What is Modernity? Summary: Modernity is the ability to move in step with the ever changing world.

We have human beings who prefer to call themselves traditional or conservative o r are so designated by their society. They are laggards in accepting a change an d always try to preserve the existing order at any cost. It is probably because of their limited understanding that they are unable to comprehend a change or be cause of their satisfaction with existing order that they are reluctant to explo re a change or because they failed every time they tried some change or they are simply stubborn and dogmatic. Every change haunts them with fear of unknown. At times, they prefer to be in fools paradise instead of attempting what is prudent and pragmatic. There are human beings who claim to be Modern, meaning thereby freedom from all traditions and relations whether good, bad or indifferent. Often nothing forbids t hem in taking any step in pursuit of their self interest. Their slogan is This is my life. They out-rightly deny/ignore their interdependence on their ecosystem. Many of the celebrities, particularly in the field of entertainment belong to th is class. Their quest is for power and money and POPULISM is their religion. The y reduce themselves to a branded product or service because that is what sells a nd is the road to material success. However, in my opinion their claims about be ing modern are dubious, since they are simply pursuing their self interest which is an ancient human sentiment as old as man on this planet. They do so by follo wing what is in fashion or trend and manipulate themselves to a leadership posit ion in the particular fashion or trend. It is another matter that in pursuit of their self interest they often run in to conflict with their inner self and external environment since human beings are different from realities of the market place, become lonely and isolated and hav e to lead a cocooned existence within an image/brand of their own creation. They often become victims of their own image. Some of them realize their mistake but by then it is generally too late. It is generally not possible for them to stri ke a balance between realities of the market place and the human being that they are. Means to happiness have become the ends and there is an eternal conflict b etween means and ends within them. Truly modern people either provide intellectual leadership in their domain witho ut succumbing to the prevalent values, ideologies and pressure of influential gr oups or social leadership by providing innovative solutions to age old problems of their society for example Mahatma Gandhi in leading Indian Freedom Movement. They are not following a trend. They are only trying to do what they think is ri ght, irrespective of materialistic considerations. There is yet another class of human beings who claim to be modern, yet tradition al. To this class belong the majority of human beings. They want to enjoy the be st of both the richness of the old world and allurements of the new world. They are generally a confused lot since they do not know how to reconcile old world with new world. Because of their internal confusion they often wander from one p ole to another and ultimately settle down as a traditionalist who may prefer to keep the mask of modernity. When you scratch them hard, often you will find a tr aditionalist masquerading as a modernist. They are simply unable to find their p lace in the new world order. We all know that it is an ever changing world for one or the other reason, yet t here are several aspects of human existence that do not change with changing wor ld such as human sentiments, biological needs etc. Commensurate with it several of the human needs also have not changed. During the present times and the past century technology has led the change in human society by changing ways and mean s humans use to satisfy their needs. So change is principally in the means and n ot the ends. From the perspective of human sentiments, needs have remained the s ame. Even approach to satisfy the needs has not changed much and is largely sent iments driven. Therefore, it is not surprising that the markets, especially the stock markets are largely sentiments driven. All the scientific and technologica l advances have failed to change human needs significantly or to make man wiser or prudent and pragmatic. Today, whatever one needs materially is available in the market place for a pric

e. So, no need to be bothered about family, friends and society. One can make an d break relations as per the needs at the spur of the moment. No need to hang ar ound with old and obsolete stuff. No need to carry the historical baggage. Therefore social websites like face book are a resounding success. But somewhere along the path, the issue of branding or reputation creeps in. So you can not o pen your heart out. You have to keep your brand image. You are always scared tha t if any of your human weaknesses is revealed before your face book friends, you stand disgraced. Your age old ego does not allow you to afford that. The old va lues you wanted to break free from haunt you. So you create boundaries or distan ces between your real self and your face book friends. So you isolate yourself a nd continue to be lonely as ever. You have no body to help you move up the learn ing curve or to negotiate a change or a need. There is none to share adverse mom ents/sentiments/feelings. There is none to provide social support system except probably your own family, relatives and your real friends in bone and flesh whom you have discarded since long. There is none even to celebrate moments of sudde n joy. So ultimately you realize that your facebook friends are not real friends because you cant afford to connect to them truly and sentimentally. On one hand image appears to be real since it is your branding your keys to succ ess in this material world and you have to preserve it at any cost, whatever it may cost you as a human being. On the other hand you are a human being with all the emotional and material needs every human being has had since the days of Ada m and Eve. So you cant totally abandon the human in you and your biological self. The key sentiment underlying modernity is desire and need to move in line with t he times and the key issue is how to reconcile the human in you with the rapidly changing, science and technology driven human society. It is a question of reco nciliation of past, present and future so that you can swiftly move through chan ging times without disturbing your peace and tranquility and without phobia of u nknown. This is a never ending gigantic intellectual effort since life poses its challenges every day and you have to be too ready to happily meet them. One has to live every day. This is probably the right way to keep body, mind and soul h armony. What really is of help is our understanding of the world at large. Both, life and existence are perpetually balancing acts. There is nothing like static equilibrium. We are always in a state of dynamic equilibrium. Nature has gifted man with the faculty of awareness or voluntary intelligence wi th the hope that wisdom shall prevail in life of human beings. Unfortunately, lo oking at the way man has put technology to use and suffered fragmentation of hum an society in return for his selfishness, it is not difficult to conclude that h uman behavior is still largely sentiments driven, far from prudence and pragmati sm. Therefore modernity would lie in striking balance between past, present and futu re and it cant be acquired by sentiments alone. It requires proper understanding. The keys lie in detached objective critical analysis and holistic thinking star ting from whatever station of life you are in. Accept no limitations to your int ellect. Think beyond dogma, tradition and boundaries of your current domain. Dev elop a proper understanding of things and events. Cognition and differential res ponse are the keys to what is right and just. There is no use in blindly followi ng tradition or dogma. We must appreciate that we are largely rational entities and not historical entities. Rationality is the common thread underlying past, p resent and future. Therefore to be modern means to be wise, prudent, pragmatic, fair, just, reasona ble etc. while keeping ones dynamic equilibrium. The one who blindly follows what is in fashion or in trend only to masquerade as modern cant be regarded as truly modern. Author: Dr Mahesh C. Jain is a practicing medical doctor has written the book Enc ounter of Science with Philosophy A synthetic view. The book begins with first ch apter devoted to scientifically valid concept of God and then explains cosmic ph enomena right from origin of nature and universe up to origin of life and evolut ion of man. The book includes several chapters devoted to auxiliary concepts and social sciences as corollaries to the concept of God. What is modernity? is in li ne with authors understanding of nature.

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