VIEW ON THE WORLD FROM GALLERY-by N.S.Venkataraman
During the last thousands of years ( from time immemorial) , humans have been “running in circle”, thinking that mirage before them is real and endlessly chasing the shadow. Even as humans do not know why they have come into the world and where they would go after the life process, they still imagine that they have a purpose in life and some target to be met and achieved.
Superiority complex :
Humans have been assuming that they are superior to animals , birds and other creatures, as according to humans , animals and creatures do not have any sense of purpose and just preoccupy themselves all the time in searching for food and focusing on physical pleasure and procreation. Comparing themselves with animals and other creatures , humans hold the view that humans are capable of attaining and enhancing knowledge and intellectual pursuits , while animals and other creatures have no capacity for intellectual attainments .
Of course, there have been several historical instances to prove that animals and other creatures too have several attributes that humans may not have. Yet, the superiority complex of humans over animals and other creatures stay.
Impact of technology advancement :
Enormous scientific and technological achievements have been recorded by humans in the past and such trends still continue. However, what is conspicuous is that such progress in technology fields have not been matched by progress with regard to overall attitude to life and adherence to value systems amongst humans , which are still dominated by negativities such as greed , jealousy ,prejudices , proneness to violence and self centredness .
In short and in other words ,the progress achieved in the field of technology developments and material advancements have not been reflected by improving value system in life process over the last thousands of years . The present behavior pattern of humans in comparison to humans several thousands of years seem to be not significantly different and one may reasonably conclude that the progress in the human civilization with regard to value system in life over the last thousands of years have nearly been zero.
Continuing war and conflict :
Over the last several centuries , history of the world have been dominated by violence , conflicts and wars , marked by greed for territory, power and fanatic prejudices amongst humans.
The reasons for the conflicts and wars that have happened over several centuries back are no different from the reasons for the wars and conflicts taking place today.
The World War I and World War II were clear examples , reflecting the baser attitude to life by the so called leaders of the governments , when millions of people lost their lives due to conflict for no worthwhile reason. Obviously, the world has not learnt any lesson from the bitter events of World War I and World War II and same kind of conditions continue even today with no end in sight.
China’s invasion of Tibet and brutally killing large section of peaceful protestors in Tibet a few decades back and continuing to control the Tibet region with vice like grip, the ongoing Russia Ukraine war, USA annexing Venezeula forcefully and claiming Greenland as part of USA, the war between Gaza and Israel and several other ongoing conflicts in various parts of the world, clearly indicate that humans have not changed at all , with hate , conflict and war contributing to the on going world events
Unchanged value systems amongst individuals :
Apart from the leaders of the governments, the history of individual humans too have seen no difference and their activities too have been marked by instances of unethical and self centred attitude to day today events , which are dominated by deceits and lies in the process of fulfilling the greed. By and large, it has been seen that the trend amongst the thought process of humans have largely remained the same, though there are a few isolated case of exceptions which are few and far between and do not reflect the overall trend.
Of course, there have been call by some erudite scholars and people of goodwill , who have been focusing on thought process beyond the present content of human life , and they have been pointing about the futility of war and conflict and advocating life of love and compassion. But, such call from people with noble attitude have been largely ignored and they remain as cry in the wilderness , with majority of humans paying only lip service to such meaningful call for peace and harmony.
The technology achievements only provide a false sense of progress about civilization. Any claim on the progress of human civilization in the light of the progress in technology only amount to claim in vacuum.
While the humans have brought around significant technology changes, this has been an external phenomenon and only material changes and certainly not in the inner mind.
Unchanged thought process :
In the Indian epic Mahabharatha, which was said to have happened thousands of years back, it is said that when Yudhishtra was asked by Yaksha ( a nature spirit / deity ) as to what is the most wonderful/surprising thing in the world?”, Yudhishtra eloquently replied that “Day after day, countless living beings go to the abode of Yama (death), yet those who remain behind believe themselves to be immortal. What can be a greater wonder than this?”
It has been seen for the last thousands of years that when men and women die due to natural or unnatural reasons , those around grieve for a few days and then leave the scene with no impact on their worldly view and approach to so called purpose in life.. Even the inevitable event of death has not made very large section of humans to introspect and develop a proper value system in life that can promote sense of peace, with a sense of detachment.
Is there hope for human civilization ? :
All said and done , it is now very obvious that thought process of humans have not undergone any significant change for the better during the last thousands of years and the progress in the essential aspects of human civilization are nothing to be proud about for the humans. When things have not changed for last thousands of years in the attitude to life , it is naïve to hope that things would improve in future at any time.
Men may come and men may go but the human civilization would continue to go for ever on the same trend with negativities predominant ,that has been seen from time immemorial.
