Was it ittefaak that it was Mansoor Khan, the director of the box-office hit 'Qayamat se qayaamat tak' was speaking about the impending 'doomsday' despite his avowal that he was there not to make any doomsday prophecies.
But what a fabulous piece of Economic analysis - from Economics to Energetics, with energy supplied from fossil fuels (read, from SUN through a drastic evolutionary process of around 500 million years - initially coal -1750; and later, oil - 1850s). He assesses it as having reached its peak in 2013, and after which as per the bell (normal) curve, there could only be a decline.
The mind-body parallel was really a hit - the mind is willing to go supersonic, and it can be done very systematically - just by a gradual increase of 7% every week, and with 40th week, it is possible to systematically get beyond the speed of sound!! Vow! But howsoever, the imagination works, can human body do that? 10 - 20 - 30 - perhaps, 100 kms/hour, can it ever get beyond? It is neither possible, nor desirable for the human body as it is in the present structure. (Can the structure be drastically altered??).
The planet earth is the body, with human mind-imagination dreaming and scheming GROWTH! We have to keep on growing every year - every domain - wealth has to grow, say at 7% p.a. Is it possible? The body can't stand after a limit. Is there a limit to growth?
Long ago, by 1972 Club of Rome had declared this through 'Limits to Growth'. By 1992 Rio Earth Summit, this had become a matter of global discussion. However, all that awareness and the continuing and periodical global summits and agreements, have not made any drastic change in the human thought pattern of 'growth' on earth.
Mansur asks two fundamental questions - whether such growth is possible and whether such growth is desirable. He shows the multi-level myth on which the theory of growth is built.
I observe two things:
1. The tremendous growth of service sector around us - especially in Keralam. How can this happen, when there is hardly any corresponding 'real' economics of production, specifically, in the primary sector not happening? That's not just a matter of Keralam - it's spreading to Tamil Nadu, to Andhra Pradesh... and productive land is diminishing. And the pattern is one - we are increasingly becoming global and everyone is being led into that single pattern of growth.
When some typical examples are given, no body has doubts - e.g., a typical (cliched) sign of growth is to be owning a car. Suppose all Indians - 1.3 billion or families - say 250 crores - were to own a four wheeler, could that be affordable? Could that be 'carried'?
2. The other question is that of the why of all our efforts. Why do we desire growth - to be more comfortable? Or in the ultimate analysis 'to be happy'. So now instead of GDP, people have started speaking about (not really thinking about) Gross National Happiness. Again, that we can measure it and compare it, itself is a weird thought pattern that everything can be, and needs to be quantified, measured and 'monetized'. However, has the pattern of life (focus on growth, development) increased happiness?
To increase our happiness, we focus on our health, to increase our health we look upto having more hospitals - more hospital beds!! But on account of a major health care centre, where medical practitioners are being groomed, there was an onset of jaundice in the community. That is just one example of happiness being lost unawares, when we think our happiness is increasing.
We are increasingly being fed on ideas and goods which show us how deprived and unhappy we are, unless we possess them. And in our frantic search for them, we end up restless, breathless (our pulse rate is increasing 72 is gone. It's GROWING, so too our sugar levels, our pressure levels! It is mysterious that in spite of being part of that culture, my heart beat rate is between 54 and 62!!), and some what proudly 24/7!!
Mansoor quotes Edward Abbey who said 'growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of cancer'. Would we choose that?
But as someone said: Who will bell the cat? Or can anyone bell the cat? Or is technology the solution or the only solution?
But someone else also said: Who cares? It all began with a bang! And whether we like it or not, it will all end with a bang, some time or other! So, let's eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. 33Do not be deceived: "Bad company corrupts good morals." (I Cor 15:32-33). But, that is Bible, and we are now treading moral grounds! That's perhaps, 'no, no, area' in a secular debate. Or will finally, the spiritual will add to happiness? Would that be devoid of planet, water, air, relationship or inclusive of all that?
Even if we are resigned to the final bang with which we ought to go, unless that adds to our happiness, why bother?
But what a fabulous piece of Economic analysis - from Economics to Energetics, with energy supplied from fossil fuels (read, from SUN through a drastic evolutionary process of around 500 million years - initially coal -1750; and later, oil - 1850s). He assesses it as having reached its peak in 2013, and after which as per the bell (normal) curve, there could only be a decline.
The mind-body parallel was really a hit - the mind is willing to go supersonic, and it can be done very systematically - just by a gradual increase of 7% every week, and with 40th week, it is possible to systematically get beyond the speed of sound!! Vow! But howsoever, the imagination works, can human body do that? 10 - 20 - 30 - perhaps, 100 kms/hour, can it ever get beyond? It is neither possible, nor desirable for the human body as it is in the present structure. (Can the structure be drastically altered??).
The planet earth is the body, with human mind-imagination dreaming and scheming GROWTH! We have to keep on growing every year - every domain - wealth has to grow, say at 7% p.a. Is it possible? The body can't stand after a limit. Is there a limit to growth?
Long ago, by 1972 Club of Rome had declared this through 'Limits to Growth'. By 1992 Rio Earth Summit, this had become a matter of global discussion. However, all that awareness and the continuing and periodical global summits and agreements, have not made any drastic change in the human thought pattern of 'growth' on earth.
Mansur asks two fundamental questions - whether such growth is possible and whether such growth is desirable. He shows the multi-level myth on which the theory of growth is built.
I observe two things:
1. The tremendous growth of service sector around us - especially in Keralam. How can this happen, when there is hardly any corresponding 'real' economics of production, specifically, in the primary sector not happening? That's not just a matter of Keralam - it's spreading to Tamil Nadu, to Andhra Pradesh... and productive land is diminishing. And the pattern is one - we are increasingly becoming global and everyone is being led into that single pattern of growth.
When some typical examples are given, no body has doubts - e.g., a typical (cliched) sign of growth is to be owning a car. Suppose all Indians - 1.3 billion or families - say 250 crores - were to own a four wheeler, could that be affordable? Could that be 'carried'?
2. The other question is that of the why of all our efforts. Why do we desire growth - to be more comfortable? Or in the ultimate analysis 'to be happy'. So now instead of GDP, people have started speaking about (not really thinking about) Gross National Happiness. Again, that we can measure it and compare it, itself is a weird thought pattern that everything can be, and needs to be quantified, measured and 'monetized'. However, has the pattern of life (focus on growth, development) increased happiness?
To increase our happiness, we focus on our health, to increase our health we look upto having more hospitals - more hospital beds!! But on account of a major health care centre, where medical practitioners are being groomed, there was an onset of jaundice in the community. That is just one example of happiness being lost unawares, when we think our happiness is increasing.
We are increasingly being fed on ideas and goods which show us how deprived and unhappy we are, unless we possess them. And in our frantic search for them, we end up restless, breathless (our pulse rate is increasing 72 is gone. It's GROWING, so too our sugar levels, our pressure levels! It is mysterious that in spite of being part of that culture, my heart beat rate is between 54 and 62!!), and some what proudly 24/7!!
Mansoor quotes Edward Abbey who said 'growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of cancer'. Would we choose that?
But as someone said: Who will bell the cat? Or can anyone bell the cat? Or is technology the solution or the only solution?
But someone else also said: Who cares? It all began with a bang! And whether we like it or not, it will all end with a bang, some time or other! So, let's eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. 33Do not be deceived: "Bad company corrupts good morals." (I Cor 15:32-33). But, that is Bible, and we are now treading moral grounds! That's perhaps, 'no, no, area' in a secular debate. Or will finally, the spiritual will add to happiness? Would that be devoid of planet, water, air, relationship or inclusive of all that?
Even if we are resigned to the final bang with which we ought to go, unless that adds to our happiness, why bother?
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