The Economy of Permanence: A Quest for a Social Order Based on Non-violence (स्थायी अर्थतन्त्र)

Economy of Permanence
INTRODUCTION
In the first part of this book we considered man as an individual and saw how
he acts as a single creation. We noticed the way. Nature works and we
observed that science is our study of Nature and its working, and the object of
science is to enable man to work along the lines on which the universe moves.
Any deviation from this leads us into violence and disorder. Most creatures work
in alignment with Nature merely by instinct, but man, with his gift of freewill
and intelligence, co-operates with Nature consciously, this being the main
difference between the lower orders and man. We noted the various standards
of values that man, in this conscious existence, Utilizes to gauge his action and
the part work plays in developing and improving his faculties.
When man works in this way he is able to bring about an economy of
permanence which will do away with the need for periodic upheavals in the
form of global wars.
In this second part of the book we shall study how man lives in Gregation.
Among animals also there are to be observed forces which bring like creatures
together for certain purposes. In the case of animals of prey, such as the wolf,
they hunt in packs, their motive is self-centered and their life is parasitic.
On the other hand, we have animals which get together, for motives other than
aggression, and very often purely for defence, such as herds of cattle and
elephants. Here though taken individually each has a selfish motive in its own
safety, yet in the aggregate each has a duty in defending the whole.
The social and economic order of the West as we had observed in the first part,
being parasitic, can be placed in the pack type of gregation, depending for its
welfare on the harm it can do to other groups. From the parasitic stage we
advance on through predatory and enterprising stages to the gregarious stage.
In the gregarious stage, as we have seen, there can be two kinds, the pack-type
which represents the right-centred economy and the herd-type which repesents
the duty-centred economy.
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