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| Thursday, 1 April 2004 |
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Enter: 'rationality'. Exit: creativity by Afreeha Jawad Ever wondered why the great religious and spiritual personalities spoke of the world's end? The Buddha referred to it as Kalpa Vinase and the Prophet of Islam - Muhammed - proclaimed himself as being last in the line of prophets to appear on earth. During less than leaner times of materialism there were the charismatic personalities coming in like the above mentioned, who emerged to give leadership to their peoples into life's absolute values. Besides such leaders, the earth, through its countless years of existence, also saw charismatic chiefs in the diverse and varied communities who led their membership into sublime thought. The low levels of development with far less complexities resulted in less muddled brains and such people of bygone eras had the unique ability to identify special personalities among their groupings - yes, outstanding personalities that came not through 'exams' and other 'capabilities', but were the outcome of unique demeanour whom the collectivity looked upon for guidance and advice. The religious leaders are a case in point. The societal groups of such times were extraordinary in that they were not within materialistic, consumerist, bureaucratic enclaves and possessed the presently frowned upon value-based minds making their task of leadership selection very much easier. With increasing levels of modernity this was not to be. From charismatic leadership the world moved into traditional leadership - of kings, princes, princesses and the like with a kind of leadership mantle falling from father to son and next of kin in times of male progeny absence. Leadership itself became a family heirloom. The ascribed leadership - charismatic in character - gradually gave way to one of achieved leadership. Man battled through wars, with brute force as operative mechanism in a show of strength and might. Conspicuous was the unfolding of monarchies that led their nations into war serialization that transformed an unsullied human history into a blood-splattered, brazenly nightmarish account. Thus was undermined a leadership of absolute values giving way to another leadership, kind of winning through force that became the decisive element to charter world power into new historical channels. Soon, a world in slumber awoke to the thud and clamour of development as nations with increasing intensity oriented themselves to wealth accumulation. As time took wing traditional monarchies too were thought of as not quite the right thing to have and instead was born the bureaucratic model-based on what was called "rational" thinking. Gaining foothold progressively, this system brought in democratically elected rulers through a method of elections for selection of law makers into the legislatures of all nation states, - this time the criteria for selection - the people's will through the exercise of franchise. Following all this was the clamour towards attaining superpower status by some nations. The G 7 assembly of world powers led by a superpower got on centre stage and the hegemonic control that followed in their drive towards a money based political economy, social stratification, structured divisiveness and differentiation, with its high speed consumerism and the all too powerful media tool, were all a result of 'rational thought' that deprived man of his birthright - of absolute values which societies enjoyed under charismatic leadership - dubbed irrational. The greatest irony one could observe is that the 'irrational' system was far more peaceful than the chaotic system of present times with all their "rationality". The modernists' rationality itself denies man his natural leanings towards absolute values and as a result creativity becomes defunct. Creativity stems from inspiration and the modern day rationality of thought is an obstacle to its achievement. Streamlining man's activities to meet the demands of the system based on modern day rationality dulls the human spirit giving rise to robot-like humans. Abstract ideals of beauty, gratitude, kindness goodwill, grace and so on cannot be explained in rational terms. No wonder then, the gradual dwindling of numbers in creativity - of prophets, artists, musicians, writers, scholars and the like that enriched many a civilization and culture. As 'rational man' - I mean the modern one - gets about harnessing the environment for high speed development, he loses sight of his purposeful earthly existence. In the search for such morsel, he forgets the soul's nature - of grace, beauty and elegance, which are considered old fashioned. The natural environment is already sending out warning signals, should he pursue thoughtless activity and it comes in the diverse catastrophes of drought, floods, volcanic eruption, earthquakes - just to mention a few. If the creativity of early man protected the natural environment and helped him identify charismatic people through a rationality far superior than that of modern man's claim to such, it could also be said modern day "rationality" has led him to the labyrinth of disaster because he has denied himself the joy of beauty in his frenzied quest for silver and gold. |
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