Learning, a staple component of all forms of life, is being made into a matter of challenge, as far as humans go, if the proliferation of tuition centers can be taken as an indication. An analysis of this issue leads to interesting results.
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Is Learning, a Problem?
Learning, a staple component of all forms of life, is being made into a matter of challenge, as far as humans go, if the proliferation of tuition centers can be taken as an indication. An analysis of this issue leads to interesting results.
Sunday, August 28, 2016
Co-operate, or else?
Though we
are advancing,
The whole
world is crying.
When days
are brightening,
And when new
year ringing.
How is it, I
wonder,
People, but
surrender.
Taking
fright of terror,
Also bemoan
horror.
Side by side
of atoms,
Entertain
old notions.
Super sonic
motions,
Tomorrow
and to abyss.
May be the
rich moiety,
Hold their
future shiny,
Hell for all
and sundry,
Of course,
with no pity.
Little
though they pick up,
Future will
not letup.
Then the
whole world put up,
The mighty
and the pent up.
What is in
this to learn,
What is there
to unlearn,
The mighty
and the rundown,
Await alike
portion.
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
Another Thought!
I
can't understand this.
Whatever
man attempts to do, unless he is careful enough to take necessary precautions
and have constant monitoring, the end will never be a success. Whereas,
whatever other forms of life attempts, unless some calamity occurs, will end in
success and that too with hardly any need for precautions or supervision. Isn't
this the main difference between humans and other forms of life?
Take
eating habits. Unless one takes care to find out, one can never know that there
is a need to examine what is there to eat. And only on examination will be
known whether it is fit for eating. More than that, unless one eats food chosen
in a particular manner, one may land up with health problems and deficiencies.
In
short, humans have no natural ability even to feed one well.
If
we examine further, it can be easily seen that we have no natural ability to
mate well or to think well. It should be clear from the above that, in earlier
days we have been giving vent to whatever natural talents we have, in thoughts and
actions, resulting in skirmishes, wars and pestilence. Only by invoking certain
other aspects of our thinking, like spiritual initiatives, that we are able to
channel our thoughts in a rather meaningful direction.
My
doubt is, what are we naturally good at?
Is
it art? Which is closely connected with beauty, which, philosophers say is but
an excuse for making something desirable, overlooking its lack of utility.
If
it isn't, what else?
I
think our forefathers knew the answer. Or at least, they had the inkling that
humans are not the ones at the top. For the old religions and cultures, you
see, all the super natural beings and other entities of worship are animals and
beasts. Isn’t it possible that the early humans installed as deities whatever
they found magnificent, terrific or awesome? Or, wouldn’t they have put them up
as good examples, for people to learn from?
Monday, August 22, 2016
Book Review: THE GROWTH OF RELIGION
‘THE GROWTH OF RELIGION: A STUDY OF ITS ORIGIN DEVELOPMENT’ by JOSEPH
MCCABE is a rather rational view of religion, and how, each of these historic religions,
including Christianity, evolved from the nebula of primitive religion.
’The much favored theory that man begins with a vague awe of nature,
passes to a belief that there is a great impersonal power pervading it, and finally
shapes this power into personal spirits, does not seem to correspond to the
facts’, the author specifies at the outset itself. Something religious like
exists only in areas connected with actual entities: the dead man, living
enemies, or wild animals. Even in these things, what is seen is personification of a few real objects
in nature rather than a belief in a general diffused force. But the author has
found that the primitive people have been entertaining the belief that men survive
death and continue to be useful or malevolent to their fellows, becoming
perhaps, the foundations of religion.
But the author also gives us a subtle warning, ‘we are in
fact trying to superimpose the language of the twentieth century on to the
ideas of the man of a hundred thousand years ago and fit into those mental
boxes or categories, the wonderful experience we have built in our minds’. For
example, one needs to realize that we are applying such words as “religion and spirit,”
or even “magic,” to the hazy images or feelings of one of these primitive
creatures. One has to be at guard!
Observing that social life did not properly begin until the
Cave Period, during the Glacial Epoch, the author expresses surprise that
religion seems to have been largely developed before the Cave Period.
Exploring the remnants of tribal lifestyle in Africa, the
book notes that only one or two African tribes put their chief spirit in the
sun or moon. ‘Even in these cases the spirit is simply lodged there. Most of the
African tribes put personal spirits in trees or waters, but it is only a few of
the higher tribes who reach the idea of a general earth- spirit, a goddess of fecundity.
The phallic spirit is equally late. Nor can we say that fear made the gods. Most
Of the chief deities of the Africans are not feared. They are drowsy, lazy,
good-natured, very big black fellows; prosperous and eupeptic chiefs. The gods
or semi-gods of the Africans seem, on the whole, to be magnified dead men.’
The book then examines the early religions of America, and
Asia. On analyzing the path followed by ancient civilizations, the book
observes that all of them should go through a period of skepticism, one of weariness,
perplexity, sexual license and rigorous austerity, social disorder and social
aspiration, civil war, melancholy, and confusion. It is a stage through which
all civilizations pass, and that is the stage in which we are today.
The book ends with a long discourse on the future prospects
of religion. Just as we discovered that reliance on supernatural help was
injurious, just as magic and religion took center stage, will people realize
that the resources of their own moral strength have been insufficiently
exploited. The book ends with a note that such is the likely future.
The author, I think like all people who examined religion,
god, or observances seems to think as natural for man to have such an elaborate
structure with no metabolic contribution. Why should man desire for such a
thing? What need is being met by this? I think these questions, if asked, would
have taken the book to a different end. (I have tried to address this, see,
http://hubpages.com/politics/evolutionofreligion)
Sunday, August 21, 2016
What Distinguishes Humans from Other Forms of Life?
We have already decided that human being is more than what we see. And we imagine of certain faculties present in us, like thought. Then we assume that such faculties are absent in all other forms of life. And we list all these presumptions as the ultimate differences between human and other forms of life.
Is it in order to consider this as a scientific view?
Published a 'hub' about this.
Published a 'hub' about this.
Thursday, August 18, 2016
Book Review: Ergonocracy
‘ERGONOCRACY: A new ideology for a Human Adapted 21st Century
Regime’, by JORGE ALVES, is about a new ideology for a Human Adapted 21st Century
Regime that boasts of a few sublime tenets like, “Power is
a necessary evil
and must be
shared by all community members”, or, “The people's
destiny is too important to be left on the hands of politicians”.
The beginning chapter of this book gives an overview of the proposed
system and specifies that promoting a system where there is an effective reduction
of centralized power with the help of information technology, is the ultimate
result. Citizens are provided with the opportunity to participate in the
decision-making process, leading to a horde of benefits. The next chapter analyses
the real characteristics of contemporary human beings, making clear how those traits
are addressed by the proposed system. While investigating into human relations
in general, the book identifies the present family arrangement as unsuitable to
human nature and mentions that the proposed social model should take this into consideration and
give everyone the opportunity to maintain the type of relationship best suited
in each case. The book in fact suggests an overhaul of the present family
structure.
Next chapter examines ‘ergonocracy’ in its political sphere. Making
a good observation that most citizens demonstrate no fondness for ideologies
and find it increasingly difficult to situate their logical viewpoints within
the traditional right or left on the political scale, it analyses various
facets of political power, like transparency, equality, financial control,
justice, and redressal of grievances. The next chapter is about the ‘ergonocratic’
society, how the local communities shall flourish, and what model of governance
will they follow. The economic model of such a system is studied next. Placing strong emphasis on the professional
development of working individuals in terms of their continued learning and
training, the book advances alternate directives for managing individual and
collective wealth and efforts to strengthen team spirit, to make a more
interesting and “playful” workplace and, maximize motivation and dedication. The
principles of administration of justice and its delivery, is analyzed in the next
chapter. The book here proposes some sweeping changes in the way we look at
crime and justice. And in the next chapter, impact of driverless transportation
systems and its effect on mobility of good and services in the proposed system
is presented.
Finally, transition to ergonocracy from the present setup is
examined. Mentioning that the aims of Ergonocracy is to provide all citizens with
equal political intervention power and to create one single class of workers
who are simultaneously company owners, the book proposes a three stage strategy.
The final phase of ergonocracy occurs on the day when there is only one army in
the world, and as the book says, ‘this army can bury its weapons, because as
far as we know, aliens pose no military risk to humans.’
Though the description of the system is sound and logical,
one cannot but feel inadequacy
of practical suggestions. Though the book mentions humans as ‘good or bad, according
to that characteristic that better contributes to ensure his survival’, no
suggestions are given as how these are to be incorporated into the framework of
ergonocracy. Also, another of the perennial problems faced by democracy, the multitude
of identities one can wear any time for ones convenience, and the disruptions that
can cause to the society at large, has not been covered sufficiently.
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