Saturday, August 13, 2022

INTEGRATION OF SCIENCES WITH POLITICS OPENS A NEW ERA OF GOVERNANCE

Leftists and Rightists are poles apart as per their ideological and political commitments. And they stick to their flagstaffs. In their old hats, the two political antagonists obsessively march on their idealized paths and parallel each other. Settled on their hard-line perches, they avoid spotting the changing ground realities. Leftists worldwide still cherish Lenin's socialism in Russia or Maoism in China without realizing none of the isms seem practised by the ruling elite in these two nations. Instead, their socialism paved the way for despotism. The dictatorships masked under socialism and communism in Cuba and Venezuela are other examples of Leftists' impulse and greed for power. And the same goes for people on the Right or far-Right side of the ideological mindset. There are Trumps all over the USA, Modi Bhagats, or his ardent followers in India. The ex-Philippine leader Duterte, Brazilian president Bolsonaro, and Hungary's Viktor Orban steer the same political wagons pushed by blind followers on the Right track. The leaders activate nationalism and patriotism on both fronts. And the mundane Janata, with their bullheaded pledge, think no more about how corrupt, powerful, greedy, or even brutal the systems, Left or Right, can be. After all, human psychology and behaviour influence the working of these divergent ideologies. The Left's lofty idealism and the Right's wealth promise stop far from Janata's expectations of prosperity and peace. Until now, the Left-Right doctrines and their political stripes are meaningless, notably for that section of humanity still toiling in poverty, hunger, and disease; discriminated against, exploited, and victimized in the class and caste-ridden backdrop. The promises of these political isms, which have more academic showcasing than their pragmatism, have not produced a peaceful and hunger-free world, and the environments are seriously damaged. Fraudulent presidents, prime ministers, autocrats, dictators, tyrants, narcissists, illiterates, and idiots have elected and re-elected themselves under democratic, socialist, and communist regimes. The vulnerability of the political systems got exposed. The reason is there is no mix or an insignificant mix of scientific rationales, philosophical foresight, and spiritual sanity in their foundations. In this exposed reality, the contemporary world must build a more pragmatic and bona fide path that can lead it beyond the Right and the Left binary. The challenge lies in getting out of the box. Nations across the globe have changed where the dilapidated Left-Right structures need either demolition or an extensive upgrade. If not, the global community demands an alternative political concept that applies to the community of nations while catering to their specific needs and identities. The neoteric concept, free from the polarized ideological conventions and practices, seeks an integrated and common-sense approach. It develops a system that encompasses the wisdom and philosophies of the political scientists, along with the knowledge, insight and prudence offered by the scientific, social and religious scholarships. There is a considerable gap between the dominant Left-Right political sphere and the knowledge and wisdom generated by the natural and social sciences. Political science must lead in this transformation to fill the gap. The academic faculty has to move from its traditional confines of suggesting strategies, analysis, guidelines on how to win power or govern, etc. The evolution of a new political ideology, which should be imperative, involves almost all the natural and social sciences, philosophies, metaphysics, and wisdom manifested in spiritual orders. In this integrated approach, the political spectrum of Marxism and Leninism, conservatism and liberalism, capitalism and socialism, or any simulated entities can be more acceptable to contemporary society than their present consent. Evolution in political ideologies is a hypothesis where political science can expand its studies to determine and encourage the involvement of basic and laboratory-based sciences, philosophical, critical, intellectual disciplines, and religious fundamentals in the political systems. Inspired by the fact that sciences and institutional faculties offer systematic and observable physical evidence and logical argumentation, the premise can build more feasible and pertinent political pathways leading to better management of civil society. As noticed in the Coronavirus pandemic, the constructive infusion of science or scientific evidence into a political system strengthens its policy decisions. It generates quality debate for overall benefits to society. A growing number of scientists worldwide seek their professional engagement in policymaking to ensure the political system maximizes the knowledge that science generates. Besides being in its observatory and analyzing tasks of dealing with governing systems, political thoughts, and studying political activities, political science must seek a plurality of social and scientific disciplines that offer creditable connections with human behaviour and environmental concerns. Moreover, political science can actively participate in developing and implementing political ideology. It can review whether a political gospel needs some updating or renounced altogether. The laws of physics, the formulas and equations in chemistry and mathematics, or the biological and physiological phenomena may or may not directly generate political thought, but their mechanisms guide its plausible acceptance. However, human psychology is one science that directly impacts inducing political thinking, its acceptance or rejection, and its implementation. Without going into detailed explanations, it is the study of individuals' emotional and behavioural sentiments and the community of people related to natural or human-made situations. Psychology gives an assessed value of a political ideology. The psychology of human nature or behaviour impacts the practicality of any political order and its idealism of achieving economic development and social and religious equality of people. After all, "the key to good policymaking is to understand human nature," according to Peter A. Ubel, an American physician and a proponent of Scientocracy. It is not "about a world ruled by behavioural scientists, or any other kind of scientists." Instead, he argues, "imagining a government of the people, but informed by scientists." However, I move further than that, where scientists take direct enrollment in developing a modern political structure that replaces the outdated orders from corrupted democracy to socialism or communism. And where rationales and purity of thought guide the formation of policies that also align with human psychology. -Promod Puri