The Future And The Greatest Goal

Dear Reader,

Well, some would say that it's been good while the Capitalist age lasted! It seems to be clear that this era is over as its faults and lack of adaptability are becoming more and more revealed. 

Not that Communism - as implemented over the years - is the right answer either, and nor is anarchy. As the political writer Jim Wallis said, "The right gets it wrong and the left doesn't quite get it". So, is there such a thing as a true solution? 

In traditional Socialism, however, resources would be distributed equally by the government to create a classless society. Interestingly, the view of Marx (as against what Communism became) was that after a few generations of people living under the benefits of a socialist system focused on cooperation and sharing, people would learn to work for equality rather than for personal greed and profit.

The problem was that Marx did not factor in a quality that was needed to bring about the success of that idea. The quality that was and is needed is spiritual vision. To be truly sustainable, a ‘new socialism’ requires a spiritual outlook and framework. Only then would Marx’s idea that “people would learn to work for equality rather than for personal greed and profit” have a real chance of success as individuals would be accepting the need for a transcendental and spiritually fulfilling existence and not existence at a mundane, materialist, level. The first type of existence would encourage trust, whereas we know that (in general) ordinary materialist existence creates an adversarial approach.

I am certain in my own mind, therefore, that pure intellectualism does not work. The needs of the great majority of people are based on human needs, not purely philosophical activity and certainly not for the motive of financial profit. Therefore, surely it is our values that need to be re-examined to bring about a proper focus on life and how to live. What, we need to ask afresh, is the correct behaviour for the benefit not only of ourselves but for the community, nation and world at large and, indeed, the whole of the creation?

Man's arrival at a set of human values that properly addresses this issue can only bring us back to re-finding the true knowledge of how to live. In India, these values have been identified as sathya (truth), dharma (righteousness, code of duties, essential nature of a being or thing), śānti (peace) and ahiṃsā (non-violence whether physical or psychological). Underlying all four is prema (love).

For the last 200 years and more, there has been a progressive rise in the number of people speaking out for - and acting upon - the real needs of the world against those that some desire for the sake of domination of others or the satisfaction of ego. Many of those seekers of justice have lost their lives or their freedom in the process. Such selflessness shows that there is some kind of spiritual vision that is inherent in mankind to bring about all the protests that have taken place about injustice wherever and in whatever form it has taken.

Throughout history, there have been saints of all faiths that have sought the true progress of mankind, but people have mostly ignored their contribution and treat their lives as being irrelevant and not appropriate to today's needs, rather than seeing them as an inspiration. Materialism has seemed more important for a long time.

True knowledge - and the spiritual vision derived from it - is based upon the wisdom way. It has always existed but has waited, like a kind mother, for God's children to come to the realisation about how things really are. This is all coming to fruition only now, after lengthy evolution, but was predicted long ago.

The duplicity of politicians must soon come to an end; an example is the description (by a potential prime minister) of financial support to the poor as "handouts" when talked of negatively, and "help" when votes are needed. Politicians have hitherto been masters of vocabulary and how to influence people with its snares.

And there are plenty of examples of how governments try to 'spin the truth', very often in a sugary but malicious way in the process of divide and rule. It is also known that corruption is very prevalent, though it is a lot more present in certain countries.

Enough is enough. And now matters have escalated to such a point in respect of climate change, pandemics and economic conditions.

Solutions to all this is not feasible solely through technology or the continuation of old systems and methods. There is surely a need to go back to basics in certain respects to review and implement proper and effective education for today's situation. Proper education is far more than learning how to make a living or prioritising it as a medium for the maintenance of tradition or ivory tower mentation. 

A newly-inspired education system is vital now to help the new generation to not only face up to today's challenges with vision but also to see the true meaning of things. This will enable them to not only how go about their lives in a fulfilling way but to manage the country and its resources with true justice.

When my wife and I were present at a political meeting with Tony Blair being the main speaker (before the 1997 general election), my wife asked him what he would do about education. His reply was, "We must concentrate on education, education, education." Alas, though much effort was subsequently put into this area, it was only with material outcomes in mind, and student fees were introduced to make people's lives more akin to slavery than before as they targeted 50% of the population towards university under the guise of equality. Other errors were made too, but that is a separate issue.

I suggest that modern education tends to push the student out to the rim of knowledge, not towards its essence. And also towards specialism, the student therefore not gaining a proper comprehension of the bigger picture.

The term 'education' is (of course) the noun form of the verb educate. It comes from the Middle English educaten; coming from the Latin term educare, educatus meaning 'bring up or rear', linked to educere meaning 'to lead forth' or 'bring out' – the real form of education.

In ancient Greece, the great sage Socrates argued that education was about drawing out what was already within the student. He said: "I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think"; a far cry from today’s tendency to think of education as mainly a means of acquiring information and how to deductively assimilate that information.

True education must firstly be devoted to learning about real human values and should be based upon the theory of educare, which goes much further than the feeding of material facts.

The new education would encourage a breadth of mind and a willingness to resist self-interest, prejudice and dogma: the higher collective need will always be the aim. Imbibed with this form of education, students would take care that all their activity is saturated with love and would promote the welfare of the world.

In India, there is much development taking place with this object in mind; it will be much more visible to the world within a few years. Indeed, it will influence the whole world to take note as it will be shown to be the only form of education that is pure enough to help solve the now-manifesting problems of the world. 

Thank you for reading this.

Notes

The title of this article, The Greatest Goal, relates to the acronym GOAL, formed from 'God’s Own Almighty Love'.

See more about developments in education in India based on human values.