Veil of Ignorance

Not a hypothetical Rawlsian veil of ignorance but a very real one obstructs our viewing of the future. Simply we do not know what is there in the future for humanity. The aggressive reassertions of the old values and the entrenched forces though  give the impression of the return of the old twentieth century order, rather that may  only be the last bright flickering of a dying order. The present is anything but about the past but it is the big take off point for a new future with massive build-up of forces happening right now, that we live with not to realise their criticality. The new norms, practices, institutions, instruments and their absences are getting into our lives thick and fast. 

This makes the times critical for studying the unfolding of new realities with most care as the future is going to suck us into its unknown belly. This is the time for renewing contracts as people may not be sure of what may be in store for them in the future, and they would consent for a fair order with relative ease. The tasks we have before us are much more daunting than Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau had in their trying times. However, the bursts of technological innovations only contrast with the dumbness of collective minds. We are faltering badly and we may be inviting lots of pain when the new takes us along anyhow. 

Niraj Kumar Jha

Pure Secularism

 A pandemic earlier caused a separation; politics divorced religion. This pandemic we see the unease of science.

Niraj Kumar Jha

The Utopia of Statelessness

It is not only the ideology, which misleads us with such a utopia, but even the classical liberals when they say that the state is a necessary evil, they too fantasize a stateless society. The point is that this is unrealistic. Optimisation of freedoms does require a collective authority. The intellectual challenge is to fashion this organically. The protocols are already there. Rule of law geared to facilitation of freedoms by ensuring a just order can be operational provided we apply understanding instead of extra wisdom we all possess. Government we can have organically societal instead of being sui generis extraneous.

Niraj Kumar Jha

The WWII Internationalism

The internationlaism, which grew out of the the great war during the  later part of the twentieth century, is dying now. I don't think that it would be appropriate to say that it survived the Cold War. Rather I find that the Cold War was imbedded into its logic. Teh internationalism was more a design for global domination by a few powers than about the  pursuit of global good. Now the order is crumbling primiarily because of its own inherent cotradictions, and by the rise of another power, seeking global hegemony, and ethnic resurgences everywhere. It's high time for democracies and freedom loving people from all over the world to unite and work for a new internationalism facilitating freedoms all over the world. Otherwise, the world is going to face weakened resolve and agency for fighting global crises and check the rise of evil forces. 

Niraj Kumar Jha 

Science

I learnt that science is the systematic study of a phenomenon. But what I realise is that science is about honest and intelligent pursuit of knowledge, and the methods follow. There is another dimension too, i.e. science being applied against human good. And thus honesty, as put in the context above, must mean to cover morality, the commitment to human good, along with objectivity.

Niraj Kumar Jha