The Business of Knowing

One who is in know, knows that knowledges are illusive. Thence, when wise persons speak and act, they think of and are watchful of the effects, the counter-effects, and the after-effects of their words, decisions, and actions for long term. Such people are very alert readers of the past and of the contemporary social processes, and when they speak up or take up anything, that is a studied measure. And they are always ready for course –correction and even reversal of any measure. Constant watchfulness is their credo. If one judges, the person rarely finds many of the wise men so designated and more so of their followers fitting this criterion. Over generations, great numbers of human beings have been sacrificed or violated in the name of the wisdom, which turned out to be or remain misconstrued. 

Niraj Kumar Jha

बहुत सारे हैं,

बहुत सारे हैं,
डाल को सही जगह बैठकर काटते हैं.
गिरते हैं,
पूँजीवाद को कारण बताते हैं.

नीरज कुमार झा

World Order: The Covid Fatality

We have now two new landmarks to identify the 20th century: 1918 and 2019, the years of the begining of two great pandemics. The world, which we saw to emerge after the First War, take its form after the Second War, run its course through the Cold War, retire in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union, finally ended in 2019 with the outbreatk of the Corona Pandemic. Now we are between the end of the old world and the emergence of the new world. Among the early fatalities of the Corona Pandemic is the World Order. 

Niraj Kumar Jha

आइडीआलजी बनाम विचारधारा

सामान्यतः आंग्लभाषा के शब्द आइडीआलजी के लिए हिन्दी में विचारधारा शब्द का प्रयोग किया जाता है. यह नितांत अनुचित है. विचारधारा विचारों का मुक्त प्रवाह है जो भारतीय परम्परा में देखी जा सकती है. आइडीआलजी की अवधारणा के प्रभाव के आधार पर इस शब्द का अनुवाद विचार-भंवर या वैचारिकी-पिंजर हो सकता है, अन्य कदापि नहीं. वास्तव में आइडीआलजी बुद्धि-विरोध की योजना है. यह कुत्सित प्रवृत्ति का विन्यास है जिसका उद्देश्य निष्ठावान और परिश्रमी जनों का दोहन है. इसकी प्रकृति संक्रामक और आनुवंशिक होती है. यह जनमानस के दुर्बल अंशों को लक्ष्य बनाकर उसके सोच को अधीन कर लेती है. यह लोगों के सम्मुख एक लुभावन गल्प प्रस्तुत करती है जिसमें उन्हें अपना उद्धार दिखता है. गल्पों में से कुछ मृत्यु से पूर्व की और कुछ उसके बाद की स्थिति से सम्बंधित होते हैं. जॉर्ज ओरवेल की पुस्तिका इस मानवीय त्रासदी का सटीक चित्रण है. यह विचारवान व्यक्तियों का दायित्व है कि वह भिन्न आइडीआलजी के भंवरजाल को तोड़े. जैसे वायरस को मात्र विज्ञान के बल पर लड़ा जा सकता है वैसे ही विचारधारा का प्रतिकार मात्र वैज्ञानिक सोच के आधार पर किया जा सकता है. यहाँ इस तथ्य को रखना समीचीन है कि विज्ञान के लिए सबसे चुनौती अज्ञान नहीं वरन छद्मविज्ञान है.

नीरज कुमार झा

Democratisation of Discourse

On the social media, most of the people demonstrate their belief of embodying the perfect knowledge and this unnerve many of those who see themselves as having the natural claim or credentials to speak for all and sundry. What appears uncharitable to most of the people is that their worth is not recognised by their fellows. Such a feeling comes from their cognitive makeup, which sees the world as hierarchical, and in a space where there is no force applied to place people, they place themselves at the top of the world in wisdom or sagacity. For instance, in their imagination, many subalterns often think that they could do better than generals. One needs, in fact, to get rid of this hurt sentimentality. The point is to respect others and argue one’s case with humility. Only by doing so, we can enrich public life, benefiting one and all. We must accept, rather welcome, the democratisation of discourse. We must celebrate democracy. We must cheer our fellows. 

Niraj Kumar Jha

Do we need to bother about ignorance?

Many wise people hold that ignorance is our biggest problem. But the reality is that ignorance or the lack of knowledge is the least menacing compared to the other problems in the realm of epistemology. I would list them in the order of harm they cause, the most harmful comes first. 

1. Doctored knowledge - Ideologies, in its two variants – ecclesiastical and temporal, which substitute knowledges with make-believes or pseudo-reasoning, perpetuating themselves on the strength of indoctrination. These fanciful ideas find ready adherents among the vulnerable people or the dimwits.

2. Illusion of knowledge – Indoctrinated or ill educated persons as a result of bad education have this affliction. A brush with some knowledge sources gives such illusion too. And on the other end, there are people who are very well-read but in the absence of sufficient and correct training they are unable to handle the inputs they get. 

3. Lack of knowledge – This is the third category. People are not educated, have no access to knowledge-sources. They may seemingly talk inane things. But it is necessary to qualify this position. Knowledge is stratum related. What may be inanity for you is effective wisdom for some. 

I am a case of the third category but without the benefit of the caveat I have added. 

Niraj Kumar Jha

Social Media and the Pandemic

Thanks to the information and communications technology (ICT), everyone appears to be well-informed. The lack of information is not an issue. Some people, supposedly educated and well-positioned, are seen acting inappropriately, but it is not the problem of communication but of education. The ICT is the biggest defence against the scourge. In this context it is very pertinent to bring to the general notice that it is the liberal economic order, which has provided the media, the gadgets and enabled the people to avail these. Though making cutting edge technological commodities generally available is only one of the benefits of free markets. The biggest gift of a rationalist order, i.e, the liberal order, is democracy itself. The first response of a non-democratic order is to suppress the informaiton about a brewing crisis. And if it remains uncontained, a manageable crisis becomes explosive. Our faith in selves and freedoms are our strengths. The context of this post is that often calamitous times reactivate the collectivists and they try to gain by (mis)appropriating human vulnerablities.

Niraj Kumar Jha