Jahangir's World Times First Comprehensive Magazine for students/teachers of competitive exams and general readers as well.
Throughout the world history, the intellectuals and writers have not been given the position and the status they truly deserved. We often hear and read that during the monarchies and aristocratic regimes, the intellectuals, poets and literati were given precious rewards and presents. But, it is a fact that they were mostly to display the grandeur of the kings and the rulers, and to pay for the excessive praise and sycophancy they would receive in the works of those writers, not to pay them what they deserved as the reward for their work on truth and reality.
In today’s societies, it can be observed that the values of the commodities are gauged as per their appearance and external worth; people only see the material benefits they can gain from them. And they seem to be very hasty in order to gain such benefits. In such a scenario, it is really difficult for them to develop any sort of interest for poetic thoughts and philosophical discussions. If they had the authority, they would definitely declare thinking and curiosity to learn as crime ‘crimes that have no other punishment except death. It has to happen in a society where philosophy and literature, though, have some sort of respect, they don’t have the capacity to fulfil the requirements of the society. It’s claimed that they have neither cured any sick person, nor have given food to the poor; nevertheless, they themselves have been convicted and punished; therefore, they try to remain silent.
In the modern technological and scientific world, people do not find any achievement of philosophy and literature, as they are not directly involved in inventions and discoveries. They don’t need any poet or philosopher in their chores and daily activities; therefore, it is not possible for them to realize their importance and their status.
However, this sort of thinking is not only business-oriented, it is logically incorrect too. If everything in the society is measured as per their capacity to fulfil the temporary material needs, the whole system of the society would collapse and the whole world would become nothing else except a market, where people can only sell and buy commodities. Though, the world has almost been turned into a market, there is still some respect for values and ethics which can be a ray of hope in complete darkness.
The most tragic and unfortunate aspect of this sort of thinking is that it doesn’t try to see the actual reasons of the incidents and happenings. The whole society, based on the same sort of thinking, starts accepting the material advancements as miracles and tends to neglect all those pillars on which the building of all these advancements is placed. If the modern technological and scientific era is analyzed, there would be few ideas of some thinkers and few thoughts of certain intellectuals and today’s materialistic advancement is based on the same ideas and thoughts.
It has to be understood that the material advancement itself is not an achievement; rather it is a source to satiate the psychological and spiritual thirst. While the wisdom and the experience, which are shared through philosophy and literature, are the real achievements ‘the real creativity of human capacities. And, on the other hand, the attitude of the society towards such wisdom and experience is nothing more than a bad joke.
We really need intellectuals. It’s really weird to note that the intellectuals are totally dependent on society in spite of the fact that the society should depend on them and seek their favours for proper guidance. If there is any relation between the real beauty in nature and the society, it is because of the intellectuals. If there is no intellectual in a society, such a society is really an orphan, as far as aesthetic sense and spiritual guidance are concerned. It’s really important that in a society the intellectuals must have the authority to set the standards; only then the society can have balanced development and advancement. The advancement then would not be limited only to the materialistic aspects but would also include the emotional and the aesthetic aspects of life.
Nonetheless, it is also important to understand: ‘Who are the real intellectuals?’
Whether, the jokers in our society whose most dominant quality is their ignorance and self-praise and for whom someone had rightly said, ‘Save my seriousness from such jokers! are the intellectuals? In fact, the definition and title of intellectual has become very cheap. Every other person claims to be intellectual, poet or critic, though he may be the most stupid person in the society. Poetry and literature have become a joke though they should be the most reputable part of the culture.
Every profession needs some sort of practice and hard work. Even a beggar has to practice and then he is able to earn money; otherwise, he won’t be able to earn even a penny. However, our poets can be the authors of tens of books and poetry collections without even reading a single book. With such a scenario how would it be possible to face the society and ask for reputation, respect and proper status? Yes, it is a fact that the intellectuals and writers must have the most reputable status in the society; however, have they really fulfilled the requirements of being the real intellectuals?
