Communism is dead, deader than the proverbial Dodo. Along with it, the USSR (and its Super Power status), lies buried in the Christmas snows AD 1991~. The economic theory of State Capitalism today stands
utterly discredited. Eve the 'Commanding Heights' are up for sale all over the world. Only China and Cuba are keeping up the semblance of a fight but sooner, rather than later , these two will have to fall in line. And Communism, a vaunted ideological landmark will probably live on in as a museum piece in that last refuge of lost faiths, India.
2. Why has Communism, once accepted by many knowledgeable and intelligent persons as virtually the 'final truth' crumbled so very suddenly and with such finality? The reasons are many; some of them may be listed listed below:
Does the death by suicide of the Soviet Super Power leave us at the tender mercies of the other Tryanr? Does a Mr. Bush (or his successor who may make us quail!$) decide for every country every little thing on pain of being electronicuted% a la Iraq? That would indeed be terrible, for Mr. Bush's New World Order may be just another name for Pan-Americana.
Luckily for humanity at large, the menacing shadow of American 'arms' is only a passing one. The muscles of American 'arms' will cease to flex soon enough with the rapid decline of the once almighty dollar. You can actually see he prospective supplanters^ waiting in the wing willing, and able to to pounce on the aging giant.The real danger for humanity is in the revival of Nazism in Germany and the unrestricted growth of fundamentalism in oil-rich Islamic countries or the ganging up of the yellow nations&. Actually, humanity should hope that the aging giant hold aloft the 'star spangled banner' for long enough for Man to undergo the sea-change which will make international strifes entirely redundant and irrelevant.
4. Now about the tears. That the aim of Communism, a classless society providing justice and equality for all is (and was) highly laudable no one will gainsay. Again, the cry for social justice did not originate in the bosom of Communism and it shall not cease to be heard merely because Communism has called quits! Even in the modern European context demands for Liberty and Equality were very much in the forefront of the French Revolution! That demand - for social justice - had been voiced much earlier by Buddha and Christ and the demand is not going to evaporate merely because one experiment to try and arrange it has come to a premature and ignominious end. Man has always clothed his Maker with the virtues of Charity (daya) and mercy (karuna). Whether or not there is a Maker and , f so, what His qualities are may be questioned but that these are basic human virtues will be generally accepted.
5. The void created by the sudden demise of Communism must, therefore be filled up and the sooner that is done, the better. Any delay may usher in a new dark age which, backed by modern scientific power may be a thousand times more oppressive than anything experienced bu humnaity so far, the barbrism of the Monghols and Huns not excluded. Who or what shall fill the void, then?
6. Some possibilities are:
7. Any perceptive observer of current events would have noticed the stirrings of an Islamic revival, particularly in Africa and Asia. Though overshadowed just now by ethnic, linguistic and economic differences and disparities, a Pan Islamic movement is very much on the cards. A religious revival in the Christian world must follow the routing of the anti-Christ-Communism in Europe. There are also signs that the internal divisions within Christendom may be ironed out restoring Christianity to the preeminent position it once held as the harbinger of civilization. Gandhiji's ideas will also have many new votaries, now that the dangers of over industrialization and its impacts on the environment are becoming obvious. But, it does not seem likely that Christ, Mohammad or Gandhi will adequately fill the void left behind by Marx. we may have to look elsewhere for a superior idea that can enthuse humanity to move into a New World Order as we step into the 21st Century. The reasons for looking elsewhere, very briefly, are:
10. Humanity must, therefore, quickly move towards that knowledge which will provide an unshakeable basis for a really egalitarian society. The Christian - and its Islamic off-shoot- hope for equality in the belief that we are the 'sons of the same father' has not materialised firstly because the daughters have been ignored and secondly because, in real life, brothers have been the greatest enemies of each other., particularly when it came to sharing the patrimony. What is required is the universal awarness that like the same electricity lighting up the different bulbs in the house, we are all repositories of the same self or 'atman'. In a general, intellectual way, this is known already. It is the realised souls, the arrant 'adhikarika Purusha' who knows this for a certainty having experienced this identity. This knowledge will have to be made the 'common currency' and in the words of Swami Vivekananda, " The Vedanta once kept hidden in the forest would have to be exposed to the day light of our dwelling places". The practical way of doing that would be to see each human being as the embodiment of the divine. Again, to quote Swami Vivekananda: " I do not know of any God other than the sum total of all human souls". Once this is accepted, the objective of each human existence will be (i) the realisation of the God that is in him and (ii) to serve all other humans as God. "Sarve Jiva as Shiva" as Shri Ramakrishna said.
If all of us could do this, there is no strife and sharing ceases to be a sacrifice. This realization, this acceptance of the Idea "Jiva is Shiva" will redeem humanity and also perhaps bring in the 'GNOSTIC BEING' whose arrival has been predicted by Shri Aurobindo!!.
FOOT NOTES:
~ Gorbachev resigned on Christmas Day, 1991
@ Thing-in-itself, expression to denote the ultimate 'substance, in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
# Expression coined by George Orwell in his famous 'Critique' of Communism - Animal Farm
$ Dan Quayle is the present Vice President of USA and likely to be Bush's running mate for the next election also. Quayle has the reputation of being an eccentric
% Electronic and electricuted
^ Japan and Germany
& Japan, China & Korea, Mongolia will indeed be am irresistible force. Vivekananda did predict that the whole of Europe, not excluding Great Britain, will be under Chinese occupation - mercifully about 900 years from now.
* Talent was the highest valued (gold) coin in circulation during Christ's time. One of his parables was about the non-use of 'talent' entrusted by the master to his servants. John Milton makes a telling use of the word in his poem - 'On his Blindness' - '..that one talent which is death to hide..."
+ Mathew 5(40): 'If any man take away thy coat let him have thy cloak also;"
** Plato's Republic
!! Life divine, Book II Chapter 27
utterly discredited. Eve the 'Commanding Heights' are up for sale all over the world. Only China and Cuba are keeping up the semblance of a fight but sooner, rather than later , these two will have to fall in line. And Communism, a vaunted ideological landmark will probably live on in as a museum piece in that last refuge of lost faiths, India.
2. Why has Communism, once accepted by many knowledgeable and intelligent persons as virtually the 'final truth' crumbled so very suddenly and with such finality? The reasons are many; some of them may be listed listed below:
- As a faith it was over-dogmatic. Humanity has always had a sneaking suspicion that the 'final truth' is not so easy to achieve and like the ding-en-sich@ of Emmanuel Kant may really be unknowable!. A rigidly dogmatic faith however appealing and vital initially, sooner or later meanders into desert sand and being unable to change course, dries up there.
- The laboratory experiment of the new faith took place in the wrong country where despotism of a dynastic monarchy was replaced by another - Government of the Party, by the Party and for the Party! It turned out to be much the crueler of the two when the self-appointed protectors of the masses turned as it were in a trice, into their worst ever oppressors and exploiters.
- The new faith was founded on a wrong understanding of human nature. It ignored the dual nature of man - an economic animal but a God in the making in spirit. That the motive-springs of the Saint in man and the animal are different was over-looked. While economic activity is rooted in combativeness, self-aggrandisement and 'bhoga' or enjoyment, the Saint is motivated by love (of 'thy neighbour' variety) and renunciation or 'tyaga'. It was indeed foolish of the faith to expect that a motive that would activate a Gandhi or a Shaw will also be adequate for the ordinary human-animal. The average, run-of-the-mill animal cannot be expected to keep on doing his best indefinitely for the benefit of the 'more-equal'# animals in the manner of the old work-horse in the Animal Farm! More so, if you have deliberately and ruthlessly suppressed the springs of altruism and have forced every budding saint to seek refuge in the vodka bottle.
Does the death by suicide of the Soviet Super Power leave us at the tender mercies of the other Tryanr? Does a Mr. Bush (or his successor who may make us quail!$) decide for every country every little thing on pain of being electronicuted% a la Iraq? That would indeed be terrible, for Mr. Bush's New World Order may be just another name for Pan-Americana.
Luckily for humanity at large, the menacing shadow of American 'arms' is only a passing one. The muscles of American 'arms' will cease to flex soon enough with the rapid decline of the once almighty dollar. You can actually see he prospective supplanters^ waiting in the wing willing, and able to to pounce on the aging giant.The real danger for humanity is in the revival of Nazism in Germany and the unrestricted growth of fundamentalism in oil-rich Islamic countries or the ganging up of the yellow nations&. Actually, humanity should hope that the aging giant hold aloft the 'star spangled banner' for long enough for Man to undergo the sea-change which will make international strifes entirely redundant and irrelevant.
4. Now about the tears. That the aim of Communism, a classless society providing justice and equality for all is (and was) highly laudable no one will gainsay. Again, the cry for social justice did not originate in the bosom of Communism and it shall not cease to be heard merely because Communism has called quits! Even in the modern European context demands for Liberty and Equality were very much in the forefront of the French Revolution! That demand - for social justice - had been voiced much earlier by Buddha and Christ and the demand is not going to evaporate merely because one experiment to try and arrange it has come to a premature and ignominious end. Man has always clothed his Maker with the virtues of Charity (daya) and mercy (karuna). Whether or not there is a Maker and , f so, what His qualities are may be questioned but that these are basic human virtues will be generally accepted.
5. The void created by the sudden demise of Communism must, therefore be filled up and the sooner that is done, the better. Any delay may usher in a new dark age which, backed by modern scientific power may be a thousand times more oppressive than anything experienced bu humnaity so far, the barbrism of the Monghols and Huns not excluded. Who or what shall fill the void, then?
6. Some possibilities are:
- Spread, throughout the world, of Islamic egalitarianism. Maybe voluntary or by the threat of nuclear annihilation. Pan-Islamism with the backing of Petro-dollars and of nuclear arms is a distinct possibility as the break up of the Soviet Union has created at least one Islamic nuclear state. Other Islamic countries are not only veering towards fundamentalism but are also mad about the Islamic Bomb.
- A strong Christian revival with simultaneous emphasis on maximum use of the 'talents'* entrusted to man by his Maker on the one hand and sharing of the surplus produce (the Biblical coat'+) on a purely voluntary basis, on the other.
- A conscious and deliberate adoption by the rulers of every country of the 'trusteeship' principle advocated by Gandhiji along with the Christian vow of poverty. This in a sense is the Socratic or, if you prefer, the Platonic prescription of Philosopher Kings**. This may not be as absurd as it may appear at first glance. We have seen in Indian history how power (i.e., authority to legislate and adjudicate) could be divorced from weaponry ( of the Kshtriyas) or money (of the Vysyas) and held by a group (the Brahmins) which preached and practised the twin 'dharmas' of love of knowledge and self-imposed poverty. India has also seen how in various tribal groups, still surviving in isolated pockets (in North East India for example) property like land and forest could for centuries be owned by the community as a whole. The assets could be put to productive use by the individuals only to the extent authorised by the 'elders'! There was also sufficient production to meet the minimum needs of all and distribution was equitable. This miracle was achieved by keeping the needs down to the essential minimum and by separating the off-springs from the parents as soon as the child was weaned. Thereafter, his or her upkeep, training etc., were the responsibility of the village. It was hence unnecessary for anyone to accumulate for the next generation. Similarly, the old or the infirm were taken care of by the village and it was not necessary to build up a personal nest egg for the rainy days of old age or illness.
7. Any perceptive observer of current events would have noticed the stirrings of an Islamic revival, particularly in Africa and Asia. Though overshadowed just now by ethnic, linguistic and economic differences and disparities, a Pan Islamic movement is very much on the cards. A religious revival in the Christian world must follow the routing of the anti-Christ-Communism in Europe. There are also signs that the internal divisions within Christendom may be ironed out restoring Christianity to the preeminent position it once held as the harbinger of civilization. Gandhiji's ideas will also have many new votaries, now that the dangers of over industrialization and its impacts on the environment are becoming obvious. But, it does not seem likely that Christ, Mohammad or Gandhi will adequately fill the void left behind by Marx. we may have to look elsewhere for a superior idea that can enthuse humanity to move into a New World Order as we step into the 21st Century. The reasons for looking elsewhere, very briefly, are:
- Pan-Islamism: Islam, in spite of its egalitarianism suffers from the same over-dogmatism that killed Communism. Its intolerance of other faiths apart from its internal humanity. Should it mellow down to a bolder faith of universal love eschewing its hatred for the 'non-believers may be at some future date its egalitarianism will build up a brotherhood of man. But not just now.
- Christian Love: This has had a long innings of about 2000 years and while it has done quite a lot of good. by spreading world wide a very highly ethical theory, it has lost a lot of its vitality on account of internal dissensions. The Christian world is ripe for a change but the wisdom of Christ will have to appear in a new garb, shorn off theological dogma, before Christ can unify first Christendom and then the rest of the world.
- Philosopher Kings: However much we may hanker after selfless (therefore, celibate) rulers and their obedient subjects who love high thinking so much that they accept simple living with a smile, the days of self-contained and self-sustained village economies are over. It will also be impossible to put back the clock of consumerism. A society used to the ease of micro wave ovens, deep-freeze storage and machines that do the washing and has been reared up on instant entertainment via TV and video, will not, cannot, go back to the primitive living of the pre-Second World War days. Even the knowledge that we are moving towards an ecological disaster which may very well terminate mans very existence on Earth, will not make man give up the fruits of the Forbidden Tree.
10. Humanity must, therefore, quickly move towards that knowledge which will provide an unshakeable basis for a really egalitarian society. The Christian - and its Islamic off-shoot- hope for equality in the belief that we are the 'sons of the same father' has not materialised firstly because the daughters have been ignored and secondly because, in real life, brothers have been the greatest enemies of each other., particularly when it came to sharing the patrimony. What is required is the universal awarness that like the same electricity lighting up the different bulbs in the house, we are all repositories of the same self or 'atman'. In a general, intellectual way, this is known already. It is the realised souls, the arrant 'adhikarika Purusha' who knows this for a certainty having experienced this identity. This knowledge will have to be made the 'common currency' and in the words of Swami Vivekananda, " The Vedanta once kept hidden in the forest would have to be exposed to the day light of our dwelling places". The practical way of doing that would be to see each human being as the embodiment of the divine. Again, to quote Swami Vivekananda: " I do not know of any God other than the sum total of all human souls". Once this is accepted, the objective of each human existence will be (i) the realisation of the God that is in him and (ii) to serve all other humans as God. "Sarve Jiva as Shiva" as Shri Ramakrishna said.
If all of us could do this, there is no strife and sharing ceases to be a sacrifice. This realization, this acceptance of the Idea "Jiva is Shiva" will redeem humanity and also perhaps bring in the 'GNOSTIC BEING' whose arrival has been predicted by Shri Aurobindo!!.
FOOT NOTES:
~ Gorbachev resigned on Christmas Day, 1991
@ Thing-in-itself, expression to denote the ultimate 'substance, in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
# Expression coined by George Orwell in his famous 'Critique' of Communism - Animal Farm
$ Dan Quayle is the present Vice President of USA and likely to be Bush's running mate for the next election also. Quayle has the reputation of being an eccentric
% Electronic and electricuted
^ Japan and Germany
& Japan, China & Korea, Mongolia will indeed be am irresistible force. Vivekananda did predict that the whole of Europe, not excluding Great Britain, will be under Chinese occupation - mercifully about 900 years from now.
* Talent was the highest valued (gold) coin in circulation during Christ's time. One of his parables was about the non-use of 'talent' entrusted by the master to his servants. John Milton makes a telling use of the word in his poem - 'On his Blindness' - '..that one talent which is death to hide..."
+ Mathew 5(40): 'If any man take away thy coat let him have thy cloak also;"
** Plato's Republic
!! Life divine, Book II Chapter 27
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