ETHICS: AN ABSURD, EXTINCT AND IRRELEVANT CREED
-Dr JERNAIL SINGH ANAND
Chair, International Academy of Ethics. A big question before we board the Ethical Ship is: Will the Ocean of Immorality that surrounds us and on which we want to sail this ship, support it? I have severe misgivings, though we have started on our journey into an ETHICAL UNIVERSE. The workaday life is about the stark struggle for survival and in this struggle, ethics has no place. Ethics comes between two extremes: Religion, Ethics, Spirituality. You can be religious without being ethical, and spiritual without being religious. And you can be ethical, without being either.
Ethics simply put means: Doing the right thing. In personal matters, things are simple. We can consult our conscience. It will tell us what is right and what is amiss. And if we are ethic-centric, we will listen to those hushed voices which keep rising from our inside like smoke.
But, as usual, the workaday life has no place for such interaction with the conscience. Conscience is a portion of our lives which has been pushed back, and sometimes, out of existence too.
THE NEO-NORMAL
If you look at the life of a common man, he uses his common sense. And this common sense directs him to get his work done, [by hook or crook]. And the wonder of wonders is: nothing weighs on our mind. Nothing stirs us from within. We are normal even after playing foul. I need not talk of individuals. I just want us all to look within and try to see how many times, we have connived at the foul that we have played. We have looked away, while an evil deed has been enacted.
And world has no scarcity of people who believe that this is the way of the world. For centuries, world has been going on its unsteady pace, punctuated with a thousand infirmities.
ETHICS AS AN EXTINCT AND IRRELEVANT CREED:
L0OKING AT THE WAY WE GROW UP, WE WORK AND THINK, I HAVE A STRONG FEELING THAT THE TALK OF ETHICS IN THE WORKADAY LIFE IS AN OVERSHOT, IF NOT ALTOGETHER IRRELEVANT.
IF ETHICS IS IRRELEVANT, WHAT ABOUT GOD?
IS GOD REALLY DEAD?
But the point at issue is: If talking about Ethics is irrelevant, and men cannot be changed, there are so many other things also which are irrelevant. And we do not just throw them in the dustbin. Going by this logic, the most IRRELEVANT THING IS THE IDEA OF GOD. And in this way, if we accept that Ethics is not possible in workaday life, CAN WE EMBRACE RELIGION?
OF SIN, SUFFERING AND ATONEMENT:
I think the idea of SIN and ATONEMENT indicate that there is HOPE for those who commit wrongs. And this HOPE is like the dangling carrot which have made people think that GODS CAN BE DUPED AND DOUBLE-CROSSED. Go for sinning, and then, confession, and then, atonement. It is so simple. I think the idea of SIN too is a TEMPTATION. Artificial Intelligence can create Tears of Artificial Repentance.
Religions thrive on the idea of SUFFERING. Men suffer, and they pray, and then, they do good deeds, and get atonement. SIN followed by SUFFERING is the crux of RELIGIOUS philosophies. Suffering has an ennobling effect, even our Poets tells us.
WHY SIN? AND WHY SUFFER?
Let us now ask ourselves: WHY SIN? AND WHY SUFFER? If our actions are based on ethics, religion or no religion, there is no question of committing any sin, and suffering is ruled out, consequently ruling out the idea of any need for any religious salvation too.
Goodness is its own reward, as we say in case of Virtue. [Virtue is its own Reward].
WE, in the ETHICAL UNIVERSE, are looking for a HUMAN CONDITION in which men are not tempted into UNETHICAL DEEDS, removing all possibilities of SIN AND SUFFERING.
GOODNESS AND GOD: GONE TO DOGS
In Ethics, we have swarms of people who do not believe EITHER IN GOODNESS, OR IN GOD. Religion for them is a façade. FOR THEM, SPIRITUALITY is a gone creed. If you look into the lives of people, whether politicians, or businessmen, or even those who were some time ago, called in NOBLE professions, – there is so much of dross attached to them. People are wilfully and happily in a state of ACQUIRED BLISSFULNESS. After all, Mammon is at their command.
That is what brings me to the conclusion that the idea of ETHICS is IRRELEVANT to a society, which has NO FAITH IN GOODNESS. And this makes it an EXTINCT CREED.
A WORLD RANGED AGAINST GOD AND HIS GOODNESS:
Look at the newspapers and media reports. It is the foul that holds the centre-stage. How lies are traded, reputations sullied, and by men who are considered its leaders. Languages was never treated so shabbily. Can these people turn the ethical leaf? The tall talk of being self-righteous is fake. A righteous person does not talk ill of others. But our leaders do nothing except talking ill of others. I wonder, ETHICS holds any value for them. That is why, they have removed LITERATURE AND ETHICS from the syllabi of the Universities and Colleges, so that THEY GET READYMADE MATERIAL FOR A WORLD WHICH IS RANGED GOD AND HIS GOODNESS.
I wonder if time has come to call a halt to this FALL.
MEN HAVE FALLEN FROM GRACE.
MEN HAVE FALLEN FROM DIGNITY.
JUST FOR THE SAKE OF POWER.
FOR THE SAKE OF SILVER.
THAT TOO, WHEN FINALLY IT IS THE GRAVE THAT AWAITS US. THE MIGHTY AND THE LOW. THE FAST AND THE SLOW.
AUTHOR:
Dr. Jernail Singh Anand is Founder Chairperson of The Ethical Universe, the International Academy of Ethics, a think-tank of Poets, Philosophers, Thinkers, Scientists and Social Scientists. He is Professor Emeritus with the European Institute of the Roma Studies, Belgrade and Honorary Member of the Serbian Writers Association. Dr. Anand has authored 150 books which include 9 epics which are considered world classics. He has innovated the theory of Bio-text in critical theory. The Univ. of Neyshabur, Iran has conducted a Research Project on his Poetry comparing it with Iranian Poets, under Dr. Roghayeh Farsi. His works have been translated into 20 world languages.
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