"The Burning Issue"

  By Dr. D.K. Giri, Director, Schumacher Centre

I was invited to be a panelist in a Roundtable discussion on “Rethinking Human Behaviour in Modern Economics” on 10 April 2010. It was organized by the Institute for Studies in Global prosperity. I had a similar invitation earlier on from Bhopal last month from a Gandhian organization to discuss “non-violent economy”. Last year, I was in a roundtable on “Compassionate Economy” organized by a Buddhist organization. All these invitations come my way most probably because of my association with Schumacher Centre, as its ideologue Fritz Schumacher was the exponent of non-violent Buddhist economies. Also, may be I am engaged in the domain public action to create a sound economy and saner society. Whatever may be the basis of my involvement in such discussions, the need of the hour is to reduce stress, tensions and violence in the society, most of which, no doubt, is produced by a violent economy.

Why has the modern economy become violent? Is it loss of human values, namely the compassion, solidarity, or the faulty approach to economic growth? In fact, the answer is bit of both. How do we repair the fault lines? How do we revive the values? These two are the usual questions raised in most of the discussions. Let us address the first concern, the modern economic system. The current economy is driven by profit only, in complete disregard to nature, nurture and sustainability.  Profit has replaced the people in the calculations. Second, there is gross overuse of non-renewable energies, competition for access to them which are also depleting. This is causing violence in the society. The people who are getting displaced and dispossessed are fighting back.

Second is that the human nature is changing in such a scenario, where competition has replaced compassion. Human beings are capable of being good and bad, either of which emerges in reaction to a situation or a system, created by other human beings. But, like Mahatma Gandhi said, any system will fail, if the human character fails, and in the dynamic between people and the processes, the person has the onus of creating and maintaining a process that secures human values.

How do we create a good person? This can be done both by inducing systemic changes which allows the person scope for and self-actualisation, and by injecting spirituality or Godliness what is understood popularly as a religion. That gives room for building selfhood.

What we need is a fine balance between man and machine, personality and the procedures, growth and social justice. Profit and growth should drive the economy, but those should be meant for a ‘common cause’ not for shareholders alone.

The balance which Clinton called the middle way, Tony Blair the Third way, Indian calls ‘synthesis of opposites’ is ‘the way’ to go. The big question then is who will determine that balance is right or appropriate, or the way to decide it in terms of the cause and consequence of our actions. The other is that every individual, institution and nation decide what is the ‘balance’ that lends a win-win situation – social stability, communal solidarity, climate security and economic viability.

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