“Practicality is now our great idol, which all powers and talents must serve. Anything that is not obviously practical has little value in today’s world.”
As we march into the new millennium, one fundamental perspective of the human race has undergone a sea change. We are ushering in the era of practicality. Gone are the days of theories and hypotheses, gone are the times of ideas that amazed only the intellect but never touched the lives of people. Practicality has become the order of the day and thoughts and visions that diverge from the interest of the human development are on the verge of extinction.
The reasons for the above are quite clear. With the burgeoning population, nations are finding it difficult to cope up with problems more complex than ever. To address national issues such as poverty, unemployment and food shortage, governments in the third world countries are resorting to action plans that bring about immediate but temporary change. Most of these plans are stopgap measures which translate into national policies over the years. Clearly, there is no time to ponder over the problem and come up with economic theories which have doubtful viabilities .For addressing global warming ‘carbon credit system’ was introduced in the United Kingdom which earns the industries pounds for the amount of carbon emission they reduce. This is a pragmatic measure by the government as against enforcing regulations to cut down emission thus incurring the wrath of the industry.
As mentioned above, the increasing population has led to more competition. This is perceivable in the corporate wars, in the intra firm conflicts and even in classrooms.
In the famous Hollywood flick ‘Pirates of the Silicon Valley’, the clash between Apple computers and Microsoft Corporation is analyzed. According to the movie, they acquire the idea of graphical user interface (GUI) from another firm which was using it inside, develop it as their own. Although plagiarism is hinted, no one can take the steam out of the fact that they showed the world the practical usage of the GUI and the rest as they say is history.
Earlier, due to lesser number of students per class, the teacher could judge each of their abilities minutely and evaluations and appreciations were based on that. But due to the surge in the number of students and lack of good teachers, the number of students per teacher has become unbecoming. As a result the teacher has fewer parameters to judge his pupils. Some who realize what the teacher is looking for, do just that much and excel while others following the traditional way of learning suffer. Practicality strikes again.
As the above illustrations indicate, practicality has become the order of the day. Anything which does not have a hint of practicality has little value in today’s world. But , having said that, one must look at the flip side. Too much emphasis on practical ideas may hinder the development of pure theoretical analysis which may prove to be of great utility in future. By classifying ideas as ‘bookish’ or ‘idealistic’ one might hamper the shaping up of better ideas.
To keep pace with the fast changing times, one has to be realistic, but to support this pragmatism there must be a theoretical basis. The problem with most of us is we don’t see the theory behind the practical. Yet, due to mounting environmental, political and social pressures the change of our attitudes to embrace practicality seems inevitable.
July 19, 2008 at 4:51 am |
I feel it is a nice way to put light on the pragmatism or practical point of view of living in these times. The “apple vs ms” shows how in this competitive world, the market rivals try to outdo each other by any means be it be ethical or unethical. when you say govt implements stop-gap measures, it is due to the basic human instincts to survive in position and power. When it introduces carbon-credit to please the capitalist, or when it supplies free wheat to please the masses, these all initiatives of the govt are a result of the new school of thinking that emphasizes on the darwin theory of survival of the fittest. When you point out ideals and philosophy have no place, i feel that both pragmatistic and idealistic way of approach to a problem would indeed be the apt solution to the problems of the world.
July 19, 2008 at 3:49 pm |
very well put…………….but i never knew u were such a practical person
July 20, 2008 at 10:16 am |
agreed…..its true dat ideas dat are tangent to the curve of life dont survive. The novelty in a really good idea is that it’s a glimpse into a better , brighter future. However , the mind that sets the scale to measure the practicality of an an idea has to be romantic yet astute enough for this challenge.
congratulations on being able to express ur ideas so completely in so few words.