The Rise of a Genuine Intellectual

It was Saturday. My day to meet my friend – Akshita. We have to wait for Saturdays and Sundays so that we can meet outside Google talk. But since last weekend, I had one more reason to visit her place. The mind blowing talks with her father – Mr. Aggarwal. Uncle asked me to take off my shoes, wash my hands and feet with the garden hose, and then enter their drawing room.

Me: I was wondering these days about your work in the U.S University?

Mr. Aggarwal: When I was working in the U.S., I noticed how the principles of military power and economics opportunism were practically the only forces (mis)shaping its entire social development. I felt rather helpless, trying to write research proposals for enhancing the consumer economy and military. I knew what to write and which strings to pull to get the project in. But I was not very much satisfied. I never got to work on fundamental problems.

Me: How do they enforce it? I mean, how do they make you do what you do not like?

Mr. Aggarwal: You don’t need to be Sherlock to figure that out. The secret is called tenure. How many publications do you have? How many sponsored projects did you get for the university? How many Ph.D. students did you guide? And so forth. The list is practically endless. These are the yard sticks for measuring success. You see, the economics and administrative overlords control everything.

Me: You make it all so clear. Is that why you came back?

Mr. Aggarwal: Partly. But I did not expect this problem to be solved after returning to India. As I suspected, I now see that this trend has already caught up in India, and practically in all other nations. After all, America is the flag-bearer for the rest of the world.

Me: But the economic and military incentives have helped advance science and technology. After all, we all know that without incentives, no one works. You really cannot deny the imposing of success of science in recent times.

Mr. Aggarwal: Yes, these days, research means advancing sense gratification of people. How to increase bodily comforts. But I am finding that although technology is providing the increased comforts, people are becoming more and more unhappy.

Me: But you surely can’t blame it all on science and technology. After all, science was founded on the principle of finding solution to problems.

Mr. Aggarwal: What problems? How to make electric tooth-brushes and razors? How does it remove any problem? The real problem is that there is no place for genuine intellectuals in our society at large. Let us say that you become a researcher in a big corporation, then you simply have to work on problems that the corporate managers want solved. This way, our intellectuals have been purchased by businessmen and administrators. Instead of qualified intellectuals directing the social body, the demands of the consumer economy and the military have monopolized the entire social arrangement. So much so that men who should act as intellectuals guiding the society are reduced to peons serving the economic-military complex.

Me: But what do you expect a person with a Ph.D. to do? He is trying to use his knowledge to aid humanity in some way, is he not?

Mr. Aggarwal: I disagree here. In all honesty, can you say that your future options include concern for humanity at all? Actually, many of us do not even know what benefits humanity and what does not. Often, engineers and scientists are so keen to get even one job that they would just about accept anything, even if it means annually churning out millions of tons of toxic pollutants into the air. I mean the automobile industry, of course.

Me: Yes, that is a problem. But my own life involves trade-offs. If we must get from one place to another, we must also, “smoke” poisonous gases. I think it is unfair to stress only the negatives.

Mr. Aggarwal: Actually, my main point is that intellectuals are being purchased for non-optimal usage. If some cannot be purchased, then they are hidden away by the bureaucratic machine. As I said, this is exactly what economic and administrative overlords want to maintain their secure position. If people are bribed successfully with sense enjoyment then they will never critically consider their society’s goal or the human situation. A case in point is that in practically even the most impoverished slums in Mumbai, you find people glued to the television, when they might not even be sure of how to get the next meal.

Me: I can see how many IIT students are addicted to chatting, neglecting their precious study responsibilities. I agree with you that when people are steeped in sense gratification, they do not see any need for higher and actual truth. I can see how this would keep the bureaucrats, businessmen and politicians happy.

Mr. Aggarwal: There is more to all this. Dedication to the principles of military power and economic opportunism has allowed society to greatly increase its abilities to control and enjoy the material world. But these very principles have also created intolerable social disturbances. The policies of unrestricted sense enjoyment have not only brought about destruction of social values but also of natural resources and ecological balance.

Me: What is the cause of all this?

Mr. Aggarwal: The cause of this grave predicament is the total lack of direction from a class of qualified intellectuals, a group of intelligent men, who are unaffected by the lures and (or) pressures of material gain. Today, persons who should be acting as guiding intellectuals have lost their real qualification due to their accepting the employ of governments and big enterprises in exchange for high salaries, paid holidays, fame, prestige, and other fringe benefits – all for the furtherance of sensual pleasure.

Me: But I have one objection. Since the whole world is geared towards economic gain and military expansion, is it not necessary for a society to do the same in order to maintain its very viability?

Mr. Aggarwal: Yes! But when economics, bureaucracy and defense control the very direction of society, we should be more vigilant. Remember, we are discussing how the administrators and businessmen, and not the intellectuals are guiding the society. People should be made aware of the inherent contradictions within the modern technological societies, in particular about the paradox of simultaneous construction and destruction.

Me: What in the world is that?

Mr. Aggarwal: Well, you have already stated it. On the one hand we have comfort of automobile travel. But on the other we must inhale air poisoned by exhaust fumes. Moreover, the automobile industry has bestowed us with so many cars that we must now worry about feeding them. Did you know that in some countries, farmers are growing grains for feeding cars with gasohol? And people are dying of starvation. When I saw it, I was very much pained. “What was I doing with my so-called intelligence”?

Me: Purchased by the economic overlords. Modern technology has brought the world to a higher level of sense enjoyment; but it has also brought the world closer to nuclear disasters, both intentional and accidental. Who can deny that the society is hell-bent upon destroying itself? On the one hand, we make something beneficial, on the other hand something malefic. This is not a symptom of advancement.

(Akshita had arrived from her class. I asked uncle and went to her room. And after spending the day with her, I left to return the next day)