The Devil of Economic Fundamentalism Page 26

some of them some­how, by suppressing their own desires and needs, get their sons or daughters admitted in a good school, the child’s psyche has to withstand severe jolts as his or her schoolmates sport costly dresses, vehicles and other items which they cannot even dream of.

  The denial of dignity of labour has thus stretched the gap between the rich and the poor beyond tolerable limits. Socialism recognised the value of labour, but it ultimately failed because it took the extreme view of denying the significance of private capital and entrepreneurship in the development altogether. Moreover, what the leftists could achieve in the name of the rights of workers was mostly formation of labour unions. These unions only safeguard the workers against expulsion and were sometimes able to persuade the owners to pay bonuses. With the passage of time, the unions have become non-existent or ineffective.

  That the industrialisation in itself has only a limited though important role in the econom­ic development is confirmed by the fact that several industrial­ised nations including India continue to be one of the most poverty-ridden nations of the world. Had industrialisation been indispensable, India would have been among the most affluent countries. Industrialisation is good because it reduces the burden of imports and enhances the opportunities of export. But again, viewed from the global angle, the chief aim of industriali­sation is to transfer money from one section of the people to the other or from one region to the other. If some countries have made huge economic gains on the strength of their industries, they have done it largely at the cost of others. The truth remains that, owing to the economic policies of the fundamentalists, the industries only tend to aggravate economic inequalities. With the anti-agriculture bias dominating the modern economic theory and due to the rapid expansions of industrial areas and the moving urbanisation, the area of land available for farming, cultivating and husbandry is rapidly decreasing and the forests are fast disappearing. The resulting ecological imbalance and the crowding of cities have become major problems of today’s world.

  The modern economists that are merely the cohorts of the Multinational Companies tend to lay emphasis only on the economic growth, which indicates rise of the Gross National Income per annum. This criterion is largely inadequate for measuring advancement in the conditions of common people. It only gives an idea about the rise in the fortunes of industrialists as it does not inform about the distribution pattern of newly generated wealth. It also fails to inform about the real additions (produces accumulated from natural resources) to the stock of materials possessed by mankind.

  It has been proved time and again that there is hardly any change in the distribution pattern as a result of the economic “growth”. With few exceptions, the growth in almost all the countries tends to widen the gap between the rich and the poor. The truth is that the economic fundamentalists know that the economic growth is directly proportional to the rise in inequality of distribution; more equitable distribution would leave fewer indi­viduals and families in a position to purchase the costly consumer items. It therefore suits the ingenious fundamentalists to maintain as much the disparities between the incomes of different groups of people as possible.

  I also fail to understand how the so called rate of economic growth can be accepted as true. GNP, by its very definition, refers to the total monetary value of all the goods and services produced within the geographical boundaries of a nation during a given year (by the resident citizens of that country) and it is calculated by valuing the outputs of all ‘final goods’ and serv­ices at market prices. Thus, the rise in the Gross National Income fails to take into account the rise in market prices, i.e. inflation. The exact rate of growth must instead be calculated by the formula, Increase in GNP minus inflation Rate. If for example, the growth rate of a particular country, say India, comes out to be 6% and inflation rate is 8%, the real growth rate comes out to be minus 2%. But, this is deliberately ignored because the industry as well as the government is always eager to give an impression that the nation is progressing well. Inflation, in truth, is being used by the industry to maintain or increase growth. And unfortunately for the economic fundamentalists, the nation means only the industry and for the rulers of the nation only the government. The Nation itself hardly if ever finds itself in a position of long term economic security. Thanks to industrialisation, the common people may be having a few goods to keep them in good humour but no assets to back them, all the assets steadily maintaining their upward mobility from the poor to the rich, from the rich to the richer, and from the richer to the richest.

  11.

  Civilization Dehumanised

  The most succinct definition of civilization is that it is the state of being civilized and being civilized means refraining from barbarism and receiving instruction in arts and refinements. Thus civilization indicates a higher state of conscience, altruistic sentiments and responsiveness. One is considered to be civilized if one’s demeanour in public, or in private, does not harm or embarrass others, one displays concern over the problems of oth­ers and makes efforts to help others in their pursuits or in their hours of crisis. Those whose selfless commitment to mankind persuades them to make greatest personal sacrifices, who suffer to remove distresses of their fellow creatures and tolerate pain to alleviate others' throes, leave indelible footmarks on history. Their glory reaches far and wide; they continue to live even after their exit from the mortal world. They instil hope and courage in the despondent, guide the igno­rant, rectify apprehensions, generate endurance in the op­pressed and bring pleasure to the weak, the poor and the down­trodden. From places unknown, they control the hearts and minds of men. The historians evaluate them not by the wealth they amassed or the grandeur they splurged but by the splendour of their ideas and magnificence of their actions. Great is a man whose influence on mankind has been outstanding; his hymns are sung and his deeds are the delight of story and drama writers.

  It is in fact the civilization of human existence that anoints humans with the status of the superior most among all the creatures. Man is superior because he is not always concerned with his own needs and desires; his heart at others’ grief or joy too. In contradistinction to humans, animals derive pleasure only in their own attainments. Human beings tend to socialise and live together in villages or cities, animals vie with one another in the jungles. 'Survival of all' is the motto of human society; 'survival of the strongest ' is the law of the jungle. Animals do not generally have any feeling of shame and roam nude mating without following any specific set of social principles; man has learned to cover himself and prefers to make love in surroundings hidden from others’ view. Animals enjoy rights and follow duties only as their nature. Their excesses against one another are not judged by any rule of law because they are not expected to have any sense of conscience or knowledge of law. Man has to work within the boundaries set by society; he is expected to know the law and obey it.

  Let us examine the present civilization in the light of these premises. The economic fundamentalists want the world to believe that the present human society is at the zenith of civili­zation. Their claim emanates from the fact that humans can now boast of more worldly splendour than was the case at any other time in the past. Man resides with comfort in palatial surroundings, has variety of colourful dresses to don, travels in high-speed vehicles on splendid roads, can fly in the air or sale the sea with dazzling speeds, has equipment to confront the vagrancy of weather, has advanced technology providing him with thousands of items of luxury, can communicate within seconds with any person living anywhere in the world, can watch with delight in his own bedroom the events organised at the farthest places on earth, is better acquainted with the secrets of life and of the universe, possesses thousands of medicines to treat illnesses and can remove, with or without knife, malformations from inside the human body. They also claim that the world of today has the most developed political, econom­ic and social systems. The big industries, the lavish hotels, the multi-storey stock exchanges, the sprawling, lush-gre
en picnic spots and the busy beaches are presented as symbols of civiliza­tion. By making these claims the votaries of modernism aim to give a new meaning to civilization. To them, civilization is synonymous with development and prosperity. This is an absolutely materialistic description of civilization that has no place for moral and spiritual excellence. It is not that the connoisseurs of economic fundamentalism are not aware of the hollowness of their belief; they very much are. This in fact is a conscious, motivated and deceptive attempt aimed at diverting public attention from the dangerous consequences of their strategies and perpetuating their empire. They seek to keep the masses and the intelligentsia bemused. It is for this reason that they assiduously glorify status symbols in society. These status symbols are projected as indicators of one’s 'sophistication', the word that is being planted as replacement for 'civilization'. As soon as a new item or an updated version of the old one comes into the market with a fanfare that immediately captures imagi­nation of the people, it becomes a new