THE ABSENCE OF ALPHABETS - THE CURSE OF ILLITARACY

An analphabetic society, a society riddled with high rate of illiteracy, its borders and dimensions defined by superstition and myths modern and ancient. is a huge ponderous monster of a hulk, slouching in sloth, a hurdle formidable and impenetrable. A gigantic giant dull and stupid, a society without a niche in the fanciful world of romance, its idle pen contributing not a paragraph worthy of being called artistic to the literature of the macabre or the supernatural. Yet with a large number of dreamers, idealists, men with uncouth and bizarre imaginations and fanciful concoctions bordering on mediocrity and nothingness. Men with superstition as their sacred creed ignorance as their doctrinaire brand.The tower of ignorance their temple of worship. The tangible world appears intangible to them. Their corporeal bodies they are apt to deny and replace it with an immaterial one that can not be seen. The real world of science and rational thinking to them is unreal, a mere shadow. The world of matter real and substantial, tangible, indisputable evidences scatted before them is something they quickly over look as they imagine their very bodies to be immaterial. The natural world is filled with monsters vicious and atrocious, ghosts and witches able to wreak havoc and mischief, nature spirits and in animate objects vested with immense powers. Rivers are imagined to have eyes and ears, mountains and dark forests houses some of the most terrible creatures of the world. Natural phenomena becomes the outlet in which the gods unleash their vindictive anger and punish weak and erring humans. A person denied education and left to rot in the pangs of ignorance quickly finds an alternative in subscribing to the unproductive and retrogressive, poisonous and decaying mental idling exercise of believing in and entering the dark “unreturnable” crypt of illusion, of unreal entities and ideas childish and improvable only mentionable which succors vain ideas from vaporous brains.

When the number of the uneducated rises it becomes a serious social menace which few people are able to see. Mostly, it is treated as a minor social issue and before long, it gains strength as ignorance itself is a disease and begins to sap the brains and the thinking capabilities of its victims and though they may look healthy and strong outwardly, they are in effect dead souls without hope of regeneration. The very people who are known to be the forces responsible for the growth of the society becomes the stumbling blocks to its progress and development. They assume the status of different species in the social setting speaking in a different language and acting contrarily to the societal norms. They become vulnerable and with the fierce capabilities of zombies they are poised to bring to fruition any destructive idea that some one may conjure should it come to their doorsteps. They feed on rumors ravenously and lies, hearsays quickly becomes their means of dissemination of information. There is no border line between fact and fiction. They decide based on their volition whether to accept information as factual or not. No commonsensical approach is adopted to analyze it in the commonest of situations to establish its veracity or meaningfulness. Every situation is interpreted based on some ones whim and hardly can an error be identified and corrected. Information are misunderstood and misrepresented. Good policies become ineffective in their midst as the application itself is something out of their reach. The uneducated masses without a concerted effort to continually and systematically address them with current issues lives in a time capsule. They walk and interrelate with all the forces and factors of the society but they are in actual fact a different species on their own. With wide staring eyes but hardly can they see. They appear comfortable happy to move about but every minute there are things that goes on around them, information and ideas that they are forever separated from, not privilege to hear yet they are not cursed with deafness.

A society that fails to educate its citizens educates them in high sounding illiteracy, in superstition and dire ignorance. The very society they draw mediocre sustenance becomes a huge prison of vicious proportions. The country itself becomes the slave master and enslaves its people. It becomes a detrimental force that holds its own people in eternal darkness of retrogression. An agent sponsoring the destruction of the people.

Politicians and policy makers, educationists and social commentators always inundate media houses with the bizarre fact that more than 85% of the population is immersed in illiteracy. In effect, they tell us that literacy rate has dropped woefully and points a bleak picture for the future of the nation. They present various schemes and strategies to combat such an unfortunate social menace. A brief response will come in to change the educational structure as has been the tradition and that resolves the problem of high rate of illiteracy? Some of the policies they implement to resolve the problem itself becomes a problem, augments the already worsening situation and plunges more people into the very situation they were trying to resolve. The well intentioned idea becomes another issue that will require years of resources to understand its negative effect in the social system.

Illiteracy and ignorance is very broad and addressing such issues should not be undertaken in a miniature conference room somewhere far from the people. How can you resolve the problem of an uneducated person if the solutions you propose he is not even privileged to see or hear? how do you create or make an impact when you broadcast ineffective jabbering of confused and confusing impracticable theories and policies to yourself away from the humble folks who people the countryside? Those who need it badly.

Where do the policy makers and educationists educate their children? Abroad of course! How do you see the effect of the experiment you set in place if your kids are not allowed to partake in it? Who should sacrifice his efforts and his life for a system that is not well grounded? only meant to see if it can work better than a previous system thought to be ineffective.

We do not combat ignorance and illiteracy by employing battering hammers, axes, tridents and halberds and hitting it until the tower of ignorance crumbles down. Neither can the numerous erection of nice educational structures in any way address the problem of illiteracy.

The fact of the matter is that we should come to the realization that there is a crisis situation in our educational system. The educational system is unjustifiable and too elitist. Most of the problems we are facing now was generated by the same system. The people we are apt to point as unable to receive education or received but a little of it is the working of the educational system.

Too much emphasis is laid on impracticable theories and the syllabuses riddled with numerous obsolete ideas that has lost touch with reality. Modern teaching techniques and tools of learning are missing in the educational system. Ancient notes that served in the past are as vibrant as ever. They are tossed to desperate students who need certificates badly to devour and enter the job market to manage businesses and firms but not to create one.

The mode of entrance itself is another contributing factor and how we perceive education. We are yet to approach the modernist interpretation of education as training and nurturing of talents and not only imparting systematic knowledge to a select few. Everyone is capable of receiving knowledge and utilizing it. Modern research in neurology and cognition points out in unequivocal terms, that each and every one of us has his way or approach of learning and acquiring knowledge and understanding issues. Assuming a monotonous way of teaching, a one dimensional approach thinking that everyone will understand it as it is, is a futile self-deceiving method and approach that mars the progress of tuition.

The educational system priority is to concentrate on the select few who are thought to have distinguished themselves and deserve better. What is the justification in educating a select few and the majority left to wander outside the precincts of education and to howl and be at the service of the educated ones.

Another factor that seems to endorse illiteracy as a natural phenomena we must contend with and not waste our breath is the intellectual narcissism and elitist and self-satisfying attitude of the few who are intellectually endowed. They come to view their education as a special privilege that separates them from the people. They view their education as giving them a special place in the society and according them distinctive classes.

Where ignorance is bliss, it is folly to be wise. When one is fortunate to receive education and sees it as a special tool that he must clinch to never letting go for others to benefit, then by virtue of his erroneous and selfish attitude, that single persons inability to spread his knowledge and experience deprives hundreds and thousands of people education. It is when we dissociate education from the limitations of the particular to that of the universal that we can boast of achieving meaningful educational success.


It comes as no surprise to see people who claim to have acquired good and quality education to succumb to the whims of those they claim to be dancing in superstition. Erroneous ideas are so potent and seducing that when one is not cautious may yield to its illusions. Most of the times it is the so called uneducated ones who control affairs because naturally their ideas reaches a larger number of people than wig wearers with their spectacles beneath their noses chanting their qualifications and explaining the nature of events to them. Rumor brewed by their fellows possesses more truth than a well conducted research approved as accurate. Those they accord much respect to is not an honorable minister with his material convoy nor a professor hidden in a crypt on campus but remote ancestors that they have dim recollection of. The men of artistic predilections that the educated ones accord great respect and reverence as heroic figures are but pigmies to giants in their estimations. Those they hold in high esteem and dread are not sources of knowledge but entities that elicits their irrational side and incites their fears.

So in effect, when a systematic approach is not taken to carefully address the issues of illiteracy and a concerted effort made to salvage the lots who were not able to acquire education it will continue to be a factor of our retrogression. A sword of Damocles hanging in the hall of academia. If those who acquire knowledge make it a habit of imparting it to those who are less endowed, and the education system cleared of all the erroneous methods and education deemed not as a special privilege but a basic human rights that symptoms of progress will eventually rear its head.

HEROES AND MONSTERS

Is resonating epithets to the ideals of equality, fairness and justice a somersault cloud of seemingly heroic dimensions a true perspective founded on a genuine base to soar in the air of injustice and transcend and traverse the dark expanse of parochialism, fundamentalist and bigotistical interests, sectarianism, greed and corruption, social injustice, inequality, and class consciousness? Is the glowing tribute paid to communalism, socialism and egalitarian principles and of fairness in the society a clarion call from the depths of the souls of the mutterers a genuine motivation based on their desire to seek for the betterment of the society or just a means to an end? Traditionally speaking. Is the rallying call for the common good of the society a realistic vein in which a true blood of patriotism flows, a pillar with a conscience to serve and safeguard the interests of the people or just deceitful words cloaked in rhetoric of ambiguity to wrestle and pick in broad day light the power of the people which lays in the streets of lawlessness gasping for breath. Is the overused words of equality and fairness and economic progress a cabalistic word invoked from the lowermost echelons of political chicanery to mould and fashion just a hero of well meaning intentions to salvage the masses or to create monsters out of monsters, vicious dictators, vain leaders whose corrupt souls draw sustenance by hankering after the very ideals that binds the society together and destroying it?

When fierce idealism and its inseparable handmaid revolutionary zeal in a moment of frenzy and sudden illumination and awareness is able to identify, capitalize, and use as a tool and a base the humble efforts of the humble folks - vociferous in outlook - shrill like a clarion, restless and fearless until it has upset and jostled a corrupt and unjust system or even reduced to rubble edifices of oppression and suppression and if it fails to turn things around, even its unsettling effects are felt every where and its noble pursuit reenacted elsewhere, always serving as an inspiration and a cairn for those who cannot tolerate or condone injustice and would rather speak out bold and clear.

In its early manifestation, it seizes a vociferous person from the crowd and prepares him for a mission comparable or synonymous to that of a messianic one. He becomes fierce and bold all of a sudden, endowed with a rare intellect which churns out wise and decisive aphorisms which expresses the common aims and ambitions of the common people. Such a person becomes filled with deep philosophical insight into the social and political vagaries that had been bent and twisted to satisfy the egotistical cravings of the selfish few. By an uncommon faith or frenzy the prospective hero comes in the nick of time and speaks in the language of the masses. He is able to capture in a moving and sympathetic vein the woes and tribulations of the people. He encapsulates their yearnings and aspirations. A new lease of life is given to their suppressed voices. The masses will discover a personality who is poised to represent them, an unselfish plain looking man, selfless personality who epitomizes their despair transformed to blithe hope. They see in him visionary tendencies and peculiar familiarity with him which shows and portrays in unequivocal terms a person who is their own flesh and blood, a person with a humble beginnings, a rising star who they can identify with it. A wonderful personality who exhibits all the parralles and leitimotives of the epic hero. He gains mythical status and he is seen and regarded as a son of the gods sent to deliverer the masses from the pangs and terrors of monsters who prey on the flesh of the people. He leaves amongst them and is privy to their privations and the filth and squalor they have been entangled in. A hero who understands their situation more than any one else. The hero embarked on a messianic mission all by himself utilizes the basic tools of the people and hits hard on their vulnerable spots frequently. He weeps and mourns with the crowd and wastes no time to point out the perpetrators and orchestrators of their suffering. He will continue to paint a bleak picture of the suppressors. He will augment their atrocities and narcissistic apathy, indifference and flaunting self forgetfulness. The failings and weakness of those wielding the mantle of power are exaggerated and demonized by the hero. A catalogue of their treacherous betrayal and hankering after the material fripperies of power and grandeur but not the welfare of the people is presented to the eager masses in clenched teeth and a call for justice is insinuated. The masses are unconsciously incited to rise up against their oppressors so that the power they invested in their leaders which was much misused and abused to the disadvantage of them could be taken back and given to .i.e. he the new blameless man of justice who is at the forefront of the battle to bring sanity to the system which has been soiled with corruption, abuse of power, mismanagement imbued with overriding ego for personal aggrandizement to the detriment of the masses whose voices are not heard in the political arena and the one that will cry out from the depths of despair drowned in the pandemonium of vicious arguments based on no cogent philosophy and meant to defend the indefensible.

A new era dawns or seems to hang in the precarious horizon. The atmosphere we are made to understand is rife for a radical change of the society. In other words, revolution is in the air and resonating epithets given to the efforts of the people. Their very voices are deified. It becomes the voice of the lord. And the words they utter must go a long way to wreak wonders, move entrenched mountains of deceit and corruption into the sea and institute equity and fairness in the system.

The masses are enamored when they are depicted as gods in fetters. They seethe with anger when they come to the realization that the power was theirs and they consciously gave it out to be used to serve them and they have every right to take it back and even punish those who were given the power and could not manage it to the benefit of the society. All things being equal, the masses are made to understand that the stage is set for them to take the reigns of power from the selfish few.

At that critical and seething period, the real intentions of the hero do not come to light. His genuine motive as to why he is vociferous and unrestranedly radical in calling forth a rapid re arrangement of the social system and invoking retributive punishment to those who held the reigns of power is as obscure as it is opaque and unknowable. Because those who were entrusted to safeguard the interest of the people have abused it, their image automatically assumes the timmings of demons who were doing a dance macabre in the forest of the night, and fed on the flesh of the innocent people, their constant pleas and ululating anquish went unheeded. Their viciousness and demented self-satisfying arrogant aloofness and alienation from the people they were supposed to serve becomes a factor that seals their doom and brightens the chances of the supplanting hero.

In the blindness of the masses, they fail to recognise the fundamental issues that defines and informs human actions and judgements. They fail to recognise that they ousted a fallible human from their midst but did not invoke a devine entity but another man from their midst with all his failings and frailties. They fail to face a bitter reality that certain positions change the very nature and thinking of men. And the unrecognisable irony is that they are engaged in a sphinx like riddle as they clamour for a change which enjoins them to appoint a different person to a position that will automatically make his ideas,supreior to everyone, wielding immence power. And the very heart wrenching issues that made them cry out finally will no longer be heart wrenching to the hero again as he is given a special attention and his jugement alone becomes the accepted one possessing virtue and validity. The position blinds the eyes of the hero and he is not burdened as before to really think like how the disadvantaged lots are burdened.

But in as much as the people are seperated from the hero, its becomes a golden opportunity for him to show his heroism, turn his iniatial exhuberance into enleavening one and his ideals into visionary and impacting one. He is given the opportunity to demonstrate the spirit of fairness and justice that orchestrated his rise and to exhibit the elements of “Massism” by the masses. He is hailed as a true leader if he fulfils the will of the people and leaves a lasting legacy. Such heroes are rare.

He becomes a repulsive and the most hated personality with all the vestiges of evil attarched to him if he is found to be a contrary element the masses yearned for. He is quickly seen as a dreadful pestilence who stands in the way of the ideals that defines the aspirations of the people. He is branded a dictator of mephistophelian proportions, a demagogue saucy and overbold. He becomes a gale of gall that blows over their freedom and quickly they give horns and tales to such an unfortunate anti heroes and social antagonists. They become monsters and the people once again in mythological frenzy generates another hero to rise up and go and battle the fierce and terrible monster and to overcome, defeat it, destroy it completely.