When a corrupt public official seeking a bribe in southern Tunisia slapped a struggling street vendor of fruit, he went on to complain to the authorities. His complaint was not heard as is common in countries where bribe taking is commonplace. The fruit vendor then set himself on fire. This triggered protests in Tunisia, elsewhere in the Arab world, Spain and now much of the developed countries in the shape of the Occupy Wall Street and other Occupy movements. Major changes in the world, hopefully for the better, have come about in the wake of this slap. Many more changes are likely to come in future since the effects of the slap have not yet unfolded fully.
One may wonder at this example of the butterfly effect. Is it possible that such huge changes can come about through an isolated incident in a not very significant corner of the world? My own view is that when the time comes for a change, it happens and requires the smallest of triggers to initiate the change as when a bucket of water is just balanced on a weighing scale, a single drop of water will cause it to tilt and spill over. But when the time has not come for change, the strongest of force may not cause it. In an earlier post while discussing the idea of AM strip farms a fellow blogger - Vincent commented that he was impressed with the thought but did not think the idea would be implemented. He would be right if the time has not yet come for that idea despite the fact that it is now out in the public domain in this blog.
In the present chain of events, the action of a single street vendor sufficed to initiate the massive changes in our world. In the normal course it is not possible for individuals to change the world in significant ways. Certainly much needs to be changed. We have on our planets beautiful and prosperous areas like Austria on the one hand and tragically starving and cruel areas like Somalia on the other. I would have chosen Switzerland instead of Austria as an example of a good area but for the fact that the Swiss appear to enjoy the proceeds of collusion between bankers and the underworld facilitated by their secrecy laws. Secrecy is required when an act is shameful. Some argue that secrecy is mantained by humans as regards their bodies even but my recent novel - nude besides the lake - attempts to explain when it is so and when it need not be like that
As mentioned, in the ordinary course, it is not possible for individuals to cause any major changes in the world and humans that attempt it on their own may end up wasting much of their effort. Where an individual has control is on his or her own behavior and it is here that efforts can bring about most results. It is my belief that eventually humans get what they deserve. Their present circumstances are a result of their past just as their future will be. In my belief system this past stretches into past lives that even determines if a child will be born in Somalia or Austria. My scientific mind is unwilling to accept that anything happens at random either in the physical world or the spiritual one. Everything is precisely determined and the result of a cause in our wonderfully intelligent universe.
Although it is not easy for individuals to bring about major change on their own, a change is possible when individuals become part of a mass movement as recently demonstrated in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. However there must be a clear goal for such movements to suceed. A deficiency that appears to mark the occupy Wall Street movement is that the goals are unclear. True there is injustice in a world fuelled by greed where one percent of the earth’s population controls 99 percent or even ten percent of the earths resources, while many sweet innocent infants of our planet starve slowly and painfully to death. Truth there is injustice when democratic leaders who are supposed to look after the interest of the majority cater to the needs of the few who fund them. Nevertheless, just crying hoarse against injustices would lead one nowhere if one is unable to suggest an alternative course. What is the use of crying against a capitalistic system when the other alternative of communism has been known to end up in bread lines? What is the use of crying against a democratic system funded by selfish corporatism when the alternative of authoritarian systems lands you in the cooler the moment you speak against it?
This author is a thinker and he has pondered over such problems that beset mankind. An attempt to seek solutions led to an article – Beyond Communism and Capitalism (or here)– several years ago. Since then I have revised/changed many of my ideas as put forth in that article. However a model for how corporations may be managed remains unchanged in my mind so far. The essence of that model was that the smallest corporations and the smallest of businesses may continue to run on greed as in capitalism but as they get larger public good would progressively control them more and more. The details may be found in the article just mentioned.
http://www.libervis.com/article/morphism_beyond_communism_and_capitalism
http://www.codexnews.com/pcodex/contents.nsf/WNPPrintArticles/F042B91DA6452C7CC22570130008A1AD?open
0 comments:
Post a Comment