Soul of patriotism
Dr A D Sharma *
I am a patriot.
I believe modern wars are not fought solely in the conventional warfare framework. Current ultra-modern warfare consists of, to mention a few, economic, political, biologic, cultural, intellectual, electronic and nuclear.
Another recent addition to the list is aerospace warfare. Recent advances in the latter are expansion of possibility to the outer space, preparedness for the unknown and trying to understand the real nature out there in the sky.
Wars are fought naturally among the same species on our planet. It is usually for pretty selfish causes in terms of humanity at large. We have almost reached the ceiling in genetic research and engineering, thereby attracting the attention of the Catholic Church, we have almost uncovered the secrets of the sub-atomic world and already endangered the very existence of mankind and realized the need to go with the rest of the world in the journey to peaceful living among the same species named homo sapiens.
Everybody has a choice whether to listen to the voices of goodness emanating from some section of the western intelligentsia. We have to believe that there is a certain number of good people in the western world who would be sympathetic towards us once we are not averse to the concept of change everyone is following all over the world.
One of the priorities occupying the frontline is universal and proper education of the masses. Another is disarmament and the fight between the West and the Asian. Country like India initially flouted the policy of moratorium which the West thought a little haughty and would not reach out its warm hands.
Now that going with India would make sense with the emergence of China as a potential rival, finally the USA has softened its stance vis-�-vis India to the extent of tacit acceptance of India as a mature and arrived member in the arena of nuclear warfare, and accepting the need to channelize the opportunity into economic adventure.
India benefited from the arrangement, partly due to an educated Prime Minister who came up like a dream-come-true to the West and partly due to the enlarging importance of the non-resident Indians.
I may not like violent means as personally I am rather violent myself but I have deep love and fascination with my homeland and I hope for a healthy and thriving society. I would rather first remove literacy and increase the standard of education in the state at war-footing and work for adequate energy supply which can increase the employment opportunities drastically.
Unfortunately the well-established systemic infection with corruptions of all sorts makes the possibility less clear. Therefore everybody who even comes up and tries to resist corruption ought to be patted on the back. Is 'conflict zone' enough reason to dismantle social fabrics?
I hope the spirits of survival is still intact among us. And we all know that survival is not among our birth-rights, because we need to earn it ourselves. Ourselves, myself are words which lead to the way of self-identification. Once self-identified, we would know all our defects and would do a great deal to either rectify it or cover it up surreptitiously.
We all must know that certain sections of the Indians have phased out 'buying cheap'. What it all means, one only can extrapolate. People started to understand everything about dear things including human lives. India's enemy number one is poverty.
I don't know about our boiling- nation. Maybe lack of real intellectuals instead of half-baked ones, for example? I really don't know yet.
If contributing something self-sustaining for our land may be considered as contributing to one's patriotism, perhaps that too would go a long way in solidifying the concept. But I am afraid the ability to self-sustain takes a great deal more than the ability for money-making and fake-faces.
It takes a lots of raw-guts to decide to choose to think independent ( read different), that too creatively. We all must know that our forefathers wouldn't create for us anymore, it's we who should do so.
Borrowing is not considered a form of creativity, especially if it is without honesty. Producing creativity among us is one area where there is no short-cuts. The biggest problem lies in the recognition of creativity itself. It starts with 'who will do the job of recognition?'.
By a 'recognized' person (one who doesn't recognize creativity when confronted by one or worse rather willfully overlooks it for personal convenience)? This is one area of weakness which is vulnerable to contamination with social pathogens-the veritable cancer cells (socially malignant).
But we all must remember that fighting the cancer cells takes a hell lot of more than raw energy. It demands correctly understanding the causes of cancer cells. Because we now know that there are both mechanisms for death and survival stored in the nucleus (headquater) of the cells.
By manipulating with the translation of the genetic codes, we are now harnessing the fruits of our cleverness. But the worrying fact is that there are no trustworthy fail-safe system in place for the centuries old wisdom and information.
Cancer cells arise because there are the chances which intimately associate with the physical realities. Even though there are the perfect human genetic code, while translating the code the physical realization process of the code is influenced by the laws governing the physical world.
Our future fascination would not be anything other than trying to understand how to protect the realization process, immune from these physical constraints rather than merely elucidating the codecs.
*Dr A D Sharma contributes regularly to e-pao.net. He is an Associate Professor of Gastrointestinal Surgery, RIMS, Imphal. He can be contacted at d_aribam(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)in
This article was webcasted on July 27th, 2009.
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