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