ADVENT OF COSMIC AGE AND WITHERING CONCEPT OF THE NATION STATE!

ADVENT OF COSMIC AGE AND WITHERING CONCEPT OF NATION STATE !

We may like it or dislike it but JNU incident is a reflection of the coming times when individualization will transcend geographical and cultural boundaries. Cries of Freedom of speech and economic needs will lead to new social, political, regional and international affinities and re-alignments. Small and ' miniaturization' is the USP of the emerging world. Rapidly advancing technologies would transform the world into a MOTHERBOARD of interconnected micro dots of autonomous city states. Alvin Toffler in early 90s of the 20th Century had predicted the rise of 5000 city states by the end of 21st Century in his book POWER SHIFT.

Modern world with Internet and social sites such as Facebook ,Whatsapp, and Telegram has been literally shrunk . Advent of mobile phones has not only revolutionized the communications but have merged space and time. With the the news of MDIF (Media Development Investment Fund) planning to launch OUTERNET in the near future, through a network of Sattelites, free WiFi would be available worldwide. Anyone with a mobile phone or a PC would be able to connect to Internet and surf from anywhere in the world.

This would change the world as we know. The first casualty would be the concept of 'Nation state'. Physical distances notwithstanding, "interactive distances" would come to a naught. There would be only one citizenship i.e. Global citizenship. Political and religious boundaries would begin to crack. This is the time mankind would leap into the "Cosmic Age"---- beyond the 'Knowledge' and 'Information Age' of the last few decades. "Cosmic man", as I visualize, would go "Galaxy Hopping" by the beginning of 22nd Century.

Every one 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 'Globalized 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.e Agricultural 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 60-65 years old and we see signs of its passing away and coming of the Fourth Wave i.e. "Cosmic Wave" in another 50-60 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 was evolved to ‘regulate' 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’ (R- SOOT). 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, USA, Russia, Italy, Japan, China, India, France and Pakistan etc. Man even fights for Islam, Christianity, 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 "flattened" 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 ‘Individualization’. 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 "Flattened 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.

Thomas R Friedman has postulated three stages of Globalization in his book, “The World is Flat”. The first stage he says started around 1492 AD when Columbus hit the coast of America. This was Globalization1.0. It was spearheaded by countries trying to turn the "large" world into "medium". It lasted around 300 years till about 1800 AD.This was the time when "Industrial" revolution had galvanized Europe and the concept of "nation state" was born. Industrial Revolution gave rise to Multi National Companies or MNCs.

The GLOBALISATION 2.0 was sparked by the MNCs and it turned the world from medium to small. It ended around 2000 AD.

The GLOBALISATION 3.0 was spearheaded by "Individual" who had been empowered by COMPUTERS, INTERNET and WEB to be his own player in a FLATENED WORLD—where everyone was having a level playing field to do what he wants to do. The world had been turned from SMALL into a TINY nodes in the universe.

Alvin Toffler (I referred to him in Part One, too) in his trilogy of books, namely, “Future Shock”, “Third Wave” and “Power Shift” talks at length of the THREE WAVES of growth and development mankind has undergone since its inception. Each wave had a dominating philosophy.

FIRST WAVE was dominated by AGRICULTURE or physical force. SECOND WAVE, which coincided with GLOBALISATION 1.0 and GLOBALISATION 2.0 of FRIEDMAN, was dominated by MONEY or mass production. THIRD WAVE, almost synonymous with GLOBALISATION 3.0, is associated with INFORMATION or the KNOWLEDGE.

Accordingly, each wave described the society as such i.e. AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY and the INFORMATION SOCIETY. The First Wave lasted around 1500 years--- up to the start of Industrial Revolution in Europe. The Second Wave began around 15th Century and it carried on for almost four hundreds and fifty years and it lasted till mid Twentieth Century.

The Third Wave or the ‘Information Age’ began around the end of Second World War and it unleashed an era of ‘Total Transformation of the Society’. As the mankind entered 21st Century, the THIRD WAVE was also seemingly moving towards drawing curtains on itself. We would enter a new era in the near future i.e. the FOURTH WAVE ---‘THE COSMIC WAVE’.

The process of GLOBALISATION and KNOWLEDGE REVOLUTION has shrunk the world to a level where the world is heading into borderless landmass of free- flowing GLOBAL CITIZENS. At the same time, man has ventured into space. He is now looking beyond the earth. There are tell-tale signs of some form of intelligent life in the outer space. 'Mars orbitte'r has already raised hopes of water on the planet Mars. Many astronomers believe that "WE WERE NOT ALONE" in the universe.

We are sure heading into the COSMIC AGE where man could think of ‘GALAXY-HOPPING’ in the not-too-distant-future. We are now capable of imagining the mythical characters of VEDIC PEOPLE who could move into THREE WORLDS with the twinkling of an eye. Man would become a TIME TRAVELER.

We have been able to identify EARTH-II which lay at some 20.5 LIGHTS YEARS away from us. It could have some form of life. May be in next 50 years manned mission could be sent to this planet to find if there were any homosapiens there.Man would be interactive with ETs (Extra Terrestials)---or other forms of INTELLIGENT LIFE in the universe.

We are sitting at the edge of a revolutionary change in our ‘Ways of Life’—when ‘Religion and Nations’ would become irrelevant in our daily chores. We will THINK GLOBAL and ACT GLOBAL in everyway.

THIRD WAVE and GLOBALISATION 3.0 are shaping the future of the COSMIC MAN who is looking beyond the mundane frontiers of the EARTH and thinking of enmeshing into the SPACE. In such a scheme of things, RELIGION and NATION STATE would have NO PLACE. Some of us have already leapfrogged into the FOURTH WAVE of COSMIC AGE. The transient period is of GLOBALISED MAN and he has already hit the economical fabric of the GLOBE.

Nixon Bostorm, Director of FUTURE OF HUMANITY INSTITUTE at OXFORD University has postulated that the day was not far when a robotized man could actually become a reality. In other words, activities of a ‘BIO-TECH’ man could be simulated.

This is heralding characters of the movie MATRIX in reality for you, when you could be doing things in a ‘Virtual World’. Bostorm even goes to the extent of saying that 20 percent chance exists when ours could be a SIMULATED WORLD.

It means it could be switched off like our computer screen goes off when we log off. This view could be strengthening the “ID THEORY” of the creation of universe as against the “BIG BANG THEORY”. I leave it at this.

But the fact remains BIO-TECH BRAINS, as in the movie MATRIX, could be created who would be able to simulate a physical body and move around in a simulated world. Time and space to such VIRTUAL HUMAN BEINGS would be a matter of no significance. They would move from place ‘A’ to place ‘B’ with the twinkling of an eye.

Technologies are advancing so fast that TIME TRAVELLING won't be a mystery of VEDIC CULTURE. Digitalised Human beings could recreate them selves and relive their past ( read my piece on "Digitalised humans"--I shall dwell upon such technological advances in the next part)

We are heading into the age of COSMIC TRAVELLERS who would go ‘GALAXY HOPPING’ as the modern man goes ‘CONTINENT HOPPING’ today. ‘Cosmic travelers’ would provide us real time information on outer space. Where would, then, be the time for EARTHLY BOUNDARIES of MIND and Physical SPACE? Religion and Nation State would have no identity in the COSMIC WORLD of tomorrow.

The advent of FLATENED WORLD has already produced a class of ‘CONTINENT-HOPPING-CITIZENS’ who have hardly any strong affiliation or ties with one particular nation. They are a class of ROVING HUMAN BEINGS who are more inspired and fired by ECONOMIC zeal.

In a level-playing field, they look for opportunities to find cheapest ways of wealth creation. BPOs, KPOs and IT industry have revolutionized the concept of manufacture and production at the global level. Borders have begun to disappear and the walls separating people are collapsing everywhere.

The day is not far when the NATIONAL BOUNDARIES WOULD merge into one another and the concept of NATION STATE would be consigned to dustbin of human history. The world is likely to be broken into thousands of interdependent and interconnected economic nodes with no predominant political ideology as the governing philosophy.

Alvin Toffler has predicted the rise of some 5000 City States with their own economic agenda. Their emergence would really not spell a death knell for the religion but it would push it into insignificance. Religion might not play as significant a role in man’s spiritual life as it does today. It would become a private affair.

The recent upsurge of the RELIGION and the NATIONALISTIC EMOTIONS are the clear-cut signs of dying philosophies. The desperation is to protect the banishing identities in a GLOBALISED WORLD. A churning process is on in the form of religious violence and resulting revulsion to it. More the religious fundamentalists tryu to protect themselves by waves of violence, more they destroy themselves.

We see the OFFICIALDOM everywhere is trying to use FORCE to keep the ‘breaking unit’ under its wings. Nations after nations are falling prey to thi inner explosions. Call it insurgency, militancy, terrorism or what have you? The fact remains: NATIONS ARE UNDER ATTACK FROM WITHIN.

The GLOBE is currently transiting through a PROCESS of POLITICO-RELIGIOUS ‘Fission’ and ‘Fusion’ at the same time. While geo-politically, ‘LARGE’ is breaking into ‘SMALL’—it is leading to tension and violence in these nations. The process of FISSION is on.

Slowly and slowly all big or small nations will splinter into small economic nodes. This is the call of the GLOBALISED WORLD. While on one hand process of FISSION is on, on the other hand, the process of FUSION at the GLOBAL LEVEL is also working simultaneously, where these tiny economic nodes will be sewn into one big GLOBAL UNIT. These will be interconnected, interdependent and synchronized dots on the GLOBAL CHIP. Global dynamism will ensure that none could exist in a vacuum—they will exist with each other—supplementing and supporting.

It may sound funny but it is a truism that a dying insect grows wings and flutters more. Same is true of religious fundamentalism. Its sound and fury is basically to preserve its banishing identity in the wake of on-going globalization. It is true of all religions.

I reckon end of Twenty First Century will pull the curtains on religion once for all. The coming of the COSMIC AGE is sounding of the LAST POST for Religion and the Nation State. Witness their demise in the coming decades.

Thus, in conclusion what would a COSMIC MAN be? Let us sum up:-

1, A digitalised Human being---bereft of social emotions of present day. (Humans might become product of factories---Advent of Stem Cell and Genetic engineering has so advanced that Man-woman copulation might not be required).

2. He would be a Galaxy-Hopping "TIME TRAVELER".

3. He would colonize of the Outer Space.

4. He would be Interactive and perhaps, in conflict with ETs or other intelligent beings in the outer space.

It is time to know that cosmic age is knocking on the doors of mankind. Genetics, digitalization and outer space reach are the signature steps towards that age. Globe will become a microdot in the human empire of cosmic era. It would be reduced to one entity, where nations and religion would have no significance.

Tb