Views and Words - Dr K S Radhakrishnan
The
competition as it has been envisaged by the market economy leads the whole
society either into anarchy or into despotism. Anarchy results in the
disintegration of both the individual and the society. Freedom can never be identified
with anarchy because in an anarchic set up there is no regulation at all. Without
regulation there is no freedom guaranteed. Freedom requires regulation and an
individual is always regulated by some force. Whenever and wherever our society
is being regulated by itself then it can enjoy freedom. That can never be
equated to anarchy. Market economy takes the whole society either to anarchy or
to despotism. Despotism can be practiced in a novel manner in the new world in
the form of corporate management tactics. The corporate world believes in an
open world that is the free world – an unregularized and liberated world. In a
liberated world the corporate giant must be able to establish itself. This
shows that after the establishment of the might over the meek according to the
corporate giant, what remains there is despotism.
In a despotic set up, either in economic
sector or in political field, or in cultural arena, wherever it may be, it
ultimately leads the whole society to slavery. In effect, the present day
economic practice takes the whole world into different islands of slaves
through despotism, unfettered competition and unregulated life pattern and life
mode. This can never be treated as a sign of freedom because freedom can never
be guaranteed by any despot. Freedom is not something that is not given by
somebody to someone but it has to be taken by the individual himself, the
society itself and also the nation itself. If the individual never takes the
freedom to experience freedom, such an individual will never be able to enjoy
freedom. One has to prepare oneself by self-regulation, for this unique enjoyment
of freedom.
Freedom
can never be enjoyed without giving its price. Its price means the individual
has to take up the responsibility. Responsibility of an action can be
established on the individual, only when he is being regulated by himself. But
in the other cases of an individual being regulated by some external forces, then naturally such a society
of individuals can never be treated as a free one. So freedom in this sense
either at the individual level or the societal level or at the national level
can be enjoyed only by regulation by itself. This factor has been totally
eliminated by the market economy or the new economic system. This is a very
serious thing; when we think of a society in terms of the competition that has
been permitted by or that has been enjoyed by the present day system of
economic practice, then we have to think of the one fact that such a society
can never give or guarantee freedom. Advaita believes in self regulation as an
effective means of enjoying freedom. Equality, fraternity and liberty, can be
enjoyed in a democratic set up only within the frames of self- regulation. No
society can be said to practice equality if it denies self-regulation. Fraternity
is the direct result of self-regulation. To maintain fraternity one has to
admit that there are differences of opinion and such differences has to be
admitted as pre-condition for the existence of society and the individual.
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