Skip to main content

The ancient Buddhist parable of blind scholars

The ancient Buddhist parable of the blind scholars and their encounter with the elephant helps us to illustrate the social controversy over the nature and various dimensions of how people interpret their knowledge-claims on how the world be governed.

Since the blind scholars did not know what the elephant looked like, they resolved to obtain a mental picture, and thus the knowledge they desired, by touching the animal. 

Feeling its trunk, one blind man argued that theelephant was like a lively snake.

 Another man, rubbing along its enormous
leg, likened the animal to a rough column of massive proportions. 

The third person took hold of its tail and insisted that the elephant resembled a large, flexible brush. 

The fourth man felt its sharp tusks and declared it to be like a great spear. 

Each of the blind scholars held firmly to his own idea of what constituted an elephant. 

Since their scholarly reputation was riding on the veracity of their respective findings, the blind men eventually ended up arguing over the true nature of the elephant.

The ongoing competition among world leaders over which dimension contains the essence of the way the world be governed, represents a postmodern version of the parable of the blind men and the elephant. 

Even those few leaders who still think of liberalism and others who believe in authoritarianism as a singular process clash with each other over which aspect of social life constitutes its primary domain at which the world could achieve social equilibrium. 

 Like the blind men in the parable, each leader is partly right by correctly identifying one important dimension of the phenomenon in question. 

However, their collective mistake lies in their dogmatic attempts to reduce such a complex phenomenon as country management to one or two domains that corresponds to their own expertise. 

For me,  I believe a central task for the new field of studies must be to devise some better ways for gauging the relative importance of each dimension without losing sight of the interdependent whole.

The ongoing election in India is case in point. Disciples of President Modi have claimed he could win the race by far. Without considering the perspectives of the left-leaning critics, they embraced  emotivism, vehemently claiming that Modi's programs had really enticed scores of Indians.

In another case, Ukraine drone attack hits Russian Tatarstan, killed 13 Russians, and 8 injured. Some NATO saw it a progressive move by the Ukraine in attacking a strong enemy. Others believe it could result in increase global energy cost.

Perspective is always a personal statement.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is Liberalism under attack?

I believe the answer may be yes. It's yes because two powerful states in Asia: China and Russia have consolidated authoritarian regime, that the end points may not be visible soon.  These two forces are working tirelessly to globalize oligarchy and authoritarianism. Their gospels has been noised abroad. Their influences influences have been displayed in some nations (with pseudo democracy) in the global south,  In Africa, liberal democracy have been badly weaken by the character of people in leadership: abuse of offices, stealing of public funds without questions and necessary punishments, plus rigging of presidential elections, leading to changing fortunes ànd quagmires. Beside, the curent hyper-inflation in Nigeria is blamed on the recent resurgence of Adams Smith and liberal economics doctrines (and partly by loyalty to Washington consensus: policies and insititios designed by the US government to globalize capitalism and it's associated cultural systems). The market is now
Post a Comment
Read more

You can Create New Business Subcategory by altering an establish business category, competes in the pacific northwest, united states, turning the conventional idea of an original category upside down Like Umpqua Bank.

 Umpqua Bank competes in the pacific northwest, united states, turns the conventional idea of brand category upside down. Most consumers would never describe  a bank transaction a soul-satisfying, but Oregun-based  Umpqua Bank   become affiliated with cafe/retail categories in order to establish points-of-difference between itself nd other banks. Its stores offer music, coffee, wifi access, and of course, banking service. About a decade ago,  Umpqua  trailed U.S bank and Well-fargo in market share but later decided to go into new territory: Think bank across with your local Starbucks. No longer called bank or branches, “Umpqua Stores  were designed to stimulate cozy connection between customers, and feature computer cafe with wifi access and branded merchandise, including Umpqua’s own blend of coffee - must-have in the Northwestern United states, a coffee obsessed region. ”  Like starbucks,  Umpqua Bank  made musics part of its product mix. Working with portland’s Rumblefish,
Post a Comment
Read more

Sweet Spot

How do you create a digital strategy that involves customers in an energized social community?  How do you create an engaged, active “go-to” website?   Prophet's David Aaaker says, You must change the orientation of marketing from selling the offering, the brand, and firm to becoming an active partner with a shared interest program around a customer’s “sweet spot.” A sweet spot reflects customers’ “thinking and doing” time, beliefs and values, activities and passions, possessions or places they treasure. Ideally, it would be a part of, if not central to, their self-identity and lifestyle and reflect a higher-order value proposition, much beyond the benefits provided by the offering. To illustrate, Pampers went beyond diapers by creating the Pampers Village community that provides a “go to” place for all issues relating to babies and child care. Its five sections – pregnancy, newborn, baby, toddler, and preschooler – all have a menu of topics. Its online commu
Post a Comment
Read more