[The following a is small part of the transcription of Nandini Iyer's Dialogue. More will follow soon. The questions section, page 2 is complete.]
What are the patterns of the past which will shape our future? A part of the
fact is too numerous to go into [?], we can see that violence of every kind and
at every level, seems to be the identifying hallmark of the last few hundred years.
But, we might object, what can we do about violence? Some claim it is inherent in
human nature. Now it's true that violence is connected with the apparently
pervasive greed, avarice, selfishness and egotism of the human being, and
it seems that these can only be dealt with at the individual level. And yet
there are all too many manifestations of these human flaws at the group or
social level. Surrounded as we are by religious, ethnic and political
prejudices, can we afford to follow a council of despair, and do nothing,
justifying our passivity by saying that these are weaknesses which each
individual must deal with in his or her own consciousness.
[This was followed by several questions from the audience and delegates. Click here to continue]
It has been said that those who do not learn from the past are doomed to
repeat it. And if we look at history this is all too painfully evident.
Human events do not move in jerks with sudden stops and inexplicable
starts. There are laws of cause and effect that, at least in terms of a
picture larger than a few years, display a pattern from which we can learn.
It is obvious that the problems of the new millennium, which incidentally
begins in the year 2001 and not in five weeks time, so that gives us a
little bit more time to prepare for it. But, anyway, the problems of the
new millennium are obviously going to be the problems of the last decade,
of the last century, and even of the last millennium.
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