September 14, 2018 Friday
Bedtime Story
The Contract with the State
Last night we saw that the arrival of
civilization came with sacrifice of “free for all” attitude.
Men surrendered their individual
sovereignty to state sovereignty and opted to subject themselves to the law of
the land.
A sovereign state in theory is subordinate
to no one and reigns supreme over the territory under its demarcated geography.
This contract between an ape and the state
is so ancient that most of us do not even know any other way of existence and
this is why some dreamers wish to leave this ‘wretched existence’ to ‘live
freely in nature’ which they would not if they knew its realities and why our
great great great…grandfathers gave it up for the state control.
With this kind of contract every citizen of
successful, manageable-population democracies take certain assumptions for
granted from the state (not sure if it’s valid for Hindus who most likely have
little expectations from the state):
(a) That his life and property will be
protected and his liberty will be preserved
(b) That he can appropriate for his own use
what he has earned by his own labor and what he has acquired under the existing
economic and legal order
(c) That, others will act with due care and
will not cast upon him an unreasonable risk of injury
(d) That, others will not commit any
intentional aggression upon him
(e) That, people with whom he deals will
carry out their undertakings and will act in good faith
(f) That, he will have security as a job
holder
(g) That, state will bear the risk of
unforeseen misfortune
(h) That, state will bear the burden of
supporting him when he becomes weak and aged
(i) That, therefore, whenever, there is breach
of aforesaid expectations, and when the complaint is made to the “state”, it
will be duly replied
The legal list is very impressive.
Now the question arises as to what is
exactly the state.
Well, in context of the state of India, Article
12 of its constitution defines “state” as every public functionary, whether
state government/central government, municipal body/statutory bodies/any
instrumentality/agency of the government.
On closer inspection of the list of state
duties it is evident that the state has been given with god-like responsibilities
and hence I made the claim that in the statement of Jesus, God can easily be
substituted with the state.
Of course, the reality is very different.
With the exception of perhaps a very
handful of nation states the experience is that the holders of public offices
use the authority bestowed unto them more as rulers rather than public
servants.
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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