The Age of Participatory Knowledge

This is the finest phase in human history for the enablement of the individual cognitive self in the larger public domain. Participation in debates—thanks to technology—has been greatly democratised, and the elite’s monopoly over terms and narratives is now fairly undermined, and for good. True, the weakening of normative knowledge disciplining by traditional custodians has made platforms noisy and chaotic, but this reflects the failure of our systemic epistemology, which has yet to provide a common ground for respectful cognitive exchanges—serving both the collective good and individual well-being. Our age demands greater democratic depth and coherence in the epistemological framework.

Niraj Kumar Jha

The Tragedy: Ideology‑driven Literature

It is a tragedy when ideologies come to dictate literature. Theories and doctrines have their place in guiding policy and shaping collective action, but they must not override the lived norms and cultural practices that anchor a community. Doctrines should be corrective, not re‑creative; they are meant to offer direction without dismantling the organic fabric of social life.

Substantive literature breathes life, not abstractions. To be worthy, a litterateur must mirror reality, not merely echo their fancies.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Illusion of Enlightenment

In the course of their intellectual evolution, people often reach a point where they feel they’ve arrived. But that moment of supposed arrival is usually one of quiet exhaustion, when they’ve spent their potential and stand estranged from their deeper human selves. It is precisely then that they feel at the lofty heights of knowledge and conviction. Yet what they take for a summit is merely a fog, one that subtly hacks their cognitive self. Caught in an illusory cadence or lulled into a zone of assumed clarity, they mistake exhaustion for insight, and conformity for revolution, all while aligning themselves with the very forces that erode genuine thought. Even among those regarded as the finest of the ‘arrived,’ the so-called historical exceptionals, there are those who have cloaked base instincts in the language of redemption.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Real and Imagined Alienation

A particular theory of alienation, once in vogue during the heyday of a now largely discarded ideology, had overwhelmed the imagination of the literati. It made people imagine alienation they had never actually experienced, and those on whose behalf it was spoken perhaps never knew it themselves.

I engage in manual labour and observe others undertaking physically hazardous, monotonous or distasteful tasks. Yet I do not find these individuals bereft of their humanity. On the contrary, many such workers retain a strong sense of self, community and purpose. In fact, I personally find certain highly regarded professions far more alienating and unappealing than those rooted in repetitive or mechanical work.

Doing mechanical work has long been a part of people's lives and is not always avoidable. The human mind has its own way of coping. It often drifts elsewhere while the limbs continue their task. This is not to dismiss the importance of fairness or human dignity, which remain essential concerns. But that is a different story.

Alienation, in the sense often theorised, is not something people directly experience, but something they are made to feel. It stems from a broader human tendency—the inclination to treat flimsy things as real, and unimportant matters as significant.

My suggestion is to rely on direct experience. People should reflect on what truly affects them, what causes harm, loss or discomfort, even when it arises from their own voluntary choices. By examining such experiences, understanding their reasons and speaking about them, individuals can begin to reclaim clarity and agency. If more people focused on fixing smaller, immediate problems in their own lives and surroundings, many larger troubles, though seemingly unrelated, might gradually disappear.

Niraj Kumar Jha

A Dialogue on Real and Imagined Alienation
Participants: Niraj Kumar Jha and ChatGPT

ChatGPT: Niraj, you’ve written a compelling critique of the Marxist theory of alienation. At first glance, it seems you're pushing back against its modern relevance—suggesting that in today’s democratic societies, people have mechanisms like free media, active civil society, and judicial recourse, which reduce the experience of alienation. But I assume you still see value in the original theory, at least in its historical context?

Niraj: No, I don’t. You’ve misunderstood me slightly. My critique begins earlier. I do not accept the original credibility of the Marxian theory of alienation either. Even in its own time, it misrepresented reality. The factory worker wasn’t newly dehumanised—he was, in many ways, freed from more oppressive and degrading systems like serfdom.

ChatGPT: That’s quite a reversal. Most interpretations take Marx’s view as historically grounded—that industrialisation turned human labour into a soulless, alienated activity. You’re arguing that factory work, harsh though it was, actually marked an upward step?

Niraj: Exactly. Industrial labour brought people into wage relations, which meant mobility, bargaining power, urban congregation, and—eventually—organised resistance. These workers were no longer trapped in hereditary obligations or rural isolation. Marx painted a picture of lost humanity, but in truth, people were gaining new social and political tools to assert their humanity.

ChatGPT: That’s a powerful revision. So, from your view, the theory of alienation didn’t emerge organically from lived experience—it was a kind of ideological projection, perhaps attractive to intellectuals more than to workers themselves?

Niraj: Yes. Alienation, as described by Marx and later thinkers, is often imagined on behalf of others. I’ve done manual work and observed others doing repetitive, physically taxing jobs. They don’t appear dehumanised to me. They find meaning, rhythm, and often peace in such work. On the contrary, I find many high-status professions more psychologically taxing—more alienating, if you will.

ChatGPT: That nuance deepens your argument. So in a sense, your critique is about how alienation is assigned, not necessarily experienced. And in democratic societies today, where people have systemic means of redress, the persistence of this theory becomes even more questionable.

Niraj: Correct. The democratic context matters not because it removes injustice, but because it offers people tools to fix what truly affects them. My emphasis is on direct experience. If something causes suffering, even through one's own choices, it deserves attention—not because it confirms a theory, but because it is real. If more people focused on resolving their small, concrete problems, many bigger problems would weaken, even if the link seems indirect.
And let me add something here. This isn’t just about Marxist alienation. Many contemporary ideologies and discourses operate in much the same way. They implant a sense of grievance or imagined alienation in people—especially the youth or the uncertain—without offering any tangible or credible solution. These ideas are often seductive, but hollow. They stir discontent, but provide nothing actionable in return.

ChatGPT: You mean they cultivate a sense of unresolved dissatisfaction, and then leave people directionless?

Niraj: Exactly. That’s the real issue. They displace attention from what can actually be addressed. Which is why I come back to my solution: pay attention to what directly affects you. Identify your discomforts—even if they result from your own choices—analyse them honestly, and try to resolve them. Grounded agency is far more liberating than abstract ideology.

General Comment

ChatGPT: I see now that your critique is not simply a rejection of Marx’s theory in today’s context—it’s a rejection of its original historical framing. That’s a significant departure. And your tone isn’t polemical—it’s observational. You’re asking us to listen to how people actually experience work, rather than interpreting it for them.

Niraj: That’s an important distinction. I’m not denying hardship. But I oppose projected suffering, especially when it becomes part of a grand ideological narrative. Let’s return to what people say about their own lives, not what someone else insists they must feel.

Validity of the Critique

ChatGPT: Given that, your argument has considerable validity. First, it brings historical realism to the table. Feudal labour, with all its dependency and rigidity, often offered less dignity than even the harshest factory conditions. And second, it reveals a mismatch between theory and perception. People today may do hard work, but they aren’t necessarily alienated by it—at least not in the way Marx theorised.

Niraj: Precisely. And while structural injustice exists, today’s workers in democratic settings are not voiceless. The theory of alienation assumes a passivity that doesn’t reflect today’s complex and layered experience of work. People are not inert cogs. They complain, resist, organise, quit, retrain, speak up, and even joke through it all.

ChatGPT: So, your point is not that alienation never exists, but that it’s often conceptualised in ways detached from actual experience, and therefore loses explanatory power.

Niraj: Yes. That’s the core of my argument.

Novelty of the Argument

ChatGPT: What’s truly novel about your critique, then, is that it reverses the common timeline. Industrial labour isn’t the point where humans began to lose themselves—it’s where many began to gain new ground, even if slowly and painfully. And by urging a focus on the fixable and the immediate, your approach avoids the paralysis of abstraction.

Niraj: That’s right. I’m not advocating fatalism or resignation. I’m proposing a redirection of attention—from ideological diagnosis to lived engagement. If people become attentive to the sources of their own unease and act on what they can influence, they’ll develop a more authentic form of agency than any theory can offer.

ChatGPT: So instead of searching for alienation in theory, we should listen for dissonance in experience, and meet it with practical effort, not borrowed despair?

Niraj: Well said. The human condition doesn’t require theorising to be understood. It requires attention and responsibility.

Education and Mindfulness

Almost without exception, people vouch for education per se as the panacea for all challenges, personal or social. Yet, education as a mere formality, a reliance on form over substance, rarely helps. The critical component lies in its content and method of delivery. And herein lies one of humanity’s most persistent challenges: the inability to distinguish between education and indoctrination, or between cultural carry-forward and cultural curation.

This pedagogical and epistemological conundrum can be substantially dispelled when educators learn to scrutinise inherited givens and develop the knack for identifying and nurturing possibilities. At its core, education is about enabling minds so that individuals genuinely own their minds rather than unknowingly letting others control them.

Regrettably, courses on pedagogy and epistemology themselves often turn out to be abstruse, dispiriting, rigid, and nearly unworkable. Instead of enabling learning, they inhibit it. To be an educator, then, is to assume a sui generis role, one that demands responsibility, imagination, and presence. This calls for serious attention.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Capitalism and the Question of Social and Ecological Ethics

A widespread misconception persists: that capitalism inherently erodes both social and ecological ethics. This view, however, warrants careful reconsideration. In fact, capitalism originated within a distinct ethical framework, deeply influenced by religious values, as Max Weber famously noted in his account of the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

Moreover, anecdotal evidence and contemporary observation suggest that developed capitalist societies often exhibit comparatively high levels of civic virtue. In the marketplace itself, ethical conduct is indispensable: economic exchange depends on trust, mutual accountability, and adherence to established norms. The idea that capitalism thrives on deceit overlooks the fact that bad actors are exceptions, not representatives of the system. Crooks and tricksters exist in every domain of life.

Crucially, capitalism is not a singular culture but a mechanism—one that operates across varied cultural landscapes. As a mechanism, capitalism requires certain embedded ethical practices, such as honesty, enforceable contracts, and trust among participants, for it to function efficiently. Yet, it remains just that: a mechanism. Its outcomes depend heavily on the societal, cultural, and institutional settings in which it is deployed. If a culture upholds vegetarianism, markets will predominantly cater to vegetarian demands. If a society values environmental stewardship, capitalism responds by supplying sustainable technologies and green alternatives. Conversely, if a culture sanctions exploitation, capitalism will likely facilitate it as well.

In this light, capitalism does contain its own operational ethics, but it largely mirrors the ethical and cultural orientations of the society it serves. The real question, then, is not whether capitalism corrupts ethics, but how societies choose to enable, guide, or restrain the mechanism it represents.

A parallel critique often levelled alongside capitalism is that the blind pursuit of nominal GDP growth contributes to the overexploitation of natural resources and the degradation of social values. But this concern, too, rests on a misunderstanding. Nominal GDP is not an ideological force—it is a neutral, comprehensive, and secular metric of economic activity. Far from being an engine of ethical erosion, it captures the breadth of legitimate human enterprise. Everything from producing solar panels to conducting yoga classes, from organic farming to education services, contributes to GDP. A teacher running a private tuition centre or a therapist charging for mental health counselling ethically adds to GDP, just as much as a factory producing goods.

Critics sometimes argue that a race for higher GDP leads nations to prioritise quantity over quality or to disregard environmental sustainability. Yet, once again, this overlooks the role of cultural values and public policy. A society with robust environmental norms and social safeguards will channel its GDP growth through green industries, ethical labour practices, and inclusive institutions. Nordic countries, for example, continue to post strong GDP growth while maintaining high standards of environmental care and social welfare. The metric itself is not the problem; rather, it is the societal framework that interprets and guides economic growth that truly matters.

GDP, in essence, reflects what society chooses to value and produce. If those values are ethical and sustainable, then growth amplifies them. If they are extractive or unjust, growth may well deepen the harm, but that is a failure of governance and culture, not of the metric or the capitalist mechanism.

In sum, both capitalism and GDP growth are often mischaracterised as inherently corrosive. In reality, they are tools, embedded within and shaped by the prevailing cultural, moral, and institutional structures. Rather than condemning these tools outright, the challenge is to infuse them with the ethical vision and civic responsibility we expect from any healthy society.

Niraj Kumar Jha

A Cosmopolis

A great nation must be home to several cosmopolises. A true cosmopolis is not merely a dense sprawl of population concentrated around government headquarters, transport junctions, and supply depots. It is a global cultural hub and economic powerhouse—a city-state in spirit, if not in form, ideally governed with a degree of autonomy.

Such cities must represent the highest expression of human civility and capability. They are places where travellers or immigrants feel at home, secure, and empowered to give their best. A genuine cosmopolis attracts the finest minds and talents from across the world. Naturally, many high-net-worth households dwell in such places—but the wealth and opulence that characterise them must stem from enterprise, intellect, and honest labour, not from cunning or extraction.

 
Such a city does not come into being by chance; it is shaped by individuals of exceptional vision and unwavering dedication. A cosmopolis is not simply constructed—it is willed into existence by human excellence.

Niraj Kumar Jha

For a Human Order

A rule-based international order is becoming increasingly remote in the collective human imagination. Today, it is disruption, subterfuge, manipulation, subversion, and the naked use of force that rule the roost. These are not subtle or hidden; they are deliberate, open, and stark. This human regression at our current stage of civilizational evolution, despite miraculous feats of scientific and technological ingenuity, is deeply troubling. It represents a profound failure of human imagination in the most critical area of all: human coexistence. Meanwhile, vested and entrenched interests have succeeded spectacularly in preserving their advantages.

The well-being of the human race depends on an international order rooted in cooperation and fair play. Yet such hope seems elusive in the foreseeable future. Why has humanity arrived at this impasse?
First is the most obvious reason: the lack of genuine intent among those in power to build a fair and inclusive order. Had the intent existed, India, the world’s largest democracy and most populous nation, would already hold a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. Instead, the lag in democratisation of global institutions has only grown more severe.

Secondly, even well-intentioned regulatory efforts like the World Trade Organisation faltered under the weight of over-ambition and the refusal of powerful states to compromise.

Thirdly, there was a failure to launch a fair, sympathetic, and empathetic epistemic mission, one aimed at addressing the culture-based cognitive biases that afflict people in every part of the world. Any stable order depends on cultivating a shared epistemic consciousness, which is essential even beyond the question of global governance.

India’s aspirational generation is now poised to reclaim its rightful place. It needs, as do the citizens of every country, a world founded on cooperation and harmony. India today is a much more powerful country, and it has both the opportunity and the responsibility to help guide the world toward this better future.

For this to happen, every citizen must do their utmost to strengthen India’s power and influence. The best way to do this is by performing one’s dharma; that is, one’s chosen work and social duty, with devotion and integrity. Only through such collective effort can India realise its potential and help build the just, cooperative global order the world so desperately needs.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Inequality or Deprivation

Recently, many noted intellectuals have raised concerns about rising inequality globally and within individual nation-states. However, this concern is grossly misplaced. The real issue is not inequality as such, but deprivation.

The collective responsibility is to ensure that everyone has the opportunity and motivation to earn a livelihood, and no one is left without food, clothing, shelter, medical care, security, and some means of enjoying life. Beyond this, it should not matter who owns how much.

Inequality is a natural condition—it will reappear in other forms even if suppressed in one. In fact, inequality can be functional. It often means that capital is concentrated in more capable hands. Greater capital in such hands typically leads to more investment, more businesses, and more opportunities for others to earn a dignified living.

It is human worth in general that translates into capitalism, and that in turn guarantees that each individual has the chance to realise their own worth. By valuing initiative, skill, and enterprise, capitalism channels human potential into productive activity, creating wealth and opportunities that benefit society as a whole.

Even in a seemingly full-blooded capitalist order, if some people remain deprived, it means the market is manipulated. This should be addressed with a two-pronged strategy. First, the manipulation is to be eliminated. Additionally, community life should be strengthened through community enterprises, encouraging people to form cooperatives to do business together, support one another, and offer services to others.

Niraj Kumar Jha

The Futile Quest for Light

Troubled by the vices that haunt the world,
they curse what is good.
Weakened by their own vices and timidity,
they do not have faith in virtue;
instead they trust faint or imagined
goodness in the wicked.
They try to highlight flaws in the righteous,
virtues among the wicked.
Without dispelling the darkness within,
they search for light in vain,
dimming the hope
that might have lit their own lives
and those of others.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Morality and the Necessity of Systems

Morality sustains society, but for morality to prevail, appropriate systems must be in place. Functional system-building is the result of rigorous cerebral exercise informed by proven scientific inputs. Opinions alone cannot substitute for this systemic thinking, nor can grand ideological constructs, even when supported by data-driven justifications, nor borrowed systemic frameworks. Three issues need serious consideration here. First, excessive variation in opinions within a community signals the absence of a scientific approach to life. Second, no matter how fantastic an ideological construct may be, it can draw facts and data from the storehouse of social records to justify its fanciful promise. Third, a systemic framework (not a particular institution or mechanism) evolving somewhere else may not work, as cultures are rigidly conditioned and cannot be subjected to an alien system at will. The critical point is that a community needs systemic thinkers and a serious, public-spirited education system to make their work acceptable. For resolving social problems, invoking morality alone is almost fruitless. Morality requires its own supporting framework to gain traction.

Niraj Kumar Jha

युगारम्भक ज्ञानमीमांसा

समकालीन वैश्विक व्ययस्था की आवश्यकता एक विश्वव्यापी ज्ञानमीमांसात्मक विमर्श की है। यह समय मानवता के सम्पूर्ण इतिहास के पर्यवेक्षण का है। सत्य और मानवीयता के नाम पर मानवता को आक्रांत किए जाने की परिघटनाओं को उद्घाटित किए जाने का समय आ गया है। यही मीमांसा सत्य मानवीय बोध का आधार बनेगी।

उक्त लेख की समकालीन प्रासंगिकता यह है कि नवीन प्रौद्योगिकियों ने मानवता के मध्य भौगोलिक और भाषाई अंतर को पाट दिया है, और साथ ही, विभिन्न सांस्कृतिक वर्षों में स्थित जनों को अन्य संस्कृतियों को देखने और समझने का अवसर दिया है। आज का समांतर आंकिक क्षेत्र ज्ञानमीमांसा को सांस्कृतिक और सभ्यतागगत सीमाओं से मुक्ति का अवसर देता है। यह सभ्यता के विकास का युगांतकारी दौर है।

बड़ी चुनौती हालाँकि कल्पबंधों की गुत्थियों को खोलना होगा। कालांतर में इच्छानुकूल वैचारीकियों का प्रभाव आनुवंशिक हो गया है और ये मस्तिष्क की बोध उत्तकों की आधार संचालक चेतना बन चुकीं हैं। ये कल्पबंध वातमूल्य उत्पन्न करते हैं और जीवन की प्रत्यक्ष परिस्थितियों का सामना कर रहे लोगों की गरिमा को नकारते हुए उनकी विपत्तियों को वर्द्धित करते हैं।

इस युगीन विमर्श का अधिकारी भारतवर्ष ही है। इसकी चेतना में अन्यीकरण की प्रवृत्ति की सैद्धांतिक और व्यावहारिक अनुपस्थिति ऐतिहासिक रूप से रही है और यह इसे इस योग्य बनाती है और दायित्व भी देती है।

टीप : कल्पबंध, आंकिक, और वातमूल्य संभवतः इस पाठ में सर्वप्रथम प्रयुक्त शब्द हैं और इसी में इनके अर्थ समाहित हैं।

नीरज कुमार झा

Three Monkeys Revisited

Just as not every food is good for physical health, not every expression or depiction is good for people's cognitive health. Everyone should work to suppress harmful narratives and promote beneficial ones. Media professionals, whether involved in information or entertainment, need to be especially cautious. These services should promote the humanisation of every individual.

Admittedly, such presentations may not seem sensational, glorious, or glamorous—qualities often sought for broader market appeal. But each person should at least reflect on what truly works for them and what does not, as members of a larger community.

One must have this etched in their mind: the community affects your personal well-being heavily, irrespective of your personal status.

Niraj Kumar Jha

विचार और वार्तालाप

व्यक्तियों द्वारा अच्छे विचारों का प्रेषण समाजहित के लिए आवश्यक है। सुधीजन इसे समझते हैं और ऐसा करते भी हैं, लेकिन विचारों से भी अधिक महत्वपूर्ण है उन्हें लेकर किया जाने वाला रचनात्मक वार्तालाप। वार्तालाप ही विचारों के सम्प्रेषण का प्रभावी माध्यम है, पर यह दुष्कर भी है। अधिकतर लोग निश्चित विचारों का उपयोग अपने जीवन की परिस्थितियों से समझौते, अवसरों को भुनाने, महत्वाकांक्षाओं के पोषण या अहं की पुष्टि के लिए करते हैं। ऐसे विचारों पर विश्लेषण या टीका-टिप्पणी उन्हें स्वीकार नहीं होती।

नीरज कुमार झा

उक्ति और युक्ति

सद्जीवन को सुनिश्चित करने के लिए संरचनात्मक निर्माण और पारिस्थितिक अनुकूलन की आवश्यकता होती है। युक्तियों के बिना सूक्तियाँ चरितार्थ नहीं होतीं। भावनाएँ विज्ञान और तकनीकी के माध्यम से ही साकार हो सकती हैं।

नीरज कुमार झा

Heavenism

Some promise 

Heaven after

Some here

Both ask for 

From humans

Their humanity

Niraj Kumar Jha

On Freedom and its Absence

What it means to be slavish, and what it means to be free, are not questions that ordinarily arise—unless they are raised with the intent of mobilisation. Over time, such conditions become normalised, slipping below the threshold of awareness.

At the macro level, historically speaking, it took Indians a couple of generations to even recognise that they were not free—that they lived under slavish conditions. At the micro level, it is even more difficult to perceive such a state. How does one know whether they are truly free? This is a question that demands a long discourse, but I shall attempt to touch upon it briefly.

Freedom rests on shared understandings that leave everyone unobstructed in leading a life of dignity, where the sanctity of one’s person, family, home, and privacy is habitually respected. Even in public spaces, one does not feel anything other than an equal, nor that others are elevated at the cost of one’s own degradation. Freedom means living without fear of being wronged, provided one has not wronged others.

It is the optimisation of security and certainty in life—the right to act and speak as one chooses, without being subject to the whims, fancies, or interests of others against one’s will. All of this culminates in a life free from want and unwarranted interference. Such is the state of freedom.

Slavishness means living with the constant fear of being wronged, even when one has done no wrong. It is the erosion of security and certainty in life, where one’s actions and words are curtailed, or forced to serve the whims, fancies, or interests of others against one’s will. Such a state results in lives marked by want, anxiety, and constant, unwelcome interference. This is the condition of being unfree.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Capital

Capital is not like a mineral deposit; it is a construct of the mind and a devised mechanism. The state of being developed is this understanding and such a drive.

Niraj Kumar Jha  

Postcolonialism Unfolding

The school of postcolonialism sought to expose both the soft and hard infrastructures of imperialist designs that operated at the expense of the decolonised. However, their abstruse works failed to gain traction even in academic circles, let alone among the broader literati. People often speak of the lingering, debilitating effects of colonialism on their faculties and agency, but they have struggled to arrive at a workable idea to overcome the problem. More often than not, they ended up reinforcing precisely what they sought to eliminate, simply because they did not know how to dismantle it. Yet, of late, new technologies and new-age entrepreneurs are achieving exactly that—without any such explicit intention.

Niraj Kumar Jha 

OM

Nations must reunite—for justice, for order, for peace and harmony in the world. An Order Movement (OM) is the urgent necessity of our time. The prevailing chaos exacts a brutal cost—in lives lost and in the depth of human suffering.

Niraj Kumar Jha

ॐ सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः (Om, May all be happy)

ॐ सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः

सर्वे सन्तु निरामयाः।

सर्वे भद्राणि पश्यन्तु

मा कश्चिद्दुःखभाग्भवेत्॥

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः॥

The time has come for humanity to de-indoctrinate itself from all ideologies and reset its being to the Kalyan Mantra.

Om, May all be happy,

May all be free from illness.

May all see what is auspicious,

May no one suffer.

Om Peace, Peace, Peace.

Niraj Kumar Jha

स्थितिपोषण अथवा मनभावन

समकालीन समाचारों के प्रस्तुतीकरण की स्थिति इतिहासकारिता तथा अन्य समाज विज्ञानों के उपागमों की प्रकृति के साथ मानविकी क्षेत्रांतर्गत सृजन के रुझानों को समझने का अवसर देता है। पूर्व मे भी ऐसा ही था; विमर्श के स्वरूप और स्रोतों के विस्तार से बातें स्पष्ट हो रही हैं।

 
नीरज कुमार झा

From Muscle to Machine: The Evolution of Thought

Social media has affected human psychology and social behaviour, and I believe that, on balance, this impact has been for the better. Now, with the growing use of chatbots, their inputs are also beginning to shape human thoughts and conduct. In this context, the role of public intellectuals becomes more challenging, as they need to find ways to counter mainstream and mechanised values and practices that risk overwhelming discerning and refined tastes and choices.

In fact, in earlier times, the problem was even more severe, as ideologies that mobilised men-at-arms could impose a particular way of life, eliminating opposition and overriding existing norms and mores. Now, the earlier overreach and excesses are either normalised or no longer menace society as they once did. Still, caution remains critically important.

Niraj Kumar Jha

The Public and the Private

Being public and productive are two essential features of political affairs. The political domain is public, and its purpose is to be productive. Private is private, whether it is the domain or its outcome. It comes under public scrutiny only when it forcefully involves others or affects them adversely. A healthy society devises tests for determining their domain and constraining their overreach. Evil is the result of their careless overlap. In a medieval context, or from such a perspective, the adherence to this division appears anomalous or even outrageous. It is a state of affairs reached after crossing a threshold of development, but if a mechanism for progressive differentiation between domains is not in place, it severely impedes development.

Niraj Kumar Jha 

The Eyes of the Mind

The eyes of the mind — mostly, it is they that override what one’s eyeballs directly face. They may magnify, reduce, mould, or distort an image. A good education helps one see things and events in nearly exact proportions, even cutting through the décor and drama of their presentation.

Niraj Kumar Jha

The Humanity Predicament

The withering of norms guiding international affairs leaves the present generation of humankind highly vulnerable. The reason is that even a fake idea of the commonality of interest among the people of the world has gone missing. This happened because humanity's progress towards the common good was gradually blocked, which had gained momentum in the last quarter of the twentieth century.

Niraj Kumar Jha

धर्मो रक्षति रक्षितः

व्यक्ति के अधर्म का दुष्परिणाम उसके स्वयं के लिए तो होता ही है; उस परिवेश का भी होता है, जिसमें वह जीवनयापन करता है। दूषित परिवेश के दुष्परिणाम का वह स्वयं भी भागीदार होता है और उसके सगे-संबंधी भी। एक व्यक्ति का धर्मपालन सभी के हित में है और किसी का अधर्म सभी का अहित है। 

जीवन का ध्येय धर्म है और इसकी सफलता धर्मपालन की प्रवृत्ति और सामर्थ्य है।

धर्म अज्ञेय और ज्ञेय का पारिस्थितिकी की मर्यादा के साथ व्यक्ति की पूर्णता और सामुदायिक सावयवता हेतु समन्वय जनित बोध और तदनुरूप आचरण है।

नीरज कुमार झा

The Challenge: A Human Epistemology

Every working epistemology has a civilizational base, though it is evolving in nature. Civilisations are the largest human communities below the level of the human community as a whole. They are historical products. It is very difficult—indeed, almost negligible in practical terms—for any epistemological project or approach to make sense of what drives another. What is an aberration for one may be the mainstay of another. Alternatively, one can only accept as legitimate whatever the other does, recognizing it as the fixity of civilizational conditions. I strongly believe that post-Enlightenment epistemology in Europe does little to account for the innate nature of religion, which once dominated their lives. This is only an example. At the same time, a civilisation also engenders ideologies, whose origins may lie in both earthy and ethereal premises, often with cross-civilizational reach. Notwithstanding this, a global human project to identify good and evil from an ethno-neutral perspective is still missing. Can we take up this challenge?

Niraj Kumar Jha 

समझ का फेर

समझदारी की बातें समझदारों के ही समझ में आती है। यही हकीकत है। यह उम्मीद की जा सकती है कि इससे समझदारी का दायरा मामूली रूप से बढ़ता होगा। यह उम्मीद हालाँकि अहम नहीं है। महत्वपूर्ण यह है कि ऐसी बातों से समझदारों को अपनी समझ पर भरोसा बना रहता है।

यह तथ्य यहाँ ध्यातव्य है कि समझदारी सामाजिक स्थिति सापेक्ष है, लेकिन आधुनिक परिवेश में जहाँ व्यापक घटनाओं और घटनाक्रमों, वैश्विक परिघटनाओं सहित, का प्रभाव किसी के भी जीवन पर तत्क्षण और गंभीर रूप से पड़ता है और, दूसरी तरफ, जहाँ नागरिकों के रूप में प्रत्येक का नगण्य ही सही लेकिन कुछ प्रभाव है, इन घटनाओं और परिघटनाओं की मुखर समझ सभी से वांछनीय है।

यहाँ यह भी रेखांकित करना आवश्यक है कि अपने को पूरे तौर से समझदार समझना निस्संदेह भ्रम है। समझदारी समझ की कमियों को निरंतर दूर करना और बढ़ाना है। सर्वमंगल की कामना से इस तरह की बातें करना भी समझदारी के दायरे में आता है।

नीरज कुमार झा

Education is about...

Among many things, education is about learning what to value and what to ignore. People must learn to appreciate—and even deprecate—ideas or events tactically, for their own good and for the social good. Without such discernment, people may end up valuing totally absurd and even weird things, paying premium prices and handing over parts of their selfhood in the process.

Worthwhile things and events contribute to the substantialisation of the humanity of a person. These recognise the dignity of a person, enhance their self-worth, and, in turn, ensure social progress. Sometimes, a person may enjoy not being oneself; that is fine. But that should be a momentary break, not a full-time occupation.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Dated Templates and the Dilemma of Our Times

People stalled globalisation—some deliberately, most naively—midway through the last quarter of the previous century and the first quarter of the present one, just as it was reshaping the international order. It was the reengineering of the mechanisms put in place after the World Wars and paved the way for global prosperity. It was a composite of liberalised national economies and international economic transactions.

Today, the fact remains that, thanks to new technologies, the world is more interconnected than ever, beneath the surface of hyper-nationalism. Yet, as this reality remains denied, there is no suitable template to map the fractured global ecosystem. As a result, people generate corrupted scripts and cry out against a chaos of their own making.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Universities for National Strength

Impactful higher education requires single-campus universities—ideally designed as townships—that conduct research and training across all major fields of knowledge. These institutions must be built on binding conventions that uphold rational inquiry, excellence, and the public good as enduring principles, regardless of changing circumstances.

In today’s global context, higher education must make a dedicated effort to strengthen national power. A strong, capable nation is best positioned to make a lasting and positive contribution to the advancement of humanity.

In this context, it is a fact that the role of native big corporations is vital for national power. Large-scale corporations, through their constant pursuit of efficiency and innovation, churn people's potential into agency; therefore, higher education must contribute to this goal. Higher education must repurpose itself strategically to foster the spirit of entrepreneurship and impart the necessary skills for various roles in corporations. To add another point: in this era of fierce international competition and conflicts, having formal entities incorporating the functions of both universities and business corporations would give a clear edge to the nation.

To support this vision, training in sciences, technology, and engineering must be rigorous, hands-on, and outcome-oriented. Institutions of higher learning must be well-resourced and foster a focused and positive academic environment. Achieving excellence requires individuals to fully dedicate themselves to their chosen fields.

Niraj Kumar Jha

The Role of Teachers

In this age of chatbots—tools that can access the vast ocean of knowledge and curate it to respond to prompts—what, then, remains of the role of a teacher, or more precisely, a human teacher? One might exclaim, “Very little!” But that is far from the truth.

People will always seek living practitioners of knowledge—real, human guides who can offer support and mentorship. Learners of all kinds need an informed, compassionate human presence—someone who can personally appreciate their efforts and, when needed, lovingly correct them. Encouragement and discipline have always been, and will continue to be, inherently human responsibilities.

The key is that teachers must become even more humane in their approach, redefining their roles to help shape a better world and actively resist the drift toward irrelevance in an increasingly automated age. In doing so, they reclaim their indispensable place as nurturers of wisdom, character, and emotional understanding—dimensions that machines cannot authentically replicate.

At the same time, societies and communities must strive to recruit the very best individuals into the teaching profession. There is no better way to harness the benefits of advancing technologies while also mitigating their potential harms.

Niraj Kumar Jha

India’s Rise: Another Milestone Achieved

India's emergence as the fourth-largest economy in the world in terms of nominal GDP is a definitive milestone in India's journey to its deserved position. Nominal GDP rankings are a key indicator of a nation's international stature and economic influence. India has the potential to rank among the world’s wealthiest countries even in terms of per capita GDP.

The country's prolonged poverty can be largely attributed to centuries of foreign rule and the collectivist or leftist policies that followed independence. However, the gradual retreat from collectivism has yielded remarkable results. The endemic poverty that plagued India until the 1990s is, for the most part, a thing of the past.

In today's world, where homeland economics and aggressive economic nationalism dominate international relations, major economies are making concerted efforts to assert their interests globally. The lesson is clear: every citizen must play a role in advancing the national power. One meaningful way to do this is by supporting sound and forward-looking ideas and policies.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Truthfulness

Truthfulness is a civilizational virtue ingrained in human beings. A civilisation, not every civilisation, does this in degrees to people who live within its fold. It does this to people, but not all people become capable of knowing and upholding truthfulness. At this level, in an enabling ambience made of civilisation, truthfulness is an endeavour of a social unit like a family, a community, or an individual.

Biological human beings can upgrade themselves into truthful human beings through elaborate arrangements and personal efforts.

Working truths at the existential level within a civilizational fold are very personal affairs. First, a person is mentored and makes efforts to be a knower of truths, and then that turns out to be a very simple virtue: a person knows from their heart what is a truth. A heart speaks the truth if the mind is sufficiently trained.

Finally, truthfulness is a behavioural trait. A truthful person cares.

Niraj Kumar Jha

True Wisdom

How people conceive ideas and actions as wise or ignorant is culturally determined, ideologically imposed, or driven by power. Science often subserves social trends instead of guiding them. If one understands this, one would know that wisdom and ignorance are not like light and darkness. Ignorance is not the absence of wisdom; both have their respective social foundations, nurturing ecologies, and they coexist. They inhabit the same space. As there is nothing intrinsically worthwhile or worthless about either, they are not only in a conflictual relationship of domination and defiance but also in one of cooperation and co-option.

What is the takeaway from this predicament? True wisdom begins with self-scrutiny—examining all ideas with empathy, and then taking a stand, only if required. One who calls another foolish may themselves be mistaken, merely asserting a position of superiority. Wisdom is not about dismissing someone as a fool or something as foolish, but about uncovering the causes and conditions that place people in such states. True wisdom does not allow people to become devils, thereby forcing good people into mortal combat with them later. That is not wisdom. Wisdom lies in preventing evil, not in fighting it.

The message: If you are truly wise, you do not find a fool.

— Niraj Kumar Jha

औपनिवेशिक ज्ञानमीमांसा का निदान

औपनिवेशीकरण मात्र जन और जमीन को विजित करना ही नहीं बल्कि फायदे में रहते हुए आधिपत्य को सुरक्षित रखना भी था। खर्च कम और अधिक लाभ के लिए उन्होंने रणनीतिक ज्ञानमीमांसा का उपयोग किया।

उपनिवेशवाद एक ज्ञानमीमांसात्मक परियोजना थी, जो साम्राज्यवादी हितसाधन, दूसरे शब्दों में, दाससेवा का सुख, रोमांचकारी क्रियाकलापों, और धनप्राप्ति के लिए दासों में दासत्व को लेकर गर्व, स्वामी के प्रति श्रद्धा और उनपर निर्भरता का भाव और स्थितियाँ निर्मित करता था।

दंड, वंचना और क्षुद्र पुरस्कारों का प्रयोग करते हुए उन्होंने ज्ञानमीमांसा और प्रणालियों का ऐसा इंद्रजाल बुना जिससे लोगों की ज्ञान दृष्टि बाधित हो गई और उनका मस्तिष्क अज्ञान जनित छवियों से आच्छादित रहने लगा। उन्हें इसमें अधिक सफलता इसलिए भी मिली कि लोग पूर्व से ही आधिपत्य में रह रहे थे।

इस स्थिति से मुक्ति का सतही प्रयास उस दलदल में गहरे फँसना है। इसके लिए स्वतंत्र और सशक्त ज्ञानमीमांसात्मक संयंत्र विकसित करने की आवश्यकता है।

नीरज कुमार झा

AI Biases

If somebody wishes to converse with a knowledgeable person, chatbots offer a vastly superior virtual alternative. It curates the collective human knowledge for the person in conversation. I often check the authenticity and novelty of my thoughts with chatbots. These do not disappoint, but what I decipher is that these chatbots have their biases and may corroborate the biases of the users, as their prompts entail users' biases. They tend to be culturally inclined and favour the mainstream. It is as expected.

Niraj Kumar Jha

The Ecosystem of Wisdom and Idiocy

Human beings inhabit a cultural ecosystem, and that ecosystem determines the thoughts and actions of human beings as wise or idiotic. Such conflicting ecosystems often coexist in a region, but it is the primary acculturation that places people in a particular ecosystem. Generally, a person is a slave to their ecosystem. This is the reason why most people treat others as idiots.

 
A person with historical and sociological education and scientific vision may break free from such ecotraps, but would be subject to the judgments of those who remain trapped. It is the trickiest pedagogical and academic challenge.

Niraj Kumar Jha

बर्बरता और सभ्यता

बर्बरता की प्रकृति नृशंस आक्रामकता है। सभ्यता की शक्ति विवेक, शोध, योजना, और प्रणाली है। किसी भी समस्या से निरंतर संघर्ष के स्थान पर इसके स्थायी निदान की युक्ति पर विचार करना ही विकल्प है। यह भी ध्यान रहे कि सभ्यता का मूल संवेदना है।

 
नीरज कुमार झा

The SWOT of Times

Like other times but very unlike other times in terms of immensality of impactfulness, these times offer or suffer from conditions of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats; the irony is that people view these selectively, mostly the negatives and hardly the positives, depending on their identity and position. Besides, many trending matters defy these categorisations. In this age, the mass media is genuinely mass and democratic through people's massive participation in discourses on social media, and this media brings forth all the injustices of earlier times and continuing oddities to the fore. This includes many fundamentals and fundamentalisms coming under scrutiny and questioning. The old commanding heights and hierarchies of intellectualism are completely broken. Nobody now trusts those ivory towers, and that is for solid reasons. At the same time, a comprehensive and constructive vision considering every dimension of time is nowhere to be seen, and, more worryingly, nobody seems to care.

 
Let us pray:

oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ
tat savitur vareṇyaṃ
bhargo devasya dhīmahi
dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt
– Ṛgveda 03.062.10

"We meditate on the adorable glory of the radiant sun; may She inspire our intelligence." (S. Radhakrishnan)

Let us get inspired to infuse some wisdom into the times.

 
Niraj Kumar Jha

Conceptualising Pseudo-solution

Pseudo-solutions provide a temporary relief or illusion of relief. Troubled people often land up in the next level of problem or get only illusionary relief.

NIraj Kumar Jha

The New Order Set In

The Trump administration compels the world towards a settlement within a few weeks in office, which the GATT and its outcome, the WTO, could not do despite decades of negotiations. The unleashed would entail many successive phases that will require a complete overhaul of not only the international trade regime in totality but also domestic adjustments accordingly by all nations. A new international order set in.

 
Niraj Kumar Jha

Artificial Intellectualism and General Dumbness

Online-sourced intellectualism and creativity worsen general dumbness. This is a pandemic-proportion crisis. Its direct fallout is a decline in morality. Intellect gained through the practice of the mind induces moral behaviour. This is under severe threat.

There is a way out: humanise the social structure and relations. And invent social purposes for positive, mind-driven human actions.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Birth Pangs of a New Order

 Humanity fails to manage its successes. It created a virtual world with artificial intelligence and automated mechanisms for doing things. It eliminated distance in live communication and drudgery and fog in data processing. All are meant to serve human beings, but they are making most human beings irrelevant. The new demands the unity of humankind to reclaim its humanity. 

The current international upheavals manifest the redundancy of old methods and mechanisms which continue to hold. 

Humanity is failing itself by not engaging and negotiating to ease the birth of the new order. It will happen, but with a lot of pain. 

Niraj Kumar Jha 

The Ecology of Economics

 The Trump administration reckons that high tariffs on imports would bring back manufacturing to the USA and help its economy rebound. It accuses its friends and foes alike of using tariffs, currency manipulation, and non-tariff barriers to bar American merchandise from entering their countries. Now, it has reciprocated but, mercifully, with reciprocat tariffs with half-discount.

Critics say this will not work for America. It will only create great difficulty for existing industries and consumers. They see a recession imminent following these measures.

The fact is that global supply chains have a rigidity of their own and cannot be undone in a whiff. More importantly, people fail to see that typical industries and businesses require a conducive ecology to flourish, and its crucial component is the availability of people attuned to particular jobs. This ecology is very difficult to create in a different place.

Things would reboot soon to the normal but with some painful disruptions and helpful corrections.

Meanwhile, India must brace for tech and trade wars engulfing the world by focusing on its internal economic order. It is about things already being done, i.e, furthering the ease of doing business, creating a more favourable ecology for innovativeness, and ensuring the safety and ease of living and doing things. Externally, India must make its economy so efficient and cost-effective that it has an edge over its competitors.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Ghiblism

Ghiblism, I define as people's longing for beauty, simplicity, innocence, and softness in their own selves and surroundings. Besides ghibling, they should put some effort into making the world like that.

Niraj Kumar Jha

LPG to Imperialism

The trajectory was logical, but the world hardly cared. LPG was uniting the world and enriching people everywhere, but vested interests sabotaged the evolution. We are now back to the age of empires or the times of imperialism 2.0. The actors have already abandoned multilateralism for unilateralism. The smaller countries and poor people are now in more trouble, and so is the world.

Niraj Kumar Jha

A Call for Democratic Ideation Practice

 Ideas attract people in adherence, generally, when these are delivered well-packaged or in a dramatised way. This is how working ideas originate and spread. Ordinary people can hardly ideate based on their own experiences and engagements. Ideas come to people from seats of tradition, mavericks, or leaders at the helm of extraordinary events. The Western world presents a well-documented history of its ideational journey, and we can see that most of the lasting ideas originated during very short spans of history. What happens is that a grand idea discredits too many good little ideas and prohibits the emergence of another great idea. 

My humble submission is that people's everyday experiences should lead to idea formation and be shared; this should be a continuous interactive process, and people should value their lived experiences. The next great idea must be democratically generated. 

This is why I always respect the sharing of ideas on social media. Indeed, there is a great possibility and occurrences of wrong ideas being circulated and believed. However, my other contention is that curated ideas emanating from established media may be trapped within worse ideational frameworks. 

People who believe they are in the know should not be perfectly assured of their correctness. They may be wrong, too. At the same time, people who think that good knowledge should prevail bear the responsibility to engage with other people with an open mind and respect. Generally, the so-called elite disseminators of ideas are haughty, disrespectful and patronising to commoners. They are unlikely to abandon their exalted lofty locations. People themselves must be aware of self-worth. It is a pedagogical challenge, but I do not think that practitioners are aware of this crying need.   

Niraj Kumar Jha 

The Centurial Repeat of History

 The early and later parts of the 20th century were eras in contrast. The early part was almost an anarchic world where power primarily ruled the roost. In the second half, what followed was the era of dichotomous consensus. Despite the disturbing manoeuvres of the competing blocks, people knew what to believe, follow, and oppose. The presence of an ideational ingredient intertwined with an idealistic claim was extraordinary. Finally, in the war of ideas, the evolving one stood the test of time. 

The winning idea is now nowhere visible, not even the bipartite interplay of ideas preceding it. Does history repeat itself during the following century? 

Niraj Kumar Jha 

Knowledge Foundation

Knowledge decides the destiny of a people. Prolonged crisis inevitably is a symptom of poverty of collective knowledge. In other words, a continued state of adversity is the stubborn perversity of shared cognition. Nonetheless, the almost insurmountable challenge is knowing what knowledge is and that is the trap. People generally do not know what knowledge is. Knowledge seekers must deconstruct the making of the foundational premises of a '-logy' and '-ism' and their present play whether they help or not and whether they are illusive or substantial.

 
Niraj Kumar Jha

The Problem of Taking Assumptions as Facts

People form assumptions based on their impressions of what is happening around them or what is presented before them. When they express these assumptions, they unknowingly become defenders of those ideas. As they lack an understanding of the reasons behind their beliefs, they often adopt a fanatical and even aggressive stance when questioned. Tragically, even educational institutions engage in the same behavior. They manipulate or disregard facts to reinforce their own assumptions. This is something I have personally experienced. Decades ago, after completing my master's in political science, I realized I had been subjected to an indoctrination process. The recurrence was showering dogmas as theorems or as revealed unquestionables. For instance, we were taught Lenin's theory of imperialism, which was an adaptation of Hobson's and was unhistorical though presented as a historical theory, and patently a theory gone wrong as capitalism had not collapsed as theorised. But it continued to occupy the foundational position of a paper of the first year honours (again foundational).

A concerned person must study reading materials and events with an open mind. Knowing is a human responsibility. Examining any idea based on historical and social genesis, its linkages with existential anxieties, and actors and factors sustaining those ideas is a duty on the part of each one.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Reimgining Democracy

Democracy, despite being limited in its acceptance in the comity of nations, reversals, and slide, has come of age. Now, it is vintage. It evolved in England and formalised organizationally in the USA, the latter happening two and a quarter centuries ago.

With the help of its civilizational norms, India reinvented itself as a full-blooded democracy and the deepening of its democratic norms and practices continues.

However, the point is that democracy emerged in response to monarchism and offshore imperialism. Democracy did come with the awareness of its essential concern, i.e. mutual and collective guarantees of the dignity and well-being of each and all. It did get its mechanisms: constitutions containing guaranteed rights, separation of powers, and periodic elections. Nonetheless, it only put everything as an icing on the existing cake. Besides, when the American republic was founded during the concluding years of the eighteenth century, the fastest means of communications, executing all these, were saddled horses. Not even the abandoned telegraph by now was there. Now we are in the age of zeroed live communication, vastly reduced physical transportation, and artificial intelligence. Everything is in the rapid change mode along with the magical tech revolutions. Despite all these, the basic mechanisms of democracy remain of the age of horse-drawn carts and homing pigeons. Is this not a time for making democracy's makeover for reflecting the current realities?

Niraj Kumar Jha

Philosophy as I see it

Philosophy as I see it, is about making sense of existence and surroundings so that we sail and do not sink into the existential unknowables or get lost in the mazes of our makings. If we failed militarily, endured slavery, and allowed others to humiliate us, it was our philosophical failure.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Realism or Irrealism

 These are times of crass realism in international politics—or simply, times of irrealism! Apparently, the actors are resorting to realism, but it may not serve their national interest or the good of the world. The realism is mistaken, as it is not missed by concerned observers. 

As we advanced into a highly connected world with distances reduced or eliminated in every realm of human interaction and transactions, the world appears more on tenterhooks. 

The point is that a world that does not care for idealism, the good of humanity as a whole, makes their realism detrimental to any player's interest, not to mention the global good. 

Humanity faces severe crises of environmental unsustainability,  unemployment, hunger, and crimes, and needs concerted efforts. On the contrary, economic rivalry, worse geopolitical conflicts, and even ugly irredentism (even unsubstantiable) overwhelm the collective consciousness. 

Fairness in transactions eludes the world, which seeds all other problems. We require a broader and deeper understanding of international power rivalries so that humanity can rise for itself. Idealism was never irrelevant, and of its made-up irrelevance we must be more bothered about now. 

Niraj Kumar Jha 

Democratising Knowledge

Present times tell us to train our brains which was ever needed but past times were silent about this. People were supplied and they sourced to feed and work their brains. Present times tell people to autonomously process all feeds. Among others, social media has made present times to speak thus. It is about people talking among themselves.

Knowledge is a dedicated endeavour requiring resources and an ecology. Required is the diffusion of such pieces and their realisation and for that the bearers of specialised knowledge must make efforts to democratise knowledge.

Democratisation will begin when the bearers first test their pieces on the ground, amidst peoples' trials and tribulations, fears and expectations, despair and hopes. They must prioritise people over their theses.

N
Niraj Kumar Jha

Cooperative Capitalism and Associational Democracy

 Liberalism is democracy in the human domain of politics and capitalism in the domain of economics. It may appear ironic that liberalism, a humanism-based way of life, leads to the concentration of wealth in the economy and of power in the polity causing inequality, At the same time, it is the strength and beauty of liberalism that a person without a background can become wealthy and powerful. Secondly, those who own wealth and exercise power do so under a system of checks and balances and the rule of law based on fair play. Moreover, liberalism inheres more scope for the dispersal of these valuables, a fact often ignored. In capitalist economies, there exist big companies, which are owned by shareholders and they have no big promoters. Big corporations also require ancillary companies and there is always space for small businesses and production units.  More importantly, people can form cooperatives and stand well before megacorporations. Such cooperatives exist in India and have become more relevant in the age of digital economy. Thirdly, communities can take up business activities for their collective good and income. 

In the field of politics too, besides formal democratic mechanisms of separation, division, and decentralisation of powers, liberalism promotes the ecology allowing and encouraging associations. Associations may be purposed meaningfully for carrying out public functions too. Associations can work more effectively to promote health, sports, cultural and literary concerns. All these lead to the fair dispersal of power in society. 

People must recognise the unavoidable: liberalism is unavoidable as is the human drive for betterment. We need to work out only a suitable mechanism and ecology to allow it to work for us. 

Niraj Kumar Jha 

The Deep and the Dip

The power of a nation-state largely depends on the number of mega-corporations headquartered in the state and the nationals having a major share in those corporations.

 
In the current age of the knowledge economy, the biggest corporations are high-end technology companies.

 
It is science, technology and the free market that makes the difference. Even a slight edge or a little drawback brings vast differences in no time.

 
Niraj Kumar Jha

Knowledge Value Depreciation

The ease of access to and availability of knowledge resources has increased dramatically. With easy-to-use personal devices, anyone can know anything anywhere. The phenomenon can only be compared with its absence.

 
Yet, we see amazingly dumb people even in the most unlikeable places in the world. Has the easy availability of knowledge devalued meaningful and connected knowledge? Do people depend more on their instincts, fancies, whims, and beliefs?

The answer is, very disappointingly, yes.

What may be other reasons other than the easy availability of knowledge resources? I think of these.

1. Knowledge is more about experience, and its effectiveness depends on shared practices. The isolated, lonely or aloof people can not gather knowledge to effect.

2. The exercise of mind is more important than access to knowledge. People do not exercise their minds to know as the pieces are easily available. One must understand that knowledge is an endeavour.

3. People survive without applying their minds within a working system. They should understand that exercise holds the system and its cessation causes decay. After a threshold, it is disastrous.

Niraj Kumar Jha

The Fundamental of Economics and Politics

The economy runs best according to its own rules, which appear as the invisible hands of the market. These rules come from human nature, the basic innate drives of human beings. A person wants to own and retain. Here politics makes the next stage of civilized human life; it seeks to ensure fairness so people possess, maintain, and enjoy their lives without much ado.

These are the basics of two fundamental domains of life and disciplines of knowledge: economics and politics. But they are hardly known or realised. 'Geniuses' play spoilers.

Economics is most effective when it follows its own rules. Otherwise, it causes only pain and results in regress.

Niraj Kumar Jha

सभ्यता संस्कार

कुम्भ महानता से भी महान है। यह प्राणवान सभ्यता का स्पंदन है। यह जीवन का महोत्सव है। यह हर पीढ़ी का सभ्यता संस्कार है।

कुम्भ स्नान की यात्रा का गंतव्य भारत के विराट स्वरूप का दर्शन है, उसमें एकाकार हो जाना है। यह स्नान भारतवासी को भारत एवं मनुष्य देहधारी को मानव बनाती है। वे सभ्यता से एकरूप होकर अपनी पूर्णता को प्राप्त करते हैं। वे जल से उठते हैं तो दिग्भ्रम और क्षोभ से मुक्त होकर शुद्ध होते हैं; अस्तित्व की अमरता एवं सूक्ष्मता से सिक्त हो पुनर्नवा होते है।

भारत क्या है? यह सनातन की अनश्वर काया है।

यह त्रासद है कि इस विराट संस्कारोत्सव को सूक्ष्मता से अनुभूत किए जाने और सृष्टि के मूल के दृश्य रूप को आधार बनाकर व्यष्टि और समष्टि के आध्यात्मिक और सामाजिक उत्थान हेतु सार्थक विमर्श के स्थान पर क्षुद्रता ही चर्चा में आ रही है। यह और कुछ नहीं, कुशिक्षा और कुसंस्कार की व्याप्ति का द्योतक है। हमें अपनी अनन्य परंपराओं के प्रति गंभीर होने की आवश्यकता है।

नीरज कुमार झा

लोग गंदगी क्यों फैलाते हैं?

लोग गंदगी फैलाते हैं। गंदगी में रहना उन्हें असहज नहीं करता है।

ऐसा क्यों है?

यह मुद्दा समाजशास्त्रीय इतिहास से जुड़ा है।

यह इतिहास जनित मानसिकता है। दीर्घकालीन अधीनता के दौरान व्यापक और निरंतर उत्पीड़न और दोहन के कारण सामूहिक अस्तित्व के प्रति उपेक्षा का भाव लोगों का मानस बन गया। व्यक्ति अभी भी जीवन की परिस्थितियों पर नियंत्रण करने के स्थान पर उनके समक्ष अपने को निरूपाय पाता है। वह भले ही शारीरिक शुचिता के प्रति सजग हो लेकिन स्थानिक स्वच्छता के प्रति वह उदासीन रहता है।

नीरज कुमार झा

Dignity

People do not recognise the dignity of others. They find it very gratifying to insult others. They venerate some people if they talk fancy things, present themselves exotically, or can reward and harm others discretionarily, but never respect a fellow human being. This behaviour is so common that it is hardly noticed. It also escapes pedagogical attention. Highly educated ones are also very arrogantly scholarly. They eagerly seek opportunities to demean laypeople or people of lesser credentials even if these people may be more sensible as they face life more closely. Pedagogy and academia must pay attention to this gaping hole in their ecosystem. Instead of parroting the word dignity ad nauseam, they should acculturate themselves and the graduates to human dignity.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Artificialization

It is artificialization, which leads to advancement; this fact stands against the general belief. Civilizational evolution is a story of moving away from the natural state. As it is, artificialization may also cause severe debasement. Artificialisation, therefore, is an enterprise requiring both, competence and commitment.

Historically and sociologically, there have been cases of both types: artificialization serving well and putting people in peril.

Yet, there is a third type of cases, where artificialisation is carried out through imitation. These people do not get to the reason behind the structures they erect having seen those working somewhere else or times earlier and even their appropriate way of working. As a result, these structures hardly serve a purpose or even turn dysfunctional.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Let the Concerned Person Decide

Meritless ideas are thrown up too often and are followed by a viral debate. All these debaters fail to point out that such ideas are usually disrespectful to fellow citizens or human beings. For instance, one's private life is not a matter for others, provided it does not harm any other person.

How many hours should a person work? My answer is - let the concerned person decide. One can also decide for one's employees but subject to labour laws, contractual obligations, and the mental and physical tolerance of the working people.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Intellectual Enablement

Civilizational evolution requires a significant number of intellectually enabled people, particularly among professional intellectuals if a large geographical community has some. These people may be intellectually programmed rather than enabled. This enablement makes a civilization and drives its progress.

Niraj Kumar Jha 

The Two Types of the Pieces of Utopianism

I classify utopianism pieces as they operate in two; the first comprises the well-known comprehensive utopias we find in philosophy books. The second type concerns little utopias, the modular types that lesser utopianists seek to fit into the social order. The second type is not seen as I have put them but they are effectively practised without much fuss. The irony is that these modules hardly get the desired result and amidst the persistence of the problems they are repeatedly reworked to resolve the same continuing problem. It is the nature of these utopias that they never allow dreams to die but the dreamlike solutions also never work.

 
As the promise of a heavenly afterlife numbs people to their pain or excites them to put others in pain, so do utopias; the difference between the two types of utopia is only in terms of the intensity of impact.

 
Niraj Kumar Jha

The Two Types of the Pieces of Utopianism

I classify utopianism pieces as they operate in two; the first comprises the well-known comprehensive utopias we find in philosophy books. The second type concerns little utopias, the modular types that lesser utopianists seek to fit into the social order. The second type is not seen as I have put them but they are effectively practised without much fuss. The irony is that these modules hardly get the desired result and amidst the persistence of the problems they are repeatedly reworked to resolve the same continuing problem. It is the nature of these utopias that they never allow dreams to die but the dreamlike solutions also never work.

 
As the promise of a heavenly afterlife numbs people to their pain or excites them to put others in pain, so do utopias; the difference between the two types of utopia is only in terms of the intensity of impact.

 
Niraj Kumar Jha