May
12
Mind the rational faculty
Indian philosophies ignored the Individual, and suggested that he works and uses his mind for the social good but not his own. That led to the societal arrangement of the caste system. To prohibit the Individual from thinking about his own rational good, religion was used as myth. One of such myth I remember is, Brahmin represents the head of Vishnu the almighty to teach the society, Kshatriya represents Vishnu’s shoulders, to fight for the safety of society, Vaisyas represents the tummy of Vishnu, to do business and provide living to society, the Shoodras represents the foot of Vishnu to do the minion works of the society. It was all set for the collective common good of the society. Each person was suggested to sacrifice and perform his duties for the society without thinking for the self-interest, as selfishness was demeaned and sacrifice was glorified. Man was considered as a sacrificial animal. When man asked why should he keep shoe-making? Why cannot he fight, or teach or rule or do business, he was told, it is God’s will and it is the result of his previous life, and he has to bear the results in this life by serving the society by making shoes. Society is imagery, individual is a reality. Society is no conscious entity, individual is conscious. Society does not exist, individual do. Yet, the conscious Man was forced to sacrifice for the collective common good of societal imagery. It caused doom because collective common good is nothing but a myth. The common good or social interest or public welfare is an undefined and impalpable concept, because public don’t exist. What exists is the number of Individuals. Public welfare is meaningless because it means the sum of good of all individuals, but then how will one define what is good for an Individual? Common good remains mystical, impalpable and serves as an escape from morality, which causes corruption, suppression and exploitation.
Man was told that he does not own his self, his mind, his life, his work and its products, but he is the property of the group (the state, the society, the collective) that may organize him in any way it pleases, that may order his convictions, stipulate the route of his life, control his work and confiscate his products. The degradation was inevitable; no society can remain strong if the Individual is considered insignificant. And it doomed to dark ages and then slavery under Persians and then Europeans.
Indian philosophy
After independence in 1947, a hope for the freedom of Individual was enshrined by providing right to vote under democracy, yet it remained a hope alone. Man is not infallible, he commits mistakes. In absence of Individual rights, the mistake of one man becomes the mistake of every Individual and every individual is bound to suffer it, immorality, corruption and bribery becomes contagious. Rights are a moral principle defining and sanctioning freedom of action of Individual in a social order. That principle is, every man is responsible for his act, and its results, no Individual can force any other by any means violating his individual rights. Yet, in India the Individual rights were not provided, and were sacrificed again for the mystical impalpable collectivistic common good.
To remove the effects of Feudal system and Oligarchic Zamindari system, all land was confiscated from Individuals by the government. Yet, the Individual of free India was denied the Property Rights for the property earned by virtue of his honest hard work. He was forced to pay taxes to earn a living, so that his hard working may become a supply for the lazy person unwilling to work, it was said that it will help poor and underprivileged but it never happened. On the name of removing caste system and discrimination, reservation were applied for some men at the expense of some others. The Individual again was forcibly sacrificed. India adopted socialism with notion, “live for the nation” and held all property and production rights, License Raj, Reservation and red-carpeting bureaucracy took charge to enslave Indians. The religion or mystiques of God was changed by Nation, or Society, yet Individual was never freed to live for his own development for his own good by using his rational mind. When the Individual asked, why should he not earn his living, and remain dependent on reservation like a beggar, or a looter, it was said that in history, you have suffered a lot, hence you do not need to think now, nor to work hard, we will give you free-food, free-job, you will give us vote to rule you. It was said that good is that, which is good for society. But society is imagery, it doesn’t exist. So, how can collectivistic good exist? That question was evaded again.
Democracy is correct policy if Individual rights (including property rights) are kept intact, otherwise, democracy becomes a tyrannical dictatorship of majority over minority, and Individual is the smallest minority. Due to the socialistic, altruistic, sacrificial “common good” concept, independent India faced the first emergency rule in 1975. Despite all common good ideas, poverty, unemployment and illiteracy in India were abysmal, and in 1991 India was about to be bankrupt. Corruption reached its heights and all where, only exploitations and loot gained success. The standards of politicians degraded to new lows, and situation came when only few of the sitting MLA’s or MP are not corrupt or facing criminal charges. Frauds, scams bribery became major news of daily papers. Not only that, terrorism, regionalism, Naxalism, Maoism, and many other facets of collectivism gained hold in India. After 1992, India further liberalized and opened up some gates for Individual freedom because of which India is again breathing fresh. Yet, freedom is a far long dream, because for freedom, statist governmental system is to be removed. Government must not have any interference in economic, educational, and production sectors. The only liable work of government must remain to protect the rights of each and every individual indiscriminately. A free-market Laissez-Faire system alone can provide Individual freedom. Yet, in present India, the government and its institutes like police, judiciary and education itself is the exploiter. India, is surely gaining strength in economy as it is getting liberalized with the strength of the rational free-market, but India is certainly facing the dangers of Intellectual Bankruptcy.
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walker walkin alone Says:
May 15th, 2008 at 12:50 pmcultivating is only allowed, because, they know they can loot the harvest
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