LORD WHAT FOOLS THESE MORTALS BE
Scientific advancement has brought many benefits for the mankind but alongwith it also
brought us to the edge of doom.
Despite the premium which man places upon his discoveries and inventions,ideas and
ideals,rationale and skill,he has not been able to touch even the fringe of wisdom.his
inventions and discoveries have landed him in such a situation as has endangered his
existence,shaken the foundations of the citadel of knowledge which he has been
beautiflying since ages.some ideals are worshipped for a decade or so and then they
either pass into oblivionr are defaced beyond recognition.his rational approach has
made him a cold calculating machine,with a human touch about it.his skill has perverted
his ends;it is used in destroying and gaining mastery over others.can we still say that
man is wise?wisdom does not lie in knowling all or in knowing all or in knowing well,it
lies in using knowledge well.A scientist who makes weapons of destruction,a writer
who instigates people to revolt,a politician who pushes the world to pre decided
recipies and a scholar who corrupts thinking can’t be wise.Like fools they mostly
consider their predecessors unwise,they pride over their achievements and triumphs
though they profess to be better equipped,in terms of knowledge and experience,yet
find themselves like rats in a blind alley.Their vision is not limited only by space and
time but also by their incapacity to extend it extend it into the misty future.So his wisest
thoughts loose their relevance as the value of life undergoes a change.Follies of the
past seem to make man wiser but the wisdom of today may prove to be a folly of
tomorrow.
Modern man thinks that he is much advanced politically also;rights of the common man
has benn upheld against the rights of the administrators and the man is considered to
be his own ruler.They say that they have the right to speak,right to think and right to live
and the governments are convenient devices to administer themselves.Democracy has
taken us a long way from kingship and dictatorship-it is the history of an arduous
struggle of man to enjoy freedom.Modern democratic government is of the people,for
the people and by the people as A.Lincoln has said-it stays till the people want and act
as the people wish to act.This is ,some may say,the sweetest fruit of wisdom,the best
product of accumulated wisdom of ages.Pope,the poet of the 18th century,brings out the
foolishness of this wisdom when he says : ‘”For forms of government let fools
contest,whichever administered best is best”.Thus the transition from kingship to
democracy and then from democracy to kingship is natural.The son of a king,who
is enthroned after his death,often proves to be unworthy of his office.It gives an
opportunity to the courtiers to capture power.They lead a luxurious life and go on
imposing taxes to raise funds.The process brings a breaking point and the people revolt
and install a popular leader as the head of the government.This is the birth of the
democracy.It is a government by the inexperienced and incompetent
persons.Cosequently inefficiency,corruption,favouritism and nepotism are rampant.An
extremely clever and competent person takes advantage of the situation and gives an
efficient administration with one man at the helm of all affairs.Dictatorship is born.If
the dictator happens to be efficient.people would like his son to take the office.Thus it is
the cycle of different governments,which completes its round.How can we say that
democracy is the product of the saner self of man?Moreover in democracy people enjoy
freedom in name only ; freedom of thought is snatched by stuffing the mind with ready
made opinions through press and propaganda.People are fed with distorted information
and an attempt is made to blur their vision.Can such people enjoy any freedom of
speech?The democratic government moulds their opinions to suit its purpose till they
believe that government is responding to public opinion.People in power buy
votes,intimidate the electorate,make false promises and get elected.Still a man in the
street believes that he has elected their representative and that too with his or
likeminded peoples support.Is it not ignorance?Is it not folly?Lord what fools these
mortals be!
Scientific advancement is another feather in the cap of man.He has harnessed nature to
his advantage,probed the mysteries of space and planets and has made tremendous
progress in medical science.With technological progress we hoped to abolish and end
hunger,poverty,disease,violence and injustice.But in our effort to do so we have created
a perpetual war of nerves more poverty and hunger by reducing the purchasing power
of money,more diseases by polluting the atmosphere and creating a strain,more
violence by equipping us with powerful weapons of destruction,more injustice by
justifying it thro’racial and national superiority.Apart from this weapons technology has
brought us to the brink of disaster : hydrogen and cobalt bombs can and perhaps will
destroy the life on earth.They will wipe the world out of its existence.Can we call it
wisdom?If a creature prepares for its own destruction and claims to have unparalleled
triumphs should we call him wise?Similarly science claims to have made the man
rational,objective and detached.But humanitariarism has gone dry,aesthetic sense
come to an end;affection and love has vanished.Is it wisdom?Mad man leads the blind
and we are not coming to any specific stage of progress.Wisdom do not lies in
knowing the veins in the wings of a fly but in making the human veins stronger.If
we reel back to the primitive ages we are fools sans reason.Since long man has been
trying to unravel the mystery that surrounds God,death and soul.We are bandied like
a shuttle cock from one idea to another and ultimately are led in the same wilderness
from which they promise to lift us up.Many religious prescriptions has been tried but
even the best stood baffled.Despite century old investigations man’s knowledge about
the existence of supernatural powers is as insufficient and inaccurate as it was
centuries before.Death defies logic and what happens after death is still a
mystery.Man knows that he is to die as others have died and the useless parade of
passions,baseless desire for fame and limitless urge for power are to be rounded up
with death.Despite this realization man ignores the inevitable death.Is it
wisdom?Not at all.
“Life is a tail told by an adiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing.”says
Shakespeare.If there is no significance in this sound and fury,why should we indulge in
it so seriously?We take pride in our success,build castles in air and on earth,subdue
the enemy,accumulate money;but this pageant of life is unsubstantial and melts away
soon.Still we never realize its labyrinth and happily do we demonstrate our
involvement.We are so engrossed in its activities that we deliberately delude ourselves
into the belief that life is not a vision or a dream.Self-delusion is perhaps the most
worst form of foolishness.Earthly life may not be the terminus,it may merely an
inn,a mile stone in our journey but we never take it to be so.
Foolishness of the mortals has done harm to themselves and not to anyone
else.Perhaps it dates back to the Adam’s folly of tasting the forbidden fruit or it
originates in Satan’s resove to challenge the authority of God by fair or foul
means.Whatever may be the genesis of the foolery of man it is certain that experience
has not made him wiser,otherwise history would have never repeated itself.The adage
“to err is human” clearly spells out the futility of the claims of wisdom;if the steps
to progress are still ‘hit and trial’ method,it is difficult to distinguish man from animals.But
man,all his life strives for serenity that “sad lucidity of soul” in which he can catch up
the beauty of human spirit.
Bibliography :
Chopra ,R. : Avanced Studies (Cosmos Bookhive Pvt.Ltd.)
-DR.NAVRAJ SINGH SANDHU , P.A.H.S.-1
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