Posted by atif on January 30, 19103 at 18:29:46:
Tradition and modernization are not mutually exclusive .Together they help mankind. All that is needed for mankind to benefit from both is to modernize tradition, adapt to the strictures of modernity. Unfortunately, however, some sections of society in almost every country are trying, instead, to fossilize the present, another word for modernity. All traditional values are not evil. Only a few of them are .Similarly, modernity is not an unmixed blessing. Much in it is bad too. Therefore, an amalgam of virtues of both would help mankind remain on track.
For instance, a nation is not a juxtaposition of individuals but a society based on a communion of minds, a union of hearts. A deep religious sense, which informs every tradition, would not allow its claimant to speak a rash or profane word of anything that a soul of man holds sacred. This attitude of respect of all the creeds, such elementary good manners of sprit, is bred into the marrow of one’s bones by human tradition, by the world’s experience of centuries.
Could be that in confusion in the mind of man today about tradition and truth? Mankind seems to have failed to preserve the spirit of truth that alone can guide it to all truths .God does not say” “I am tradition.” He says: “I am Truth.” Truth is greater than greatest teachers. We need to realize that the history of the human race as a whole is strewn with customs, rituals and institutions which were invaluable at first and deadly afterwards. Gross abuses that still survive require to be cut off. Tradition, Eastern tradition in particular, insists on the upward striving not only in the sphere of morals but also in that of the intellect .It should not be regarded either as pessimistic or as fatalistic The Buddhism concept of ‘karma’ affirms the implicit presence of the past in the present, or of tradition in modernity. However, when we unconsciously or mechanically follow the impulses of the past, we are not exercising our freedom. But we are free when our personal subjects become s a ruling center.
In the past few decades or so, the world has been transformed rapidly and almost completely, at least in its superficial aspects. Science has helped a least a chunk of humanity, though not the whole of it, to build its life. But another discipline is necessary to strengthen and refine the living spirit.. Our natures have become mechanized, void within. We have been reduced to mere atoms in a community, member of a mob. Behaviorist psychology teaches us that man has no inwardness and so he can be understood completely from a standpoint of observer. Some past attempts at the re-planning society were attended with this danger.
Though peoples have successfully compelled governments to minister to their needs, tough application of modern science to production and distribution enables us to expect material well being for all, large numbers of peoples the world over are suffering from poverty and starvation. The chaotic condition is due to lack of fellowship and co-operation. The Russian experiment was at least an honest attempt to secure for all an equal share in things that constitute the physical bases of life. Communist countries did not accept glaring contrasts of poverty and wealth as inevitable. Even Fascism labored to build a true communitarian life and effect amore equitable distribution of power, wealth and opportunity. Only, the unfortunate results of all these attempts were mutual conflict and suppression of individual liberty. There was standardization of souls, loss of self-confidence and a tendency to seek salvation in herds.
But what is the state of affairs today? Not only has the individual been robbed of his freedom to order his life as he will but he has also been deprived of liberty to think and express his thoughts and opinions as he wishes. Society has become a prison. That there is a real feeling for humanity in these desperate attempts to check economic exploitation of masses, one can readily concede. But if that goal is to achieved by the other exploitation of baser passions of human nature, its selfishness and hatred, its insolence and fanaticism, the ideal order will be an inhuman one. Let us by all means establish a just economic order, but let us also realize that the economic man is not the whole man.
Therefore, it is the job of those who mold public opinion to make understand that civilization is an act of the spirit, not of the body or mind. An achievement of knowledge and power is not enough. Acts of morality and spirit are essential. The average man must become an active and purposeful moral force. He must stop believing in an automatic law
of progress immanent in human history, and turn an active agent remolding society nearer to human ideal. Growth of civilization is marked by an increase of genuineness, sincerity and selflessness. The only effective way of altering society is the hard and slow one of changing individuals. Through patient effort, we can win power over circumstances and mold them. But only a people striving after ethical and spiritual ideals, ordained by human tradition, can use the great modern triumphs of scientific knowledge for the true ends of civilization.