Change and Uncertainty

                              POEMS  AND  POETS

               29.Change and Uncertainty

The last 300 years have brought revolutionary changes in all walks of life. Political revolutions, social reforms, economic changes, industrial and technological revolutions, advances in sciences- all have seized man and shaken him out of all old certainties. Religion and philosophy have not been able to provide any solace, or solution.

Take politics. Monarchy, oligarchy,aristocracy,democracy in all its variants have been tried and no one is satisfied with anything. Alexander Pope wrote long ago:

For forms of government let fools contest,

Whate'er is best administer'd is best:

For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight;

His can't be wrong whose life is in the right.

In Faith and Hope the world will disagree,

But all mankind's concern is Charity:

All must be false that thwart this one great end,

And all of God that bless mankind or mend.

But we are fascinated with the magic word "democracy" In practice, it means nothing more than being able to choose through the vote periodically who will govern us; beyond that , no citizen has any power. The US is perhaps the most powerful democracy, but curiously, the word 'democracy' does not figure in its celebrated Constitution! It has become 'moneycracy' there: witness how expensive elections have become! In  the newly democratic countries, it is nothing more than mobocracy.  Perhaps England is still the only genuinely democratic country in the world: it alone still works without a written constitution! And though it is legally a limited constitutional monarchy! Crazy indeed!

And England surely is a country of Destiny- even if we do not have to agree with Kipling's idea of "the white man's burden".

It is England  which,through its empire, disseminated ideas of reform and revolution throughout the world.English language and literature played a great part in this. English literature is very special- it is a mirror which has registered all the upheaval in all areas. It anticipates, reflects and critiques. It constitutes our eyes and mind to the contemporary world.

The great poets from Shakespeare on have been concerned with the great existential issues. Milton surely grappled with the question of political reform in 'Paradise Lost', though his age ended with the Restoration. The Industrial revolution greatly disturbed Goldsmith, Ruskin, Carlyle. The French Revolution  first fascinated Wordsworth and Coleridge , though it brought disillusionment later. They turned to Nature for an antidote- to answer both man's individual and social conscience. Tennyson and Browning turned to God, if not to organised religion for solace. The great women novelists were the first to capture the way the upper class was  thinking and behaving in social matters. Dickens dealt with the major evils spawned by early industrialism: greed, poverty, urban squalor, child labour, etc. Hardy dealt with the problems individuals faced, consequent on the collapse of the integrated rural communities: marriage, personal and social relations, the role and problems of women, the mystery and tragedy of life going wrong, in spite of intentions to the contrary, etc

The two world wars and the subsequent technological changes have completely unhinged the human psyche. No literature has been able to deal with this, as yet.

But one problem has been identified: Alienation. Man's sense of alienation from nature, and his alienation from his own human nature. Both were caused by one factor: technology, as applied to nature , and economy-society. Karl Marx dealt with the latter; poets dealt with the former.

There are two sources for the sense of alienation from nature. The ancient view was that man was part of a great chain of Being: he was not isolated. He was part of an organic whole. Science  after Descartes blasted this notion away, by substituting a mechanical  view of the universe. And a wrong turn in Judeo-Christian tradition made man the master of universe ie the master of exploitation. " Be fruitful and multiply; subdue the earth"- the Bible says. But what does it mean? Everything in the universe created for the sake of man? Does not man bear any responsibility for anything here? This is the crux of the ecological problem: man's utter lack of responsibility for any thing he does in the universe in the name of progress. Let us see how Pope handles this.

ALEXANDER POPE

FROM: Essay on Man, Epistle III

Look round our world, behold the chain of love

Combining all below and all above.

Nothing is foreign; parts relate to whole;

One all-extending, all preserving soul,

Connects each being, greatest with the least;

All serv'd, all serving, nothing stands alone;

The chain holds on, and where it ends is unknown.

Had God, thou fool! work'd solely for thy good,

Thy joy, thy pastime, thy attire, thy food?

Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn,

For him as kindly spreads the flowery lawn.

Is it for thee the lark ascends and sings?

Joy tunes his voice, joy elevates his wings.

Is thine alone the seed that strews the plain?

The birds of Heav'n shall vindicate their grain.

Thine the full harvest of the golden year?

Part pays, and justly, the deserving steer.

The hog that ploughs not, nor obeys thy call,

Lives on the labours of the lord of all.

Know nature's children all divide his care;

While man exclaims," See all things for my use!"

"See man for mine!" replies the pampered goose;

And just as short of Reason he must fall

Who thinks all made for one, not one for all.

So this is how mankind stands: fallen,because it has mistaken its place in the universe. Latest science has proved the mechanical view of the universe wrong, but it has not yet become the establishment. Our current economic arrangements have been shown to be unsustainable , but the alternativ view is still on the fringes. Modern man persists in his hubris, while mankind faces an uncertain future.