The choice is not as baffling as Hamlet’s predicament: “to be or not to be.” If ideology means a set of ideas that form the basis of an economic or political theory, or that are held by a particular group or community, technology stands for scientific study and use of mechanical arts and applied sciences. Over a period of time, both ideology and technology have acquired a strong gravitational force that has rendered them more as combatants than as comrades-in-arm. To the unsuspecting or uncritical, progressive ideology may appear seriously dealing with issues like poverty, social inequality, deprivation, exploitation, et al and technology too may seem trying to grapple with human problems that hinder faster economic development, better means of communication and transport, improving quality of life and living conditions, updating the frontiers of knowledge, et al. If their aims are meant for human welfare, why is technology being preferred over ideology in the present world? The question is equally rigorous and relevant and calls for cool consideration and discreet discussion.
In concept and complexion, ideology tends to become inflexible if new inputs are not allowed to revitalise and rejuvenate its contents and contours. Technology, though flexible and forward-looking, is also subject to becoming a terrible tool of death and destruction in the hands of evil. Since technology has managed to occupy the centre stage of the world, and rightly so, any conflict or competition between ideology and technology is not only untimely but also untenable. There is no denying the fact that technology has acquired the power and potential to turn and twist our senses and sensibilities. It is the practical application of technology that determines its pivotal place in our concerns and calculations. Although humankind desperately needs the three paramount pillars of Gandhian thought and practice—Truth, Ahimsa and Goodness— yet it is the fast tempo of life, coupled with worldly success and a candid control over time and space, that stands out as something tangible and telling as compared to abstractions.
The question that needs to stir our conscience should be: Can we afford to abandon our concern for socio-political causes and commitments to human values that lend meaning, motive and mission to our perceptions and practices? Has ideology become irrelevant and irrational in the deluge that science and technology has unleashed? No doubt, technology is on the march to attain more and more milestones. But technology devoid of political philosophy, economic egalitarianism and social justice for all is fraught with dangerous dimensions. A world where only technology matters is likely to become as perilous as a single track mind obsessed with fantasies bordering on phantoms.
There is near unanimity on the view held the world over that technology unites people, irrespective of their colour or creed, whereas ideology divides them and puts them in water-tight compartments. The memories of ‘Concentration Camps’, ‘Gas Chambers’ and other forms of genocide associated with ideologies like Fascism, Nazism, Marxism and the like are too chilling and blood curdling to be easily erased from mental screens. Equally unnerving and unsettling are the events and their consequences that were the direct outcome or fallout of the holocaust let loose by nuclear technology mindlessly employed during the closing years of World War II (1945). The division of the world in two power blocs, and the traumas of Cold War —all in the name of ideology—is too fresh an irritant that none in his/her senses would ever wish their repetition.
Technology is indispensable in whatever age we may be living. Equally important is the place of socio-economic/political system that assures the benefits of progress reaching the last person under the sun. Generally, when we talk of ideology, we seem to discuss some philosophy that is retrograde, but when we eulogise technology, we appear to swim with the current. If technology promises the best now, ideology holds the promise of the best to be in future. In fact, technology has been called a great social leveller. What ideology fails to achieve and fulfil, technology does without much pride and prejudice.
With the spread of liberal education, and cross migration of people from one region to the other, it has become literally impossible for the die-hards to resist the vibrant influences that technology has imprinted on human psyche. For the paradigms of ideology, that purport to promote social services like education, health care, potable water, houses, employment, etc for all, it better join hands with the ever expanding horizons of technology and thus play the role of an interlocutor. Instead of being at loggerheads, both humane ideology and towering technology can work hand in glove with each other.
In concept and complexion, ideology tends to become inflexible if new inputs are not allowed to revitalise and rejuvenate its contents and contours. Technology, though flexible and forward-looking, is also subject to becoming a terrible tool of death and destruction in the hands of evil. Since technology has managed to occupy the centre stage of the world, and rightly so, any conflict or competition between ideology and technology is not only untimely but also untenable. There is no denying the fact that technology has acquired the power and potential to turn and twist our senses and sensibilities. It is the practical application of technology that determines its pivotal place in our concerns and calculations. Although humankind desperately needs the three paramount pillars of Gandhian thought and practice—Truth, Ahimsa and Goodness— yet it is the fast tempo of life, coupled with worldly success and a candid control over time and space, that stands out as something tangible and telling as compared to abstractions.
The question that needs to stir our conscience should be: Can we afford to abandon our concern for socio-political causes and commitments to human values that lend meaning, motive and mission to our perceptions and practices? Has ideology become irrelevant and irrational in the deluge that science and technology has unleashed? No doubt, technology is on the march to attain more and more milestones. But technology devoid of political philosophy, economic egalitarianism and social justice for all is fraught with dangerous dimensions. A world where only technology matters is likely to become as perilous as a single track mind obsessed with fantasies bordering on phantoms.
There is near unanimity on the view held the world over that technology unites people, irrespective of their colour or creed, whereas ideology divides them and puts them in water-tight compartments. The memories of ‘Concentration Camps’, ‘Gas Chambers’ and other forms of genocide associated with ideologies like Fascism, Nazism, Marxism and the like are too chilling and blood curdling to be easily erased from mental screens. Equally unnerving and unsettling are the events and their consequences that were the direct outcome or fallout of the holocaust let loose by nuclear technology mindlessly employed during the closing years of World War II (1945). The division of the world in two power blocs, and the traumas of Cold War —all in the name of ideology—is too fresh an irritant that none in his/her senses would ever wish their repetition.
Technology is indispensable in whatever age we may be living. Equally important is the place of socio-economic/political system that assures the benefits of progress reaching the last person under the sun. Generally, when we talk of ideology, we seem to discuss some philosophy that is retrograde, but when we eulogise technology, we appear to swim with the current. If technology promises the best now, ideology holds the promise of the best to be in future. In fact, technology has been called a great social leveller. What ideology fails to achieve and fulfil, technology does without much pride and prejudice.
With the spread of liberal education, and cross migration of people from one region to the other, it has become literally impossible for the die-hards to resist the vibrant influences that technology has imprinted on human psyche. For the paradigms of ideology, that purport to promote social services like education, health care, potable water, houses, employment, etc for all, it better join hands with the ever expanding horizons of technology and thus play the role of an interlocutor. Instead of being at loggerheads, both humane ideology and towering technology can work hand in glove with each other.
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