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Use your power, young people. Or someone else would || Acharya Prashant, at BITS Pilani, Goa (2022)
15.3K views
3 years ago
Conflict
Inner Education
Propaganda
Hypocrisy
Environmentalism
Democracy
Social Media
Self-Knowledge
Description

Acharya Prashant responds to a question about conflict management, hypocrisy, and entitlement, particularly in the context of environmentalism and "wokeism." The questioner highlights the hypocrisy of a middle-class Indian using a coal-powered air conditioner being criticized, while electric vehicles (EVs), which involve destructive mining, are promoted as eco-friendly. Acharya Prashant dismisses this as propaganda and a lack of knowledge, explaining that the battery in an EV is an environmental disaster. He points out the vast amount of soil unearthed for rare elements and that in countries like India, these cars are charged by coal-fired plants. When these facts are known, the moral superiority of an EV diminishes. He calls this a clear case of a lack of propaganda for the right information and encourages people to use social media to publicize these facts, as corporations will not. He then explains that all conflict, including wars, first starts within the mind. When a war is raging internally, one necessarily seeks external enemies. Therefore, the solution is inner education and knowing oneself. Without this inner education, scientific and technological advancements merely provide more sophisticated tools to internally ignorant people. He illustrates this with the image of an internally flustered, hateful, unfulfilled, and angry person having their finger on the nuclear button. He notes that most nuclear powers are democracies, and it is the people who elect politicians and give them command over nuclear stockpiles. The darkness in our own minds leads us to put dark people in positions of power. The solution, he asserts, must be a mass awareness that arises from the grassroots, beginning with each individual. He emphasizes that conferences and summits often fail to bring solutions; for instance, the Treaty of Versailles, a peace conference, led to World War II. He concludes by urging the youth to take responsibility. He states that the older generations are ruining the planet and will soon be gone, leaving the younger generation to bear the brunt. Therefore, it is up to the youth to stand up, fight for what is right, and make their lives and the planet worth living.