THE BUSINESS OF EDUCATION - International Indian

[ FUTURE qUEST ]
The Times They Are Changing...
The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, and the public debt should be reduced. The arrogance of officialdom
should be tempered and controlled. And the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest we become bankrupt. - Cicero, 63 B.C.
There are signs throughout our economy of an impending earthquake. The tremors we have felt so far are just a little venting of steam, not
an indication of how violent the blow-off can be. - Larry Burkett (1991) The Coming Economic Earthquake
America exports its sin, by the most sophisticated means, hastening the moral destruction of every nation on earth. - Bill Bright and
John N. Damoose in Red Sky In The Morning
And the world is passing away, and the lust of it. - 1 John 2: 17
[ By FRANK RAJ ]
Reviewing major 20th century events of
the last three decades, the following
come to mind: The US Watergate
scandal in 1972; the Aids virus in 1981; the fall
of the Berlin Wall in 1989; the 1991 collapse of
Communism and dismantling of Apartheid in
South Africa the same year; The 1991 Gulf war;
the exponential growth of the Internet in 1993;
Nuclear tests by India and Pakistan in 1998; and
the 2003 US led invasion of Iraq. Apart from
the US still mired in Iraq, most of these events
have had little impact on people in countries not
directly affected by them.
The 21st century however has just presented
us with a life altering global financial crisis that
could be a harbinger of other things to come.
My radar is always alert for potential upheavals
to examine in this column. I am continuing to
keep an eye on what maybe still to come (not
necessarily in any particular order): Inevitable
consequences of the rise of Hindutva in India; the
dreaded California earthquake; a serious China-
Russia-US confrontation; another Indo-Pak war;
Israel attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities; a nuclear
terrorist incident, and yes I often wondered about
the outcome of America’s incredible national debt
in excess of 10 trillion dollars. I also figure that
a day of reckoning can be expected for the total
depravity of man, the extermination of innocents
through abortion, mass murder in the name of
religion, exploitation of women and children,
destruction of the environment etc. Something is
afoot, for all the signs around us seem to point to
a culmination of something dormant.
A cartoon once published in a New York City
newspaper pictured the Titanic leaving port. Only
the ship was renamed The U.S. Economy. A caption
above it read: “Not even God can sink this ship!”
Although the American dream is now the American
nightmare, the fact is many Indians probably share
the views of a majority of Americans who had
concluded only success counts, morals don’t - as
Bollywood flicks increasingly depict and the rise
of fascism in India clearly indicates. The general
view is our politicians and business leaders can do
as they please as long as our economy is growing
- all that matters is prosperity! The reality could
be that we are staring into the face of a storm of
apocalyptic proportions.
Seventeen years ago author Larry Burkett
published The Coming Economic Earthquake
exposing how the US government was hooked
on Keynesian economic policies with their
explicit license for continuing federal deficits
and their implicit preference for higher levels
of consumption, reduced saving, and a larger
role for government in the economy. When
mainstream economists since World War II,
declared they were the means to continued,
depression-proof prosperity, Burkett insisted
they were a prescription for disaster but to
no avail. Even the 1986 Nobel prize winning
economist James Buchanan, whose critique
of applied Keynesian theory set off a storm of
protest in liberal academic circles could not
change America’s Keynesian policy addiction.
Will India escape the global financial carnage?
Giving reasons for the relatively mild impact on
India of the ongoing financial turmoil, Oliver
Blanchard, Economic Counselor and Director of
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Research
Department in Washington noted that, “India is
still largely a closed economy, has strong internal
growth dynamics, from rapid productive growth,
from its process of integration into the global
economy that is still continuing. We are projecting
that the growth in India will come down from eight
per cent in 2008 to seven per cent in 2009. But seven
per cent is still a strong rate of growth,” the IMF
official pointed out.
That is what you call expert opinion and a
superpower like America too had its share of
optimistic experts who never saw the writing on
the wall. Perhaps if financial analysis was all that
mattered we could rest easy and gloat that now it’s
our turn because the centre of gravity has shifted
from America and Europe to Asia. Also if man is
a God like some folks genuinely believe we could
surely turn things around with a mantra or a
philosophy or with the help of the planets to usher
in the much longed for age of Aquarius. Somehow
we have been deluded into believing man holds the
keys to all knowledge and science.
However Professor Joyce A. Little perceptively
observes: “Unwilling to be God’s image in the world
and unable, whatever claims some may make to the
contrary, to become God in any serious sense of the
word, modern man seeks high and low for something,
almost anything, to give him an identity; the cosmic
consciousness of the New Age, the magic and
witchcraft of goddess mythology, the archetypes
of Jungian psychology, Joseph Campbell’s hero of
a thousand faces, Carl Sagan’s voyage through the
Cosmos, the cults of Elvis, Marilyn and Madonna,
Robin Leach’s visits with the rich and famous, 1900’s
psychic counselors and personal astrologers, even
in alarming numbers the demonic powers promised
by satanic cults. Virtually no stone is left unturned
in this frenetic search for some hint or clue as to
where to go from here.”
We have finally come to a period and place in
history when the spiritual foundations of our lives
will be tested like never before and it’s time to take
stock. Czechoslovakia’s former President, Vaclav
Havel once spoke of a revolution in the sphere of
human consciousness, noting, “We are still incapable
of understanding that the only genuine backbone
of all our actions, if they are moral, is responsibility
– responsibility to something higher than my
family, my country, my company, my success.”
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, Futurequest
is a search for the truth in our times. Frank Raj
is the founding editor of The International Indian.
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