 All my life I have wanted to learn something new, to master it and then to refute it for the sake of something newer. But now I am beginning to feel that being conservative is not that bad. Why have I become attracted to peace and calm? And is it really peace and calm? I will try to give the answer.
A person should not develop faster than his own awareness of the sense and direction of his development. Otherwise his movement forward turns into a spontaneous motion FROM a “drought” or TO “greener grass”. Such people think that the most important thing is to move forward and see what will come out of it.
For example, the authors of the Marxist theory were mere philosophers. Later it was decided that it was time to put their ideas into practice and start the innovations. Nobody knew what to expect. Nobody foresaw that the results of the fight would turn into a world drama and a real tragedy for some countries. I can see one more tragedy here - an ideological one. Marxism was the last attempt of a philosophy to be at the front line of human activity. It was the last attempt to foretell the future, having analyzed the past and the present. Since that time we have stopped trying to analyze and realize what happens around us. Well, I think that philosophers do try it but the majority of people are not interested in philosophy nowadays. Why should I understand my role in the universe if I know that somewhere at a distance of about 100 kilometres there is a lot of dosh and I just need to get to the place faster than anybody else..? And as soon as I get the money I will be able to buy all the happiness and success in the world! Philosophers are not popular any more. People do not believe them.
At some point religion also lost people’s trust. Religion used to work quite well for many centuries. It united nations and at the same time helped them keep their identity. It is important to mention that religion provided a perfect picture of the world: everything had its place and position. The notion of “Good and Evil” was absolutely clear. Renovating things was not worth the trouble because people knew that “the thing that hath been, it is that which shall be…and there is no new thing under the sun”. A person understood clearly what the purpose of his life was.
Productive forces have destroyed relations of production, and following the collapse of the foundations, the superstructure also came to pieces.
This is what we have at the moment. Not a long ago I came across an interesting book published in 1983 by “Chemistry and Life” publishing house. In the book prominent scientists of different times, Nobel Prize winners and greatest minds, presented their reports of the discoveries they or their colleagues had made. This is what I noticed – before the 1960s the authors always tried to fit their personal activity into the picture of the whole world. More contemporary authors write about their achievements, victories, problems, about human genius and stupidity. But none of them writes about the role which an individual plays in the whole world of humanity. Nobody wants to know what particular place they occupy in this “cauldron of human race”. Why is it so? May be, it is because they think: ”It is not my job to find the place my activity fills in the world . I am a free person. I am a professional. I use the work of other professionals in my activity. And if I have any questions about my personal role I will find all the necessary answers in the net”.
Why should people think about things that are not within their competence? Why should people think about things which interfere with their movement foward?
You can find morals in church, and spiritual sufferings are for poets and artists. We are busy. We only talk about our soul and the harmony of the world after a bottle of vodka or some dope. We have a healthy lifestyle. All our questions can be answered by experts on branding – they know how to reconcile one’s soul with the world, they will tell us who we are and where we are now. And then image-makers will work with our looks so that we can wholly correspond to the place and the time. All spheres of activity are separated.
A similar segregation existed in ancient India: each caste was busy doing its job. Brahmani talked to God, kshatriyi fought and controlled people, vajshii were busy with agriculture and trade, and sudri, the “untouchable”, were like dust off God’s feet. Each caste had its own morals and picture of the world. Every person had a limit for career growth and knew his rights and duties within his caste and towards other castes very well.
Present times are different. There are no boundaries. We jump over “castes”. Today you are a sudra and tomorrow you are a kshatriy. Does our consciousness have time to adjust itself to rapid changes? Do I have time to understand who I am at present moment? Confucius said that honesty is the best policy. They also said that the ways of war are the ways of deceit. Both these truths were believed for centuries and applied to life quite effectively. Can we answer the question - what are we doing now? When we intend to change something do we relocate our troops or give instructions to the embassy? Modern people live between two extremes. There is a thought that an intelligent person prefers not to act as he is aware that the result of his actions is unpredictable. Such a person is usually not happy with the result either. On the other hand, if you have to take decisions it is not a good idea to be slow.
It seems to me that if one does not fit his activity in the general picture there is not, and cannot, be a clear-cut aim.
The magnitude of one’s aim depends on how much of the outside world his mind can comprehend.
If one sees the picture of the whole great world and is willing to interlace his activity with what happens around him his aim automatically becomes more significant and his service more sensible.
Well, this is about time to speak of innovations. But I won’t. I just want to say that it would be nice to see masters of their own lives around, i.e. the people who understand the ways microcosm interacts with macrocosm. It is like galloping across your own fields, whose size you know well. And you are acquainted with all the neighbours. You feel comfortable and you are free to choose the direction of your movement. You can even “unleash your greyhounds”, that is speed up and introduce some innovations in order toachieve success.
May be, it is the very peace and calm I mentioned in the beginning? It is when you are aware of what you really do. You do not rush about in a hurry and with your eyes shut. Not any more.
Act calmly, bravely — as a real master of your life and business. | 
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