[Essays] October Week3: Militant Atheism, Rational Consumption, Ecocide, Prosperity without Morality

1. India, Governance
2. Science/IT/Technology
3. Literature
4. Development vs Environment
5. History, Culture, Society, religion

Write an essay on any one of the following topics, in not more than 2500 words. (250 marks):

India, Governance

1. India needs hard power — economic, military, scientific, political and diplomatic.
2. Governance requires persistence, not adventurism. (Jaitley- context why not naming black money account holders.)
3. The blurring lines between State powers and corporate power.
4. State funding of elections- first step towards good governance.

Science/IT/Technology

1. If Science was integrated in national and global decision Making process… (Ban Ki Moon- says if that happens, MDG can be achieved.)
2. Cyberspace: new frontier of knowledge or new frontier of battlefield? (Modi’s advice to commanders, to get ready for cyber warfare)
3. The need digital sovereignty. (China creating its own IT companies to combat facebook, Brazil forcing IT companies to store user data within Brazil, NSA spying on other countries through cyberspace)
4. When the thirst for knowledge and learning stops.. (Modi)

Literature

1. Does advancement in technology portend the death of literature? (Context: young generation too busy on social media. Although The new Booker prize winner disagrees with this statement.)
2. Literature- one of our greatest spiritual, aesthetic and intellectual invention. (says the new Booker prize winner Richard Flanagan.)

Development vs Environment

1. The consequences of prosperity without sense of morality. Context: 11th(!) Jinping says this has led to environmental harm. Can also be connected to ‘hidden euthanasia’ of elderly as Pope described, the commodification of women and their wombs for surrogating, commodification of education by coaching industry and so on.
2. Rational consumption and green consciousness: The Yin and Yang of sustainable development. (11th Jinping again.)
3. Genocide, ‘culturocide’ and ecocide- three challenges to human security. (Vice Prez.)
4. The Silent Diwali. (Dr. Harsh Vardhan context- noise pollution but can be also looked from poverty, deprivation, and child labour angle.)

History, Culture, Society, religion

1. Without development of knowledge and reason, a civilization cannot advance. (Vice President)
2. If future remains a continuation of the past, our world risks both implosion and explosion. (Eric Hobsbawm)
3. All human history was a history of Violence. (The message in new booker prize winner “Narrow road to deep north”).
4. Militant atheism is not an answer to religious extremism.
5. Without compassion, Peace cannot be sustained. (Satyarthi. Context- India-Pakistan, child labour, poverty crime and extremism.)
6. Humans need to become cooperative rather than competitive.  (Vice Prez)
7. Passivity in the face of bias: right or wrong? (Satya Nadella while regreting his remark that Women employees should not ask for pay rise)
8. Exclusion and bias — conscious and unconscious — hold back a nation’s progress. (Satya Nadella)
9. Elderly population is an asset of the nation. (Social justice minister).

For earlier lists, visit Mrunal.org/essays.