News:

Ramadan Mubarak!

I pray that we get the full blessings of Ramadan and may Allah (SWT) grant us more blessings in the year to come.
Amin Summa Amin.

Ramadan Kareem,

Main Menu

Economicism and the Reality of Human Happiness

Started by _Waziri_, May 08, 2004, 08:09:29 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

_Waziri_

When I wrote the following article several weeks back, I did not know the ideas as expressed in it could mean a serious breakthrough in system thinking, in the intellectual world, that will be worthy of publication in an internationally recognised academic Journal. Though focused as I was, the article started as a mere post at K-online which later was refined and published at Gamji.com where the scholars saw it and requested for a revised version for inclusion in the journal. While I remain most  grateful to all k-onliners, friends and well wishers, I hereby reproduce the edited and refined version of the article for your intellectual mind to decipher and digest.  I remain most grateful once again

Economicism and the Reality of Human Happiness in the 21st Century


Ibraheem A. Waziri, System Network Administrator,
Iya Abubakar Computer Centre,
ABU, Zaria


(As revised for publication in the Journal, African Renancence, London)


"Oh me Oh life of the questions of these recurring!
Of the endless trend of the hopeless;
Of cities filled with the foolish;
What is amid thee oh me oh life?!"  

- Whit Whitman

It is true that the ultimate goal of human life in this world is to attain a state of absolute peace and happiness. Even in Western philosophies, evil is understood to mean nothing more than that which brings agony or displeasure, constituting the disruption of the flow of peace and happiness of humankind. Based on this, it is often assumed that the key struggle in life is to conquer evil. There has been a debate, since time immemorial, as to which way is the best for humankind to follow in their quest to achieve this. Different philosophers have offered different prescriptions at different turns of human history.

Religious institutions have always maintained that absolute peace and happiness is attainable only when humankind recognises that life is a struggle to meet with the requirements of a certain omniscient being called God. Thus Christ is often quoted as saying: ?But seek ye first, the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" . The religious institutions usually argue that this should form the essential building block of all nation-states, including their political and social structures. This approach sees evil in the light of the spiritual, and as such discourages people from unlimited indulgence in leisure- seeking exercises, for a promise of a future world that will bring all leisure to one?s doorsteps.

Those who are against the religious notion of happiness tend to see everything from the other side of the moral divide. Karl Marx for instance re-wrote history based on Darwin's theory of evolution, and concluded that the history of humankind is nothing more than the story of creatures who are trying to survive, through a quest for peace and happiness via economic liberation. His monumental work, Das Kapital  is more a re-appraisal of the statement attributed to Christ: ?Seek ye first the economic kingdom and all shall be added unto you". The argument seems to be that since human beings are only products of chance as "confirmed" by Darwin , their life is nothing more than a service to the flesh. Let them eat their fill, drink to brink, accumulate wealth, have sex, and do everything according to the cravings of their heart. They should have no obligations or responsibilities, but rights and liberties. For proponents of this philosophy, only that, which can be seen, deserves attention.


This brought about the notion of material description of the world, in terms of man's social activities: Social Darwinism. From this evolved the two dominant economic theories, Capitalism and Socialism. These two theories have had profound influence on humankind in the last two centuries. Since then the indices of national development everywhere in the world are measured in terms of the kind of food people eat, mortality rate, life expectancy and other things that have direct correlation to what the eyes can see and hands can touch. It is even assumed that only economic activity should mark the level of the liberation of human mind.
Socialism failed. We are today left with Capitalism, which is nothing different from the other sister-theory, except perhaps in form and structure. But the goal is the same: a materialistic description of the universe and a certain belief that peace and happiness could only be achieved through economic empowerment. But capitalism has not fully delivered.   In America, where the system is practised in its most advanced form, rather than attaining the goal of peace and happiness, we see constant complaints by people of various forms of subjugations, including that their lives have become meaningless by their reduction into a struggle to feed and survive. In other words, there appears to be a pervasive feeling that despite the country?s wealth and power, life ought to be more than what the system is offering them.

When Maria Pruetzel, the mother of the onetime Broadway Star, Freddie Prinze, wrote an account of what made him commit suicide, she concluded thus:

Freddie had come to the Hollywood with a dream he believed about to come true. But in Hollywood he stopped being a person and became as he put it - a piece of 'merchandise'. He was offered a fortune to endorse lunch boxes bearing his trademark quip...Freddie the product had replaced Freddie the person.

She concluded by asking a series of rhetorical questions

... Was all this what killed Freddie? Was it that the dollar was more important than the human being with feelings and emotions? Was the image more important than the real person? .... If this is the case, then we live in a society suffering from spiritual malnutrition.

Many people around the world today experience similar dissatisfaction as Freddie Prinze did despite having totally dedicated themselves to the service of the flesh. I cannot remember how often I have heard Michael Jackson, the self-styled King of Pop, say he is not happy. This is despite his tremendous wealth, and the attention he constantly garners wherever he goes. One writer summarised the dilemma of humankind in relation to happiness in the 21st century thus:

Today we have higher buildings and wider highways,
but shorter temperaments and narrower points of view.
We spend more, but enjoy less.
We have bigger houses, but smaller families.
We have more compromises, but less time.
We have more knowledge, but less judgment
We have more medicines, but less health.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values
We talk much, we love only a little, and we hate too much.
We reached the moon and came back, but we find it troublesome to cross our own street and meet our neighbours.
We have conquered the outer space, but not our inner space.
We have higher income, but fewer morals....
These are times with more liberty, but less joy....
With much more food, but less nutrition....
These are days in which two salaries get home, but divorces increase.
These are times of finer houses, but more broken homes?.

The failure of the economicist system should be a wakeup call for humankind.  There is a need for a new system that will truly serve man?s innate need for peace and happiness. The new system should include, among its indices of national development, not just material poverty or wealth but also stability in marriage, individual happiness and elements that relate to the spiritual upliftment of humankind. The new system should also look at humankind from a point of view of creatures that have obligations and duties, not just rights and liberties, which often turn them into selfish beings that seek only their entitlements,   often with disregard to the feelings of others.  The new system must equally strike a balance   balance between the spirit of man and his physical self.

al_hamza

nice one man,
I am happy that you have been able to come forth with such good work,
there are very few people that have the capability to write what they think.
You are one gifted dude.
Keep it up!
ABILUNAH? SABILUNAH? AL-JIHAD! AL-JIHAD!

_Waziri_

Al-Hamza,

Thank you for the compliment, I remain most grateful. See ya

Nuruddeen

Well, such is life. It normally starts like a dream until it tranforms into reality. Waziri, your life is always guided by one driving force, therefore remain composed and forge ahead. The sky is your limit brother!!!!!!!!!!
o try and fail is atleast to learn. That will save one the inestimable loss of what might have been (positive or negative).

Humrah

Waziri, this is beautiful and more beautiful I find it when I found out how young you are to churning this kind of ideas. But li kulli zu ni'imatun mahsuuduun, I suppose you know that.

Cheers

Fateez

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."    ~ Mark Twain


Negus

Wow! that was a nice one, i really envy your article we can learn from the likes of you, its been great going through it. catch ya!!!!

Hafsy_Lady

What you see is what you get[/b]

_Waziri_

Ok ma good pll. I thank you most for all the kind remarks, the encouragement. Sincerely to you belong all the credit for without your kind of encouragement I wouldn't have achieved anything. Thank you once again for the kind remarks.

Abdulsalam1

Wa alaikum Salam,

Bro. Waziri

While I was pleased to read your recent views relating to the above subject matter which was of course initiated by you, may I make some clarifications? Human mind, as stated earlier, remains unchangeable in the same way as no change has ever occurred in the nature of say water, fire, air, and earth. They have become fundamental truths belonging to all times. In widening human sensory perceptions however, mind gives birth to new ideas, desires and ambitions as testified by the analogy you drew between creativity and human mind in respect of the production of somewhat a better 'chair.' But, this measure of initiative and creativity which has been generated by the mind should not be taken to imply that the mind itself 'gets increased in boundary.'

Also, your suggestion that since human mind remains unchangeable, modernity is just a freakish fancy, an 'abracadabra' sort of notion is not supported by human experience.

To begin with, the direction of civilisation, regardless of which region of the world or which era of human history, is always from the coarse (i.e. primitive) to the refined (i.e. modern). Around the basic instinct to reproduce through sexual regeneration for example, pleasures are associated by nature in the entire animal kingdom. Now, what we find different in human society is a gradual departure from the mere satiation of crude desires to a gradually more refined attitude to the fulfilment of animal urges and this then resulted in gradual development of the institution of marriage, the rites associated with this institution and the taboos regarding the interplay of male and female sexes, etc. So, much as we believe as Muslims that this growth from primitive to refined is directed from God, there is no denying the fact that gradually, the responses to satisfy the fundamental human sexual urge which remains unchangeable become more and more sophisticated and involved through the ages.

To the second aspect of your analysis, i.e. social theorems, it must be borne in mind that when a civilisation ripens or matures, over-sophistication and some other detrimental phenomena like the abandonment of various codes of civil behaviour and the concept of decency, justice, etc. begin to reverse the tide of the progressive trend. So in decadent society the direction is reversed from the refined (i.e. modern) to the coarse (i.e. primitive) hence the practice of eating human flesh in Lagos which you referred and also other decadent tendencies prevalent around the world which obviously are demolishing the noblest edifices of civilisation, making human life more disturbed, lacking in contentment, satisfaction, peace and security and thus returning the mode of life back to square one.

On economic front, I agree with you that in order to search for new resources as bounties of God for the benefit of mankind we must revolutionise our thoughts and adopt modern economic theories to Islamic principles rather than the other way round. Perhaps, Bro. Lamido being an expert on economic matters may want to give an informed opinion in this regard. Suffice to add that the importance of  incorporating Islamic principles into all facets of human endeavours, particularly science and technology is that it will impart new dynamism to modem life and give added impetus to scientific research which according to Dr. Leon Kass, chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics in USA, "has become so dangerous because it is a powerful force yet one that has been deliberately stripped of moral value by scientists who are trained to pursue the truth objectively — (New York Times-Science Times, March 19, 2002).

Shariah does not benefit from the knowledge of the age, but it is what we take from that knowledge that helps us in studying the Shariah. When our share of human knowledge is greater, we will better understand the Divine Revelation. So the need now is for candour and humility to understand the extent of our problems; the pragmatism to change what needs changing; the courage to stay the course; the courage to call a spade a spade; and find solutions to our problems.

Abdulsalam

_Waziri_

Bro. AbdulSalam,

Thanks for the kind reply, thought Mallam Sanusi would say something. Anyway, I can see we have come to agree that the human mind does neither increase in boundary nor does it have anything new added unto it over time.

Actually when I represented modernity in the light of an "abracadabra", I did not mean it in its literal form. In what I said is the implication that modernity is only some tag being used to identify something that is desired to be propagated in a positive light. As you can see that you too are able to represent Islamic way of life and its moral imperatives as "modern" while the other way that is not Islamic as "primitive". I really admire this new way of putting out things. But for me since I came into the realization that behind the etymology and philology of the words "primitive" and "modern" is the ghost of evolution theory, which stands in conflict with revelation and reality, I cease to believe in the postulation that anything can be "modern" or  "primitive".

As I have exemplified in the main essay, what exist in the realms of human action finds definition only in the light of good or evil. No matter how ideal a setting is, like that of the times of the Prophet of Islam, you would always find that people were perpetrating bestialities of every kind and nature. In fact it's among his companions you would find the example of those who "killed", those who committed "adultery", those who told lies and what have you. It was also only after not more than forty years of the prophet's demise the Muslim Umma came to face the great Fitna. Later as we have it on the authorities of Sheik Jalaluddeen Suyuti, in his Tarikh al Khulafa', Yazid Ibn Mu'awiyya, the fifth Caliph of Islam used to be taking bear before he came to lead Muslims in prayers, drunken.

Yes, I think the truth all lies in what Allah says of mankind in the Qur'an: Laqad Khalaqnal Insana Fil kabab, in my rough translation I render: "Verily we have created mankind in suffering." This of course is our life here no matter what comes our way and it's the reason why after agreeing with what you say that: "Shariah does not benefit from the knowledge of the age, but it is what we take from that knowledge that helps us in studying the Shariah. When our share of human knowledge is greater, we will better understand the Divine Revelation. So the need now is for candour and humility to understand the extent of our problems; the pragmatism to change what needs changing; the courage to stay the course; the courage to call a spade a spade; and find solutions to our problems." I always add that our struggle should be that of paradigm shift to make the atmosphere around us be convivial for us to practice our faith and all human beings would walk with less temptation and increase in guarantee to having access to the paradise promise to us by God.

Thank you once again.

Waziri