Each of us is responsible for our own moral code, as each of us must live with its consequences. This is the basis of acceptance. Loosely quoted from Ayn Rand, I believe it is important to never let anything undermine the rational verdict of your own mind. Rational verdict, it cannot be reached without proper thinking. It cannot be impulsive action or suggest following of the trend. To reach “rational verdict”, one need to go through a critical enquiry of his own.
But, does our system provide us any freedom to think and rationalize for our own?
Professor Krishna Kumar explains in his editorial article for “The Times Of India” writes about how the Indian Education system is a Zero Sum Game.
He discusses briefly, that how a student right from his primary school is forced and indoctrinated and then discriminated with others on perpetual grounds of no reasonable basis. How the parents and the peers pressurize a student to never to look for his own “self” and enquire for his own benefit, yet they shows them to follow the same old beaten path which leads them to loose their self-esteem again and again at some level or other. He discusses how irrationally, even principals and school teachers grains the myth in mind, that science or math is “harder” than other subjects and how the other “vocational subjects” are ignored.
In India, education is obviously a well-set system of indoctrination, where free-thinking and a will to rationalize one’s own will is prohibited.
As a result of which, students never questions themselves and discovers their own logic and originality about learning things.
But that’s not all; I will take it a lot further. The funny thing is, having lived all their life in India, studied and educated in Indian educational system, one have no way of knowing how much He Himself is indoctrinated.
Any system which has the indiscriminate power over the educational system of any country, it will paint the whole world outside it as total chaos.
In India, the government is never made to look bad, of course when you grow up and listen to media you know how screwed up the government is, but even then the system is never criticized specific people might be (because the Media itself is made up of people indoctrinated just like you and me).
Point is, the Indian government indoctrinates people about how government is their savior. Everybody is screwed, but still people think that if the government is not there then things will screw up Even more.
We have ‘unity in diversity’ (unionist indoctrination by the Indian government purely for the administrative purposes). If people are not educated in the Indian educational system then they might start asking questions which would be really bad for the government, so lets setup a CBSE, State Boards, everything must be oversight by the government.
Surely government does not control Mass media in India, but government does control where the media is trained for at least 12 years.
Yet, there is freedom. Thinking is yet Not banned, there is freedom of expression. Though you will be criticized for thinking, you may be branded as stupid, outrageous, treacherous, unpatriotic, insane and selfish. Take for example, in India asking these questions is stupid, outrageous, treacherous, unpatriotic or insane.
1) Global Warming, is there a chance that humans are not responsible for global warming? What if we are wrong? Aren’t we simply hindering human progress by worrying about something we haven’t even caused?
2) Recycling, does recycling really help in saving resources? How about paper? If we use more paper, we are simply ordering more trees to be planted to produce paper.
3) Democracy, can we ever think of a system outside democracy? How about privatizing the police, justice, and defense? How about cutting down the size of the government? How about letting private companies make electricity, supply water to us?
4) Taxes, what is the moral justification of taxes? How are taxes different from robbery? And how the hell taxes are government’s right? If taxes are charged for the services government provides, why can’t I change my service provider? How come if I earn Rs 100,000/- I pay Rs 30,000/- for using the same services, and I pay Rs 90,000/- for using precisely the same services if I earn Rs 300,000/-
5) Kashmir, if we believe so much in democracy why don’ we ever talk about a referendum in Kashmir? Shouldn’t we even try to hold free and fair elections there?
6) Hindu Rashtra, what is the point of having a Hindu rashtra, what rules/laws are we going to implement which we cannot do in Secular India(if they are that good in the first place). Why is polygamy not allowed? What’s morally wrong with that, since Muslims in India can legally marry many times simultaneously? Why are Muslim women not allowed to marry more than once?
7) Ban on Jodha-Akbar, Water, Fire, Dharm, etc. How the fuck does government gets to ban a movie at the first place? Crime of inciting hatred, how can you incite hatred at the first place? All I do is speak words, if someone chooses to act upon His feelings (now which are his feelings) how come it’s my fault?
9) Drugs, how is sale or drugs illegal? A person voluntarily Chooses to buy drugs, and another Chooses to sell drugs, how it is wrong or illegal. How can you punish someone for doing drugs when there is no victim who is complaining?
10) Prostitution, how is it a crime? Two people voluntarily choose to exchange money for sex. Again, no victims here who are complaining, then what the heck society or government has to do with it?
11) Guns, how possessing a gun a crime? What is it the crime of Sanjay Dutt, whom did he harm? Who was the victim who was shot by Sanjay Dutt’s gun? How does government gets to restrict the usage of guns? If I kill someone from a Gun(not in self-defense), I surely am a criminal, but how come merely a possession of a firearm without taking prior permission of the government is a crime punishable by YEARS of prison.
12) Why Rushdie or M.F Hussain be criticized for writing a book or drawing a painting?
….. the list goes on and on…..
It is true that every system indoctrinates or tries to, so Indian education system or American education system is no exception.
I still remember how NCERT History books condemned Capitalism in 8th grade.
Yet, irrespective of reading all ignominious scripts against capitalism, and all favorable notions for socialism, I am a capitalist, and always was.
You can surely say that a system Indoctrinates, but it depends on the Individual, that how much he let the Indoctrination to affect him, and how much his own “Rational Faculty”, His mind he uses for reaching his own conclusions and “Rational Verdicts” of his mind.
And that ability of an Individual, brings the change, the freedom against Indoctrinations, the revolution.
Church kept the Copernicus theorems and Galilean Physics under dark covers for 100 years. it persecuted and killed Galileo openly for saying that solar system is heliocentric and earth is not stable but moving.
Yet, Isaac Newton, reached the Galilean physics, and discovered it, and proved it further right.
No Indoctrination by any system remains forever. Yet, it is true that for a while, some people or a generation may remain affected.
No one is Unbiased, yet we keep trying to rationalize things. We keep trying to reason each and every emotion we tend to occur.
That reasoning, refines the biases and indoctrinations, and provides a clear insight about the things we learnt, whether they are reasonably right or wrong and from there, we decide for our own self as Individual whether to accept right, or accept wrong.
“I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction.”(‘Anthem’ 1946)
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