{"id":231656,"date":"2023-03-05T00:00:04","date_gmt":"2023-03-04T18:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=231656"},"modified":"2023-03-15T15:21:18","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T09:51:18","slug":"a-dystopian-account-civilisation-humanity-rubs-out-its-wisest-brightest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-dystopian-account-civilisation-humanity-rubs-out-its-wisest-brightest\/","title":{"rendered":"A Dystopian Account Civilisation: Humanity Rubs Out Its Wisest &#038; Brightest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p3\"><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>By <a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Kumar+David\">Kumar David<\/a> &#8211;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_225785\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-225785\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-225785\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Kumar-David-150x150.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Kumar-David-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Kumar-David-45x45.jpeg 45w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Kumar-David.jpeg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-225785\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Prof. Kumar David<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\">Just consider. Socrates was compelled to down a cup of hemlock by none other than the elite of Athens. Archimedes the first great empirical scientist was chopped down by a Roman soldier of the same Greco-Roman classical culture. Jesus, a Jew, was driven to death by a Jewish mob ranting \u201cCrucify him\u201d. Martin Luther was excommunicated and Galileo silenced by the same Catholic Church. The apple fell on Newton\u2019s head 20 years before <i>The Principia<\/i> saw print and Marx was reviled by European liberals. More recently, Gandhi was shot by a fervent Hindu chanting \u201c<i>Hei Rama<\/i>\u201d (Glory to God).<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Dietrich Bonhoeffer was murdered by Hitler in April 1945 one week before the concentration camp was liberated by US troops. Alan Turing inventor of the Turing-Machine, now known as the computer, was \u2018murdered\u2019 by the British establishment in 1954. In fact, even I am not feeling too well these days after minor surgery!<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">A few were lucky. Thankfully, Gautama, Confucius, Mencius and Lao Tzu escaped slaughter by their own. All were celibate throughout their adult lives \u2013 did that help? Our SWRD, no great man, was gunned down by a Buddhist monk, and another known as Mapitigama Buddy who was implicated in the conspiracy was executed. A lady of unsavoury virtue got away with plotting murder thanks to her gender. Hidebound conservatism is not new. The State Government of Florida its Governor DeSantis have renewed the Medieval Inquisition-style, Nazi-perfected practice of banning, but not yet burning books.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">It seems that human civilisation moves as much by regression as progress. Using Covid as a landmark, let\u2019s note a few post-Covid changes. <span class=\"s1\">The personal has become dangerous; the comfort of being with others has been replaced by the greater safety of the absence of even close family. People appreciate the value of real expert opinions and see that government is something for the serious, not for jokers like Trump, Rajapaksa or Gamanpilla. Thankfully, some people see that they have to take responsibility for getting things right rather than expecting everything to be delivered by the state. A desirable collateral change may be that there may a decline in class, ethnic and religious polarisation and less faith in selfish individualism. The world was jolly about 20-20 and counted it twice, but 2021 turned out to be ominous. Now we have the chant \u201cDeath to 2022\u201d the year of fake voting-fraud claims and storming of the Capitol in the US, war in the Ukraine with nuclear overtones and at home the year of economic collapse.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_231657\" style=\"width: 910px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-231657\" class=\"size-full wp-image-231657\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Socrates-Archimedes-Mencius-and-Lao-Tzu-.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"231\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Socrates-Archimedes-Mencius-and-Lao-Tzu-.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Socrates-Archimedes-Mencius-and-Lao-Tzu--300x77.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Socrates-Archimedes-Mencius-and-Lao-Tzu--768x197.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-231657\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Socrates, Archimedes, Mencius and Lao Tzu<br \/>(The first two were murdered the next two died in poverty)<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\">The coronavirus pandemic marks the end of our love affair with markets and the end of the Smithian romance with capitalism and individualism. Market-based models of social organisation are failing catastrophically and being abandoned even in the US \u2013 Obama, Trump, Biden. Will the US reorient politics and make substantial new investments in public goods, for example health and public services? The coronavirus pandemic will bring immense suffering but will it also force people to reconsider who they are and what they value? In the long run, it could help us rediscover a better version of ourselves.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">But it could also turn authoritarianism with the prospect of a military crackdowns. The dystopian can be real. Religion can become different. Technology can have many different consequences; unemployment, inflation and the collapse of small businesses is growing in the USA. Competitive pressures will expedite the decline of regulatory barriers to online tools and loss of jobs; is this good or bad? The post-Covid world is a dense fog, an impenetrable Pandora\u2019s Box.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">On a humorous note is the BBC\u2019s informative six-episode series on the major periods of world history \u201cCunk on Erath\u201d. [Cunk! The naughty tag used by actress Dianne Morgan]. Netflix (<span class=\"s2\"><i>Cunk on Earth<\/i><\/span>) or <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/programmes\/m000cf50\">BBC<\/a><\/span>\u00a0gets you to the programmes. My column today is not intended to be humorous, but surely you feel the need to relax after I dumped all the heavy stuff about the JVP, Ranil and the IMF on you for months. Another Cunk episode which asks \u201cWhich book is greater, the Bible or the Koran?\u201d has been banned in many countries, including the US, for fear of religious riots because it quite correctly concluded that the Bible has a much greater and richer historical significance than the Koran. Mankind still lives in a cocoon.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s6\">A tribe that lived in the Neolithic era 4,000 years ago is touted as the most violent and aggressive ever. Archaeologists say that the Yamnaya ruthlessly massacred everyone else. But there<\/span> are more recent brutal peoples too. <span class=\"s7\">The Sentinelese, our neighbours, have caught the imagination. They inhabit a tiny forested island called North Sentine, one of the Andaman Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. They reject contact with foreigners and pressure India to back their policy of \u2018no contact\u2019.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>They hunt and gather in the jungle and fish in coastal waters. <\/span>In South America the Aztecs\u00a0are the champions. They were there long before Columbus turned up, specialise in human sacrifice, slice the victim&#8217;s heart whilst still alive and boil the body for food. In our times cow-worshipers slaughter Muslims in Modiesque cancel-culture cow-dung events &#8211; the practice continues (BBC India \u201cThe Modi Question 2-of-2\u201d, 25-January-2023)<\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\">Now turning to the \u2018civilised\u2019 world. \u201cAmazing Grace\u201d is a famous hymn composed by John Newton in 1772 in Olney England 350 years ago. Newton writes about a profound grace that liberated him from wretchedness.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p9\"><i>Amazing grace how sweet the sound<br \/>\nThat saved a wretch like me<br \/>\nI once was lost, but now am found<br \/>\nWas blind but now I see<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"p10\">But do you know what salvation the sanctimonious humbug is making an Alleluia about? Newton, a slave trader, who made stacks of money on human cargo is thanking the Almighty for freeing him from his sins and lubricating his passage to Paradise. For the masses, he is distilling opium by the truck load!<\/p>\n<p class=\"p10\">You know that the Founding Fathers (<span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/John_Adams\">John Adams<\/a><\/span>,\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Benjamin_Franklin\">Benjamin Franklin<\/a><\/span>,\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Alexander_Hamilton\">Alexander Hamilton<\/a><\/span>,\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Thomas_Jefferson\">Thomas Jefferson<\/a><\/span>,\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_Madison\">James Madison<\/a><\/span>, and\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/George_Washington\">George Washington<\/a><\/span>) finally ratified on June 21 1788 the notification \u201cWe the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America\u201d. Oh! But nobody sought to ask the thirteen million slaves shipped out of Africa to the Americas (400,000 directly to the US) what they felt about justice, tranquillity, welfare and the blessings of liberty. It is a bit rough to be manacled to the floor of a ship for the whole journey! The numbers making the voyage were large as it was cheaper to ship-in replacements than care for the old, weak, pregnant and those unfit to labour in the corn and cotton fields even if \u201cthe sun shines bright and the darkies are gay\u201d.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">It seems that human civilisation moves as much by regression as by progress. Using Covid as a landmark, note a few unexpected post-Covid changes. <span class=\"s1\">A webpage which I have used to collect some of this material and which summarises opinions from a great number of sources can be found <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/magazine\/2020\/03\/19\/coronavirus-effect-economy-life-society-analysis-covid-135579\">here<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The coronavirus pandemic marks the end of our romance with market glorification and the end of the Smithian romance with capitalism and individualism. Market-based models of social organization are failing catastrophically in many places. Will we reorient our politics and make substantial new investments in public goods for health and public services? The coronavirus pandemic is causing pain and suffering but will it make us reconsider who we are and what we value? In the long run, could it help us rediscover a better vision of ourselves?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">But it also threatens a possible turn to authoritarianism. Consider the prospect of military crackdowns; the dystopian can be real. Religion can become strange; technology may have strange consequences such as unemployment, inflation and the collapse of small businesses. This is the trend in the USA. Competitive pressure is expediting the decline of regulatory barriers to online tools everywhere. The post-Covid world is a fog, an impenetrable Pandora\u2019s Box.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">On a humorous side is the <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/programmes\/m000cf50\">BBC\u2019s informative six-episode series<\/a><\/span> on the major periods of world history \u201cCunk on Earth\u201d. [Cunk! What!! is the infectiously naughty name used by actress Dianne Morgan who hosts the programme.]\u00a0This is not intended to be a humorous piece but you dear reader must feel the need to relax after all the heavy stuff about the NPP, JVP, Ranil and the IMF that I have been foisting on you for months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">The time has come it seems to make grave decisions. But alas as Paulo Coelho says in his celebrated novel <i>The Alchemist<\/i> (written in Brazilian Portuguese): \u201cA big decision is not an ending but a beginning. After the plunge the current will carry you to places you never knew existed; there is no turning back; only onward into the unknown\u201d. It\u2019s what young people all over the world call a \u2018Woke\u2019 moment; so be it in Lanka.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":231657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-231656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Dystopian Account Civilisation: Humanity Rubs Out Its Wisest &amp; Brightest - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-dystopian-account-civilisation-humanity-rubs-out-its-wisest-brightest\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Dystopian Account Civilisation: Humanity Rubs Out Its Wisest &amp; 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