Poverty must be removed by collective effort from the face of the earth. It is a shame that in an age of developed technology poverty yet persists. The theories of human greed and exploitation causing poverty have become archaic and the inconceivably rapid progress of science and technology have opened up new possibilities before humanity that earlier only visionaries like Bertrand Russell and Swami Vivekananda could clearly conceive of. Consequently, such ideologies like Marxism and their concomitant violent activation programmes seem to have become redundant today and the universal spread of learning seems a better and a more viable option globally in the bid to eradicate poverty. This by no means is an attempt to demean the considerable contributions of Marxism to economic thinking nor is it a repudiation of its essential principles but is rather an exploration of future possibilities on the basis of the unbelievable developments of present-day science. The evolutionary setting for the birth of Marxism was different and it may have been a developmental imperative for the times. But knowledge has made rapid strides since then and the entire conversation on global development has shifted gears. Greed and exploitation, war and neo-imperialism, dogma and doctrine notwithstanding, humanity is on the march towards better standards of living consequent on the benefits bestowed by science.
Nationalism has had its day and it is time that nations comprehend the futility of war and territorial aggression. Now it is a single human family and the inter-connectedness through technology makes for attempted national or ideological dominance puerile and even perverse. The advance of technology has made the Internet available to man which has spontaneously brought about equitable distribution of the wealth of knowledge and allowed free access to it just as Tagore had envisaged. So also shall universalisation of knowledge and learning end enforced poverty consequent on underdevelopment and help lift humanity into a decent standard of living. If poverty still persists, it will be man's doing impelled by the inertia of his savage past over which he seemingly has as yet no control and, hence, falls back on to it as if by way of paying tribute to his primal roots. But the thesis still holds --- science holds the key that will unlock unlimited universal resources for poverty to become a distant dream and life on earth far more bearable an experience. But the question is : when? When will human good sense prevail that every child gets the widest access to universal knowledge and not doctrinaire nonsense that makes civilisation look like a fanatic's fantasy?
Written by Sugata Bose
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