude of economic and trade activities that have shaped
the survival of human beings and in some or many case improved life in many
aspects.
Hence, it is not easy to brush aside history as
some unwanted report of the facts of the past because the trails of impact and
influence the events have left are enormous.
At
the same time, as a subject of study, it is also vulnerable to the onslaught of
ideological prejudices of all hues and certain distortions of some historians.
Unfortunately,
for want of highly authenticated and accepted versions of events we are forced
to rely on some available records.
However,
through collating multiple methods of advanced scientific tools like DNA
proofs, Archaeological evidences, literary references etc we can arrive at some
facts.
Here
I would like to share some links to my articles written at different times on
History followed by a list of books recommended for studying world history.
Having
said all that, the best way to know true history is to study the evolution of
culture, traditions and language of the region or nation whose history one
wants to study.
History
involves not only mere reporting of prosaic information of events but the
insights into what, who, how and why such events were generated and their
contextual relevance and whether they also offer lessons for us now and all of
these require interpretation of those events in proper perspective with
relevant comparisons too.
I
still cannot understand terms like prehistoric times. What is meant by that?
Chronology,
especially as used today was something which by itself is a comparatively
recent discovery and adopted as a measuring tool of time for whatever it is
worth, along with all the controversies involved in various methods of
calculating time as such.
Is
study of history or mythology important or relevant? Undoubtedly a big yes
because at least we can learn to follow useful things and avoid great mistakes
which have caused damage in various dimensions to everyone, everything and
environment.
Are
we as human beings doing that?
Often
yes, and sometimes not doing that for some reasons which are either justifiable
or justified or unjustifiable.
Mostly
most of the writings are subjective or at least not totally objective because
of the impact of our inherently inadequate tools of perception {1}; imprint of our inextricable
identity of certain ideological, cultural social, linguistic, religious,
regional influences {2}; inspiration
of certain popular trends or instigation of certain forces; added to these are
certain hyper imaginations and exaggerations of the authors as artists and
certain predominant prevailing preferred ideology.
When
all or some of these factors fall in line with or suit our confirmation bias we
lap it up , wrap it up and write paeans and provide more versions or
perversions but when it is otherwise we tend to portray ourselves as too wise
and pillory the versions.
History is after all a string of facts- of
purported events, happenings and issues [and not hypothesis
for us to keep churning till we come to a conclusive discovery or proof]- that are joined together like beads of a
chain.
Facts
are extremely vital though they may not reveal the whole truth or truths to
suit our preconceived idea of social engineering.
“All of us have our own inner fears, beliefs, opinions. These
inner assumptions rule and govern our lives. A suggestion has no power in and
of itself. Its power arises from the fact that you accept it mentally.”
― Joseph Murphy, The Power of Your Subconscious Mind
― Joseph Murphy, The Power of Your Subconscious Mind
However,
no one can afford to wish away the facts.
Ayn Rand seems to view it when she says "We can evade
reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality." Even as
facts Reality has immense value as John Adams says, “Facts
are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the
dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
Jessamyn West said, “We want the facts to
fit the preconceptions. When they don't it is easier to ignore the facts than
to change the preconceptions”. They have this tendency to presume some mal
intention in everything because of their perversion and they should always be
told what Milton Friedman said, “One of the great mistakes is
to judge policies and programs by their [ presumed-italics mine] intentions
rather than their results”
Contradictions are also there more visible because
of human psyche’s penchant for generalizing variety; oversimplifying the
complex; sometimes confusing the motives to be either the means or meaning of
the quest; justifying all means; fear of various kinds; predominance of certain
types of thinking; passing everything through a prism of some popular or
prevailing liking or ideology; seeing things with jaundiced vision and
prejudiced views; presuming that we need to judge everything and everyone,
applying irrelevant metrics to evaluate everything rather than evaluating
anything through its inherent merits and so on.
Contradictions
are very often camouflaged as dichotomies and dichotomies are the indoctrinated
and engraved part of many domains of life as Dudley
Lynch puts forth very nicely, “The brain forever has dichotomies on
its mind-The ancient Taoists did it with yin/yang. Religious types with
good/evil. Philosophers with
mind/matter. Particle scientists with wave/particle. Psychologists with nature/nurture. Law
officers with good cop/bad cop. On and on and on. You just had to know that it
was only a matter of time before “dualism”—or … harrumph! …
co-eternal binary opposition—infested neuro discussions like kudzu” and
continues “Maybe, as one thoughtful observer has suggested, even as
old dualisms get knocked down, “it seems that there is something about the
wiring of the brain that leads to new dualisms springing up.” Talk about
Whack-a-Mole! That was certainly what the late George
Kelly, the father of personal construct psychology, thought.
“Our psychological geometry is a geometry of dichotomies[italics
mine] rather than the geometry of areas envisioned by the classical logic of
concepts, or the geometry of lines envisioned by classical mathematical
geometries.” (Double harrumph!) in his blog {do not miss to read
the comments about George Kelly in the link as well } [ http://www.braintechnologies.com/blog/2010/02/history%E2%80%99s-longest-running-whack-a-mole-game-%E2%80%9Cdualism%E2%80%9D-continues-as-usual-friends-of-the-right-brain-are-kicking-left-brain-posteriors-and-taking-names/]
“Across planes of consciousness, we have to live with the
paradox that opposite things can be simultaneously true.”
― Ram Dass.
― Ram Dass.
Every
region, civilization has certain weaknesses and if that weakness happens to be
something that is used as a bench mark or a measuring yard to evaluate everything
then that weakness really pinches hard on that region or civilization.
A great work of history, though too
idealistic, almost very difficult , would be to create a synthesis of various
factors and contextually find a relevance from a huge cauldron consisting
of a mixture many of the following- various events, impacts of some great
individual souls, evolutionary biology, evolutionary sociology, evolutionary
changes in the march of civilization, evolutionary political trends, ideas,
philosophical inquiries, psychological perception, emotional reactions,
discoveries and inventions that have contributed to life enormously and the
selective static or stiffness or suppleness of various religious edicts - and
weave a very meaningful relationship among these or decipher a pattern of
occurrence or recurrence of certain events or evolution of certain factors or
emanation of certain ideas or the emergence of certain individuals etc.
Jacob
Bronowski says, “Every animal leaves traces of what it was; man alone
leaves traces of what he created” and not only this human beings are much more
wise as William Gladstone observes, “To comprehend a man's life, it is
necessary to know not merely what he does but also what he purposely leaves
undone. There is a limit to the work that can be got out of a human body or a
human brain, and he is a wise man who wastes no energy on pursuits for which he
is not fitted; and he is still wiser who, among the things that he can do well,
chooses and resolutely follows the best.”
Though
there cannot be any single great work manifesting this amount idealistic
expectations, still, there have been some extraordinary souls like Guy Murchie who have made a
modest but great attempt to chronicle history in this way.
"By
contemplating the relationship between the objects in our lives and the forces
that created them, we can arrive at the 'thing itself' and know its inherent
identity." ~ Dennis William Hauck [here the word inherent
identity must be taken as meaning ‘attribute of’]
As Sherlock Holmes declares, “From a drop of water a logician
could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagra without having seen or
heard of one or the other. So, all life is a great chain, the nature of which
is known whenever we are shown a link of it.”
Very
few have documented history without their view or observations, if they had
done so, then no one would have bothered
to read history.
Even
the most extraordinary historians like Will
Durant couples Will and Ariel [in
my opinion they deserve Nobel Prize for literature] have expressed their
excellent and fairly unbiased observations on facts and have ensured that they
have never distorted facts to suit their opinions.
List
of useful and interesting World History books that I have enjoyed reading and
would therefore boldly recommend
1. The Story of Civilization (11 Volume Set) by Will Durant
2. Ideas: A history from fire to Freud by Peter Watson
3.
Guns Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond covers the history of human societies
over the past ten thousand years over all the continents - all in one book.
4.
Norman Lowe - it is a short and extremely interesting book. 'Mastering
Modern World History' by Norman Lowe is an excellent source for learning
important events of world history during 18th, 19th and 20th centuries
5. Evolutionary
Psychology: The New Science of the Mind 5th Edition-by David Buss (Author)
6. The Times Complete History of the World-by Richard Overy
7. A history of the World-by Andrew Marr
8.
The Measure of Civilization: How Social Development Decides the Fate of Nations
(Ian Morris)
9.
A Little History of the World by E.H. Gombrich and also
A Short History of the World by H.G Wells
10. For a longer read History of the World by J.M. Roberts (updated as New History of the World)
A Short History of the World by H.G Wells
10. For a longer read History of the World by J.M. Roberts (updated as New History of the World)
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