Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

success in governmentout of fashion. When one chosen approach to economic managementfails to deliver satisfaction, an alternative approach is embraced, oftenwith a messianic fervor about the splendid outcomes that it will allegedlydeliver. Economic debate in the 20th century, with its intensityand intolerance, is not dissimilar to the acrimonious religious tractarianismof 16th and 17th century Europe.Politicians caught up in the economic policy arguments often lookfor exemplars among other countries to argue that they represent modelswhich their own country should be following. The economic grassseems to look greener on the other side of the fence. The media, theinternational literature, and argumentation from parliamentary debatingchambers and university cloisters to buses and bars, all go roundand round in the search of optimal direction.It does not seem to occur to the political and other constituenciesinvolved in this tortured exercise that their basic premise may bewrong. Given their repeated failure to find fulfillment through economicprescriptions, one can admire, after a fashion, their persistencein continuing to worship this clay-footed god, but not their rationality.When constant endeavor down a particular path of action is invariablyunsuccessful, it suggests rather plainly that the approach in question isnot efficacious.There are many who challenge the centrality of economic policy andthey tend to come from the political left. These are generally peoplewho find unacceptable the human cost that so often seems to be associatedwith economic change. Since the world share market crash in 1987,both governments and business in many countries have had to makepainful adjustments to deal with the consequences of over-borrowingprior to the crash. The suffering induced by this has been reflected inhigh unemployment levels and stagnant or declining real incomes.Much of the reaction against this pain has been expressed in a challengeto the primacy of economic agencies within governments. Incountries such as Australia and New Zealand, where economic egalitarianismhas been something of a tradition, there has been concernthat economic policy management has resulted in a widening of thegap between the rich and the poor. Societies are becoming increasinglyworried about the polarization of “haves” and “have-nots.”33