September 13, 2018 Thursday
Bedtime Story
Life Before the State
Last night we saw the statement of Jesus as
stated in Matthew 22:21 “Render unto Caesar’s the things that are Caesar’s, and
unto God the things that are God’s” and I had made a comment that this had
become a defining moment of the ideal relationship that needs to exist between the
ruler, the state and its citizens.
This statement was not made by me at my
whims and fancy.
The Caesar in the statement stands for
today’s for any head of the state, may it be the President, Prime Minister or
even a Monarch.
The citizens remain unchanged as always.
What about this God; where do we place it?
In a western democratic form of government
(especially successful ones such as Scandinavian nations, Canada, United
Kingdom to name a few because in fact they are only a handful of them) it is
the state which can reasonably be called “God”.
Let us examine this point more critically
or rather more legally the taste of which I have been getting (whether sweet or
bitter that only time will tell) since a couple of years.
Before civilization came into being (such
as Mesopotamian, Greek or Roman) ‘men’ were sovereign in their own.
This means to say that they were on their
own unbounded by any kind of laws.
In America you would refer it to as the ‘Wild
West’ which in the early seventeenth century was anything west of the Mississippi
River.
The prosperous and peaceful America that you
see today is literally built upon blood and sweat driven by greed for both gold
and land acquired through wars, ubiquitous crime and banditry, gunfights and
feuds and mass eradication of the native population.
The strange think is that America exploits
all this barbarity through Hollywood to its advantage making it exceptional in choosing
its iconic self-image (just ask your brain what you have in mind of any other
nation say ancient China or ancient Indian sub-continent).
In the words of David Murdoch “No other
nation has taken a time and place from its past and produced a construct of the
imagination equal to the America’s creation of the west”.
But this was how it was in any part of the
planet before civilization came into being, the only difference being that no
one else has the knack to glorify it the way America does.
Men were ruled by their own conscience
(which we know we have very little) and not by codified laws free to inflict
violence at their will and strength, or in other words, might in right was the
prevailing scenario (Just think of any Wild West movie such as ‘Good, Bad and
the Ugly to get a more vivid picture).
Every man was free to act as he wished depending
on his physical prowess and the balance of scale of greed and conscience.
And yet for some reason they willingly or
unwillingly, but mostly for self-protection and to minimize the misery and pain
the living in jungle entails (please note nature lovers), gave up this freedom and
entered in contract with the state.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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