The Devil of Economic Fundamentalism Read online

a successful businessman, business executive or officer. The 'education' only instils confidence and sophistication for pursuing their activi­ties with perfection.

  The erotomania generated in the boys and girls by the commercial­isation of sex necessitated some precautions. Sex education en­tered the curriculum early in the West. Efforts are now on for its introduction in all the schools and colleges throughout the world. Ostensibly, this aims at effacing from the minds of adoles­cent boys and girls misconceptions and misgivings about sex. But behind the facade, there are other more compelling interests. The galloping sexual freedom gives rise to several noisome (physical and psychological) complications. These include sexually trans­mitted diseases some of which are life threatening, fear of pregnancy and social stigmatization. Many social and health organisations have shown concern over these developments. The merchants and their cronies as always have stepped in demanding the introduction of sex education at the college, even school-level. This, they visualize, would considerably diminish the magnitude of the problem hoping that if and when the adolescents indulge in sex they would take necessary precautions. This suits the interests of big business because an open discussion on sex in the classrooms would further boost the concept of sexual liberty. The boys and girls would develop what is regarded as healthy sexual attitude, which in the West connotes absence of any emotional hindrances in having sex with anybody of one’s choice and ability to take necessary precautions in order to avoid an unwanted pregnancy and troublesome infections. Such a “healthy sexual attitude”, in their reckoning, is imperative for the sustenance of today’s global sex market.

  Not only have the ideological foundations of education become predominantly commercial, the institutions themselves have also been transformed into business centres. The impact of commercialisa­tion has been such that the schools, colleges and professional insti­tutions have been multiplying rapidly during the last few dec­ades. The paediatric needs of children are being bulldozed and the parents are being bamboozled to send their little kids, who are in no physical and mental position to withstand the burden imposed on them, to schools. Formerly, the schooling used to commence with class one. Then the 'kindergarten' was added which again was divided into 'K.G. first' and 'second'. It was then followed by the introduction of nursery and pre-nursery classes. There are cer­tain schools where pre-pre-nursery is also available. The owners of schools have distinct advantages in increasing the number of classes, for it shoots up the number of students enhancing their income. They successfully exploit the desires of parents to give their children the best education and also the problem of the working women who find it expedient to send their kids to schools as early as possible. These developments also suit the big business and they therefore wholeheartedly support them. The earlier the children go to schools the more the parents spend on their dresses, shoes etc. The rise in the number of working women has led to the booming of 'baby-sitter schools'. The new trend means that the kids of three, even two years, are now compelled to go to schools. At the time of admissions and in the following days, often for weeks, the yells and screams of child­ren are audible from a considerable distance.

  As a corollary to commercialization, pompousness has become the hallmark of “standard” institutions. In order to attract the elite, very high annual fees are charged and in return they are promised highly sophisticated teaching for their children. In countries belonging to Indian subcontinent, the craze among the elite for English has helped the merchants of education to establish highly advanced and suave academies (where the students would speak nothing but English) charging astronomical fees. The rich prefer these schools as it pampers their elitist mentality and they are able to maintain their inflated status in society.

  The privatisation of education has now also encompassed the higher academic and professional courses. Many a time the insti­tutions are established either by the big business houses them­selves or with their financial support with the objective of producing stuff suitable for the specific demands of their indus­tries. The Engineering, Management and Medical colleges adminis­tered by the private organisations are swelling in number all over the world. Many of these institutions are substandard and their only aim is to provide degrees to those students who are not competent enough to compete in the well-established institu­tions but their parents are in a position to donate handsome amounts in order to help their sons and daughters receive profes­sional qualifications. This appeases their ego and also assists them in their future plans. In countries like India, Privatisation of Higher Education has in effect led to Reservation of the Rich in colleges and jobs.

  The environment in the present day colleges and universities is consistent with the interest of industries in great many respects. Coeducation has bred exhibitionist proclivities among stud­ents who wear costly dresses and shoes and use high priced per­fumes to gain popularity among the fellow students. In university campuses, boys and girls can be easily found gloating at one another. Consequent on their craze for music and films, they tend to dissipate their money on watching films on mobiles and laptops. Hardly a minuscule percentage of university and degree college students develop academic brilliance. The overwhelming majority is consumed by the consumerist culture assiduously pushed by the economic fundamentalists. This money comes from their parents and often against their wish causing great chagrin to their minds. Sometimes, when the parents are not in a position to afford their huge extravagances, or are reluctant to part with their hard-earned wealth, these boys and girls choose their own ways, proper or risqué, to earn; they often join the illegal and immoral businesses like betting.

  Describing how the modern education has become a hindrance in achievement of real happiness, Mill says:

  "The happiness which they (the philosophers who thought that happiness is the end of life) meant was not a life of rapture; but moments of such, in an existence made up of few and transitory pains, many and various pleasures, with a decided predominance of the active over the passive, and having as the foundation of the whole, not to expect more from life than it is a capable of bestowing. A life thus composed, to those who have been fortunate enough to obtain it, has always appeared worthy of the name of happiness, And such an existence is even now the lot of many, during some considerable portion of their lives. The present wretched education and wretched social arrangements are the only real hindrance to its being attainable by almost all".

  9.

  Sciences Turned into Mistresses

  The present era is regarded as the era of science. This owes to the fact that science has made astonishing progress in the 19th and 20th centuries in many fields. In the medieval age, the Islamic world used to be the centre of scientific rummages. Astronomy, Algebra, Anatomy, Medicine, Chemistry, Trigonometry, Architecture, Biology and many other disciplines had quite a few distinguished scholars who had established big libraries in cities like Baghdad, Cairo, Damascus and Constantinople. When the Christian Europe was submerged in the gloom of ignorance, knowledge had been enlightening the Muslims of Asia, Africa and Muslim Europe (Spain, Turkey, Czechoslovakia, etc). When London and Paris had no roads, Mecca and Medina had well-developed highways. The military equipment possessed by the Muslim Caliphs also outclassed and outnumbered the outdated weapons of the Christians kings. The countries like China and India too were passing through the darkest periods of their otherwise glorious civilisation. The rising political power of Muslims had sounded alarm in the Christian kingdoms. The recurrent defeats had compelled the Christian rulers to attempt unification of all forces and generate religious fervour in the Christian ranks. Power, on the other hand, as has repeatedly occurred in the human history, started depraving the Muslim kings. The universal ideology of Islam had been largely outdistanced by the nationalistic sentiments; the denizens of each territory longed to have their own sovereign state totally independent of the central Caliphate. These diversions emboldened the European rulers to engage them in increasing battles. The cru
sades, despite the early defeats, continued. The ultimate outcome of the crusades followed by the Renaissance was the emergence of big powers in Europe. The Islamic Caliphate had begun to crumble; its defloration was accompanied by the appearance of several weak and independent states. The political strife distracted the attention of monarchs from the necessity of scientific exploration which showed a distinct decline. The scientific literature accomplished by the Arabs and Persian scholars was utilised by the Christians researchers of Europe for further development. It undoubtedly goes to their credit that they incessantly laboured hard to unfold the mysteries of nature and expounded theories to explain the natural phenomena. From the eighteenth century onwards, their domination of the world of science was indefeasible. France, Britain and Germany had emerged as major political forces and they had realized that the accelerated development in science and technology was a sine qua non for sustaining their supremacy. Later on, America, China and Russia joined the race. The scientists were provided necessary