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Social Evolution - Its Theory as Witnessed in Newspapers

 

November 24, 2002

            We at The Mother's Service Society have fashioned a Theory of Social Evolution based on the Theory of creation of Sri Aurobindo. It is a work of application of an original theory to the field of human life. The basis embraces the entire creation. The theory, as conceived of, endeavours to cover the whole of organised human society.

            In 32 basic principles, the theory states what it stands for and tries to see these principles emerge through every facet of existence such as organisation, money, transport, education, communication, enlarging population, etc. Our theory is as follows:

The collective subconscious society is seeking experience in its physical existence in all its phases from survival to evolution, releasing the needed energy by its inner self-determinism which is organised for effective existence. The subconscious experience of the collective becomes the conscious comprehension in the pioneering individual who, appearing in ripe time, leads, rising to subtle heights of greater power, keeping his eye on the cause that leads to effect never allowing it to reverse the direction as it becomes a fetter.

Theoretically each of these 32 principles and their ways of emergence in daily existence must be discovered in the functioning of your organisation. The salient feature of the Theory is a list of endless statements of energetic expressions of life. Some of them are.

  • For an organisation to come into existence, the society, its mother, creates the needed potential far in excess of the actual requirement.
  • One value of the organisation raised to perfection will raise the whole very high.
  • An organisation can rise to any heights it chooses.
  • Her energies lie in three levels of the head, the structure and its body, the ratio being 1:10:1000.
  • Even in the most unsupportive, hostile atmosphere an organisation can survive and grow, if it chooses.
  • Unorganised efficiency offers unlimited fulfillment.
  • The family in future will be replaced by the unit of organisation.
  • Something like the enlarging population, when it changes character, changes from being a menace to an ever increasing opportunity that is a blessing.
  • The more a nation is organised, the freer it is from the catastrophes of Nature, especially if its organisation does not base itself on violence.
  • Education is the organised personality of a society.
  • Partial efficiencies will lead to unforeseen negative effects.
  • Happiness of the collective that reaches every individual issues from approaches that are total.
  • Something that spreads like wildfire is the knowledge of the physical of that thing.
  • The past lives in the present; but we must foster the essence and not form.
  • The Formula of Eternal happiness is now possible as the society is having inklings of its totality.
  • The secret of that Formula is the good in excess in the context of the whole.
  • An individual or even an organisation can be enjoying everlasting success and joy when its outlook is self-giving and its efficiency is organised to yield results.

I wish to dwell on that aspect of a newspaper that determines its circulation. Economic growth in a literate society gives a newspaper increasing circulation. The percentage of literacy and the number of copies of newspapers per thousand population in most cases are in the ratio of 2:1. In countries of 60% literacy about 30 copies of newspapers are purchased by 1000 population. Beyond this rate, the relation between these two figures changes with no possible correspondence with the earlier phase. An exception is Mauritius which has 70 % literacy and 75 copies per thousand population. Though it is an exception, we understand such a performance is not impossible. The general impression that sensationalism sells the paper whereas idealism oppresses is true within limits. By blending both on the higher side, a newspaper rose from 15,000 to 2,50,000 in three years. While sensation is undesirable and idealism is not practicable, it is true the higher side of sensation combining with the practical aspect of idealism can succeed as never before.

            The growth of society is largely unorganised. Sectors like education and trade enjoy the benefit of conscious organisation from the initiative of the beneficiaries and the regulation of the presiding administration. Whatever the organisation of newspaper is from inside the field, the receiving end of the society of reading public is outside the pale of any conceivable organisation effort. The Indian economy is endeavouring to expand. In the last two decades newspapers have shown an intense tendency to grow with the growing economy, notwithstanding the marked symptoms of stagnation and decline in South India. The case of organisation for efficiency needs no defence. A nation that defends herself by an efficient disciplined army can choose to defend her borders by the surging patriotism of her armed citizens, degenerating into acts of terrorism and guerilla attack. Economic growth in India is unorganised. The spread of newspapers is part of it. Suppose the reading of newspapers can become an organised activity, it will be discovered that the potential is ten-fold.

 

            Any activity such as cultivation or education sits among an excess that is often several fold. No shirt can be made without waste nor can a page of a notebook be fully utilised. Tracing from papermaking via notebook making to actual writing space on the page, it is seen the unutilised excess is great. In times of scarcity, the society draws upon this excess for survival. We see a similar phenomenon even in times of fast growth. The fact is such an excess exists. It is worthwhile knowing the extent of such an excess potential for circulation growth. According to the theory, in this case that excess will range from 10 to 15 times its present utilisation. A survey designed for that purpose will reveal it. Anyway, two-fold growth cannot be denied when the organisation takes its effort fully.

  • When freshets of one foot flow through a river, the bed of 100 feet below is filled and on either side for miles the aquifer is charged making the flow insignificant in volume.
  • The success of DMK in 1967 elections which has come to stay till today was not understood either by the DMK or its opponents before 1967. The vote-catching power of MGR was not realised till he came to power

Examples apart, for a phenomenon to come to pass, theoretically, a vast excess is required and it can be drawn upon. The Republicans in USA limited to two the number of terms a President can serve, fearing the invasion of Democratic candidates on the strength of personal charisma. Roosevelt's popularity made this. USA is the most powerful democracy. At least the Republicans never gauged the depth of conservatism of the population till Ike and Reagan came on the scene. The unseen excess in any field is there as it must be there.

 

When Ike was elected, an advertisement saying "Ike, I need you" where a man was leading a dog and looking up at Ike on the balcony acquired a controversy as it was subliminal advertising. It was banned then. The subliminal is spread all over the universe and therefore far more powerful than the surface mind. The modern world knows its power. It has two sides. We must use only the right side.

The Theory says the following that is relevant to NEWS.

  • The physical rural man has moved up to be the mental urban man.
  • Man is gregarious. Physically man lives together with others. Vitally, gregariousness is fulfilled by NEWS.
  • Though man has moved to the mind, his roots and strength are in the physical.
  • Even in Science that is mental it is the physical part that is attractive.
  • Tourism is an expression of a physical need, involving physical movement.
  • Rituals and festivals are popular because they are physical activities.
  • Man's growth is towards the collective and therefore he enjoys gatherings.
  • News that has a physical bias will be most popular.
  • Accidents are a negative expression of that. Reporting on WAR is its acme.

How to design a Survey?

 

  • Asking readers for response is partial, sometimes misleading, as readers do not really KNOW what they want.
  • Apart from the question and answer sessions, observing a group of people discussing NEWS will better reveal their real interest.
  • When you observe a reader naturally going to a news item, he reveals unconsciously what he seeks. He may even deny it. In a discussion observe to what news item the person unconsciously goes. If it is the very same thing in all, you have put your finger on the nerve centre.
  • It can be graded.
  • Not only is the questioner to be trained, but when he has found out the secret, the reporter too must be trained.
  • Positioning the article in the pages of the paper is equally an art.
  • When these basic principles are known, to design the survey and to train the reporter and editorial staff are all possible.

Opportunity and capacity to avail of it.

 

  • Supposing we have uncovered ten times subscribers, is our organisation capable of availing it?
  • Without ad revenue rising commensurately, wider subscription is a grave digger.
  • The rule for enhanced subscription is the same to raise ad income.
  • Granting them both, are they enough?
  • The organisation that is Proprietary should move to one of a system-based and one that releases the energies, if not the enthusiasm of all workers at all levels.

The inquiry moves from subscription, to ads, to organisation and thus covers all aspects of the company. One has two options at two extremes and several grades in between.

  • As soon as subscription shows a steep rise, the company can hasten to 'organise' itself to avail of its benefits in some fashion or other. It will be the minimum, a double fold expansion.
  • The maximum will be to open up all aspects of the company and organise them each in harmony with the others. This will enable the company to grow endlessly.
  • The maximum capacity of the organisation sums up as the AUTHORITY of that capacity which is the value of the company as well as the Individuals there. When each member of the company acquires it as a company value in the Individual, he acquires an invaluable TOOL of personal progress if he can find its version that suits his family personality. Such a TOOL can give him the maximum progress one can make in the society.

Resources

By definition a company has a resource with every point of its contact. So, newspapers have great resources as they are more than a mere manufacturing company. All these resources will be available to us if we turn to them in self-giving. That way we will discover a source of energy and support which is a hundred times more than what we now use. It is one thing to know the existence of such resources and another thing to bring them to bear upon our company meaningfully. The story of the Reader's Digest is well known. But it is NOT known what he has done. By his own reading interest, he discovered the most basic interest of the readers. Our paper has ten or twenty sections. We can discover by a theoretical research a practically useful method to arrive at the formula which will make each section of the paper read like the Reader's Digest. Thus the contents will be great. Man's INTEREST is the greatest when it is based on the physical, is energised by the vital and enlightens the mind. Their harmonious combination yields the greatest results. The Reader's Digest discovered it unconsciously.

Achievement

 

            Methods achieve. Man accomplishes. One is transitory, the other is a permanent possession.



story | by Dr. Radut