CSS – PRECIS AND COMPOSITION PAPER 2022
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The fear of human beings when faced with the mysteries of life and their weakness by comparison with the vastness of nature created in them a need to communicate with the divine, with the superior powers which they believed regulated the universe and determined their own fates. Knowledge of the wishes of the gods was always a sure guide for human behaviour. In ancient Greece, the precise nature of these wishes was ‘decoded’ by the art of giving oracles, practised by soothsayers who had the gift of understanding the signs or signals sent by the gods.
The soothsayers uttered their oracles by interpreting flashes of lightning, rolls of thunder or the flights of certain birds of prey (omens); alternatively, they might observe the direction in which the fire burned when a sacrifice was made, examine the entrails of animals which had just been sacrificed, or base judgments on the sacrificial beast’s willingness to approach the altar. The interpretation of dreams was popular too, and so was palmistry. The most notable soothsayers of ancient Greece were Tiresias, Calchas, Helenus, Amphiaraus and Cassandra.
However, there were abundant instances in which the gods did not manifest themselves to the faithful in the forms of signs but spoke directly to an intermediate who for a short time was overcome by a ‘divine mania’ and transcended his own human essence. Here the prophet- or more usually the prophetess- entered a state of ecstasy in which he or she delivered the message from the gods to the suppliants.
These practices for foreseeing the future were the basis on which the ancient Greek oracles operated. Each oracle was located within a properly organized sanctuary and was directly associated with one or other of the gods. Apollo was the archetypal soothsayer for the Greeks, the god who was responsible for conveying to mortals the decisions pronounced by Zeus. The most important of all the oracles, that at the Delphi, delivered the messages with the intervention of Apollo, while the oldest that of Dodona, functioned with the assistance of Zeus.
ORACLES: THE VOICE OF GREEK GODS
To resolve the mystery of life and overcome their fear, human beings tried to communicate with the divine powers that were believed to control their fate and the universe. In ancient Greece, the soothsayers performed the job of interpreting the signs from the gods whether the offerings were accepted or not. However, the signs were not sometimes clear, so the oracles became the voice of the gods who delivered the message verbally in a state of ecstasy. Hence, the oracles were consulted to see the future. Consequently, different temples were reserved for oracles to communicate on behalf of the gods. One such was Apollo, the Greek god, who delivered the messages of Zeus via his oracles at Delphi.
CSS – PRECIS AND COMPOSITION PAPER 2021
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Nizar Hassan was born in 1960 and raised in the village of Mashhad, near Nazareth, where he has lived with his family. He studied anthropology at Haifa University and after graduating worked in TV. Starting in 1990, he turned to cinema. In 1994, he produced Independence, in which he pokes his Palestinian interlocutors about what they think of the bizarre Israeli notion of their “independence”. They have stolen another people’s homeland and call the act “independence”! Hassan dwells on that absurdity.
As the world’s attention was captured by the news of Israel planning to “annex” yet a bit more of Palestine and add it to what they have already stolen, I received an email from Nizar Hassan, the pre-eminent Palestinian documentary filmmaker. He wrote to me about his latest film, My Grandfather’s Path, and included a link to the director’s cut. It was a blessing. They say choose your enemies carefully for you would end up like them. The same goes for those opposing Zionist settler colonialists. If you are too incensed and angered by their daily dose of claptrap, the vulgarity of their armed robbery of Palestine, you would soon become like them and forget yourself and what beautiful ideas, ideals, and aspirations once animated your highest dreams. Never fall into that trap. For decades, aspects of Palestinian and world cinema, art, poetry, fiction, and drama have done for me precisely that: saved me from that trap. They have constantly reminded me what all our politics are about – a moment of poetic salvation from it all.
Nizar Hassan’s new documentary is one such work – in a moment of dejection over Israel’s encroachment on Palestinian rights and the world’s complicity, it has put Palestine in perspective. The film is mercifully long, beautifully paced and patient, a masterfully crafted work of art – a Palestinian’s epic ode to his homeland. A shorter version of My Grandfather’s Path has been broadcast on Al Jazeera Arabic in three parts, but it must be seen in its entirety, in one go. It is a pilgrimage that must not be interrupted.
NIZAR HASSAN, A FILMMAKER
Nizar Hassan, born in 1960, took to filmmaking after graduating from Haifa University, Israel. His first film “Independence” satirizes the Israeli notion of independence which was in reality blatant occupation of Palestinian lands. Later, when Israel was trying to grab the remaining areas of Palestinians, Nizar produced a serial “My Grandfather’s Path”. The theme of the serial is that if we focus too much on our enemy, we ultimately become like him. According to him, Palestinians fell into this trap. They focused so much on violence and aggression by the Zionists that they started thinking like them, and forgot the beautiful aspects of life. Nizar believes his love for art saved his mind.
CSS – PRECIS AND COMPOSITION PAPER 2020
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Manto was a victim of some kind of social ambivalence that converged on self-righteousness, hypocrisy, and mental obtuseness. His detractors branded him as vulgar and obscene and implicated him into a long-dawn legal battle questioning the moral validity of his writings. Without being deterred by their negative tactics, he remained firm in his commitment to exploring the stark realities of life offensive to the conservative taste of some self-styled purists. In the line of Freud, he sought to unravel the mysteries of sex not in an abstract, non-earthly manner but in a palpable, fleshy permutation signifying his deep concern for the socially disabled and depressed classes of society, like petty wage-earners, pimps, and prostitutes.
For Manto, man is neither an angel nor a devil, but a mix of both. His middle and lower-middle-class characters think, feel and act like human beings. Without feigning virtuosity, he was able to strike a rapport with his readers on some of the most vital sociomoral issues concerning them. As a realist, he was fully conscious of the yawning gap between appearance and reality; in fact, nothing vexed him more than a demonstrable duality in human behaviour at different levels of the social hierarchy. He had an unjaundiced view of man’s faults and follies. As a literary artist, he treated vulgarity discreetly — without ever sounding vulgar in the process. Like Joyce, Lawrence, and Caldwell, in Manto’s work too, men and women of the age find their own restlessness accurately mirrored. And like them, Manto was also ‘raised above his own self by his sombre enthusiasm’.
UNWARRANTED MANTO MALIGNING
Manto was denounced by hypothetical and ignorant critics for being vulgar and obscene in his writings. However, he remained steadfast and continued his mission of exposing the unpleasant social realities and discovering the darker regions of the human psyche. He treated sex not as an abstract concept but as a concrete reality of life. Manto’s characters are normal human beings; men of flesh and blood. Instead of glorifying, he depicted human nature as it is. He identified with the readers on their day-to-day psychological and moral dilemmas.
CSS – PRECIS AND COMPOSITION PAPER 2019
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I think modern educational theorists are inclined to attach too much importance to the negative virtue of not interfering with children, and too little to the positive merit of enjoying their company. If you have the sort of liking for children that many people have for horses or dogs, they will be apt to respond to your suggestions, and to accept prohibitions, perhaps with some good-humoured grumbling, but without resentment. It is no use to have the sort of liking that consists in regarding them as a field for valuable social endeavour, or what amounts to the same thing as an outlet for power-impulses. No child will be grateful for an interest in him that springs from the thought that he will have a vote to be secured for your party or a body to be sacrificed to king and country. The desirable sort of interest is that which consists in spontaneous pleasure in the presence of children, without any ulterior purpose. Teachers who have this quality will seldom need to interfere with children’s freedom but will be able to do so, when necessary, without causing psychological damage.
Unfortunately, it is utterly impossible for over-worked teachers to preserve an instinctive liking for children; they are bound to come to feel towards them as the proverbial confectioner’s apprentice does towards macaroons. I do not think that education ought to be anyone’s whole profession: it should be undertaken for at most two hours a day by people whose remaining hours are spent away from children. The society of the young is fatiguing, especially when strict discipline is avoided. Fatigue, in the end, produces irritation, which is likely to express itself somehow, whatever theories the harassed teacher may have taught himself or herself to believe. The necessary friendliness cannot be preserved by self-control alone. But where it exists, it should be unnecessary to have rules in advance as to how “naughty” children are to be treated, since impulse is likely to lead to the right decision, and almost any decision will be right if the child feels that you like him. No rules, however wise, are a substitute for affection and tact.
DEALING WITH CHILDREN
The author says that educationists wrongly prefer not to interfere with children whereas they should enjoy their company. If one likes children the way one likes one’s pets, they will be more responsive without complaining much. If one tries to create in them a social sense and has in mind some future expectations of them; they will not feel thankful. One’s interest in children should spring from an instinctive pleasure in the company of children without any ulterior motive.
Unfortunately, overworked teachers can’t maintain a natural liking for children. Teacher’s contact with children should not exceed two hours a day. Dealing with children, without strict discipline, is tiresome. This causes obvious irritation despite the teacher’s theories. Mere self-control cannot produce feelings of friendliness which is above rules. The impulse provides guidance. The rules cannot replace love and tact.
CSS – PRECIS AND COMPOSITION PAPER 2018
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It is in the temperate countries of northern Europe that the beneficial effects of cold are most manifest. A cold climate seems to stimulate energy by acting as an obstacle. In the face of an insuperable obstacle our energies are numbed by despair; the total absence of obstacles, on the other hand, leaves no room for the exercise and training of energy; but a struggle against difficulties that we have a fair hope of over-coming, calls into active operation all our powers. In like manner, while intense cold numbs human energies, and a hot climate affords little motive for exertion, moderate cold seems to have a bracing effect on the human race. In a moderately cold climate man is engaged in arduous, but not hopeless struggles with the inclemency of the weather. He has to build strong houses and procure thick clothes to keep himself warm. To supply fuel for his fires, he must hew down trees and dig coal out of the earth. In the open air, unless he moves quickly, he will suffer pain from the biting wind. Finally, in order to replenish the expenditure of bodily tissue caused by his necessary exertions, he has to procure for himself plenty of nourishing food.
Quite different is the lot of man in the tropics. In the neighbourhood of the equator, there is little need of clothes or fire, and it is possible with perfect comfort and no danger to health, to pass the lifelong day stretched out on the bare ground beneath the shade of a tree. Very little fruit or vegetable food is required to sustain life under such circumstances, and that little can be obtained without much exertion from the bounteous earth.
We may recognize must the same differences between ourselves at different seasons of the year, as there is between human nature in the tropics and in temperate climes. In hot weather we are generally languid and inclined to take life easily; but when the cold season comes, we find that we are more inclined to vigorous exertion of our minds and bodies.
IMPACT OF CLIMATE ON CHARACTER
The weather has a visible effect on human beings. Cold weather stimulates activity but extreme cold creates passivity, dullness and depression. Similarly, extremely hot weather also leaves in us with no motivation to activity. On the other hand, people living in moderate climates like tough work and are engaged in an agreeable struggle. They do not need warm clothes or fire to fight the cold weather. A little fruit or food is enough for them to sustain their lives. That is why they have a relaxed way of life. We observe a similar effect on ourselves in different seasons of the year. For example, in hot weather, we generally tend to be lazy but when the cold season comes, we are more inclined to activity.
CSS – PRECIS AND COMPOSITION PAPER 2017
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All the evils in this world are brought about by the persons who are always up and doing but do not know when they ought to be up nor what they ought to be doing. The devil, I take it, is still the busiest creature in the universe, and I can quite imagine him denouncing laziness and becoming angry at the smallest waste of time. In his kingdom, I will wager, nobody is allowed to do nothing, not even for a single afternoon. The world, we all freely admit, is in a muddle but I for one do not think that it is laziness that has brought it to such a pass. It is not the active virtues that it lacks but the passive ones; it is capable of anything but kindness and a little steady thought. There is still plenty of energy in the world (there never were more fussy people about), but most of it is simply misdirected. If, for example, in July 1914, when there was some capital idling weather, everybody, emperors, Kings, archdukes, statesmen, generals, journalists, had been suddenly smitten with an intense desire to do nothing, just to hang about in the sunshine and consume tobacco, then we should all have been much better off than we are now. But no, the doctrine of the strenuous life still went unchallenged; there must be no time wasted; something must be done. Again, suppose our statesmen, instead of rushing off to Versailles with a bundle of ill-digested notions and great deal of energy to dissipate had all taken a fortnight off, away from all correspondence and interviews and what not, and had simply lounged about on some hillside or other apparently doing nothing for the first time in their energetic lives, then they might have gone to their so-called peace conference and come away again with their reputations still unsoiled and the affairs of the world in good trim. Even at the present time, if half of the politicians in Europe would relinquish the notion that laziness is crime and go away and do nothing for a little space, we should certainly gain by it. Other examples come crowding into mind. Thus, every now and then, certain religious sects hold conferences; but though there are evils abroad that are mountains high, though the fate of civilization is still doubtful, the members who attend these conferences spend their time condemning the length of ladies’ skirts and the noisiness of dance bands. They would all be better employed lying flat on their backs somewhere, staring at the sky and recovering their mental health.
LAZINESS – A BLESSING IN DISGUISE
Most of the evil in the world is because of the energetic and busy people. The confusion and chaos that we see in the world is not due to lazy people but because of active people. The world is full of energetic people but their energy is mostly misdirected. Such people only create confusion and mischief in the world. If the important people like emperors, politicians, statesmen and generals in the past had been less active; our world would have been a far better place. Laziness is not a crime but a blessing in disguise in many ways. The active and energetic people in the past did great damage to the world. Even at present, it would be a great service to humanity, if half of the politicians and religious leaders abandon their activities and take a long, lazy break. In this way, the world will be saved from their activities; and they will get an opportunity to restore their mental health.
CSS – PRECIS AND COMPOSITION PAPER 2016
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During my vacation last May, I had a hard time choosing a tour. Flights to Japan, Hong Kong and Australia are just too common. What I wanted was somewhere exciting and exotic, a place where I could be spared from the holiday tour crowds. I was so happy when John called up, suggesting a trip to Cherokee, a county in the state of Oklahoma. I agreed and went off with the preparation immediately.
We took a flight to Cherokee and visited a town called Qualla Boundary surrounded by magnificent mountain scenery, the town painted a paradise before us. With its Oconaluftee Indian Village reproducing tribal crafts and lifestyles of the 18th century and the outdoor historical pageant Unto These Hills playing six times weekly in the summer nights, Qualla Boundary tries to present a brief image of the Cherokee past to the tourists.
Despite the language barrier, we managed to find our way to the souvenir shops with the help of the natives. The shops were filled with rubber tomahawks and colorful traditional war bonnets, made of dyed turkey feathers. Tepees, coneshaped tents made from animal skin, were also pitched near the shops. “Welcome! Want to get anything?” We looked up and saw a middle-aged man smiling at us. We were very surprised by his fluent English. He introduced himself as George and we ended up chatting till lunch time when he invited us for lunch at a nearby coffee shop.
“Sometimes, I’ve to work from morning to sunset during the tour season. Anyway, this is still better off than being a woodcutter …” Remembrance weighed heavy on George’s mind and he went on to tell us that he used to cut firewood for a living but could hardly make ends meet. We learnt from him that the Cherokees do not depend solely on trade for survival. During the tour off-peak period, the tribe would have to try out other means for income. One of the successful ways is the “Bingo Weekend”. On the Friday afternoons of the Bingo weekends, a large bingo hall was opened, attracting huge crowds of people to the various kinds of games like the Super Jackpot and the Warrior Game Special. According to George, these forms of entertainment fetch them great returns.
Our final stop in Qualla Boundary was at the museum where arts, ranging from the simple hand-woven oak baskets to wood and stone carvings of wolves, ravens and other symbols of Cherokee cosmology are displayed. Back at home, I really missed the place and I would of course look forward to the next trip to another exotic place.
A VISIT TO QUALLA BOUNDARY
We visited Qualla Boundary, a town in Cherokee. The mountain scenery surrounding the town was a breathtaking sight. The traditional lifestyle of the Indians, the tribal crafts they made and the historical pageant played six times a week, presented to tourists a rough image of the Cherokee in the 18th century. We also visited the souvenir shops which sold rubber tomahawks and war bonnets. There we befriended a local, George, who told us that besides trade, the “Bingo Weekend,” where the tourists can enjoy various kinds of games in a large hall, is another source of income for them during off-tour seasons. Finally, we visited the town’s museum where different kinds of art, like hand-woven baskets and carved figurines, are displayed.
CSS – PRECIS AND COMPOSITION PAPER 2015
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In studying the breakdowns of civilizations, the writer has subscribed to the conclusion – no new discovery! – that war has proved to have been the proximate cause of the breakdown of every civilization which is known for certain to have broken down, in so far as it has been possible to analyze the nature of these breakdowns and to account for their occurrence. Like other evils, war has an insidious way of appearing not intolerable until it has secured such a stranglehold upon the lives of its addicts that they no longer have the power to escape from its grip when its deadliness has become manifest. In the early stages of a civilization’s growth, the cost of wars in suffering and destruction might seem to be exceeded by the benefits accruing from the winning of wealth and power and the cultivation of the “military virtues”; and, in this phase of history, states have often found themselves able to indulge in war with one another with something like impunity even for the defeated party. War does not begin to reveal its malignity till the war-making society has begun to increase its economic ability to exploit physical nature and its political ability to organize manpower; but, as soon as this happens, the god of war to which the growing society has long since been dedicated proves himself a Moloch by devouring an ever larger share of the increasing fruits of man’s industry and intelligence in the process of taking an ever larger toll of life and happiness; and, when the society’s growth in efficiency reaches a point at which it becomes capable of mobilizing a lethal quantum of its energies and resources for military use, then war reveals itself as being cancer which is bound to prove fatal to its victim unless he can cut it out and cast it from him since its malignant tissues have now learnt to grow faster than the healthy tissues on which they feed.
In the past, when this dangerous point in the history of the relations between war and civilization has been reached and recognized, serious efforts have sometimes been made to get rid of war in time to save society, and these endeavours have been apt to take one or other of two alternative directions. Salvation cannot, of course, be sought anywhere except in the working of the consciences of individual human beings; but individuals have a choice between trying to achieve their aims through direct action as private citizens and trying to achieve them through indirect action as citizens of states. A personal refusal to lend himself in any way to any war waged by his state for any purpose and in any circumstances is a line of attack against the institution of war that is likely to appeal to an ardent and self-sacrificing nature; by comparison, the alternative peace strategy of seeking to persuade and accustom governments to combine in jointly resisting aggression when it comes and in trying to remove its stimuli beforehand may seem a circuitous and unheroic line of attack on the problem. Yet experience up to date indicates unmistakably, in the present writer’s opinion, that the second of these two hard roads is by far the more promising.
Title: The Destructive Nature of War in Civilization’s Decline
In analyzing the historical breakdowns of civilizations, the writer asserts that war stands as a central cause. Initially, wars appear advantageous, offering wealth, power, and the cultivation of military virtues. However, as societies grow and enhance their ability to exploit resources and organize people, the truly devastating impact of war surfaces. It gradually consumes a significant portion of a society’s resources, impacting life and happiness. When societies can mobilize their energies for war, it becomes an existential threat unless eradicated.
In the past, efforts were made to prevent this impending danger. Individuals either opposed any involvement in war or sought to unite governments against aggression and its root causes. The writer contends that while personal opposition to war might seem heroic, historical evidence favours the strategy of persuading governments to collaborate in preventing conflicts as the more effective approach.
CSS – PRECIS AND COMPOSITION PAPER 2014
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Probably the only protection for contemporary man is to discover how to use his intelligence in the service of love and kindness. The training of human intelligence must include the simultaneous development of the empathic capacity. Only in this way can intelligence be made an instrument of social morality and responsibility – and thereby increase the chances of survival. The need to produce human beings with trained morally sensitive intelligence is essentially a challenge to educators and educational institutions. Traditionally, the realm of social morality was left to religion and the churches as guardians or custodians. But their failure to fulfil this responsibility and their yielding to the seductive lures of the men of wealth and pomp and power are documented by the history of the last two thousand years and have now resulted in the irrelevant “God Is Dead” theological rhetoric. The more pragmatic men of power have had no time or inclination to deal with the fundamental problems of social morality. For them simplistic Machiavellianism must remain the guiding principle of their decisions – power is morality, morality is power. This over-simplification increases the chances of nuclear devastation. We must therefore hope that educators and educational institutions have the capacity, the commitment and the time to instil moral sensitivity as an integral part of the complex pattern of functional human intelligence. Some way must be found in the training of human beings to assure them of love, the security to be kind, and the integrity required for functional empathy.
“Intelligence, Empathy, and Human Survival”
The passage underscores the vital link between intelligence, empathy, and humanity’s survival. It stresses the need to merge empathy with intelligence to foster social responsibility and increase the chances of survival.
Educators and institutions bear the responsibility of nurturing morally aware intelligence. While religion once oversaw social morality, its failure and alignment with worldly influences have made it ineffective. Leaders prioritize power over morals, risking catastrophic outcomes like nuclear devastation.
The key lies in educators embedding moral sensitivity into intelligence. This entails instilling love, kindness, and empathy within individuals. This fusion is crucial for humanity’s well-being and survival in a complex world.
CSS – PRECIS AND COMPOSITION PAPER 2013
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Culture, in human societies, has two main aspects; an external, formal aspect and an inner, ideological aspect. The external forms of culture, social or artistic, are merely an organized expression of its inner ideological aspect, and both are an inherent component of a given social structure. They are changed or modified when this structure is changed or modified and because of this organic link they also help and influence such changes in their parent organism. Cultural Problems, therefore, cannot be studied or understood or solved in isolation from social problems, i.e. problems of political and economic relationships. The cultural problems of underdeveloped countries, therefore, have to be understood and solved in the light of the larger perspective, in the context of underlying social problems. Very broadly speaking, these problems are primarily the problems of arrested growth; they originate primarily from long years of imperialist–colonialist domination and the remnants of a backward outmoded social structure. This should not require much elaboration European Imperialism caught up with the countries of Asia, Africa or Latin America between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. Some of them were fairly developed feudal societies with ancient traditions of advanced feudal culture. Others had yet to progress beyond primitive pastoral tribalism. The social and cultural development of them all was frozen at the point of their political subjugation and remained frozen until the coming of political independence. The culture of these ancient feudal societies, despite much technical and intellectual excellence, was restricted to a small privileged class and rarely intermingled with the parallel unsophisticated folk culture of the general masses. Primitive tribal culture, despite its child-like beauty, had little intellectual content. Both feudal and tribal societies living contagiously in the same homelands were constantly engaged in tribal, racial, and religious or other feuds with their tribal and feudal rivals. Colonialist–imperialist domination accentuated this dual fragmentation, the vertical division among different tribal and national groups, and the horizontal division among different classes within the same tribal or national group. This is the basic ground structure, social and cultural, bequeathed to the newly liberated countries by their former overlords.
“Societal Complexity and Cultural Inheritance”
Culture within societies comprises external forms and inner ideologies, intricately linked to their social structure. Changes in society prompt modifications in culture, creating a symbiotic relationship where cultural expressions both shape and are shaped by societal shifts. Addressing cultural issues requires a holistic view encompassing social, political, and economic contexts.
Challenges in underdeveloped nations stem from halted progress caused by imperialist-colonialist legacies and outdated social structures. European Imperialism froze cultural and social advancements in Asian, African, and Latin American nations until their independence. Feudal societies restricted cultural excellence to elites, while primitive tribal cultures lacked depth. Coexisting societies often clashed, exacerbated by colonial dominance, intensifying divisions among tribes, races, and classes.
Colonial rule accentuated these divides, leaving liberated countries with fractured social and cultural legacies—vertical rifts among tribal and national groups, and horizontal divisions among classes within them. This intricate societal and cultural fragmentation persists as an enduring inheritance from colonial powers for these newly liberated nations.
CSS – PRECIS AND COMPOSITION PAPER 2012
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One of the most ominous and discreditable symptoms of the want of candour in present-day sociology is the deliberate neglect of the population question. It is, or should be, transparently clear that, if the state is resolved, on humanitarian grounds, to inhibit the operation of natural selection, some rational regulation of population, both as regards quality and quantity, is imperatively necessary. There is no self-acting adjustment, apart from starvation, of numbers to the means of subsistence. If all-natural checks are removed, a population in advance of the optimum number will be produced and maintained at the cost of a reduction in the standard of living. When this pressure begins to be felt, that section of the population which is capable of reflection and which has a standard of living which may be lost will voluntarily restrict its numbers, even to the point of failing to replace death by an equivalent number of new births; while the underworld, which always exists in every civilized society The failure and misfits and derelicts, moral and physical will exercise no restraint and will be a constantly increasing drain upon the national resources. The population will thus be recruited in a very undue proportion by those strata of society which do not possess the qualities of useful citizens. The importance of the problem would seem to be sufficiently obvious. But politicians know that the subject is unpopular. The urban has no votes. Employers are like a surplus of labour, which can be drawn upon when trade is good. Militarists want as much food for powder as they can get. Revolutionists instinctively oppose any real remedy for social evils; they know that every unwanted child is a potential insurgent. All three can appeal to a Quasi-Religious prejudice, resting apparently on the ancient theory of natural rights which were supposed to include the right of unlimited procreation. This objection is now chiefly urged by celibate or childless priests, but it is held with such fanatical vehemence that the fear of losing the votes which they control is a welcome excuse for the baser sort of politicians to shelve the subject as inopportune. The socialist calculation is probably erroneous; for experience has shown that it is aspiration, not desperation, that makes revolutions.
“Dismissal of Crucial Population Concerns“
The deliberate neglect of the population question in present-day sociology reveals a lack of candour. The necessity for rational population regulation, both in quantity and quality, is evident if the state aims to impede natural selection for humanitarian reasons. Unchecked, a population exceeding optimal levels strains resources, reducing living standards. Those with foresight and established living standards may limit offspring, while the less fortunate sections impose a growing burden on national resources, hindering the recruitment of valuable citizens.
Despite the issue’s significance, politicians shy away, perceiving it as unpopular. Urbanites lack political influence, employers view surplus labour favourably, and militarists seek an ample supply of recruits. Revolutionists resist real social remedies, seeing every unwanted child as a potential insurgent. Arguments rooted in a quasi-religious belief in natural rights, often fueled by celibate or childless priests, obstruct progress on this front.
However, the socialist notion that desperation fuels revolutions is likely mistaken. History shows that it’s aspirations, not desperation, that drive revolutions. The reluctance to address the population challenge stems from vested interests and ideological biases, undermining a crucial societal concern.
CSS – PRECIS AND COMPOSITION PAPER 2011
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The Psychological causes of unhappiness, it is clear, are many and various. But all have something in common. The typical unhappy man is one who having been deprived in youth of some normal satisfaction, has come to value this one kind of satisfaction more than any other, and has, therefore, given to his life a one-sided direction, together with a quite undue emphasis upon the achievement as opposed to the activities connected with it. There is, however, a further development which is very common in the present day. A man may feel so completely thwarted that he seeks no form of satisfaction, but only distraction and oblivion. He then becomes a devotee of “Pleasure”. That is to say, he seeks to make life bearable by becoming less alive. Drunkenness, for example, is temporary suicide; the happiness that it brings is merely negative, a momentary cessation of unhappiness. The narcissist and the megalomaniac believe that happiness is possible, though they may adopt mistaken means of achieving it; but the man who seeks intoxication, in whatever form, has given up hope except in oblivion. In his case the first thing to be done is to persuade him that happiness is desirable. Men, who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact. Perhaps their pride is like that of the fox who had lost his tail; if so, the way to cure it is to point out to them how they can grow a new tail. Very few men, I believe, will deliberately choose unhappiness if they see a way of being happy. I do not deny that such men exist, but they are not sufficiently numerous to be important. It is common in our day, as it has been in many other periods of the world’s history, to suppose that those among us who are wise have seen through all the enthusiasms of earlier times and have become aware that there is nothing left to live for. The man who hold this view are genuinely unhappy, but they are proud of their unhappiness, which they attribute to the nature of the universe and consider to be the only rational attitude for an enlightened man. Their pride in their unhappiness makes less sophisticated people suspicious of its genuineness; they think that the man who enjoys being miserable is not miserable.
Happiness Unhappiness Paradox
Unhappiness springs from diverse psychological origins, often rooted in early deprivations leading individuals to overvalue specific forms of satisfaction. This unbalanced focus sidelines other life activities, creating a one-dimensional pursuit of contentment. Some, feeling completely thwarted, seek solace solely in pleasure, akin to seeking oblivion, offering momentary relief but not genuine happiness.
Individuals resorting to intoxication abandon hope, embracing oblivion. Initiating change requires convincing them of the desirability of happiness. Despite some displaying pride in their unhappiness, akin to the fox without a tail, guiding them toward happiness might counter this pride. Few consciously choose unhappiness if offered a path to joy, though a minority uphold unhappiness as a rational stance, believing life lacks purpose. This view, recurrent throughout history, suggests enlightened individuals perceive existence as devoid of meaning. However, this pride in unhappiness raises doubt about its authenticity, with observers perceiving enjoyment in misery as contradictory.
CSS – PRECIS AND COMPOSITION PAPER 2010
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Of all the characteristics of ordinary human nature, envy is the most unfortunate; not only does the envious person wish to inflict misfortune and do so whenever he can with impunity, but he is also himself rendered unhappy by envy. Instead of deriving pleasure from what he has, he derives pain from what others have. If he can, he deprives others of their advantages, which to him is as desirable as it would be to secure the same advantages himself. If this passion is allowed to run riot it becomes fatal to all excellence, and even to the most useful exercise of exceptional skill. Why should a medical man go to see his patients in a car when the labourer has to walk to his work? Why should the scientific investigator be allowed to spend his time in a warm room when others have to face the inclemency of the elements? Why should a man who possesses some rare talent of great importance to the world be saved from the drudgery of his housework? To such questions, envy finds no answer. Fortunately, however, there is in human nature a compensating passion, namely that of admiration. Whoever wishes to increase human happiness must wish to increase admiration and to diminish envy. What cure is there for envy? For the saint, there is the cure of selflessness, though even in the case of saints envy of other saints is by no means impossible. But, leaving saints out of account, the only cure for envy in the case of ordinary men and women is happiness, and the difficulty is that envy is itself a terrible obstacle to happiness. But the envious man may say: ‘What is the good of telling me that the cure for envy is happiness? I cannot find happiness while I continue to feel envy, and you tell me that I cannot cease to be envious until I find happiness.’ But real life is never so logical as this. Merely to realize the causes of one’s envious feelings is to take a long step towards curing them.
“Envy and Admiration: A Complex Human Battle”
Envy, the most unfortunate human trait, causes unhappiness by both wishing misfortune on others and feeling discontent at their advantages. It stifles excellence and skill, driving a desire to diminish others’ advantages. Admiration serves as a counterbalance, essential for fostering happiness and diminishing envy.
While saints may find solace through selflessness, ordinary individuals battle envy with happiness. However, envy often obstructs the path to happiness. Understanding the roots of envy marks a crucial step toward its cure, offering hope for individuals navigating this internal conflict.