by Naresh Jotwani
Simple people go about their lives in simple ways – farming, fishing, carpentry, baking … whatever. Sometimes they are happy, sometimes sad; sometimes they celebrate, sometimes quarrel. Not being ‘sophisticated’, they do not say that they are ‘pursuing their self-interest’. They don’t need that kind of verbiage – because they are simply living.
Billions of people have lived their lives in this manner over millennia. One prays that, for millennia more, simple people will continue living their lives in simple ways.
But – alas! – things are not that simple everywhere; there is a ‘sophisticated, poisonous fly in the ointment’.
Some members of Homo Sapiens do not live simple lives. Neglecting basic biology, self-proclaimed ‘highly civilized’ people consider themselves as another kind of being altogether — and describe simple people as ‘deplorable’, ‘backward’, ‘lower caste’ … et cetera.
Amongst these self-proclaimed ‘highly civilized’ people, it is a mark of sophistication and smartness to apply one’s intelligence – including its artificial, hired, stolen and feigned varieties – towards ‘enlightened self-interest’. Amongst such people, ‘self-interest’ has the same meaning across cultures — namely, ‘a steady increase in one’s wealth, status, power, fame, sense pleasures … et cetera‘; an insatiable ego is at work.
With that meaning, however, the word ‘enlightened’ becomes problematic – because that kind of ‘self-interest’ has nothing to do with enlightenment. In fact the word ‘enlightened’ is added here only as a fig leaf. To speak of ‘self-interest’ without that glorifying adjective gives the ugly game away – the game of greed, lust and ego. Hence the misleading adjective.
‘Enlightened’ in this context means only this: ‘appearing smart and not getting one’s backside exposed’. Among the so-called ‘civilized’, it would be bad form to suggest that ‘enlightened’ has something to do with truth and compassion. Eyebrows would be raised, and party invitations withdrawn.
In every human society, the ugly truth of ‘naked self-interest’ must be covered up in this way, using the cover of ‘being civilized’, ‘being dear to God’ … or something similar.
A person’s worth is then reckoned by how much he adds to the societal pool of the illusion of refinement. Through clever PR, that illusion is multiplied over and over, creating a ‘smoke and mirrors empire’ of illusion and deception. Everyone is in thrall to this fake empire — through its high priests and priestesses, who invariably gain the most from it.
Wealth — the critical fuel for such an ‘empire of greed’ – must be kept rolling in. If pools of slaves or cheap labour dry up, other means must quickly be taken up. Lies, scams, usury, robbery, torture, murder, war … all this is ‘grist to the mill’ for this ‘empire’. High priests and priestesses duly sanctify ‘whatever it takes’ to keep the fake show going.
Unfortunately for such fake ‘civilizations’, Mother Nature has something else up her sleeve – namely, the law of inertia and the law of diminishing returns. Over time, inexorably, empires of illusion and deception run into these immutable laws, crack, crumble and crash.
Life-spans of such ‘civilizations’ are getting shorter. Using computers, present-day MBAs and PhDs run through scenarios in a few hours which court advisers in earlier times would take weeks to work through. In this way, thought processes today run faster by two orders of magnitude; inevitably, mistakes, crashes and cover-ups are more frequent.
Today the myths of ‘civilization’ are confusing the ‘civilized’ themselves. Brutal tricks which worked in earlier centuries are not working. The Global South has seen through the dirty games of the ‘civilized’. As desperation sets in among the latter, their tricks become puerile and ineffective. Frantic search for short term gain hastens long term decay.
The root cause of decay is intelligence which is (a) muddled by greed and lust, and (b) boxed in by lack of understanding and empathy. This is a deadly combination, which is very often wrongly viewed and projected as ‘strength’.
With their muddled and boxed-in intelligence, the ‘elite’ have trouble accepting the unity of mankind. Emotionally, they are unable to accept oneness in kind with the poor, the deprived and the simple people. The delusion of being ‘another in kind’ boxes them in and justifies to them their cruel and relentless exploitation of simple people.
Today these ‘elite’ — a tiny minority of a society’s population — are in a dead-end situation, and incapable of finding a way out. Their desperate antics are attempts to deny and to run away from the simple truth of oneness of humanity.
The deep-down sense of being boxed-in, and the outward display of greed, lust and vanity, form a deadly vicious cycle with no avenue of escape. Their antics – akin to an animal rattling its cage – only make matters worse. This state of mind can be dubbed the ‘thwarted intelligence disorder’ (TID). More descriptive words, such as ‘demented’, have also been used for such conditions.
To be sure, the TID afflicted have learnt how to project ‘smartness’ — dress, mannerisms, stale wit, one-upmanship, repartee, facial gestures, cronyism, showing off … the full toolkit. But true appreciation of reality and an original, creative response … duh?
TID afflicts only a sliver of the population, but this sliver — the so-called ‘elite’ — holds all the reins of power and manipulation. There is a ruthless ‘pecking order’ even within this sliver, but that point is irrelevant here.
The question here is: How does TID affect human life?
For answers, one must first see through the many ‘nice’ labels used as propaganda on behalf of TID — labels such as ‘modern’, ‘progressive’, ‘imposing’, ‘elite’, ‘cultured’, ‘celebrity’ … blah blah blah. Labels are chosen for emotional appeal; each label is a way of covering up the ugly underlying reality, of creating a fairy tale of the corrupt ‘elite’.
Such labels build structures of deception in the human mind. Over time, however, the walls close in. One phoney label cannot exorcise another; one brand of deception cannot cure another. The mindless rush towards wealth, fame and power is no more than an attempt to sustain one’s delusions, to avoid facing the reality. That pathetic condition cannot end well.
For the mindful individual, there has always been a path to clarity. The first step has to be clear diagnosis. Cunning and deception must be seen clearly for what they are — no matter how much wealth and power they project.
Deceivers usually latch on to an individual’s weakness which can be exploited. Hence the need for self-knowledge. One needs to understand oneself far better than any deceiver can.
To imagine and develop alternatives, a distance is needed from the crooked games of power and wealth. Over millennia, many great teachers have explained these matters clearly – Krishna, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Christ, Rumi, Kabir … and more.
Of course, for those consumed and driven by TID, all that is nonsense. Their vulgar show of hubris goes on, chasing power, pleasures and wealth. The mindless antics of these people cause huge harm to life on the planet.
Is there a broader, systemic cure? Does new life bring new hope? Is it possible that Mother Nature sends the young as messengers of love, to bring in much-needed change and course correction?
The young – quite simply because they have not yet ‘grown up’! – have not sensed even a whiff of TID. Their intelligence is lively, sparkling, creative and fresh. Their spirit is strong and true. It has not sunk to the level of hypocrisy and a false show of ‘sophistication’ and ‘class’.
We pray that the young will achieve all that they aspire to achieve, while negotiating the pitfalls created by TID. They may at times have to ‘kick some TID butt’ – figuratively speaking, of course – but that would be all for the good. One cannot teach an old dog new tricks — but perhaps one can cower it into sitting quietly in a corner and chewing on a dog biscuit.
A parallel may be drawn with a natural forest. In it, there is deadwood, and there are also plenty of young, green shoots.
TID-afflicted ‘towering leaders of societies’ need to be freed from their affliction. The young will surely play a role.
What a wonderful world! is a famous song sung by Louis Armstrong (here). One stanza in it is about the young:
I hear babies cry, I watch them grow.
They’ll learn much more, than I’ll ever know.
And I think to myself: What a wonderful world!
[The song is available on many internet sites. The one cited here has a touching introduction by Louis Armstrong, and has had close to a hundred million views in fifteen years.]
