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As a field it recognises the acceptability of a relationship with one's own roots, one's spiritual orientation or religion, and the overriding importance of love
By Brendan MacCarthaigh | India
Two good friends of mine, both academically well qualified, were discussing studies they were involved in, related to business management.
One of the tenets they were discussing was a 'law' that if you can make profit out of sinking the other guy beyond recovery, go for it. And this is how you do it….
Because I specialised in a field called Value Education, I was invited many years ago to give a talk in the Indian Institute of Management, in what was then Calcutta. Which I did.
In the car that dropped me home afterwards, men in the car asked me, "What in the name of God was a man like you doing among that gang of thieves?"
It emerged that the invite arose out of an interpretation of Value Education as being a money thing. It was of course, in a sense, the very opposite: it was about recognising and pursuing positive Life values, such as these reflections dwell upon, and not getting seduced by lucre.
But the fear has lasted with me.
Value Education means the business of teaching students what is important as a life vision, a life pursuit, a recognition of the importance of, for example, the Universe Story, the meaning of the cosmos and our membership of it, and the ways in which we are invited to help the evolutionary process towards promoting the fullness of life.
As a field it recognises the acceptability of a relationship with one's own roots, one's spiritual orientation or religion, and the overriding importance of love as a ground for all expressions of relationship – not just with other people, but with the cosmos itself "and all who dwell therein". Which usually means Nature.
To add to the fear I referred to, that young folk are being led dangerously astray, there is the reality that though Value Education is on the horarium of most school and many college syllabi, it is largely neglected.
So students even of universities are going into the adult world having picked up that actually values, as standards to live by in a healthy milieu, are not worth the attention – much less the training – of most teachers and professors, and are therefore are of little importance in the "real" world.
The real world means, bottom line, subscribing to survival values and joining the rat race of social progress.
If it happens you can do good for someone en route, good for you, but don't let it derail you from the important business of getting richer faster.
So here are courses being conducted by respectable – or at least respected – institutions teaching and training our brightest young women and men to be flatly immoral. What other words to use for this ruthless pursuit of profits?
Managing our lives satisfactorily
It is somehow sanctified by the 'realities' of the business world, and the economy of all countries is of course very important, and all we are doing is helping their economic authorities and policies to lead them into national prosperity, etc etc.
Dear readers, this is gross prostitution.
Prostitution in everyday language refers to a lady offering sexual pleasure to a man for money, often referred to as the oldest profession. It is regarded and categorised in some countries as a crime.
Whatever about its classification, reality is that it is in itself harmless, dependent solely on the perspective of the participants.
But this saving factor does not apply to the business principle in the previous two paragraphs. There, the principle is to enrich oneself directly by impoverishing the other.
There is no question of cushioning the process. It differs little from highway robbery – only it is largely anonymous.
And if anyone in the aggrandising party raises her/his voice in recognition of the immorality of the process, she/he is likely to lose her/his job, her/his own source of income and survival. How evil is that.
This is the world we are living in.
Is it any wonder that the very richest of our people are already planning to live on other planets, where they can continue to destroy whatever life happens to be thus far safe?
We are the victims of prevalent evil, and if we are managing our lives satisfactorily it is simply that we have escaped, not defeated, this insatiable destructive virus.
These reflections take on new meaning against this scenario.
All I can offer is awareness, and the consolation of knowing that while we are caught in the money-web of the insatiable, we can retain our own values and give some help to those unaware of the reality and being brainwashed into accepting it as morally acceptable.
For now I think that is all we can do. God bless.
Brendan MacCarthaigh is a Christian Brother from Dublin working in India for over 50 years, mostly in Value Education with senior classes and teachers.
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