The failure of modern systems

By Ac. Krtashivananda Avt

In the early phase of the 20th century, communism appeared in Russia as an antithesis to capitalism. Subsequently it spread in many other countries with the hope of breaking the chains of oppression. Communism collapsed in Russia and the East European countries because of instead of loosening the chains, it was strangling the freedom of the workers whom it was meant to protect. China will also follow the same path in the near future.

In addition, religious dogma still survives in many parts of the world, suffocating freedom of thought and expression. The infrastructure of capitalist nations rises over individuals as an alienating power that has come to create a psychology of nihilism and converted the individual into a cog in the bureaucratic machine. Technical progress has destroyed the delicate balance of Nature and created the danger of nuclear devastation. The mad desire for profit has brought about a condition of enormous poverty in the Third World. Though the cold war between the superpowers has subsided, an unprecedented growth in arms is escalating conflict in other parts of the world. Humanity and human values are the greatest victims of modern civilization.

When Albert Schweitzer came to Oslo to receive the Nobel Prize for peace in 1952, he declared, "Man has become superman ... but the superman with superhuman power has not risen to the level of superhuman reason. To the degree his power grows he becomes more and more a poor man.... It must shake up our conscience that we become all the more inhuman the more we grow into superhumans."

The great promises of the industrial nations have been broken because of their psychological premise: radical hedonism. Radical hedonism postulates first that happiness can be achieved by the fulfillment of any material or sensual desire whatsoever, and second, that in order to fulfill those desires, egotism, greed and selfishness have to be encouraged. This, according to hedonistic beliefs, will lead to harmony and peace. It is well know to the world that radical hedonism is the philosophy of rich people.

The ideas of intellectual liberalism and artistic refinement have failed to check unbridled passion. The faith that the spread of reason will abolish all irrational outbursts has all but disappeared. Antagonism between ethical, racial, religious and liberal groups has become the fundamental reality of the nation state, which is absorbing huge amounts of social, ethical, and religious energies and emotion and have unleashed unprecedented oppression, violence and cruelty.

We cannot live by instinct, tradition and emotion. We need a rational faith with which to sustain a new order of life and rescue us from our mental inertia and spiritual emptiness. Prout proposes to renew the spiritual and humanistic essence of our culture, revitalize the economic foundation, and form one world community and one world nation.

The world is in search of a new soul. The awakening of social and spiritual consciousness is the paramount need of today. To quote Dr. Radhakrishnan, ex-president of India, "If we do not alter the framework of social systems and the international order, which are based on force and the exploitation of the weaker section of society and backward nations, world peace will be a wild dream. While resolved to renounce nothing, this generation wishes to enjoy the fruits of renunciation...."We are not prepared to pay the price for peace, the renunciation of empires, the abandonment of the policy of economic nationalism, the rearrangement of the world on the basis of racial equality and devotion to world community. It is obvious common sense, but for it to dawn on the general mind, a mental and moral revolution is needed."

Let us endeavor for a dynamic social system, universal cultural view and a just economic order in the century to come.

Copyright The author 1999-2003 (Courtecy: www.proutworld.org)