If we keep looking into the past, when shall we move forward, and when shall plan for the future?
- Looking back at the past is good to put you in a trance, for some time, but if you are young and have a passion for future growth, can you afford to escape into a world which does not exist now?
Dr. Jernail S Anand | India
The human society apparently has two divisions of people. One, who have seen this world and are in the advanced stage of life, and the other, who have just begun the journey.
The older lot want the new lot to be like them, and like things they liked, and they should struggle and learn the joy of hard work and honesty which a way of life in the distant past. In a way, it is a drag back syndrome. They live in their past, which to them, looks glamorous, for the simple reason that distance lends charm to things. Now, that they have left it behind, even pain has lost its substance. Nothing gives us more feeling of pleasant joy, when you revisit the days of your harder times, which you had to suffer, and which are over now. And these old timers want to tell these stories of suffering and joy to their younger ones, and wish they gather some guidance from the roads they have mapped.
Look at the routine of a man who has retired from active service. If they are living with their sons and daughters and even grandchildren, they are telling them stories and anecdotes from their own life. We should not forget that two persons, born at the same time, can wear similar clothes, or acquire similar habits, equal weight and equal height, and they may have the same features too, but what no two people can have in common are dreams. They are essentially different from each other and this reality is often overlooked by our old guard.
The Drag back Syndrome
What we call generation gap is actually the result of this drag back syndrome. We want to cling to time, and wish that it does not pass, or if we could draw it back, so that we remain relevant. I have always believed that past is a mental construct. Anything that loses its significance for the present, becomes past. And things which have flung into past, are simply things which had lost relevance for the present. Technically, past means things which have lived their utility and cannot be called back. Wisdom lies in not dragging forth things from the past. The old generation wants the things of their early years to be revived, and those who take interest in ‘their’ past, are considered to possess ‘good taste’.
Love for culture is a common feature of our life. There are departments of Culture in educational institutions which bring up the old times. Culture, thus, simply means you are looking back into the past. And if we keep looking into the past, when shall we move forward, and when shall be plan for the future? No institution has a department for the Future of Mankind. Looking back at the past is good to put you in a trance, for some time, but if you are young and have a passion for future growth, can you afford to escape into a world which does not exist now? No doubt, there was something which was good, and bringing that into focus is quite understandable. But asking them to inculcate those times into their behaviour and thought patterns is putting the cart before the horses.
Academics and the Drag back syndrome
A scholar is an academic, who studies pain like a theory paper. And his solutions too are academic. The ordinary people, with real problems, and persistent suffering, feel lost because scholars write for marks leading to degrees and libraries, and not for solving the problems of ordinary people. Studying life like a discipline is one thing, giving solutions to life’s problems is quite another. The academics look at human problems from a distance. They have nothing to offer to a rickshaw puller whose young daughter goes to college, and feels threatened by goons when she is coming back on a cycle. Neither Jane Austen, nor Dickens can come to their help. Rather than making young scholars work on the Elizabethan times in Chaucer’s work, we need to create literature with a futuristic bias, and address the problems of our present society, and suggest means how it can boldly move into the times ahead. Going back into the past turns you into an academic ivory tower luxuriating in its own light.
A scholar is far removed from the life that ordinary people live. This gap needs to be abridged and whatever is taught in University departments, should be brought into relevance for modern times. A simple example is here. We give Graduate and Postgraduate degrees at the Convocation. Do we get an undertaking from the student that he will use his knowledge for the wellbeing of the society, and that he will never divert his knowledge towards the destruction of the living species? Never. That is the gap between studies and life. By creating students who are morally ambiguous towards the present and the future, we are creating a corps of educated people, who, like unthinking machines can destroy the moral fiber of the society. Else, how can we account for the ‘cheat and deceit’ syndrome getting acceptance in the world? Who is responsible for the bank and cyber frauds? This is education without a moral commitment.
Read: Third Dimension Thinking: Beyond Dualities
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Dr. Jernail Singh Anand, based in Chandigarh, is an Indian poet and scholar credited with 170 plus books of English literature, philosophy and spirituality. He won great Serbian Award Charter of Morava and his name adorns the Poets’ Rock in Serbia. He was honored with Seneca Award LAUDIS CHARTA by Academy of Arts & Philosophical Sciences, Bari, Italy 2024. He is Founder President of the International Academy of Ethics and conferred Doctor of Philosophy (Honoris Causa) by University of Engineering & Management, (UEM) Jaipur. Email anandjs55@yahoo.com
Bibliography:
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