The Devil of Economic Fundamentalism Read online

vast universe were labelled not as God's or Creator's Laws but the laws of Nature. The laws of gravitation and motion were called Newton's Laws of Gravitation and Motion rather than the Creator's Laws. Despite all these attempts to banish God from the realm of science, the truth is that science cannot move an inch without assuming the presence of a being, who is all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful, eternal, wise, calculating and all-pervading. It has only tried to infatuate itself by calling this omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient being as Nature. Can science explain how the particles or the space or the waves forming "Nature" can possess faculties of intelligence and wisdom? How come, physical laws came into existence when there was no one to understand their ramifications and implications in advance! How come, the chemical laws appeared when there was no one knowing the complexities of chemical reaction! How, come, following chemical laws, biological laws emerged without the existence of any biologist anywhere! The first existence having some ability to understand the laws and the properties, the man, came after billions of years, and it took him tens of millions of years more to start unfolding the mysteries in any significant way. Man came into existence with a highly sophisticated infrastructure, metabolism with highly complex chemical processes, a highly coordinated mechanism with an inbuilt mechanism of surviving and reproducing. But it was again millions of years later that man first started understanding the subtleties involved in the functioning of the body. But the body itself had taught immediately after the creation how to find its food, hoe to make it digestible, how to eat it, how to have sex with another person and how to rest. How did the body become so knowledgeable and what was its source of knowledge? The truth is that despite all the “advancement” sciences know very little about the universe. The signal failure of science that claims to be the truth and nothing but the truth or an effort in arriving at the truth has not been able to recognise the greatest truth of the Universe. It is not that science transformed its exponents into atheists. In fact, the greatest scientists of the world including Einstein, Darwin and Newton had unshakable belief in the presence of the One. But what their hearts were cognizant of, their pens could not describe in a scientific jargon. It was, less perhaps because they found their belief scientifically untenable and more because they feared becoming the targets of anti-religion elements that had the dominance in society and because of the predetermined position taken by the scientific bodies that God would not be allowed a place in scientific theories..

  The ethical denudation turned science amoral. Scientists started thinking that science was above religion and ethics; and it had no role to play in the on-going course of social history except providing or striving to provide means of comfort or supremacy to those who seek them, even if they misuse these to rob common people of their hard-earned money or to kill humans for political supremacy in the world. The scientists have incarcerated themselves in laboratories, computers, books and journals; and the barons of economic fundamentalism continue to grab every new discovery for their growth. Seldom do they protest against the on-going desecration of nature and life. The few who display some determination and conviction to vent their feelings like environmentalists or epidemiologists are either diplomatically tackled or are 'balanced' through lucrative offers. At the most solutions to their concerns are sought in a way that their economic interests are not compromised to any significant degree.

  Thus there is little doubt that the present world is not governed by the scientific spirit. It is the economic spirit that prevails upon every other consideration and pervades everywhere. The question may here be asked what the scientific spirit actually means. Sciences can be broadly divided into material sciences and the living sciences. The material sciences explain the phenomena occurring in nature and inform how precisely the matter follows certain principles. Thus the value of Gravitational Constant, denoted as G, remains exactly the same throughout the vast universe. The laws of motion, the law of gravitation, the laws relating to light, magnetism, electricity, nuclear physics and chemistry never change. Rules are the rule, and exceptions are exceptions. These laws are not only universal but also eternal having continued unchanged from time immemorial. Thus every particle of the atom follows the duties imposed on it with an uncompromising precision. It has no individual rights; it has to stick to the duties and prohibitions imposed by Nature. It is because of their adherence to the principles that the huge universe maintains an incredible equilibrium that sustains billions of mammoth bodies which too in their turn follow the prescribed course. They all are having peaceful coexistence because each one of them knows its specified boundaries which it never violates. When one studies the living sciences, one finds that life is what brings billions of billions of atoms together into one single existence. The living cells also follow the rules but the precision of material sciences is not visible here. Instead, they work within certain boundaries. Blood pressure, respiratory rate, cardiovascular impulses, etc., are not pinpointed (as in the case of material sciences) but have upper and lower ranges. No pulse count can be termed as exactly normal and the range of 60 to 80 is taken as normal. Similarly, the systolic blood pressure normally ranges between 110 and 140 mm Hg, and the diastolic between 60 and 90. There are also normal ranges for the time and amplitude of different waves normally appearing in an electrocardiogram, P, Q, R, S, T and U waves. The same is true for the total leucocyte count, red blood cell count, differential leucocyte count, haemoglobin percentage, serum bilirubin, blood sugar, cholesterol, creatinine, globulin, albumin, T3, T4, TSH, insulin and thousands of other indicators. The individual remains healthy till all these remain within the normal ranges. As soon as any of them either shoots up beyond the upper limit or falls down below the lower limit, deterioration in health begins. These indices tend to remain in the normal range if the individual's routine activities, including eating, drinking, physical work, sleeping, etc. remain normal. No sooner does one engage in an abnormal activity, such as excessive or deficient eating and drinking or swallowing of such materials as have no role to play in the normal functioning of the physical system, extraordinarily exacting or sedentary work, uninhibited sex, or no sex at all, one's body starts exhibiting signs of weakness and disease.

  Economic fundamentalism largely banks on change. Change, they assert, is the essence of a successful life and society must continue to change with the time. Their emphasis on change is the natural outcome of their conspiracy to ravish the masses by luring them to buy new fashionable clothes, new household items and to adopt new social lifestyles. But science has totally different ideas to disseminate. The natural laws always remain precisely the same and do not change with time and place. The living beings, if at all they change, do so extremely slowly and for the better. These changes are aimed at adapting in accordance with the new environmental conditions. The corporate world, on the other hand, insists on rapid changes. They deliberately bring changes in the surroundings for their own interests and then pressurise the masses to follow suit. The new changes often bring disaster and not any real betterment in life. The magnates want the organs of the body to perform functions they have not been created for. They want the stomach to digest what is not worth digesting, the lungs to inhale what is not worth inhaling, the mouth and tongue to lick or suck what is not worth sucking, the rectum to receive what is nor right for receiving and the brain to think what is unworthy of thinking. Yet, they harangue big arguments to allow these in the name of personal freedom.

  Science, it can therefore, be confidently argued, instructs the humans that to follow duties and prohibitions is more essential than asserting rights. The life sciences tell us that it is more important for the living being to work within the boundaries and never overstep limitations. This follows that the scientific spirit in synonymous with discipline, probity, truth and self-restraint. The economic spirit, on the other hand, which is so assiduously propelled by the modernists, especially the corporates, asserts that the rights have to prevail upon the duties; absolute freedom is the mos
t cherished goal whatever its consequences on society and discipline is important only as far as it helps the business. It also follows that the scientific spirit adores health, peace and order and detests anything that jeopardises any one of these. The logical conclusion is that in a world ruled by the scientific spirit there can be no room for alcoholism, smoking, gambling and promiscuity as these are the harbingers of death, diseases, destruction and disorder. If still these are glorified, one can rightly infer that the economic or commercial spirit has totally banished the scientific spirit. The modern world has the body of science ruled by the ghost of commercialism.

  10.

  Tree of Economics Monopolised

  It will not only be unrealistic but absolutely nonsensical not to recognize the importance of economics and to deny it its rightful place. Economics can be called the digestive system of the world. The digestive system, beginning from tongue and ending at anus, is an essential part of the body; it is the