By Dr Jernail Singh Anand
Επιμέλεια: Εύα Πετροπούλου Λιανού
“Civilization is a movement from the original to the artificial,
from the wild to the refined,
and from refined back to the wild, as we come to realise.
In the same way,
the trek from silence to speech and from speech back to silence,
completes the civilizing process.
We are back to a square one.
We were wild when the process of civilization started.
And now when we are at the highest point of civilization,
we have again acquired that wildness back.
Was the idea of super-existence only a conspiracy?” Dr. Anand
THE GREAT CONSPIRACY
There was a time when language was used to make things clear and understandable. We have now reached a point of time when language is used as a smokescreen, to hide the hideous truth from the public. This is the gift of this civilization when men have lost their originality and simplicity, and become refined and artificially aesthetic too. It is a pity, originality is considered synonymous with medievality, while civilization is confused with ultra-modernism. Reality and the super reality are moving apart and this craze for super-existence has turned into a conspiracy.
Language is a faculty which is quite developed among humans and we consider it a sign of our advancing and evolving civilization. Language is required not only as a communication agent, but also as a reservoir of memory and history. We need to record human history so that it can be communicated to coming generations and they learn from our past experience.
The animal world has a language which we don’t understand, but their linguistic systems are so sophisticated that they need not write anything in order to remember it. Nor, they think that they should pass on the history of their race to their upcoming generations by writing. The simple reason is that their minds, unlike their human counterparts, are uncontaminated by unsavoury thoughts of dominion. I wonder if they have any idea of success or failure. If there are any examination type of thing, or even any competition. I am sure there are no Universities to teach youngsters. Only humans, because of their poor [or superior?] wits, need these aids to learn basic things to run life.
HUMAN BEINGS AS SPECIALLY-ADVANTAGED SPECIES
An extraordinary student learns faster than a student with an average mind whom the teacher has to provide written material to remember from. If the animals have no language as it is with us, it does not mean they do not communicate, and they do not have any sense of history. The facts are otherwise. They carry original intelligence in their blood and the remembrance of those essential facts which are necessary for them to keep alive, and survive in a wild where predators can eliminate them any time. They have a thorough understanding of their past and they fully know how to react in the present. And this sensitivity they very easily pass on to their progeny, without sending them to schools.
We humans need schooling for several years, after which we come to understand [and most of the times, we do not understand anything at all], the basics of human behaviour. Only after a thorough study, we come to understand how planets work, how environment works. But this objective knowledge is easily available to animals, birds, and insects. If they were not armed with the right sensibilities, they would have been wiped out of existence. But they are going on in strength, rather, we see, it is the human kind which is dwindling. And, further, it is the humans who are writing ‘quit’ to the animals and birds like sparrows.
Too much stress on the written word is a sign of mental weakness. And the greater is the use of gadgets, the lesser is the command of our organic systems of feeling and understanding. The greatest tragedy with human mind is that we do not understand what is finally good or bad for us. We need religions, scriptures and even the gospel to tell us simple truths like what is right and what is wrong. It will be interesting to note, how many after high education in Universities and great involvement with religiosity, really know the difference between right and wrong. Something that animals and birds inherit from their forefathers.
LANGUAGE AND HUMAN BALANCE
In case of humans, the silence is the most powerful language. Body language also conveys one’s state of mind. Written word which represents an advanced stage of civilization, comes quite later. Now, we are having computers and mobiles, which do the job of remembering for us. Memory has gone over to a chip in a mobile. We are like a gadget which works only when connected with the internet. The real language of communication is the eyes which convey emotions no words can convey. They carry the entire cosmicity of a person and are an unmistakable mirror of those who want to grab and those who want to give.
Language is the most abused of human arts. And it is the most potentially dangerous also. Animals have no universities. Yet they have not forgotten their essential culture. We need universities to teach us our history. Another major function of language is to bring catharsis to human nerves. When we can share our anger and angst with others, it provides relief and imparts us a sense of balance. It is not going too far to suggest that men needed this language to discharge their nerves of the weight they were carrying, whereas such a contrivance was not required in case of animals and birds, who had an inbuilt balance, and who can crow away their concerns, while men move around, impregnated with conspiracies of super-existence.
The world of nature is more balanced, and more mature than our civilization, which has left behind its naturality, and is now built on artificial intelligence. Man is becoming more and more dependent on unnatural sequences. He is more like multi-storey buildings which are kept up with engineering skills. The country which gods made, with their pristine knowledge, still has its worshippers, but only among animals and birds. Language has taken human civilization on a great stride, and instead of communicating with natural skills, we tend to use advanced technology. Language is our hi-tech hi-fi technology, which provides us an edge over other living species of nature.
CONCLUSION:
A final comment. We are moving from speech to silence again. Emogens are our latest language. And most of our responses appear on the mobile when required. Language is a trap and we who use mobiles know how they can copy and anticipate what we will say. We are simply to ‘lightly’ press the button. We are returning to original system of signs, but it is more ghastly because it does not bring our minds into active service. Human species, with the help of language, must have been a bit closer to the gods. But it has not happened. Because men know how language can be debauched. How words can be made to shed their meaning and left naked. The worst of all languages that animals never had, and we have in abundance, are bombs and missiles. In the good old days, when people could not agree, they would start abusing each other and finally come to blows. But advancement of civilization has ensured that when we do not agree, it is not blows, but bombs to which we come. Nagasaki, Hiroshima, and the World Trade Tower represent that ghastly language that we have come to master.
Author: Dr Jernail Singh Anand, President of the International Academy of Ethics, is author of 161 books in English poetry, fiction, non-fiction, philosophy and spirituality. He was awarded Charter of Morava, the great Award by Serbian Writers Association, Belgrade and his name was engraved on the Poets’ Rock in Serbia. The Academy of Arts and philosophical Sciences of Bari [Italy] honoured him with the award of an Honourable Academic. Recently, he was awarded Doctor of Philosophy [Honoris Causa] by the University of Engg and Management, Jaipur. He organized an International Conference on Contemporary Ethics at Chandigarh. His most phenomenal book is Lustus: The Prince of Darkness [first epic of the Mahkaal Trilogy]. [Email: [email protected] Mobile: 919876652401[Whatsapp]
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