We read of ancient alchemists who wasted their entire lives trying to find a way to turn lead into gold. But here in India, we have another kind of alchemist, who turns gold into lead. I refer to our "educrats," the State personnel who have been directing all activities in this area since 1947, and who continue to do so, because public opinion has not yet opposed State education. I earnestly hope they will do so now.
I arrived at this thought while spending a few days in Manipal, a private university town, with many colleges imparting "training" (and this cannot be called "education") in disciplines such as medicine, engineering and hotel management. Education, of course, is something else - which prepares you for life as a citizen. Doctors, engineers, hotel managers and the like are rarely able to comprehend the gobbledygook that manmohan and montek spew. They can never understand what is wrong with "central economic planning" or what "monetary policy" or "trade policy" are all about. And therein lies the rub.
A chance conversation with some young doctors - during which they revealed complete ignorance of vital social, political and economic issues - suddenly made me realise what a great folly it has been all along to send all our best and brightest into medicine and engineering. In India, as of now and as always, the best and the brightest have only made it forward through extremely tough "entrance examinations" to get into medicine and engineering. The same applies to "management."
It seemed to me that this has surely been the deliberate policy of the educrats, to handpick the brightest - and shut their eyes to reality forever. They might know something about the human body, or even be able to perform brain surgery, but they can never understand the way the human mind works in the economic arena. Nor can they ever appreciate political ideals. After all, in school, where our The State controls the syllabus, their heads have been "drilled" with socialist nonsense - and the Constitution of India, of course.
This, while whatever Economics is being taught is of, for and by The State!
This is why manmohan is such a darling of the CONgress boss woman. He has been an educrat for long. He is actually an "intellectual bodyguard of the House of Nehru." Below is a photo of this socialist-Keynesian-welfarist-planner at his alma mater, Cambridge University, in the ceremonial uniforms of such types.
Why on earth should our best and brightest go in for medicine, engineering, or MBAs? If The Market is freed, there are numberless opportunities for callings, vocations and professions. One of the doctors confessed that he wouldn't mind running a hash cafe if he could! There is Palash Sen, of course, lead singer of the rock band Euphoria - who started off as a medical doctor.
As Ludwig von Mises pointed out:
The research activities of the experimental natural sciences are in themselves neutral with regard to any philosophical and political issue. But they can thrive and become beneficial for mankind only where there prevails a social philosophy of individualism and freedom."
All the alchemists of old were not looking for "fool's gold" in lead. The word "alchemy" is Arabic, and is the root of the modern word "chemistry." One great thing the Arab alchemists discovered is "alcohol" - also an Arabic word - via the process of distillation. Till then, there was only beer and wine. So I'll say "Cheers" for these alchemists. Last night I was driinking vodka. This drink came to East Europe when the Jews of Spain, where the Arab alchemists had discovered distillation, migrated there - taking this knowledge with them. The Seagram's company was founded by one of these Yiddish-speaking Jews of Eastern Europe - when he had to migrate to America.
Frankly, vodka is far, far better than gold. Nations which went about "conquering" the world for gold and silver - like the Portuguese and the Spaniards - never prospered. All that happened was inflation - and the export of inflation. There is an important lesson in this: The secret of economic prosperity does not lie in more money - not even gold. Rather, it lies in the production of all the various goods and services that will be exchanged for gold. Like vodka.
Song of the Day: "Philosopher's Stone" by Van Morrison.
No comments:
Post a Comment