TRAUMA CAUSED BY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

TRAUMA CAUSED BY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Science and Technology are being increasingly used to serve the interest of aggression, economic exploitation and consumerism-materialism. Day in and day out these are being used to make nuclear weapons, missiles, submarines and armaments. Big industries are being used by industrialists to exploit the labor and to add to their own profits.

But this is not the fault of scientists and technicians. Perhaps the politicians who frame the policies and the industries who exploit are to blame. Nevertheless, the scientist cannot be totally free from blame. They could refuse to sell their knowledge and skill to make weapons of mass destruction or to be a party to research projects aimed at preparing new set of more deadly arms.

Scientists and technicians could also make sure that the industrial plants they invent, design or build do not lead to problems of environmental pollution and have enough safeguards for the workers and that these are not installed to exploit the poor laborers. At least one would have liked to hear of their non-involvement and non-cooperation in all such ventures in the future and their collective non-cooperation in weapons of genocide and mass destruction.

Science and technology have no doubt provided innumerable things of daily use in plenty and have made life more easy and comfortable yet what is absent is more thoughtful and careful application of all technologies to prevent long range damage to the earth and violence to human values and to mankind, and to foster social, economic and cultural development of the poorer sections by making such inventions as could be of great use to the rural folk. This situation can be set right if science and spirituality go together. Scientists have to have peace of mind through meditation if they have to use their knowledge for peaceful progress of mankind. Only a peaceful mind can use its knowledge for peaceful purposes. And peace, it must be noted is a quality or an experience of the soul; it is a non-physical, non material reality. The state of peace can be restored by spiritual knowledge in practice. A scientist, with a spiritualized mind, will create things and use technological skill for the betterment and happiness of all. The health hazard due to the third class products is the prime example of the misuse of science and technology.