HOW
CAN THE IDEA OF MERITOCRACY BE PRACTICALLY REALIZED?
ONE
thing is absolutely certain: The days of the politicians are over.
They
have done too well their job of being destructive, violent.
They
have come to a point where humanity has to decide either to die remaining with
the politicians, to commit a global suicide, or to throw out the politicians
and save humanity, civilization, culture, life.
Nothing
is favorable to the politician; and as each day passes his death comes closer.
He himself
is
responsible. He improved the weapons which can bring death to the whole world
to such a point
that
there is no way of going back. Either there will be an ultimate war – which
means death to all and everything – or a total change in the whole structure of
human society. I am calling that change,meritocracy.
One
thing – we have to drop the idea that every man, just because he is Eighteen,
is capable of choosing who is the right person to decide the fate of nations.
Age cannot be the decisive factor.
We
have to change the decisive factor; that is changing the very foundation.
My
suggestion is that only a person who is at least a matriculate should be able
to vote. His age
does
not matter. And as I explain to you the whole thing, it will become easier. For
the local
government,
matriculation will be the qualification for the voters. And graduation from a
university,at least a bachelor’s degree, should be a necessary qualification for
anybody running for election,for the candidates. A master’s degree should be a
minimum qualification for the one who is running for mayor.
I
have seen education ministers who have never been to university. Before they
became education
ministers
they had never even seen a university campus. Yes, after becoming education
minister
they
start giving convocation addresses to the universities. Universities start
giving them degrees,
honorary
degrees, because actually they are not even matriculates.
Then
just because you are Eighteen it does not mean you are capable of choosing the
government. Choosing the government should be a very skillful, intelligent job.
Just by being eighteen you may be able to reproduce children – it needs no
skill, even animals are doing perfectly well. It needs no education, biology
sends you well prepared. But to choose the government, to choose people who are
going to have all the powers over you and everybody and who are going to decide
the destiny of the country and the world... the way we have been choosing them
is simply idiotic.
And
what power do politicians have? All the power that they have we have given to
them. We can take it back. It is not their power, it is our power. We just have
to find a way to take it back – because giving is very easy, taking is a little
difficult. They will not be so simple and innocent when you take the power back
as they were when they were asking it from you. It is our power, but they will
go on having it if the mob remains there to give it to them; the mob can be
convinced about anything.
I
am not against the people. In fact, in the hands of these politicians, the
people are against
themselves.
I am all for the people, and what I am saying can be said to be exactly what
has
been
said about democracy: for the people, by the people, of the people – just ”by
the people” I will have to change. This intelligentsia will be for the people,
of the people. It will be serving the masses.
It
is so simple a thing. You don’t elect a doctor, that just anybody can stand, it
is a birthright, and
people
can vote. Two persons fighting to be the doctor or to be the surgeon? What is
wrong in it?
The
people choose for themselves: for the people, by the people, of the people.
They choose one
person,
a surgeon, because he speaks better, he looks good on the television and he
makes great
promises.
But
he is not even a butcher! – and he is going to become a surgeon. He is not even
a butcher.
Even
a butcher would have been better; at least he would have known how to cut, and
finish you.
This
man... but you don’t choose a surgeon by election.
How
can you choose a president by election? How can you choose a governor by
election? You
are
giving so much power to power – hungry people; with your own hands you are
telling them to
hang
you! This is not democracy. In the name of democracy these people have been
exploiting the masses.
Just
to make a distinction I am calling this system meritocracy. But merit for what?
The merit
is
to serve and share. And once you have decided to shift the power from the
politicians to the
intelligentsia,
everything is possible – everything becomes simple.
Then
I want every university to have two compulsory institutions, because that is
the way I would
like
the people who are going to be powerful to be prepared.
Right
now, up to now, for thousands of years you have never prepared anybody. If
somebody is going to be a boxer you don’t just push him into the ring and say,
”Start!” He has to learn. If somebody is going to be a swordsman, it will take
him years. Otherwise he won’t even know how to hold the sword – using it and
fighting with it will be impossible. First he will have to find out how to take
it out from its sheath, how to hold it. It needs training. You don’t just give
a guitar to somebody who has never seen the instrument before and expect him to
be an Expert.
Now
this is your fault: these people who are in power, have you trained them? Has
anybody ever
thought
that the people who will be holding so much power need some certain qualities
so that they don’t misuse power? It is not their fault.
So
I propose two institutes in every university. One institute is for
deprogramming. Anybody who
gets
a graduation certificate will first have to get a clearance certificate from
the deprogramming institute – which means it has deprogrammed you as a
Christian, as a Hindu, as a Mohammedan, as a Jew... because this has been our
trouble.
And
four years is enough time. Deprogramming does not take that much time; just a
few hours a
month
for four years and you will be deprogrammed. And you will not get any
certificate from the educational institute unless you are cleared by the
deprogramming institute that ”this man is now simply a human being. He is no
longer a Christian, no longer a Hindu, no longer a Mohammedan, no longer a
Jew.”
The
second institute will be an institute for meditation, because just
deprogramming is not enough.
Deprogramming
takes rubbish from you, but you are left empty – and it is difficult to be
empty; you will start gathering rubbish again. You cannot manage by yourself to
learn how to live joyfully with your emptiness. That’s the whole art of
meditation.
So
on the one hand the deprogramming institute cleanses you, empties you, makes
you a vacuum;
and
the meditation institute goes on helping you to enjoy your nothingness, your
emptiness, your
inner
vacuum its cleanliness, its freshness. And as you start enjoying it you start
feeling that it is not
empty
at all, it is full of joy. It looked empty at first because you were accustomed
to having so much rubbish in it, and that rubbish has been removed so you say
it looks empty.
It
is just like a room full of furniture: you have always seen it full of furniture;
then one day you come and all the furniture is removed and you say, ”The room
looks empty.” The room is not empty, the room is simply clean. The room is
roomy for the first time. It was cluttered before, burdened, full of rubbish;
now it is pure space.
You
have to learn meditation to enjoy your emptiness.
And
that is one of the greatest days in life – when a person starts enjoying
emptiness, aloneness,
nothingness.
Then
nobody can reprogram you, nobody in the world.
The
university’s degree will come only when a clearance certificate from the
deprogramming institute and a graduation certificate from the meditation
university have been granted. It will depend on you– you can graduate in one
year, you can graduate in two years, you can graduate in three years, four years.
But four years is too much. Any imbecile, if he just sits for one hour every
day doing nothing for four years is bound to find what Buddha or Lao Tzu have
found, what I have found.
And
I want this to continue: if you are going to do your Ph.D. then you do three
years deprogramming and three years meditation. Those are compulsory to the
very end, so when you come out of the university you are not only an intelligent
person, well-informed, you are also a meditator – relaxed, silent, peaceful,
observant, watchful, intuitive. And you are no longer a Christian, no longer a
Hindu, no longer an American, no longer a Russian. All that bullshit has been
completely burned, nothing is left of it.
This
is the only way, to replace the politicians by the intelligentsia.
No comments:
Post a Comment