Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Love abiding

Institutions are the backbone of any society. Not only they tend to endure longer than individuals, but also develop a personality of their own free from biological fetters and climatic contingencies. The human body, of course, itself, is an association of countless cells and organs, but a pregnant woman, as an association of two (or more at times) individuals can be said to be embryonic of all institutions. Whether this analogy applies always to the individual’s relationship to the organization he works for is, however, debatable. But it is not unusual to observe that the founder (or, father) of an organization (or, the mother) becomes, over a period of time, its slave (or, child).

The UNO (United Nations Day: 24 October) is the largest association to have taken shape so far although it hardly inspires any emotional attachment among men. On the other hand, the continent, the nation, the religion, the race, the gender, the language, the caste, the tribe, the ethnicity or similar other considerations based on the birth of a person exercise a profound influence upon the individual all his life. To hope that these would melt away or evaporate over time is sheer utopian fantasy.

The point is not to look down upon the birth factor or the blood relationship but to focus on the quantum of its role in determining our seemingly rational actions. But even in the case of temperamental affinities (as against that of the blood) also, it is the genetic configuration that is behind the magic, and thus again it is back to the blood.

The institution, therefore, plays a big role here although a vast majority of them are dedicated to themes concerning the birth or the blood; culture being a respectable euphemism. Hence, the legitimate challenge is not only to hybridize and integrate but scouting for abiding loves that are entirely unlike those occurring in the past.

A philosophy binds people. Economic and political philosophies wield enormous power to unite people across the barriers of birth or blood. But the philosophy proper has had only a limited appeal and reach. That such superlative human creation go waste without being appreciated on a large scale is a terrible flaw of our civilization. And if the transformation that would have been engendered is reckoned, the magnitude of loss accentuates manifold.

A party, though political in nomenclature, also conflates social, cultural, as well as economic concerns. It represents perhaps potentially the largest association of people after the nation and at times with trans-national reach. Savitri Era Party aims at such a possibility with a bias, of course, towards philosophy and discourse on ethics. That surely can count as an abiding love with feet firmly rooted on the ground. [TNM] 2:07 PM 5:09 PM

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