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recall any day when you did not see or read any incident of man killing man? You cant,

you just cant. In earlier times people had less brains but big hearts, less money but peace

of mind. Savages and even the people during the pre-modern times were socially active.By socially active, I mean people thought about one another, if someone was in trouble

he would have been helped instantly, the joys and sorrows were shared equally and

emotionally by all. Nothing of that sort of sensitivity is visible anywhere now. Peoplenow do not care to know about who their next door neighbor is. Man not helping man is

the biggest shame of modern times. In spite of all these this inhuman acts, we call

ourselves modern and civilized, but are we in the real sense of the term? I leave thatupon you.

H.G Wells wrote about wars- Hundreds and thousands of men uniformly dressed,

carrying diverse deadly weapons go to the war killing those whom they do not know and

who have done them no wrong, and those who stay at home rejoice at the murder ofmen. Killing those whom they do not know and who have done them no wrong- is this

a behavior of a truly civilized set of people? The savages killed only those who have

caused harm to them, but these civilized men kill those whom they do not know and

who have done them no wrong. And I wont criticize science for providing us withdeadly weapons; rather I would blame us for using those weapons for destructive

purposes. We always have two choices, good or bad. Its our fault that we always choosebad over the good. The holocaust witnessed in Nagasaki and Hiroshima is just recent

history. The after effects are still prevalent and widely visible if looked in to. War is not

at all productive. War must be condemned. And it is only possible if we come out of the

selfish interest shell of ours and think on a wider range. We have to first win the warthats going on inside us. The war between good and evil. Until and unless we are able to

defeat the evil that resides in us, we are incapable of making our society a better place.

We are far away from being refined in tastes and interest than that of our forefathers.

Ancient traditions, culture, customs are slowly getting extinct. We are forgetting our

roots. We are busy in imitating the west and eventually losing our own creativity. Whereare new breakthroughs in science or in literature? I am here talking exclusively about

theoretical breakthroughs. It has come to a standstill.

Next criteria of being truly civilized are self controlled and fair spoken. I will not

elucidate much on this. Suppose you are reading this article very carefully and

attentively, by mistake somebody pushes you and your concentration breaks. What would

your reaction be? You would definitely not let go of him easily without saying him a fewbad words or in extreme cases without putting your hand up to slap him. Now you decide

that are we really self controlled in our behaviour and fair spoken in our speech?

One for oneself- is the limited scope of life now. There is duality in words and

expressions- that is the shape of modern politics. The greater equivocation the more

successful the politician is. All this because life has become governed more by reasonand less by conscience or emotion. Science tends to give training in more rational

thinking and where reason overtakes emotion takes a backseat.

I hope by now you have understood who were better of we or our ancestors.

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Progress lies not in ones acquisition, in ones wealth, in ones possessions. Progress

without peace is hardly a progress; this progress is like going up a step on the ladder and

sliding back two in the process. All progress is vain if there is no contentment. Body,mind and soul- this is the complete being and all these three need to be nourished,

nurtured and normalized- that society, that nation, alone can claim the real fruits and

pleasures of progress which combines and correlates all these three- one to the other.Contentment is the seed of all peace and peace is the path to progress.

So, to be truly civilized we need to progress steadily and it follows that self contentmentis the master key. Another proposition derived is that Science without Conscience is the

ruin of mankind.

Chaitali Chowdhury

B.A. (Hons.) English