DISCUSSES THE IDEA OF ETHICS.
Good evening, here’s what I intended to present as an invited speaker during the Inaugural Function of The International Academy of Ethics, held on last Sunday evening :June 04, 2023.
When we talk about Ethics or what’s generally considered Ethical, is the right kind of behaviour, thinking, speaking or mind-sets among humans. All the same, Ethical thinking and actions, displayed by some humans from divergent categories of Life and Living, may look and be considered “Unethical” by others whose mind-sets, ideologies, perceptions, remain diametrically opposite to those who consider these as “Ethical”. Here, it would be relevant as well as logical to examine the issue of Ethics/ Ethical Thinking and Behaviour, across Three Main Categories, so as to give us an illuminating and informative Exegesis about what is Ethical/ Unethical : Scriptural, Literary, Sociological. Going to the first category, when the God of Genesis started Creation, He went on Creating different terrains, creatures, from Monday to Saturday, and on Saturday the Almighty created the First Human Being called Adam as His own son and placed him in a Beautiful Inspiring Garden called the Garden of Eden, the Archetypal Paradise. God told Adam: ” Look here, my son, there’s a Fruit Tree growing in the Garden of Eden, don’t ever pluck the Fruit of this Tree, as it’s The Forbidden Fruit for you. If you ever do it, I’ll throw you out of the Paradise, or the Garden of Eden. After this , God had another look at His Son, Adam, found him lonely, miserable, utterly lost, alienated, brooding. God took pity on Adam, and decided to give him a Companion. Adam had a Crooked Rib, God broke this Rib of Adam and Created the First Archetypal Woman, Eve, as a companion for Adam. Here, two issues arise: One,was it “Ethical” on part of God to plant the Tree of The Forbidden Fruit in the Archetypal Paradise, The Garden of Eden, and warn Adam not to pluck the Fruit of this Tree. Next, creating Eve out of the Crooked Rib of Adam, thereby implying that Woman is the Crooked Piece of Man? Seemingly, ostensibly, both acts of the God of Genesis were certainly Unethical ! And then the sons of Adam and Eve, Abel and Cain , both agriculturists, tilled land , but over a minor dispute, Cain slew Abel with a stone shot from a sling, giving rise to what is now called as the Cain- Cult: The Cult of Aimless, Mindless Violence, embodied in Militancy and Insurgency, these days. Ostensibly, in Biblical Genesis, nothing appears ” Ethical”, every happening becomes “Unethical”. Similarly, in The Revelation or the Book of Apocalypse, the Armageddon between Christ and Anti- Christ, results in ushering in the Millennium or the One Thousand Years Golden Rule of Jesus Christ upon this Earth, as the Second Coming of the Son of God , eventually proving downright “Unethical”. The appearance of The Seven Horsemen Of The Apocalypse , becomes starkly “Unethical”, as with the breaking of the Seven Seals, one by one , by the Seven Horsemen, all types of Pestilences, Plagues, ravage and pillage Mankind, climaxed by The Last Loosening Of Satan, as a Prelude to the End of the World by Fire, followed by the Renewal ora New Heaven and a New Earth, like a ” Bride adorned for her husband”. Nothing looks “Ethical”, whether in the Genesis or The Revelation, yet for some it may appear as purely “Ethical”, because ” Nothing is good or bad, but thinking makes it so….”. Going to our own Epics The Ramayana and The Mahabharata, especially the latter, every action, incident involving the Kauravas and the Pandavas, especially the former, is grossly Unethical. In Homer’s two epics: The Iliad and the Odyssey , especially the former, Ethics and Ethical Thinking and Behaviour, are completely ignored. When Arjuna refuses to take up arms and fight against his cousins, the Kauravas in the battlefield of Kurukshetra, it is Lord Krishna who delivers to him the Holy Sermon of Shrimad Bhagwat Geeta, to convince Arjuna to wage war against his grossly Unethical cousins, as to fight to render wrong this right, was the highly Ethical Duty of Arjuna and his other Pandava brothers.
In the Sociological Spectrum, Postmodern human society these days is highly Unethical , with even the Institution of Marriage as a polluted Sanctum -Sanctorum. The most important relationship: The Man-Woman Relationship, has already become most Unethical, with the Institution of Marriage getting increasingly replaced by Living Arrangements, s common Demonic Sociological Spectacle , these days. Everywhere, every conceivable aspect of human thinking, behaviour, actions, simply repellant, being stinking and terribly Unethical. Ethical thinking, conceptualization, behaviour, choices , actions, preferences, are becoming increasingly and highly Unethical. The International Academy of Ethics, will have an uphill task to grapple with, yet nothing is impossible, given the grit, the determination, and above all, the resolve to make an impact, however small it may look. My best wishes for Dr Sahib’s International Academy of Ethics, to be the Guiding Beacon and Inspiration, among Academics as Intellectuals, the Noah’s Ark, to ferry us across The Great Deluge of the Pandemic, the polluted Unethical Mind, Actions, and Conceptualizations of present -day Homo Sapiens !
The present -day human world is totally governed by grossly Unethical premises, ideologies, actions, absolutely conforming to the Last Loosening Of Satan
Ethical and Unethical are Intermixed Antithetical Polarities, a kind of Dr Jekylll and Mr Hyde admixture. Finally, it comes to the same immortal words of Hamlet : ” There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so…” The International Academy of Ethics, has a real uphill task to deal with the Boulder of Sisyphus, in trying to instill the sanctity of Ethics in Ethical thinking and in all important facets of human existence, in a world becoming more Demonic with each passing day. Years back, I composed few lines and put these as the Preamble in all the PhD Theses of my battalion of Scholars : It is the Witches’ Sabbath, / The Dance of the Harpies, / With Scylla and Charybids Manning the Orchestra, / And Faustus playing the Host . Where is the Gorgon Medusa ? / Gone to meet Gog and Magog ?
K Bushan Razdan