There is a lot of hue and cry about Governmental decision on FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT (FDI) in the retail sector in India. I see those who oppose it as skewed up philosophers of "SWADESHI' who do not see the march of times. They are swimming against the tide of the current times. Give the devil his due, for once, Man Mohan has taken a wise decision.
And those who cry for the nation must know that "Nation-state concept" is almost at the verge of extinction as the "Globalised world" turns into a BIG MICRO CHIP, with inter connected self sustaining economic Micro dots, in the form of city states of a GLOBALISED WORLD. Yes, we are almost knocking at the doors of COSMIC ERA, past the "information era". Move on the cry babies!
In "Power-Shift", Alvin Toffler discusses three pillars of Power i.e Force, Money and Knowledge. He then goes on to describe that mankind has passed through three waves of growth and development i.eAgricultural wave, Industrial wave and Knowledge wave/Information wave. The First wave of Agriculture, flourished from 1st Century AD to 15th Century, the second wave of Industrial growth lasted till mid 20th century and since then mankind has been slowly moving in Third wave of Information.
In the Agricultural wave, FORCE was the real base of power and other two were just supporting pillars. In the industrial wave, wiegtage shifted to MONEY and in the Information Wave, it is KNOWLEDGE, which describes power and other two are just supporting pillars. While the First wave lasted 1500 years; second wave just about 500 years. Information age is just about 60 years old and we see signs of its passing away and coming of the FOURTH WAVE i.e. COSMIC WAVE in another 40 years or so.
I will talk about them in detail a little later. Let me first touch upon two aspects of RELIGION and NATIONALISM. Both have been "opium of the masses." ‘RELIGION’ has often been wrongly equated with ‘SPIRITUALITY’ and similarly ‘NATIONALISM’ has been synonymous with ‘PATRIOTISM’. This dual synonymy has always been the real cause of human conflict and confrontation.
Religion had been basically designed to perform certain TEMPORAL RITUALS/ PRACTICES which had become utmost necessary as part of human faith and belief to live life in a particular manner. Religion ‘regulates’ daily human life.
As against this, ‘SPIRITUALITY’ guides, motivates and drives human beings to rise above narrow and parochial personal motives to synthesize human soul and the Nature. It upholds man’s quest for ‘INNER PEACE’ with self and supports his inquisitive search for ‘Moralistic Answers’ to ‘Humanistic Questions’.
Viewed as such, religion might seem to be part of ‘SPIRITUALITY’ but never a holistic canvas covering spirituality. It might be ‘one of the means’ and ‘not the only mean’ to seek inner peace. In a world abounding in ignorance, illiteracy and little-knowledge of not-too-distant past, religion had sought to provide answers to man’s spiritual queries. In the days bygone, knowledge of man was so limited both in extent and depth that religion sought to fill the vacuum by satisfying human curiosity. In other words, where knowledge had failed to provide answers, ‘Religion’ had stepped in with ‘symbolic’ answers.
But answers provided by religion were always stereo-typed and revolved around its ‘Singularity of only Truth’. This became belief and unshakeable faith and anyone suggesting any deviation became the cause of HATRED and CONFRONTATION. RELIGION had left no space in the human mind for alternative and better knowledge. It exploited illiteracy and unawareness of its subjects. Merely acquiring academic knowledge is not the empowerment of human mind.
It is the understanding and application of this academic knowledge which enables one to break free of ‘RELIGIOUS-SINGULARITY-OF ONLY-TRUTH’. Those, who still believe in the religious singularity of only truth, are as illiterate as were the people in the medieval periods. Knowledge has many truths about itself which the bigots can hardly understand. But, today, the scene has changed many times over and the onrushing DELUGE OF KNOWLEDGE is pushing religion now into background.
Similarly, “Nationalism” was a product of Industrial revolution in the 18th Century. The coming of the machines had standardized production and enhanced human capacity to produce more consumable goods in a lesser time period. Standardized processes led to production of goods in bulk. MASS PRODUCTION became the order of the day and this unleashed a competition for more raw material and resources. More and more groups of people merged into one ‘key social mass’ to produce larger socio-geographical identities.
This ‘Massification’ of people and societies led to bigger socio-politico communities. This gave birth to the concept of a ‘NATION STATE’—where geography, ethnicity, military prowess, lingual similarities and cultural affinities played greater role in defining national boundaries. This emotional sense of belonging to something supreme generated a feeling of ‘SUPERIORITY’ and greatness.
It became the duty of every single man within the borders of such geographic descriptions to protect its territorial integrity at all costs—even with supreme sacrifice. This came to be called PATRIOTISM. Thus, man had acquired different national identities—each one claiming superiority and greatness. Such competitive thoughts had to spark hatred and dislike amongst humans. Industrial revolution gave rise to organized CONFLICTS and WARS between nations as ‘expansionist interests’ clashed.
Both ‘Religion’ and ‘Nation State’ had divided humanity into different ‘GHETTOES’—always hating and fighting against one another. Ignorance and ‘Lack of Awareness’ had often made man his own worst enemy.
Man fought for GERMANY, ENGLAND, AMERICA, RUSSIA, ITALY, JAPAN, CHINA, INDIA, FRANCE and PAKISTAN etc. Man even fights for ISLAM, CHISTANITY, HINDUISM, BUDDHISM, SIKHISM, COMMUNISM and CAPITALISM et al. All this he resorts to because he was given these identities at the time of his birth.
These “BIRTH-TAG’ identities had pushed man far away from the basic tenets of ‘HUMANISM’. But all this is now going to change as KNOWLEDGE REVOLUTION has FLATENED THE WORLD and there is no scope for emotional frailties of IGNORANCE and UNAWARENESS.
‘Man’ has been ‘individualized’ because of rising awareness level and sky-rocketing aspirations. Societies and families have broken up under the pressure of ‘INDIVIDUALISATION’. Zeal for ‘Self-promotion-at-all-costs’ has sent ‘individualized man’ globe-trotting to serve personal interests better. Societies and polities are getting tailor-made for globe-trotting man.
Such a ‘Globalised man’ views ‘NATIONALISM’ and ‘RELIGION’ as outmoded philosophies which put him at a utter disadvantage because they narrow down his sphere of activities and opportunities in an otherwise leveled playing field of a FLATENED WORLD.
A school of thought is emerging that those who do not join the band wagon will lose out. The message is clear: either HOOK ON or be LEFT BEHIND in the IGNONIMITY of the ‘Grand Canyons of Times’, when your other contemporaries elsewhere were now moving past the last stage of KNOWLEDGE AGE and knocking on the doors of the COSMIC ERA.
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