Presented by: Devdutt Pattanaik
Abstract: Our children are not being taught about jealousy. How to identify it, regulate it, remove it. STEM cannot measure jealousy. Art and literature document jealousy, but Humanities do not factor the role of jealousy in political decisions and economic policies. Jealousy is normalised, seen as necessary to develop a competitive spirit in school, workplaces and media. So billionaires, statesmen and academicians now crave for the phenomenal logic-defying success of Trump and Kim Kardashian. This is the outcome of over-estimating science, logic and debate, the Greek method of manufacturing knowledge, and the Biblical nature of education that seeks ‘one truth’. Everyone is jealous of those who have access to that one truth, hence the need to replace it with a new truth, hence the privileging of combat over curiosity. This is obvious to anyone not raised in the West, especially those for whom all of West Asia is part of the West. Jealousy breeds focus. Focus makes things venomous. It needs to be diluted with ‘perspective’ if we wish to heal. Mythology is the toolkit for that. It helps us appreciate other people’s assumptions i.e., myths of the world, once translated as ‘falsehood’ but now best understood as ‘cultural truths’.