The Devil of Economic Fundamentalism Page 17

for the freedom in indulging in those vices. Literatures are produced; movements are run on big scales and media are used to further the campaign in a big way. Politicians and activists are directly or indirectly persuaded to accept the demands. Legalisation follows. The argument normally given is that if it was not legalised, it would lead to rise in illegal activities and it would be difficult to manage the resulting complications. It would therefore be prudent to legalise it so that the complications can be kept in control. Once the legal hurdle is removed, commercialisation followed by globalisation gets in full swing. Wealth starts flowing.

  This strategy of Normalization, Institutionalisation, Legalisation and Commercialisation was adopted in the case of alcohol, gambling, prostitution and pornography and continues to be the mainstay in the globalisation of homosexuality. The demoniac march of commercialised sex has necessitated that all perversions must be considered "normal and natural" behaviour and any stigma associated with them should be struck with a fatal blow. To outdo one another, the video-makers have been producing blue films exhibiting increasing variety of perverted sex. The chiefs of homosexual net and their cronies have been advancing the nonsense argument that relations between two persons belong­ing to the same sex are natural as a sizeable percentage of human population has such inclinations. The commercial convenience makes them forget the truth that “natural” and “human” are not synonymous, and a distinction must be made between the two. The natural phenomena always have equipoise and are essentially good for mankind. They defend humans against death, disease and destruction because they are aimed at the common rather than the individual good. Even when they seem to be destructive (natural tragedies), they are the manifestations of an effort on the part of nature to bring back the harmony that has somehow been dis­turbed. The natural tragedies are therefore aimed at averting bigger tragedies in future. The human tendencies, on the other hand, are generally the result of self-gratification and tend to disturb the natural equilibrium. It is the human (and not natu­ral) weaknesses that have given rise to crimes, diseases and abnormal practices including sexual perversions. If homosex­ual proclivities are accepted as natural, murderous instincts and tendencies to rape, steal or impinge upon others’ rights must also be termed natural. And if the latter deserve outright condemnation, reform and punishment, the former also require the same treatment.

  The ever-expanding designs of the merchants of sex suffered another devastating blow in the early 1980s when the first case of a previously unknown disease, later named Acquired Immuno-deficiency Syndrome or AIDS, was detected in the United States. Within a few years, hundreds of thousands persons in Central Africa, America and many European countries were found carrying the disease. The medical scientists soon recognised that it was a fatal disease and is associated with prom­iscuity and other abnormal sexual behaviours, particularly the male homosexuality. The merchants, in order to preclude any repercussions on the market, immediately set into action. They commissioned all the resources at their disposal to control the damage. And they have succeeded in their strategy. The panic that had started keeping the clients away from the prostitutes has subsided. A “wonderful” solution to tackle the AIDS-menace has been discovered. It has been given a simple name “safe sex” which denotes that the right method to protect oneself against AIDS is to use a condom during intercourse. It is another matter that while the sales of condoms have increased by leaps and bounds and the devastation of the sex industry has been averted, at least for the time being, the storm of HIV has been steadily hitting one nation after the other. At least the public is calm and satisfied, convinced that gigantic efforts are being made to fight the killer disease. Drug regimens to manage AIDS have been found but it has already consumed tens of millions of men, women and children and will consume similar numbers in the next decade. And the sex industry has already prepared plans to turn sex into a mammoth global industry in the post-AIDS world. Will their dreams be realized, is an open ques­tion because there will always remain the possibility of the emergence of new strains of already existing sex-transmitted infections or altogether new infections. Zika virus has already started alarming the world, and the link of Hepatitis B with sex has clearly been established.

  As I have said earlier, the family system and sex industry are each other’s detractors. The idea of the family system generates such repugnance in the minds of the economic fundamentalists that they have now begun to arrange for its exequies. Marriages have already become unpopular and the home, at least in the West, is on the brink of total collapse. The merchants decided to drive the final nail in the coffin of the family system by popularising the oldest taboo, the incest. The pornographic and erotic magazines could be seen in increasingly more assertive and provocative style describing the sexual intimacies between brothers and sisters, mothers and sons, fathers and daughters, and uncles and nieces; to popularise these, the strategy that has been adopted is to publish questions related to incest in the “problems column”, and to conduct surveys on whether it should be legally and socially sanctioned.

  With the menace of aids hunting the customers, sex with minors has picked up. Hundreds of thousands of children between the ages of 5 and 15 are being pitted in the trade. Their delicacies are being barged by the lustful. The alarm has been sounded all over the world, but this again would prove to be a mere eye-wash aimed at keeping the critics at bay. AIDS is in fact being utilised by the traders as a ploy to popularise paedophilia; the pornography involving children is becoming increasingly popular.

  The latest trend in the sex-industry seems to be the cashing in on the pronounced sexual aggression of the modern women. The severing of links with the family, the rise in economic fortunes, and the brainstorming sexual images created by the media are bolstering women's craze for handsome men. The modern woman is now not only interested in serving male desires, but also seeks to realize her own fantasies with a man of her choice. The near-nude pictures of men too have now started appearing in the erotic publications. The world may soon witness burgeoning of clubs where the services of males would be available for vagrant females wishing to squander money for mollifying the inferno of their wild sexual passions. Male nude shows are already being staged in some parts of the western world to exclusively solicit women viewers.

  Sex has established such an unrivalled dominance in today's business-world that it seems to have become indispensable for virtually every industry. The fashion, the tourism, the hotel, the publications, the films and the electronic industries are relying heavily on sex to boost their turnovers. Tourism has in fact emerged as the biggest financial activity with which the flesh trade is directly associated. To cater to the ever-growing demands of tourists, young boys and girls are being pooled into the trade in alarming numbers. A large number of people travel to distant places only to propitiate their lascivious self; sightseeing is only an alibi. Tourism also helps in corrupting the minds of the young generation in those countries where the freedom of sex has not yet touched the Western levels. The alcohol industry is also thriving on the close links between tourism and sex. Big hotels with bars are sprawling all over.

  The film industry since its inception has used love as the central theme in most of its productions. In the earlier movies, love was portrayed only as a sentimental affair; if physical intimacies had to be depicted, it would be mainly through suggestions. With the progress of time, sex has overpowered love. There is display of nudity in varying degrees and sexual acts are being filmed in a highly provocative manner. The Hollywood films, for over a half century, have been studded with ecstatic scenes of love; now the films produced in Bollywood too, despite the Censor Board, have been showing the characters in revealing dresses and "bold" scenes. The soft porn films, imported from the West, are now being screened in all the cities of India. The contents of these films are extremely "sexciting", obviously charging the spectators with wild and vulgar fantasies; in order to ease their electrified passions, many of them slip to the red light ar
eas. The porn films too are easily available on internet. Among the watchers are mostly the young and being unmarried they tend to satiate their thirst through immoral and unhealthy means.

  The sex industry at the global level has become so colossal that billions are involved in it. The industry, from all the available indications, can be expected to continue to sparkle, unless of course a worldwide drive is initiated against it or a sex-transmitted killer disease forces the people to seek refuge in the haven of the "old-tradition" family set-up. Corresponding to its accelerated growth the social and moral values will continue to alter, mostly for the worse. The social transformation has and will have little to do with the objective merits of the new values; only the commercial considerations will remain the predominant guiding factor. The pharaohs of market will continue to rule the roost, and economic fundamentalism will have no difficulty in perpetrating its supremacy in the world affairs.

  8.

  Education Relocated on the Wall Street

  Knowledge, since antiquity, has been regarded as precious by men irres­pective of the geographical area of the earth they belong to. Various civilizations that flourished thousands of years back in different parts of the world had prospered only due to the commanding presence of knowledgeable and talented persons in their constituent population. The prophets and sages have always been marshalling the people with invaluable instructions for the betterment of life. Even if many of them had not been literate in the sense that they could not peruse and scribble their ability to admire knowledge was outstanding. With the march of time, the importance of gaining knowledge in a systematic manner called education has not only grown, it has indeed become indispensable for every man and woman. It has ceased to be confined to the elite and now attracts the urban and the rural people alike. The standard of education has varied from time to time and from area to area. But an educated person has almost always enjoyed a status embellished with dignity, honour and eminence. In the ancient times, India, Greece, Egypt, China and Babylon had made gigantic efforts in the fields like mathematics, ethics, history and philosophy. In the recent past, first the Muslims of Arab and then the Christians of Europe and America have given tremendous impetus to educational pursuits. All the branches of education are multiplying rapidly. Philosophy, Theology, Mathe­matics and Medicine ware already present in the medieval period in inchoate or developing stages. Then emerged subjects like Astronomy, Algebra, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Anatomy. The modern times have introduced hundreds of ramifications including Evolution, Genetics, Astrophysics, Computer Sciences, specialised surgeries and Nuclear Physics. And the list is steadily length­ening.

  Before the emergence of economic fundamentalism in all the affairs of society, education served as a means to build personality in terms of morals and character. Its goal was to develop a penchant for what is good and aversion for what is bad for society and oneself. It used to inculcate a sense of self-righteousness, sacrifice and service. The pupils were trained by the teacher so as to prepare them to indefatigably instruct and help others to the best of their abilities. The more educated a person the more he was supposed to be honest, truthful and imprudent; he was expected to be inexorable against the barricades of worldly desires. For most of the learned, physicians, philosophers, writers and poets, money was at the most a secondary considera­tion; their primary aim used to be to disseminate information and to support the needy. Many of them would labour day and night to serve others. What they looked for and gained in bargain was neither the coins and gifts nor luxuries of life but self-satisfaction and dignified status in society. Many of them displayed indomitable courage in the face of compelling circumstances and led crusades against the evils prevailing in their times; they of course had to face severe persecution at the hands of the perpetrators of injustice, suppression and exploitation. Their faith in the Creator or in their own conscience would imbue them with astounding tolerance and inscrutable endurance and they would not be perturbed or crestfallen in the face of direct challenges. They would not compromise a rudder even when death stared at them or starvation threatened their survival; they would prefer to kiss martyrdom rather than embrace the worldly glory. So much was the charisma of their untainted character that even the hardened criminals, diehard apostates and perverts would exhibit strong will to undergo total transformation following a solitary contact with them; their savage ribaldry would evaporate and a person who always used to scheme how to loot and kill others would be prepared to sacrifice all his physical and material belongings for the sake of mankind. The influence of education was also discernible in the attitude of common people towards the weak, the poor and the deprived; people were always keen to help them. The teacher-taught relationship used to have a healthy sentimental hue. The students would be severely punished by the teachers at their slightest foibles and yet their love and respect of the students for them would never get diluted. The students knew that if the teachers beat them with cane, there was no mala fide intention behind their act and they were genuinely interested in reforming and civilising them.

  An environment in school and colleges that focuses on character-building and inculcates ideas of simple living in the minds of the grooming boys and girls was but an absurdity in the eyes of the economic fundamentalists. They realized pretty well that the school days had the biggest impact on the mind-set of the students, and once their propinquity matured, riposte would be extremely difficult. The rising popularity of education in the masses further strengthened their resolve to hijack it. Their game-plan had two basic components. First, they had an eye on the prospects of education, which could yield a new market. Second, they wished to train the students on a specific pattern that would build their personality not as person of high morals but as skilled managers and salesmen, efficient workers and excellent consumers. So, whatever different routes of progress in the march of economic fundamentalism have been described in previous pages, were also imposed on schools and colleges. Formerly, the syllabus contained a sizeable quota of religious instructions and moral education. The emeritus of religion from society meant that the religious contents were steadily banished from the curricu­lum. The inspiring tales of saints and reformers were replaced by exciting love legends. The stories of Romeo and Juliet, Sheereen and Farhad and Laila and Majnu became immensely popular among the students. The only form of male-female relationship that was projected was love-affair; the emerging literature had no interest in mother-son, brother-sister and father-daughter relationship; these had very little commercial prospects.

  The tone and contents of education continued to undergo steady transformation. The moral sciences were substituted by the nature sciences. It will be discussed later in this book how science was projected as anti-religion. Later, the subjects related with Economics and Commerce started entering the syllabi. Subjects like History, Theology and Civics have now become outmoded. The management courses are gaining in currency because by studying these courses the prospects of getting lucrative jobs consider­ably enhance. The professional courses have become bereft of any ethical contents; they inculcate sheer commercialism. The indus­try-related courses like fashion-designing, hotel management, beauty care, etc. are understandably prospering.

  Thus the education that in the past had a distinct egalitarian touch and was not necessarily linked with financial objectives has now become vastly commercialised. The modern liberal social values, the aetiology of which has already been reviewed, have been successively introduced into schools and colleges. It began with the concept of co-education, first at the primary, then at the secondary and finally at the university level. The skirt became the prescribed dress for girls in most of the school. Covering heads is almost a taboo now and in the West­ern countries the insistence of some girl-students on covering their heads has many a time hit international headlines. To be impudent enough to reveal one’s anatomy to the delight of the watchers is defended as an individual right that should be respected at all costs but the rig
ht to cover oneself is nowhere appreciated; it in fact attracts derision and ridicule. A lady opting for it in a Western educational institu­tion is jeered at as a backward, boorish, medieval woman cut off from the new social realities. The arrangements of picnics and educational tours in degree colleges and universities further aggravate the chances of uninhibited intimacies between the two sexes.

  The goal of education having been incarcerated to finances, the boys and girls opt for recherché courses, their choice usually depending upon the economic future expected. The courses that lead to services giving attractive emoluments and lucrative perks are pursued by the more brilliant students. The boys and girls belonging to the industrial families often join courses to get acquainted with the nuances of business, management and technology. After finishing their apprenticeship, they establish their own factories or companies. Money is the ultimate target; morals have no pecuniary prospects, at least in the immediate future. Ethics therefore occupy no place in their scheme of things. The professional courses emblazon the students with unadulterated professionalism. This means that they must learn how to present oneself or one’s products or company so that the business can achieve big heights. The education thus, in effect, trains how best to infatuate others, to push one’s own interests, to keep the seamier side covered, to enhance market potential by innovative tactics and to cash in on people’s susceptibilities, leanings, sentiments and desires. The products of modern educa­tion are destined to become a part of the grand design of the big merchants and manufacturers who need managers, supervisors, sales-persons and marketing executives for their companies. The students must receive training in their educational career befitting their requirements. It is hardly surprising therefore that the modern educated class experiences a feeling of neither any reluctance before nor any compunction after lying, misinforming, cheating, bribing (or getting bribed) and slandering others. These have in fact become essential paraphernalia of