Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Ideologies and Belief systems

One of the things that I learnt after I came to America has been how ideologies, religion and subscriptions to various other philosophies that humans so much love to identify with, have been the reason for almost all of the world's problem today. Personally, I have always been fascinated by different ideologies and philosophical opinions of famous men who always stood by their opinion. Man, has always been subjected to evolution ever since he started walking on two legs. Though, till about 10,000 years ago the evolution has been primarily physical as in development of backbone, change in the physical appearance of the skull based on the location of habitat of humans, the last 3000 years in human history, has been the most dramatic as far as evolution of the human thought process is concerned. Philosophies of Ancient civilizations have dictated how humans thought, behaved and viewed their daily behaviour and also their relation with others. Philosophers like Plato, Socrates, Confucius, Vyasa, Chanakya, and countless other people of great virtue have taught and motivated others of their school of thought and virtually laid down the rules on how humans of a particular society lived their everyday life. The power of the influence of ancient ideas and philosophies is so great and so deep ingrained in the human mind that they continue to mould human behaviour even today.

If the evolution of the human thought has been unstoppable so has been the evolution of the respective ideas themselves. Religion is also an idea, a philosophy about how humans might be controlled by a superior power, a stronger being to which all humans must abide to. Religious doctrines and textbooks laid down the principles of how humans should respect superior personality (commonly known as God), how God is to be perceived as (and in some cases, how He (She?) should also NOT be perceived as) and the stand that the human soul has in this 3 dimensional world that supposedly has been created by God for the good of all creatures on earth. Religion also defined morals, values and virtues and in turn set limits to human behaviour. The definition of what was good or bad was no more a case of how an Individual benefited, rather how it would not harm the settlement itself. This was a marked improvement from a case when early humans were involved in a bitter struggle for existence and morals and values were individualistic. From 1000 different kinds of morals for the 1000 human of a settlement, it was 1 defined code of behaviour encompassing morals, righteousness and virtue. Therefore, the idea of a superior personality who not only controlled how the world lived each day, how every creature was born and how it died, and how the future of human existence depended so much on Him,was now dictating even the slightest developments in daily life and thought.

It is interesting to know that just like how Human physical evolution was different in different location of settlement , so was the idea of religion. Although the interaction of various cultures meant that ideas and opinions had several borrowed sections, the main motive of every religious doctrine was significantly different. From how it was laid out to humanity, to who had the right to present it to all humans was also greatly different. For example, the idea of peace and tolerance seem to have its first occurrence in religions of Indian origin (Vedicreligion , Buddhism), the idea was taken into the idea of Christianity, Islam and their various other sects. However, the idea of an eternal heaven and hell remained only with the Abrahamanic religions. Rebirth seemed to be part of the religions of the pre christian eras. The Vedic people, Egyptians, Native Americans for sure believed in rebirth and also worshipped nature. All of a sudden that idea was uncivilized and false and in many places the idea had to give in to Abrahamanic doctrines. My viewpoint here is not who borrowed from who, but rather how this became a part of human thinking. That a particular idea was not right and had to be replaced was the foundation of what is happening today among every human that inhabits this planet.

I am more concerned about how Idea replaces the very existence of a human. Today, man has come to a point where the idea has more value than the human itself. It is now believed that idea is eternal but man is not. This startling deviation from the selfish, self centered life that cavemen had is something so conspicuous. I find it hard to digest we become so obsessed with our principles, our ideologies and our beliefs that we fail to recognize the most fundamental thing about human existence. That all humans are born the same and work towards the same thing. That of achieving happiness in their lives. Regardless of the means, the objective of every human is the same. He wants satisfaction in what he does, happiness in what he gets. Of course, the means by themselves should not harm the prospects of another individual. I would not want to dwell on that part for now. What ideologies, belief systems do is give a set of instructions telling an Individual to lead his life and seek happiness. It turns nasty when ideologies fail to recognize what the Individual perceives as happiness. A cliched yet perfect example is that of an ambitious guy in a Communist country. The communist ideology denies any individual rights to hold property, hold demonstrations against the state, make free speeches and expressions. To be concise, the individual is stripped of any right to a happy lifestyle that he desires for. He is caged in a cage that tells him what to do and defines his lifestyle. That is a perfect example of how ideologies grow to the extent where an Individual loses his value.

What I observe is that one section of society always tries to force its ideologies and principles on other sections. Its a constant battle for owning the right to rights. For example, religious fanatics in SIMI, Ram Sena, Pentecostal Mission and many more constantly trying to prove other beliefs and ideologies wrong. At times resorting to violent means to prove their point. What starts as a morally and spiritually uplifting cause (Religion) ends up taking up people's life. The Korean peninsula was divided into the North and South after the defeat of Japan post World War II. The south was taken over by the US and the North was administered by the USSR (in both cases by puppet governments). Within a span of 3 years, the peninsula broke into a war of ideologies that has forever changed the way of life for the Korean people. Differences in ideologies ensured that what were proud, ethnically different, culturally rich people, were now fighting each other not because of differences in race, politics but ideology. Entire villages were massacred in the south for being suspected of nurturing communist ideals. And thats only because of suspicion. Imagine if any case was confirmed. The partition of India in 1947 is another story of an ideological divide. Religion is one of the biggest ideological reasons why the world is in shambles today. 'My God is better than your God', 'Follow my God, or else you will forever burn in Hell fire' and many such violent and preposterous statements are made to force people to change their beliefs. The point is, regardless of a belief system, we all want the same things. The preachers fail to realize that no matter what a man believes in, he still has to work to earn his bread, raise a family, have social interaction, satisfy his needs, get old, achieve his dreams etc and etc. Who has seen what is after death? Does it even matter what one believed in after he dies? The guy is dead! He is one with the elements and the ones who are alive mind their own business. All the Nautanki about ideologies and belief systems is worthless belaboring of stuff that destroys the few years that a person has to enjoy.

For the first 15 years of our lives, we are fully dependent on our parents who try to instill in us the best of behaviors, care and affection (not that it ever stops from their side) and providing us the platform to face the world. From the age of 15 to 20, we are the most confused in our lives. Social pressures, peer pressure about career, love life burden the first time mature brain bit too much. Then to come out of that, we are faced with the career building years of 20 to 30 within which we work hard to get a strong professional base, get married, fall in love (this time for sure), plan further for the future, party hard, go places that we always envisioned as kids, word towards achieving realistic ambition etc. 30 to 40 is devoted for the family with lesser holidays, more bad hare days, more bad evenings, insurance policy registration, kids going to all kinds of classes (dance, karate, classical music) apart from carrying a ton of books to school, lesser haircuts, tighter trousers and I can go on and on. 40 onwards is another struggle. The kid goes to college and takes to all kinds of 'cool' things thanks to its peers, kids now write competitive exams, bank loans are to be taken for the astronomical rates for college education, and if a recession happens then one in his 40s is in his worst position in the company. Highly vulnerable, he has everything to lose. Post 50 there is nothing much to say. So, the bottom line is that we have only about 10-12 years wherein we have the ability and the means to have lots of fun. And in that, if ideologies, principles and dogmas make us hate or refuse people then thats a sad state for humans.

Its very interesting that these man made ideas, man made rules, restrictions kill the very lifestyle of its creators. A baptist doesn't like a catholic, a Shia detests a Sunni, caste Hindus hate the dalits and so on and so forth. We fail to realize that life has much more to offer than petty ideals set by people who claim to work for social well being. US fought many a failed wars against communist countries so as to negate the attempts to spread communism. How much more can humans as a race stoop to? A point where we fail to see each other as humans but as walking ideologies. Even if a person subscribes to an idea, he/she has no right to refute the claims to others. One can believe in stones as long as they don't throw them at others. Man's progress is best determined by how much easier he makes his life, both mentally and in his surroundings. Strong ideological subscription leads to complicated thought, complicated actions. The reason these things intrigued me a lot after I came to America was because here I came across people of various ideas, belief system and behavioral attributes. The most conspicuous thing was that people were quick and unflinching in their attempts to express their subscriptions. Land of the free and Home of the brave indeed! The influence and the craving to attach oneself with a particular idea.

I would conclude by saying that ideologies will come and go. The permanent truth remains that man is here in this earth to survive and make the most of the one life that he has got. Taking anything seriously and in the process struggling to disclaim others is a futile and useless attempt. At the end of the day, no one really cares. Ideologies will not provide one with food, shelter and clothing. Ideologies will not make our dreams possible. Man's own willpower, own courage and hard work can take him to where he wants.

1 comments:

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