The Nature of Power

 

There is a popular saying that goes like this: Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

A quick run through the 20th century's violence is enough to prove that. 

Hitler died in April 1945. The allied forces had captured Germany, and a few embattled Japanese regiments were waging a feeble war. The conclusion was foretold. Yet the US establishment decided to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This killed and wounded 250 thousands people forever. These were not forces fighting the war - they were innocent people who had no direct role in the war. 

General Franco killed thousands of Spaniards who opposed him. Stalin sent millions to Siberia and got many eliminated. The Pol Pot regime in Cambodia killed fellow citizens.Many Chinese lost their lives in the Cultural Revolution.

Most of us meet many types of human beings including political leaders and it is truly impossible to find someone at a personal level who wants to indulge in genocide. But the same leaders become power-hungry and do not mind ordering mass eliminations.

It is only power and nothing else that transforms ordinary people into cruel despots. It changes their psyche. They rationalise all their inhuman actions with glib explanations. They distance their real selves from the tragedy that their actions bring. They lose their soul. Power is the evil that captures their humanity. 

India's Lunar Triumph

 

The Chandrayaan -3  mission was a testament to the prowess of ISRO. Also a glowing tribute to Indian science and technology. 

We tend to relate to the moon in various ways, through stories, myths or even as a symbol of beauty and that is why it catches the public imagination even more. But ISRO has a long series of accomplishments. Over 60 odd years, ISRO has completed 124 spacecraft/satellite missions, 93 launches and 431 international customer satellite launches. 

The key milestones range from the first rocket launch (1962), the first satellite launch (1975), the launch of own rockets for satellites (1980), space capsule recovery (2007); Chandrayaan 1, the moon impact probe(MIP) reached the surface of the moon (2008), and Mangalyaan, a space probe,  that reached and stayed on the orbit of  Mars after a 298-day journey (2013). 

Promoting scientific temper is important and the constitution recognises it too. Science does contradict most things religious, so by extension many deeply held beliefs around which we conduct ourselves. This does not make it easy to convert people to growing a deep faith in science.

On top of that people in positions of influence who get a large amount of media space, try to legitimize anti-science discourse with their comments ranging from condemning Darwin ( as important a figure as Newton), or dragging in stories from epics and passing them off as scientific claims. Recently, the country arguably paid a heavy price for several unscientific acts during COVID-19.

Tweeting, speaking and celebrating the lunar mission; a signature scientific and technological achievement is desirable but it is meaningless without genuinely promoting scientific temper.

Knowledge is Power

 

The history of the world shows how dynamic the currents of time are. The countries that dominate today become has-beens tomorrow. 

The Greeks and Romans dominated the era from 2500 years back till 300 CE. The Egyptians and the Persians before that. The Islamic civilisations had their moment of flourish around the 9th to 11th century. Turkey with Ottomans in the middle of the last millennium. India in spurts during the reign of Ashoka, with the Gupta dynasty and then the Mughals.

But post the scientific revolution and enlightenment, the Western countries have retained their dominance for almost 500 years now. England, Germany, and France retain their leading positions.

In this relatively fast-changing world, power comes disproportionately from technology and new ideas. New theories of science and political economy or philosophy supply the framework for a society that produces advanced technology and knowledge. 

Increasingly power flows not from the barrel of a gun but from knowledge.  The US has produced the most original innovation and knowledge in the last 150 years and now it dominates the global order. With the direct and indirect benefits flowing from inventions like the nuclear bomb, internet, telephone, televisions and numerous other ones, it became the pre-eminent economic and military power. 

With AI and biotechnology, this will stay that way. Knowledge and its applications will become even more important in the power matrix. 

The countries that have open societies, and a liberal environment where dissent and criticism are allowed, create the most fertile ground for the production of new knowledge. 

So at this point in time, it is wiser to bet long-term on the liberal democracies in the West who still do the most original research in most fields over authoritarian regimes like China or Russia which sometimes can have short-term wins but don't have the necessary structural platform for retaining power.