slipping forward... pessoptimism

Im reading IN SPITE OF THE GODS by Edward Luce which tells the weird growth story of India, inspite of all the drawbacks it faces. I havent formed any opinion on the book.

But a series of related events & articles have been observed by me lately:

- Mulayam's English hatao, computer hatao

- Shobha De's article against him in today's Times

- Sri Rama Sene attacks & an interview by the founder to Outlook

- A friend's shock at seeing a temple in front of a 1000 year old cave complex

- BJP & Congress circulars promising PDS grains at 2-5 Rs./ kg

- a friend's narration of wheat imports from Australia lying unattended on some port

- BJP & CPM's anti-nuclear stand

- Maoist attacks on election booths

- Lack of leadership by any party

- Criticism of new candidates from the corporate world

These are in no particular order. My observation is that while most of us are happy at the post 90s liberalization, we cannot make up our minds whether to move forward with the world or go back to pre-industrial world (a.la. Pol Pot). Luce talks about modernization reducing no of jobs in industries, Mulayam of the same due to computer related automation, & so on...

I cannot comprehend how one can miss the point that the world has always been changing. I can only imagine a Neanderthal walking upto me & saying I have extinguished his foraging lifestyle & job due to agricultural inputs. In the same sense, mechanization of agriculture has led to reduction in jobs available in rural areas. Modernization of machinery has the same impact on industrial & service sectors. 

At any point in time, one type of profession is going out while the other is being born. The difference today lies in the speed of change. Earlier professions changed at the rate of a few generations; now they change atleast 3 times within the same generation. I wanted to be an architect, but after coming out I realized I couldn't achieve all my dreams being just an architect. So, I specialized into landscape architecture. A few years down the line, maybe I'll specialize in landscape planning exclusively. I am ready for the change & I think everyone should be.

We do not live in a Nehruvian world where job security was paramount. The nature of the profession changes every 5 years today & there is no way we can provide lifetime job assurance. Even for the farmers, job definition has changed from subsistence farming to edible foods to cash crops to exclusive oil crops to contract farming with industry to demand based farming & cold chain management & so on.....

The question again, as has been raised in my last post, lies in whether we can provide requisite infrastructure to everyone. Unless we can do that, we will never solve our unemployment problem.