Sundeep Waslekar: From Despair to Hope

Image: Vikas Khot; Illustration: Hemal Sheth; Imaging: Sushil Mhatre

Sundeep Waslekar, President, Strategic Foresight Group

An alumnus of St John’s College, Oxford University, Sundeep Waslekar has advised governments across the world on international policy. He is among the pioneers of Track Two diplomacy processes in South Asia and an early advocate of the G-20 architecture of global governance. He is also the author of three books on global governance. He has facilitated talks between Indian and Pakistani leaders, heads of Nepalese political parties and post 9/11, between leaders of Islamic and Western nations. Waslekar was a faculty member of the World Economic Forum and has addressed its meetings in Davos.

We live in two worlds. One is the world of hope. The other is the world in despair.

In our world of hope, the Internet will soon operate at 10,000 times its present speed. In this world, a new scalpel will dissect a single cell in our blood. Gene-line modification will enable the birth of designer babies. In this world, human civilisation will spread to outer space, sea waters will be sweetened using nano-technology for desalination and synthetic germs will absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
In the world in despair, 10 million children will die this year and every year because of inadequate nutrition and healthcare. In this world, there are 50 million refugees, 100 million homeless and 1,000 million slum-dwellers. In the world in despair, a billion people do not get clean water. Over a billion and half live in darkness without power.

Those of us who live in the world of hope live in an illusion that we can escape the world in despair. We build electric fences in Johannesburg. We hide slums in Karachi and Cairo. We perform laser shows in Wan Chai.

We honour the corporate bigwigs in Mumbai and host lavish wedding parties in New Delhi. We erect high walls to safeguard our settlements in Jerusalem. We block roads outside our embassies all over the world. We believe that the might can neglect the right and name and fame can ignore shame. We live in an illusion.

The world in despair can encroach on the world of hope. When its level rises, the sea assaults the land and makes groundwater saline. When a black hole expands, it absorbs all stars nearby. Climate change, pandemics, crime and terrorism are varied expressions of the same malaise. They demonstrate the potential of the world in despair to aggrandise itself. Our barricades, walls and soldiers are of no use.

The difference between the two worlds is not merely material. It is about different concepts of power, which is derived from conflicting ideas of the nature of man. It is about our willingness to be guided by moral compass. Our sages strived hard to impart wisdom. We adorn our libraries with Analytics of Confucius, Ethics of Aristotle, Vedas, Upanishads and the Holy Koran. But we immerse our lives in avarice, glitter, hypocrisy and a blind pursuit of power.

There is nothing wrong with power per se. The world of hope is driven by power in Bertrand Russell’s vision. It is the ability to achieve intended outcomes. It is about capacity to create, learn, progress. The world in despair is driven by power in Max Weber’s vision. It is the strength to force someone to do what you want them to do against their resistance.

This conflict has its origins in a debate in China more than two millennia ago. An old sage called Mencius professed that the nature of man was intrinsically good as did Rousseau centuries later. He was challenged by Xunzi who argued that the nature of man was intrinsically evil and he found a follower in Hobbes some 1,800 years later. Russell drew his inspiration from Confucius, Mencius and Rousseau. Weber was persuaded by Xunzi, Machiavelli and Hobbes. The two visions created two worlds in which we live now.

We could afford the dichotomy for centuries because the stakes were low. The wars of the 17th Century annihilated one-third of the European population but spared enough to build a new continent and conquer the rest of the world. The wars of the last century killed 100 million people but spared enough to build a new planet and conquer outer space.

The 21st century is different from the past. We now live in an era where terror, technology and temperature have evolved to a level that does not recognise boundaries between nations. We live in an era where shrinking rivers and fleeing refugees do not read constitutions. We live in an era where pathogens do not recognise patriotism. We live an era where our world of hope is no longer secluded from the world in despair.

If we want the world in despair to retreat, we must ensure that the world of hope expands. It means we practise Bertrand Russell’s concept of power and trust Rousseau’s explanation of human nature. It means we allow compassion to replace competition, dialogue to replace discord, sharing to replace secrecy and generosity to replace greed. It means we all have one dream, a dream of one world where everyone lives in hope and none in despair.

The greatest idea of the 21st Century would be for all of mankind to have one dream. We must remember that most impossible dreams are possible. Once upon a time, a frail old man dreamt of an independent nation and today India is liberated from foreign yoke. Once upon a time a preacher dreamt that the son of a black man and the son of a white man would sit at the same table.
And today, a son of a black man and a daughter of white parents shape the affairs of their world together.

Once upon a time a politician dreamt that a nation needed inner strength more than an army to protect itself. And today the two safest countries in the world are the ones without weapons and armed forces.

Since dreams come true, let’s dream of a world where there are no refugees and starving children. Let’s dream of a world where nature is nurtured. Let’s dream of a world where human spirit is harnessed. Let’s dream of a world in which everyone has a stake. Let’s dream of a world that is one.

(Based on the author’s keynote address at the Rotary International District 3140 conference in Mumbai in February 2010)