“THE STRIFE THAT WAS…….IS!!!!”
Damn all absolutes. The moral, ethical, political and social ones usually not open to challenge as well as those based on evidence and hence open to examination.
The first group of absolutes has given us faith, support, succor and values on which to base and plan our lives, both for the here and the hereafter. It has defined the good and the bad, the virtuous and the evil . And by virtue of its absolutism, it has given us wars ranging from the crusades to the conflagration in Croatia as also an epidemic in the name of Jehad.
The other has given us the industrial revolution, longer life and increasing material comfort for many ; the best of the rest are advised to seek solace with the first set — pollution , the nuclear bomb , fear and traffic jams on information highways .
Since tradition — be it religious or political or social … takes much longer to change than science, the fight between the two began from the moment man learnt to think about things other than survival.
The fusion of sciences has given us cloning. It has given us computers that can “think”. It has given us cybernetics which, roughly translated, means attempts to make machines as close to man as possible. Even a robot (Sorry, humanoid) which dreams & hopes is not too far away. And therein lies the problem. Is cloning immoral? Is cloning or making humanoids a sacrilegious attempt to play god?? Are the Pope’s decrees against birth control, abortion and sexual aberration still relevant? How real is virtual reality?
The trend towards user-friendliness in the field of high technology has made adapting to scientific advances somewhat easier , if the way today’s children interact with the machine is any indication . But the hardliners in the ethics industry have been hard put to attune their values with the times. It took the church over one and a half centuries to recognize Galileo Galilei . And there was this virtuous , Bishop M. Wright from California , USA who thundered : “If God had wanted man to fly , he would have given him wings.” That good Bishop had two sons: Wilbur and Orville.
This does not mean social values have not changed down the ages. Western education and accompanying change in social attitudes led to the abolition of “Sati” in India. Economics forced the replacement of the old fashioned –Suswagatam- doormats with boards saying “beware of the Dog”.
Science by itself is neutral, neither good nor evil. It is the use we make of it that can be judged according to our prevalent mores and values. But just because we are too scared to debate the possible use and misuse of , for instance , cloning , do we have the right to condemn or ban it? Or describe it as man’s greatest gift to man?
The conflict between morality and science is nothing new. It is as old as sin. What is new is the rapidly changing battleground realities. Armed with the ever increasing arsenal of “Truths”, science throws new legal, political , technological and moral choices at us every alternate second. And they cannot be judged morally or ethically simply because there are no previous terms of reference.
The value systems ingrained in the present generation were originally prepared for a more ordered , organized and, till very recently , very rural society . And the sudden, rapid rise of urbanization and mass communications was not on the agenda.
So we have parents who wish their children to grow with the times, but fail to realize that they too must do the same. That they too must keep re evaluating their principles and practices, and change them, if necessary. The result: Emotional turmoil and trauma leading to clashes, sometime physical, between parent and child, parent and parent , between you and me.
Take an average (A term used in statistics) middle class urban Indian student who attends an English — medium school . Apart from the three R’s (Reading, Writing and ‘ rithmetic) , he is taught several maxims and dictums , designed by the powers that be to help him grow up to be an ideal , a “good” citizen . He also learns very quickly that the morals preached are rarely practiced. Reality, they see , shows justice is best achieved by injustice . It takes wars to achieve peace . And those ostracized as “immoral” and “Unethical” seem to be having a lot more fun. Back home , there is another set of values altogether . “Don’t criticize…. They’re old and (therefore) wise. If we have managed to exist for so long with the help of this or that ritual, there must be a meaning behind it.” Leave the questions of life and death to the Pundits, the Mullahs, the Rabbis , The Bishops and The Philosophers . Try telling them that organized religion after all , is only an attempt to pin down , to define and there by limit the divine …… and see what happens .
This struggle to reconcile random access memory (RAM) with RAM is the cause of many students literally losing their minds.
In a public school, high in the cold Darjeeling hills, it is still a crime to keep both your hands in your trouser pockets. A crime punishable by getting them stitched up for a day or two . Finally traced, the original reason for the framing of the law was found to be “Servants of the Queen should not keep both hands in their pockets.” Tradition still reigns supreme, even in isolated pockets.
With its ever increasing reach, the media too is adding to the moral confusion, playing havoc with the social mindsets of many. The media calls it choice. But the fact is that it determines the choices. The tabloids exploit the sensational to sell their editions, the conservative papers try to try to avoid the lurid details and stick to the bare facts, to cater to more prudish readership. But here too , there is moral and social friction , and sometimes even black humour . The style sheet of the Los Angeles Times disapproves of words such as hick , spic , nigger and whore . The same newspaper carries a weekly listing of bestselling books by black authors. On November 1st , the non-fiction paperback list was headed by a book written by Don Spears , “In search of Good Pussy : Living Without Love.”
“What we call evil in this world , moral as well as natural , is the grand principle that makes us social creatures , the solid basis , the light and support of all trades without exception : luxury.” Said the 18th century author Bernard Mandeville in his ‘Fable of the Bees’.
Down the ages, man has experimented with total subjugation — the former Soviet Union and fundamentalist Iran spring immediately to the mind. He has also dabbed with total … well, nearly total … freedom. Remember the hippies movement, the flower children? Neither pursuit has worked out well. The first subjugates the individual to a totalitarian regime, based either on religious or political absolutism. Pluralism, on the other hand, leads to friction and endless debates over choices about issues which are needed to be tackled immediately.
“If Castro were (sic) confident of the revolution, Cuba would have free speech, free elections and free enterprise.” Wrote Richard E. Kopleman of New York in a letter to Time.
Democracy, or the choice (Voice?) of the multitudes, is also not infallible. In the just concluded Russian elections, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, described by the western media as a “Rabid Rubble Rouser” won an amazingly strong parliamentary bloc. Commenting on this man’s sudden ascent to power, Valentina Dergnov , a 52 year old Moscow building caretaker , said: “Zhirinovsky promised us cheap Vodka and easy answers . Russia has a lot of drunks. It is dangerous when they go to the polls.”
We have value systems which are losing relevance in the face of the pace of “Scientific” advances. We see a world ravaged by the forces of both. Is there some way out of this mess? Some route to reconciliation which will bring about peace on earth, an end to strife?
Recently, history has been made lighter by a pandemic. Only two epochs remain: Pre-COVID and Post- COVID. All other eras have been relegated to obscurity. However, humans are yet to understand that they are a single race. Will they ever accept this reality?
Before we even attempt to answer this question it would be relevant to note two old sayings.
ONE: Remove the question mark, and you are God.
And TWO: Progress is absolutely impossible without conflict. Absolutely…………….
