S. Rajaratnam
Tax consultant and Prolific writer
Alighter side of this controversy is a story of a public meeting, where a French priest was highly critical of women moving freely without any restraint, claiming equality with men ignoring the gender difference between men and women. It was met with a jeering comment from a man in the audience “Vive la difference” welcoming the difference between men and women for the pleasure caused by the difference.
A brief history of mankind as recorded by Yuval Noah Harari in his book “Sapiens” forecasts evolution of man by which he may not create superman as was predicted by the German philosopher Nietzsche but as in the story’ by Mary Shelley, the creator of the character “Frankenstein”, evolution may happen in the wrong direction resulting in Frankensteins destroying fellow human beings.
Technological evolution in this computer age is a-moral. The existing beliefs in religions, ideologies and class in all likelihood will disappear and so may well be the distinction as between male or female gender. We are living in a fast changing Copernican world with Ptolemic ideas not having shed all of Neanderthal man in us. Transition from Hitler to Gandhi has not been universal.
Happiness does not lie in “collective delusions” like fantasies of happy married life or after-life in heaven. Gender difference is, also a personal delusion, which may well be shed with development of robotics and biochemistry.
Happiness of man may need not any longer depend upon his sex or family life, but in physiology and bio-chemistry with artificial brain ready to take over the functions of today’s man. Happiness does not lie in “collective delusions” like fantasies of happy married life or after-life in heaven. Gender difference is, also a personal delusion, which may well be shed with development of robotics and biochemistry. Harari again has this to say on the subject –
“There is only one historical development that has real significance. Today, when we finally realise that the keys to happiness are in the hands of our biochemical system, we can stop wasting our time on politics and social reforms, putsches and ideologies, and focus instead on the only thing that can make us truly happy: manipulating our biochemistry. If we invest billions in understanding our brain chemistry and developing appropriate treatments, we can make people far happier than ever before, without any need of revolutions. Prozac, for example, does not change regimes, but by raising serotonin levels it lifts people out of their depression.”
He adds what he infers on true happiness in following words:
“That’s one option. Another is that the findings demonstrate that happiness is not the surplus of pleasant over unpleasant moments. Rather, happiness consists in seeing one’s life in its entirety as meaningful and worthwhile. There is an important cognitive and ethical component to happiness. Our values make all the difference to whether we see ourselves as ‘miserable slaves to a baby dictator’ or as ‘lovingly nurturing a new life’. As Nietzsche put it, if you have a way to live, you can bear almost anyhow. A meaningful life can be extremely satisfying even in the midst of hardship, whereas a meaningless life is a terrible ordeal no matter how comfortable it is.”
The struggle of woman for equality is a slow on-going process. Even in US, where there has been significant movement for women’s rights for voting rights took a long time with considerable resistance characterized as an outrageous demand. A female Judge of the Supreme Court or a female Cabinet Secretary was possible only recently considered to be a dramatic change. The parochial system of patriarchy is slowly vanishing in India, while the situation continues to be deplorable in neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Middle as well as Far East.
The grim forecast of the author even relegating issue of gender bias to the coming catastrophe (or is it day of judgement?) caused by himself as to the future by his negligence of environment reads as under:
“We have advanced from canoes to galleys to steamships to space shuttles – but nobody knows where we’re going. We are more powerful than ever before, but have very little idea what to do with all that power. Worse still, humans seem to be in more irresponsible than ever. Self-made gods with only the laws of physics to keep us company, we are accountable to no one. We are consequently wreaking havoc on our fellow animals and on the surrounding ecosystem, seeking little more than our own comfort and amusement, yet never finding satisfaction.”
