Let us divert ourselves from “Corona” – divert to new things: the advent of a new Age !
At last the age of “ideas” has come. It is the dead-end of one full cycle of humans – humans as a race who had commenced their journey from animals. In their evolution, humans had started their journey from the advent of “ideas”.
But in this journey, they never had an age dominated by ideas. Ideas were there but they were subordinate to other traits of humans. “Ideas” were lurking in the background and serving the interests of those other – dominent – human traits. In this journey they were waiting for the hour when their time would come and they would rule the age. That age has come now.
This age is the age of ideas and it has been made possible by two things: Science reaching a critical stage of its development and the revolution in information technology that has made those scientific discoveries a universal house-hold things.
It is like putting a spark into a powder keg. It is all set to change the humanity beyond recognition and forever – humanity as we know them. Humans have to get ready to this change – their transformation. And, it is a good thing; it is moving ahead; it should be a welcome thing.
With the coming of the age dominated by “ideas”, there would be the “death” of the age of the yesteryears’ those human traits that had hitherto dominated the human race in their evolutionary journey.
But this “death” of the once dominating human traits is not to come without a fight of the rival interests. There would be the fight – and the bitter fight – between these antagonistic traits. But in this fight ultimately the power of “ideas” would win this contest against the presently dominating human trait for two reasons: Firstly, “ideas” are more powerful than the erstwhile traits; and secondly, “ideas” invent the weapons and the hands of those who have the “ideas” control them (that is, weapons).
Which are those human traits that had their ruling days and how did they fare in the past in the human evolutionary journey?
Humans have three basic constituting elements or planes in their life: Physical force, emotional world and mental reasoning. The possession of these three constituting elements are not the special prerogatives of the life of human beings alone; they all are present in all life, albeit in different proportions – in different developmental stages. All forms of life on Earth have more or less developed elements of physical base in their anatomical body, its (life’s) emotional flowering in the form of love, hate, jealesy, sacrifice, greed etc. and a mental element – as if this mental element is the ripened fruit of this flower; a fruit in the form of an intelligent capacity to reason. In this triple formation of life, plants and trees are the least developed in this mental element and humans are the ones where the mental element is in the most developed form.
Long history of the human race is nothing but the history of the sequential expression and manifestation of the “domination” of each one of these three human traits – step by step – in the course of their (humans’) evolutionary journey.
In human history, there was a period when the physical force dominated their life; the emotional and the mental elements – in whatever stage of their development they were – remained subservient to this physical element. These two elements did but aid and help the physical one to establish and consolidate its hold on their entire life’s spectrum.
It was the savage age. It lasted long – for millions of years – and manifested in the human life style of hunters, gatherers, cannibalism etc. Mental element was flowered there as if yet in a budding state and simply utilized by the dominating physical force, not for its justification but as a helpimg tool to establish its hold on that savage human society. It may be termed a “dark age” of human existence.
Then came the age of emotion – the age of love, hate, compassion, wikedness, anger, sacrifice, revenge, forgiveness. It was the age of impulses – the vital force that works from behind the apparant physical existence of human life. This vital force – the force of emotion and impulse – is above the physical element but below the element of mind, that is, the element of reason in human life. In this age the element of emotion dominated the entire spectrum of human life and the remaining two elements – the below one of the physical and the above one of the mrntal – did nothing but help and aid the working of the vital.
Incessant wars were fought in the cause of religious zeal, in pursuit of the object of sex, for plundering to garner the wealth, to quench thirst of conquering the world and to seek eternal glory etc. It was not the age of wandering hunters and gatherers who were always on the lookout to expand into newer lands in search of the required or the better pastures for their survival. It was a better age – better from evolutionary point of view – of the pursuit of some ideals.
The dominating element of this age – the element of emotion or impulse belonging to the world of the vital force – had made its appearance several thousands of years ago and is still continuing in our own times. This our age of impulse finds its defining marks in religions and greed for wealth – both of which are nothing but the expression of vital force. This is the age of religious fanaticism and capitalism, where the bulk of humanity is guided by the lower impulse of religious merit and acquisition of money, both of which cater to their vital’s demands – desires – and not to the demand of their mind. It may be termed an “enlightened age” of our collective existence.
This way of human progress is strange but it is the scheme of nature imbubed in their evolutionary journey. But as the time of savage hunters and gatherers had run out its course so would the time of religious bigots and capitalists run out its course. The advent of the age dominated by the element of mind – or of the reason, that we call it – would mark the end of the present age of the vital force. The age of the domination of the mental element is on the horizon and probing to find its ways to delige mankind with its superior force. In the age dominated by this mental element the bigoted zeal of religions and the greed to acquire more wealth would meet their end. It may be termed “transitional age” of humanity in the further journey of their life’s evolution.
In this age that is yet to firmly put its feet among humans, the collective religious zeal of humans would be transformed into their individual spirituality and capitalism as a collective economic way of life would be transformed into a rational economy controlled not by the impulsive greed of individuals but by the planning of mind and reason brought to the fore as a necessity.