Page 18 - All India Magazine Jan-2025

Students

Disease called utilitarianism
Why are no diplomas and certificates given to the students of the
Centre of Education?

For the last hundred years or so mankind has been suffering from
a disease which seems to be spreading more and more and which
has reached a climax in our times; it is what we may call "utilitari-
anism". People and things, circumstances and activities seem to
be viewed and appreciated exclusively from this angle. Nothing
has any value unless it is useful. Certainly something that is useful
is better than something that is not. But first we must agree on
what we describe as useful — useful to whom, to what, for what?
For, more and more, the races who consider themselves ci-
vilised describe as useful whatever can attract, procure or pro-
duce money. Everything is judged and evaluated from a monetary
angle. That is what I call utilitarianism. And this disease is highly
contagious, for even children are not immune to it.
At an age when they should be dreaming of beauty, greatness
and perfection, dreams that may be too sublime for ordinary com-
mon sense, but which are nevertheless far superior to this dull
good sense, children now dream of money and worry about how
to earn it.
So when they think of their studies, they think above all about
what can be useful to them, so that later on when they grow up
they can earn a lot of money.
And the thing that becomes most important for them is to
prepare themselves to pass examinations with success, for with
diplomas, certificates and titles they will be able to find good posi-
tions and earn a lot of money.
For them study has no other purpose, no other interest.
To learn for the sake of knowledge, to study in order to know

18 All India Magazine, January 2025