Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

consciousness-based education and governmentcannot sustain. There is a lack of balance in what government canachieve and as a result people remain frustrated and dissatisfied.Governments give primacy to economic policy. The conventionalwisdom is that if the economy is put onto a sound basis so that sustainableeconomic growth can be enjoyed, then problems in other areaswill become manageable. Social distress will be reduced and hopefullyeliminated when people have jobs and have money in their pockets.Health will improve because people will be able to afford medicalcare. Crime will reduce because people will not need to steal to survive,and their stress levels will be lowered when they are employedand earning enough to make them comfortable. And for those few whocontinue to be disadvantaged within this happy scene, government willbe able to provide care and support because a healthy economy will giveit the fiscal resources that it needs to do so.This is the theory implicit in the behavior and the rhetoric of politicians.It seems to be common to all “mainstream” parties, whosepresentation of the theory differs among them only marginally, notwithstandingthe extravagance with which these differences tend to beportrayed, especially at election time.The experience belies the theory. While a soundly working economyis obviously desirable, it is not some master key which opens the doorto fulfillment in all other areas of society—or even any other singlearea. Japan has been regarded as a model of economic efficiency, but itsyouth suicide rate is one of the world’s highest and overall there is a verylimited capacity of its people to enjoy their affluence. Another wealthysociety, which has also been seen as a paragon of economic efficiency,is Switzerland. The Swiss have one of the West’s most serious drugproblems and a high incidence of AIDS. These are but two instancesof societies under great stress notwithstanding their economic achievements.It is not credible, in looking at the international evidence, tomaintain this purported linkage between economic efficiency and thebroad fulfillment of a nation’s people. And yet politicians continue tobehave as though the connection were inarguable.The preoccupation with economic policy leads to endless debatenationally and internationally about particular economic schools ofthought. Neo-Keynesians vie with neoclassicists, proponents of interventionismwith free market theorists. Economic gurus move in and32