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

Economy of Permanence
A merchant will value articles by the profit they will fetch in his trade. A
worker, living on the margin of subsistence, will look at things from the use to
which he can put them to satisfy his crying needs— food, clothing and shelter.
An artist will have an eye for beauty.
Valuation based on Time, Fame, Acquisitiveness etc.: The guide at the Cairo
Museum values everything from the point of view of time. He will tell the
tourist that this Mummy of Tutakhamen is so many thousands of years old, and
that of Ramseys belongs to a period so many millenia before Christ. He will
fondly expect his visitors to be highly impressed by the age of things.
At Rome or Florence, the guide will point out frescoes, mural paintings etc. by
the masters like Michael Angelo or Ruebons and the visitor will have to accept
that as a stamp of excellence.
The Parisians pride themselves as being fine connoisseurs of the beautiful
gardens, buildings, art and literature.
The visitor to the British Museum will be introduced to varieties of exhibits
brought from China, India, Persia or Peru and will have to be greatly impressed
by the world wide acquisitiveness of the British.
As one cranes up one's neck from the bottom of the streets of New York to see
the upper end of buildings touching the sky, the megaphone will declare the
cost of each building in terms of millions of dollars. The impecunious foreigner
will be struck dumb, not at the hoary past, nor at the renowned architect nor
at the beauty or rarity of the exhibit but at the display of colossal wealth.
No one standard is applied exclusively in any one case but the main emphasis is
shown by the special importance attached to the particular standard employed.
The pilgrim to the Taj Mahal does not wax eloquent over the quality of marble
used. Are there not better marbles at Carrara? The name of the architect may
not even be known to him. The age of the noble edifice is not awe- inspiring;
but it is the general effect, the sight of the building in its setting, which
creates on one an impression that is noteworthy, and calls forth spontaneous
admiration without anyone having to recite laboriously its various high points.
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