Skip to main content

Let there be more evolution


Let alone acts of violence, every trace of evil is proof that mankind is still an unfinished product.  It is as if the evolution got stuck somewhere.  We have a highly evolved brain compared to the other animals.  But most human beings do not use the brain for promoting goodness, not even the welfare of our own species.  On the contrary, we compete with one another and are highly detrimental to our own species, to others as well as the planet. 

The amount of money, energy and resources employed in destructive activities such as war and terrorism is much more than what is devoted to constructive and mutually helpful purposes.  In the process we also inflict much damage on the planet which sustains us.  Which other species is so self-destructive?  Yet we claim to have a sophisticated brain.

Who is an evolved human being?

An intellectual understanding of life and the world which instils compassion towards other creatures should ideally be the first and foremost characteristic of an evolved human being.  Both are important: the intellect and the heart, reason and compassion.

The intellect enables us to understand the world properly.  If we were all equipped with the kind of intellect that Albert Einstein possessed, the world would be a paradise.  Well, almost.  We would understand the universe and its ways much better.  Greater understanding will lead to more compassion.  To profundity, rather.

In one of his short stories, Francois Mauriac said that God is able to tolerate human beings because he has a profound understanding.  Such profound understanding is the hallmark of an evolved human being.  Such understanding will bring about mutual cooperation instead of the present competition, love instead of hatred.

In simple words, the evolved human being will be one who is naturally good.  Freedom, for him/her, is the choice of the good and only the good.  Because he/she knows that the good is what is intellectually and morally right. 


PS. Written for Indispire:

Indian Bloggers


Labels:

Comments

  1. Durga Prasad DashDecember 30, 2016 at 12:02 PM

    Yes. It is all about profound understanding. All the madness we see in the name of race and religions etc are due to surface understanding.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 30, 2016 at 12:17 PM

      Precisely. Religion becomes a menace when the believer floats on the surface.

      Delete
  2. UnknownDecember 30, 2016 at 2:50 PM

    You say that every trace of evil is a reminder that mankind is WIP, but what about subjectivity? There can be cases where evil is the polished product on display, beneath the gregarious surface of acceptance.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 30, 2016 at 3:14 PM

      I don't understand why subjectivity should be a casualty when evil is surmounted. Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa retained their subjective individuality...

      Delete
  3. AmitDecember 30, 2016 at 7:12 PM

    Possessing resources is one thing, their proper and wise application quite another. Sometimes one wonders whether having a better brain than other animals is an advantage or otherwise.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 30, 2016 at 7:53 PM

      Animals with their limited brain live by nature's laws. Man with his advanced brain flouts those laws. Hence it's quite logical to argue that the human brain has to evolve further. Of course, there's another way: man makes a conscious choice of the good. But that doesn't seem to work.

      Delete
  4. sunaina sharmaDecember 30, 2016 at 8:38 PM

    Taking cue from your reply to Amit Misra - The jungle is no place for human tricks, says Bagheera to Mowgali in The Jungle Book when the latter uses his mind to catch all the honey for the bear.....An evolved human will be the one who is beyond the good and the evil - beyond the judgements, the prejudices, the presuppositions of the 'human' world.....probably like Buddha....In the Tale for a Time Being, Jiko who is 103 year old replies to her grand-daughter's question on when do we grow up - she says that when one os 104....Jiko dies before her 104th birthday - pointer to the fact that we don't really grow up ever, we don't really evolve....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 31, 2016 at 7:36 AM

      That's why I'm looking for a genetic mutation which will make the species more refined. As it is we have sophisticated brains with very crude hearts. The heart must evolve. Goodness must come to humans as naturally as flowers bloom or birds fly.

      That's the ideal. But we can only long for ideals :)

      Delete
  5. Sangeeta MishraDecember 31, 2016 at 2:38 AM

    Well said! Evolution never gets completed or finishes. It's a live stream that goes on and on. That's why generation 'Y' is expected to be wiser and smarter than generation 'X'. I agree with Sunaina's point. I wonder how uncompassionate people hide their ruthlessness behind intelligence and intellectual acumen. Can they be called evolved ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 31, 2016 at 7:41 AM

      I'm afraid the generations don't make much difference except that the crookedness becomes more complex, more sly. Not wiser. As a teacher I'm constantly in touch with youngsters and I'm often appalled by the frivolousness with which they approach life.

      Intelligence of the superior type usually brings in greater awareness and hence greater sensitivity. Not always, of course. Look at the geniuses of the last century like Russell, Sartre, Shaw and so on - all pacifists who argued for peaceful coexistence when the mediocre took to arms like savages and fought for pieces of land and idols of clay.

      Delete
  6. UnknownJanuary 1, 2017 at 3:08 PM

    eradication of evil is an ongoing process from time immemorial....who decides what is and what is not good or evil ....that is another story...may be myths mythologies, dogmas theories of life and living emerged from these....????????????????????? well conceived, structured and delivered with full impact for understanding...nice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 1, 2017 at 6:14 PM

      Who decides what's right and wrong? That's the question. That's why the mutation is required. After the mutation goodness will be as natural to the species as water is to the fish.

      I'm not the first one to dream this. Remember Teilhard de Chardin's divine milieu?

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pranita a perverted genius

Bulldozer begins its work at Sawan Pranita was a perverted genius. She had Machiavelli’s brain, Octavian’s relentlessness, and Levin’s intellectual calibre. She could have worked wonders if she wanted. She could have created a beautiful world around her. She had the potential. Yet she chose to be a ruthless exterminator. She came to Sawan Public School just to kill it. A religious cult called Radha Soami Satsang Beas [RSSB] had taken over the school from its owner who had never visited the school for over 20 years. This owner, a prominent entrepreneur with a gargantuan ego, had come to the conclusion that the morality of the school’s staff was deviating from the wavelengths determined by him. Moreover, his one foot was inching towards the grave. I was also told that there were some domestic noises which were grating against his patriarchal sensibilities. One holy solution for all these was to hand over the school and its enormous campus (nearly 20 acres of land on the outskirts
9 comments
Read more

Machiavelli the Reverend

Let us go today , you and I, through certain miasmic streets. Nothing will be quite clear along our way because this journey is through some delusions and illusions. You will meet people wearing holy robes and talking about morality and virtues. Some of them will claim to be god’s men and some will make taller claims. Some of them are just amorphous. Invisible. But omnipotent. You can feel their power around you. On you. Oppressing you. Stifling you. Reverend Machiavelli is one such oppressive power. You will meet Franz Kafka somewhere along the way. Joseph K’s ghost will pass by. Remember Joseph K who was arrested one fine morning for a crime that nobody knew anything about? Neither Joseph nor the men who arrest him know why Joseph K is arrested. The power that keeps Joseph K under arrest is invisible. He cannot get answers to his valid questions from the visible agents of that power. He cannot explain himself to that power. Finally, he is taken to a quarry outside the town wher
19 comments
Read more

Levin the good shepherd

AI-generated image The lost sheep and its redeemer form a pet motif in Christianity. Jesus portrayed himself as a good shepherd many times. He said that the good shepherd will leave his 99 sheep in order to bring the lost sheep back to the fold. When he finds the lost sheep, the shepherd is happier about that one sheep than about the 99, Jesus claimed. He was speaking metaphorically. The lost sheep is the sinner in Jesus’ parable. Sin is a departure from the ‘right’ way. Angels raise a toast in heaven whenever a sinner returns to the ‘right’ path [Luke 15:10]. A lot of Catholic priests I know carry some sort of a Redeemer complex in their souls. They love the sinner so much that they cannot rest until they make the angels of God run for their cups of joy. I have also been fortunate to have one such priest-friend whom I shall call Levin in this post. He has befriended me right from the year 1976 when I was a blundering adolescent and he was just one year older than me. He possesse
8 comments
Read more

Kailasnath the Paradox

AI-generated illustration It wasn’t easy to discern whether he was a friend or merely an amused onlooker. He was my colleague at the college, though from another department. When my life had entered a slippery slope because of certain unresolved psychological problems, he didn’t choose to shun me as most others did. However, when he did condescend to join me in the college canteen sipping tea and smoking a cigarette, I wasn’t ever sure whether he was befriending me or mocking me. Kailasnath was a bundle of paradoxes. He appeared to be an alpha male, so self-assured and lord of all that he surveyed. Yet if you cared to observe deeply, you would find too many chinks in his armour. Beneath all those domineering words and gestures lay ample signs of frailty. The tall, elegantly slim and precisely erect stature would draw anyone’s attention quickly. Kailasnath was always attractively dressed though never unduly stylish. Everything about him exuded an air of chic confidence. But the wa
9 comments
Read more

Nakulan the Outcast

Nakulan was one of the many tenants of Hevendrea . A professor in the botany department of the North Eastern Hill University, he was a very lovable person. Some sense of inferiority complex that came from his caste status made him scoff the very idea of his lovability. He lived with his wife and three children in one of Heavendrea’s many cottages. When he wanted to have a drink, he would walk over to my hut. We sipped our whiskies and discussed Shillong’s intriguing politics or something of the sort while my cassette player crooned gently in the background. Nakulan was more than ten years my senior by age. He taught a subject which had never aroused my interest at any stage of my life. It made no difference to me whether a leaf was pinnately compound or palmately compound. You don’t need to know about anther and stigma in order to understand a flower. My friend Levin would have ascribed my lack of interest in Nakulan’s subject to my egomania. I always thought that Nakulan lived
16 comments
Read more