Saint 'Augustine' and Jean Jacques 'Rousseau' differ with regard to institution

Thinkers, philosophers, scholars and ideologues perhaps acquire greatness for their close observation of certain things gained through long experience. These observations or say findings later they propagate for the mass use and the latter benefits from those findings. At times it has also been seen that the findings of the ideologues or for that matter the thinkers become tentatively a rule for others. It has also been seen that those findings by early thinkers, philosophers and the likes set a pattern in the society that also concurrently could act like a guideline for the rest of the members of the society.

Two such thinkers have attracted my attention this week. I would wish to quote them both and prefer to compare their findings in the Nepalese scheme of things.

Saint Augustine (354-430) was a brilliant churchman and thinker and author of one of the classics of Christian thought, the City of God. Augustine maintained that "a human being is a dangerous creature"'. He also said once that "the evil in institutions is a result of the evil in human nature".

I wonder how this brilliant thinker could "guess" that human beings were dangerous creatures which they were indeed. I guess, Augustine had not come to this blunt conclusion considering the Nepalese human beings then. During his time perhaps Nepal as a nation-state was not even in existence. But yet how Augustine could reveal then a truth which we the Nepalese were being forced to understand.

I agree that human beings are dangerous creatures. These dangerous creatures, to the best of my knowledge, ruling the country. It is this set of dangerous ones who have looted the nation since all along 1950. These dangerous human beings could be seen in media, politics, in government, in bureaucracy and where not! The rest perhaps needs no further explanation, as we all have been the victims of this dangerous creature.

The second truth propounded by Augustine is that "the evil in institutions is a result of the evil in human nature" also fits into our scheme of things.

Saint Augustine is hundred percent correct. Institutions are institutions. After all it is the men handling the institution that makes an institution worth an institution. If a gentleman leads the institution, definitely the institution will function properly and provide good results. Conversely, if rotten egg or a set of rotten eggs runs the institution, naturally the end result would be chaotic which is what is happening to our "democratic institutions".

We have parliament. We have government. We have so many institutions. But look what has happened to our institutions. The men in the parliament accepts fake "medicine bills"'. The men in the government create scandals like Dhamiza, Lauda, China South-West. The men in government introduce "horse-trading" practices only to continue in power. The men in the parliament remain divided on matters of national interests, however, unanimously pass the bills that takes care of their increased perks and facilities and bla! Bla! Bla!

Definitely, it is the evil in Nepali human nature seated in institutions that have corroded the institutions itself. Institutions in itself can never be a bad institution. It is we the dangerous creatures that damage the institutions. Hence, Augustine is correct in his million-dollar revelation that fits in present day Nepali context.

The second thinker is Jean Jacques Rousseau (91712-1778). Rousseau was basically a tormented genius who suffered unbearably from loneliness and was acutely conscious of the disorders of modern society.

He differed with Augustine regarding institutions. He says, in essence, "' the evil in human nature is a consequence of the evil in institutions"'.

Rousseau's declaration is very difficult to understand and digest as well.

I strongly believe that institutions can never be evil in it and hence there is no question of the speechless institutions making the men in the institutions corrupt. For example, I have never heard some one saying that this or that institution is a bad or an "evil" one. Yes! What I have heard is that the men manning the institutions over time have made it an evil institution. That's all.

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