DECLINE OF INDIC RELIGIONS: AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CAUSES THEREOF.

NOTE: In this article, the term Indic refers to the autochthonous religions of South Asia, Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, but excluding Sikhism, which is a relatively recent religion. In some cases, the term Hinduism is used instead of Indic religions for convenience.

The ideas and views presented here come from a perspective of inspiring reform and lifting Indic religions out of the declining trajectory they have been on for centuries. They are meant to, and should be taken as intended to, provoke introspection, rather than outrage or denial or nitpicking.

A basic familiarity with the history of the Indian sub-continent reveals Hinduism shrinking over the past one and a quarter millennium in the face of external invasion and evangelism. Hinduism, and overlapping religions Jainism and Buddhism (together referred to here as Indic religions), used to extend from Afghanistan to Indonesia. Over the past dozen centuries, this area has shrunk greatly and now remains confined to the Rrepublic of India. This isn’t due to relentless attacks by immense armies. Mohammad Qasim or Babur attacked India with a few thousand men and were able to conquer a country of millions. So did numerous foreigner invaders with armies insignificant compared to the population of India then, including the British whose army was primarily manned by Indians themselves.

This process is still underway. In the latter half of the 20th century, we see in both Pakistan and Bangladesh Hindus being expelled or massacred. In the late 20th century, Hindus have been expelled from Kashmir, having been already reduced to a minority there centuries earlier by Afghan and Mughal rulers. Even within India currently, we see a demographic shrinkage of Hinduism. Thus, it is clear that Hinduism is in a long term trend of decline, with perhaps a hiatus for now. In general, a trend that persists for centuries cannot be blamed on individual errors or misfortune; there are likely more systemic reasons for it. What then could be the reason for the slow decline of Hinduism?

The decline of Indic religions in the subcontinent is congruent with conversion to Islam and this article will focus primarily on why I believe they have lost so much ground to Islam. The reasons commonly put forward for conversion from Hinduism to Islam are:

1. Invasion and demographic displacement by foreign Muslims like Arabs or Turks.
2. Conversion at sword point.
3. Conversion to obtain patronage or privilege or escape taxation (jizya).
4. Conversion to escape caste discrimination.
5. A reason which I don’t see mentioned often, which I think likely plays an important role is the desire to imitate the winners and dominant rulers of the day, much like trends from the West, whether bell bottoms or jeans, or socialism or democracy, are avidly copied in India in recent times.

All of these likely have contributed to varying extents to the displacement of Hinduism, however, we can assume that conversion of local Indians to Islam forms the vast bulk of the Islamic population in the subcontinent today, thus the focus of this article will be on points 2-5.

Why were Indic religions susceptible to conversion? After undertaking a study of the relevant topics, I have come to the conclusion that to an overwhelming extent, this is a natural consequence of the respective natures of Indic religions and Islam. Although the following might feel hurtful to some, the intent is not to insult but to introspect and improve.

Let us begin by discussing the respective characteristics of Indic religion and Islam.

INDIC RELIGIONS:

HINDUISM: The oldest and most authoritative religious texts of Hinduism are the Vedas, in particular the Rig Veda. The Vedas comprise of 2 broad parts, the Mantras or Karma Khanda (action part, dealing with sacrificial rituals and hymns) and the Bramhanas and Aranyakas or Jnana Khanda (philosophical sections). Within the Jnana Khanda, we find the Upanishads, which contain the philosophical doctrines that has come to shape Hindu thought through the millennia.

The Upanishads, of which there are hundreds, and 108 in the Muktika Canon, are thought to have been composed starting several centuries BCE, upto the 2nd millennium CE (1), and they contain the core philosophy that has shaped Hinduism.

Apart from the Upanishads, texts such as the Bramhasutras, Bhagwad Geeta and the Manusmriti, themselves influenced by the Vedas, have shaped or reflected Hindu spiritual and practical thought over the ages.

The time span over which these primary texts of Hinduism were composed are generally considered to span several centuries, involving during the course of which the emphasis and scope of the texts undergo change. Nonetheless, the broad thrust of Hindu philosophy, as contained in the Upanishads, is as below. Hindu readers who have experiential knowledge of Hinduism will find these points quite familiar.

a) A prescription of detachment from this world and a desire to escape from it.

b) Related to the above, conspicuous absence of communal identity or collective consciousness or presence of outside competitors. This is compounded in daily life by divisions on the basis of caste.

c) Resulting from point b, a lack of zeal in defending or proselytizing the religion.

Let us consider this in more depth.

Perhaps the most distinctive doctrine of Hinduism, is that each being has a soul (Atman), which undergoes a series of cycles of death and re-birth in different forms, a fate which is considered sub-optimal at best and repulsive at worst. Salvation from this cycle, called Moksha, is attained by realization of, and submergence into, the ultimate reality of which everything is composed, Brahman. There are variations on this theme (Dvaita, Advaita, etc schools of thought), but the general idea is the same.

No empirical evidence is proffered in support of the above Moksha thesis, which must be taken for granted on the authority of scripture. This is illustrated by the verses below:

Chandogya Upanishad 6.8.7:

“Now, that which is the subtle essence−in it all that exists has its self. That is the True. That is the Self (Atman). That thou art, Svetaketu”

Katha Upanishad (II.20):

“The Self is subtler than the subtle, greater than the great; It dwells in the heart of each living being. He who is free from desire and free from grief, with mind and senses tranquil, beholds the glory of the Atman”

Mundaka Upanishad (3.1.9):

“That subtle Atman is to be known by the intellect here in the body where the prana has entered fivefold. By Atman the intellects of men are pervaded, together with the senses. When the intellect is purified, Atman shines forth.”

Chhandogya Upanishad 5.10.1-2:

“Those who know this and those who, dwelling in the forest, practise faith and austerities go

to light, from light to day, from day to the bright half of the moon, from the bright half of the

moon to the six months during which the sun goes to the north, from those months to the

year, from the year to the sun, from the sun to the moon, from the moon to lightning. There

a person who is not a human being meets him and leads him to Brahman. This is the Path

of the Gods (Devayana).”

Chhandogya Upanishad 5.10.7-8:

“Those whose conduct here on earth has been good will quickly attain some good

birth−birth as a brahmin, birth as a kshatriya, or birth as a vaisya. But those whose conduct

here has been evil will quickly attain some evil birth−birth as a dog, birth as a pig, or birth as

a chandala”.

“Those who neither practise meditation nor perform rituals… ...become those insignificant creatures which are continually revolving and about which it may be said: ‘Live and die.’ This is the third place. Therefore that world never becomes full. Let a man despise this course… “

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.10:

“This self was indeed Brahman in the beginning. It knew itself only as "I am Brahman." Therefore it became all. And whoever among the gods had this enlightenment, also became That Brahman. It is the same with the seers (rishis), the same with men.”

Manusmriti 1.50:

“The (various) conditions in this always terrible and constantly changing circle of births and deaths to which created beings are subject are stated to begin with (that of) Bramhan and to end with (that of) these (just mentioned immovable creatures, like plants and trees)”

Adi Shankara’s Upadesa Sahasri, 1.44:

“One, who is eager to realize this highest truth spoken of in the Sruti (revealed texts, i.e. Vedas), should rise above the fivefold form of desire: for a son, for wealth, for this world and the next, and are the outcome of a false reference to the Self of Varna (castes, colors, classes) and orders of life.…”

Apart from the existence of the self, which is self-evident (e.g. Descartes’ Cogito ergo Sum; I think therefore I am), no empirical evidence is put forth for the existence of, or the special mystical properties attributed to, Brahman, or the existence of concepts such as re-incarnation and Moksha. The general implicit perspective is presented in Upanishadic and thereby broader Hindu thought, whereby existence in this world is considered a burden to be stoically borne, serenely doing one’s prescribed duty (Nishkama Karma; described in the Bhagwad Geeta), or even a distasteful misfortune to be spurned, by adopting renunciation (Sannyasa) in the pursuit of Moksha, to be attained by various means, including spiritual exercises (Yoga), as prescribed by Adi Shankara.

It is then not surprising that a focus on empirically unsupported metaphysics of withdrawal and renunciation should lead to neglect of a sense of community or group identity, compounded by caste discrimination. Thus, it is no surprise that the name commonly used to refer to Hindus, is not given by Hindus themselves, but originates from foreigners referring to the residents of the banks of the Sindhu (Indus) river. It is also to be expected that, lacking a sense of group identity and believing in renunciatory metaphysics, we see no historical example of Hindus mounting a collective defense of their religion or culture when attacked by Muslim invaders who burned libraries and temples or imposed jizya. This is in contrast to examples like that of Christians defending the Middle East against Islamic invasion by launching the Crusades, or the more recent example of the Islamic nations against Israel.

BUDDHISM AND JAINISM:

A very similar renunciatory trend is seen with other Indic religions, namely Buddhism and Jainism; quite possibly based on the same zeitgeist which permeates the contemporary and preceding Upanishads. Briefly (assuming the reader has basic familiarity with Buddhism), the four noble truths of Buddhism declare that dukkha, or sorrow, is caused by attachment or craving, and that this can be remedied by putting an end to craving and instead undertaking behavior that leads to Nirvana or release. As with Hinduism, the implied perspective is one of dissatisfaction with the rigors of the world, of escaping from it rather than taming it.

Similarly, the word Jain is derived from Sanskrit Jina, meaning victor. In this case the victory is over mental passions like greed, lust, anger etc. In practice, Jainism is emphatic about non-violence, not just towards fellow members of society, but all humans, and sentient being, even including animals and insects, possibly an extension of the Hindu concept of the Atman (soul) being one across all living creatures.

Given this metaphysical perspective pervading the ancient Indic religions Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, it is unsurprising that persons who are accorded an exalted status in Indic religion and culture are Sannyasis, Bhikshus and Jinas or Tirthankaras, who have attained a metal state of indifference towards the world.

Let us now look at the nature of the major competitor of Indic religions, Islam.

ISLAM:

In contrast, the nature and circumstances of Islam from its foundation onwards have been concerned with survival, conflict and expansionism. Briefly, after having to flee his native Mecca upon claiming prophethood and casting doubt on the reigning deities of the Kaaba, Muhammad with a few followers emigrated to Yathrib (now Medina). Here he gained political power for the first time and engaged in raids and several armed conflicts with rivals from Mecca as well as within Medina, in the course of which hundreds of people were killed and women and children enslaved, as was the norm then. Eventually Mohammad emerged victorious and conquered Mecca itself. His utterances during the course of his life, many of them explicit calls to war, form the koran and Hadith, which are considered perfect and immutable. There are also more placatory sayings, but these are typically made in Mecca when his political position was tenous and are superseded by the later, violent Medinan ones. The sayings in Medina, upon attaining power include the infamous verse of the sword 9:5:

” Then, when the sacred months have passed,
slay the idolaters wherever ye find them,
and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush.
But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free.
Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful”

There is much debate today about the context of these verses, but there does not seem have been any doubt in the minds of his immediate followers, who, well placed to judge the context, after Mohammad’s death in 632AD proceeded to attack and conquer neighboring Byzantium and Persia. The motivation of these early Arab conquerors is perhaps summed up in the passage below,

“..he ordered us to invite neighboring nations to justice. We are therefore inviting you to embrace our religion…if you refuse, you must pay the jizya. This is a bad thing, but not as bad as the alternative; if you refuse to pay, it will be war” (2).

Given the cut-throat nature of life in the steppes of Arabia, Mohammad insisted on the unity of all Muslims, whether rich or poor, into one community, called the ummah. An illustration of the zealousness with which this unity is guarded is illustrated by the fact that conversion from Islam invites the death penalty in many Islamic countries today. The promotion of unity amongst the nomadic tribes of Arabia re-directed their military potential from being focused on each other to being focused on outsiders (a theme we see again with other mobile nomadic peoples like the Mongols and Huns). Thus, following Muhammad’s death, the newly converted Arab tribes burst forth from the steppes and successfully conquered their immediate neighbors, the Byzantine and Persian Empires.

Eventually the Arabs extended their reign over all of North Africa, Middle East and much of central Asia, and attacked and conquered Afghanistan and Sindh in the Indian sub-continent. Although the Arab Empire started to decline eventually, the mantle was taken up by the recently Islamicized Turks, who started invading South Asia in subsequent centuries.

COMPARISON BETWEEN INDIC RELIGIONS AND ISLAM:

The practical effects of this difference of outlook is vividly exemplified by the contrasting behavior of Hindus and Muslims when their lands are attacked. At no point did Central or South Indian Hindus unite together to launch a collective defence of Northern India during the Islamic conquest, unsurprising given the lack of community in Hinduism. In contrast, we see nations like Malaysia or Indonesia, which do not share either the language or the blood of Arabs, vociferously refusing recognition to Israel, solely on the basis of religious solidarity.

Moreover, on a long term, statistical level, in competition with a religion like Islam which promotes reproduction, wealth accumulation etc, the fate of Indic religions is sealed; they prescribe or at least celebrate, worldly extinction in the form of Sanyasa or monkhood (renunciation), often following directly after Bramhacharya (studentship) without starting a family, to its adherents (as exemplified by famous proponents of Hinduism like Adi Shankara or Swami Vivekananda), while Islam prescribes conquest, wealth acquisition and reproduction. Thus, it is likely that, in an evolutionary sense, the number of devoted Hindus who take Hindu metaphysics seriously will not grow at the same pace as their Islamic counterparts, if at all, based on the respective prescriptions of their religions.

We can now return to the causes of conversion from Hinduism to Islam mentioned above.

1. Conversion to obtain patronage or privilege or escape taxation (jizya).
2. Conversion to escape caste discrimination.
3. A desire to imitate the winners and dominant rulers of the day, much like fashion trends from the West, whether bell bottoms or jeans, are avidly copied in India in recent times.

a) Conversion at Swordpoint/to escape taxation: In my view, two developments are necessary for this to occur; military weakness, and weak attachment to religion. Given the aggressive milieu in which Islam arose, it is no surprise that they embarked on an invasion of their neighbors. To substantial extents, Indic religions are vulnerable on both counts owing to their renunciatory metaphysics, especially the explicitly non-violent prescriptions of Buddhism and Jainism. A lack of attachment to religion is also likely given the exclusive focus of Indic religions on personal salvation rather than the promotion of a unified community.

b) Conversion to escape caste discrimination: Given the focus of Indic religions on the individual, much less focus is directed at the creation of a unified polity. This leaves space for divisions based on caste or ethnicity to arise and persist. In contrast, the aggressive and insecure environment of the steppe necessitates close group affinity for security, a feature carried over into Islam, although ethnic discrimination is not absent. Nonetheless, the theoretical equality available in Islam is an understandable incentive for those irreversibly stuck at the bottom of Hindu society.

c) A desire to imitate winners: This path is particularly likely in the absence of a strong sense of identity and attachment to one’s community, a point on which, Indic religions are particularly vulnerable. It is also possible that conversions to Islam that have occurred without a significant external invasion, such as those in Kerala or South East Asia, may have been owing to the attractiveness of a pro-wealth and growth religion like Islam, when contrasted with the austere and retreating ideology put forward by Indic religions.

It must be pointed out that other socio-political and geographical issues have a substantial role to play apart from the reasoning mentioned here. There are also warlike statements in some Hindu scriptures like the Bhagwad Geeta, in which Lord Krishna urges Arjun to war even against his relatives. It is also likely that the general political and military leadership in India was not aligned with the renunciatory direction prescribed in Indic religions although other elements of society likely were.

Nonetheless, I believe the overall point remains that the decline of Indic religions by conversion to Islam is at least partially a natural consequence of their respective tendencies and outlooks.

CONCLUSION:

What must be done to salvage Hinduism? The answer may lie in what we have already seen regarding the Upanishads. These texts were written by numerous authors over a span of several centuries (centuries BC to centuries CE), and reflect a change of focus relative to the preceding texts and even direct criticism of the preceding Vedic approach (Chandogya Upanishad 1.12), and have passed on into the Hindu religious canon. Irrespective of whether one agrees with them or not, we thus see a plasticity in Hindu thought, which there is no need to think has exhausted itself. Thus, the authors of the Upanishads chose to lay out what they believed was the best approach to fulfilling what they thought ought to be the goal of life, thus reforming Hinduism to what they thought worked best.

If we are their true descendants, we must live up to their example and do likewise.

How? I shall lay out my thoughts about this in the near future.

*****************

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1. Olivelle 1992, pp. 5, 8–9. Via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishad.
2. The great Arab conquests, Hugh Kennedy, 2008 edition, pg 51.

The Rise and Decline of the West: Why and Whereupon.

The dose makes the poison.
-Paracelsus.

INTRODUCTION:

In this article I shall attempt to construct a theoretical model to understand and interpret the major historical developments of the past few centuries in the West, and use this to diagnose the causes of the maladies which I believe are currently besetting the west. In particular I shall posit that egalitarianism, a crucial factor in the meteoric rise of the West, is now a cause of its decline.

Here, the West is defined as the prosperous, industrialized liberal democracies, particularly those of USA and Europe. A substantial amount of the focus will be on England, as developments in England have often foreshadowed many of the defining events of the West.

The primary distinguishing feature of the west, especially England, which allowed it rise from relative obscurity on the periphery of Eurasia to a position of global domination, the reason why this article is written in English and not another language, is the massive advancement in scientific, technological and industrial development that began in England and spread to Europe somewhat later. This industrial prowess, inevitably translated into geopolitical power, allowed the West, especially England, to thrust itself onto the global stage and consciousness.

THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND ITS CAUSES:

What caused the industrial revolution to occur in tiny England rather than China or India or Italy with their thousands of years of civilization and huge populations (for the former two)?

Below I will briefly mention my thoughts about factors that led to the rise of the West on the back of the industrial revolution and how the factors behind it may now be causing its decline.

Various causes are mentioned by historians to explain why the industrial revolution (~1750-1850) occurred in Britain and not elsewhere. Among them are natural advantages like the availability of coal, or manpower, or navigable rivers, which, while important, are certainly not decisive, being present at numerous locations globally, not least in China and India and other places in Europe, where no industrial revolution occurred until the precedent of the British industrial revolution. A focus on such circumstantial factors also missed the point that the industrial revolution was primarily a revolution of technology and invention, like the steam engine or power loom, rather than mere marshaling of manpower and materials, a feat at which China is unsurpassed (e.g the Great Wall, the grand canal etc) without undergoing a revolution like that in England.

The crucial factors must predate the industrial revolution and are likely related to society and politics; we see a glimpse of this in the fact that Newton's Principia, (published 1687) which introduced the concept of gravity, the laws of motion and calculus, predates the industrial revolution by several decades. More broadly, the scientific output emerging from Europe between the 15th and 17th centuries, long before the industrial revolution, in the form of works of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Boyle, Leibniz, to name only a few, all greatly amplified by the ease of mass dissemination enabled by the printing press (a Chinese invention, but which is much more compatible with European scripts, due to their fewer characters and linear arrangement, than with the Chinese, or Indian scripts) testify to the development of intellectual firepower in the West far outpacing what the rest were either willing or able to achieve. It is likely that the origins of this process date even further back. This intellectual firepower, when deployed towards industry in the 18th century, led inevitably to the massive strides that characterize the industrial revolution.

The question then becomes; why, after millennia of relative parity between the civilizations of Europe and Asia, did the European ones start to pull far ahead in scientific and intellectual endeavor? And why did this process start in England, theretofore obscure, and not elsewhere in Europe?

Approaching the question from another perspective, if one wanted to initiate sustained scientific and technological progress in society, what factors are essential? In my view, it is evident that these are 1) educated and intellectually curious citizens and 2) empowering these citizens with a conducive, predictable economic and political climate, with rule of law, a free market, property rights etc in which these citizens may exercise their talents without fear of being arbitrarily dispossessed.

The question can then be framed as follows:

1) do we see the presence of these factors in Western Europe, particularly England, while being absent in Asia?

2) do these factors precede the scientific and technological revolutions?


EXPANSION OF POLITICAL FRANCHISE:

In the case of England, the trend of political power distribution has been as follows. In 1215, the seminal Magna Carta was signed between King John and feudal lords in England, limiting the ability of the king to impose taxes without the consent of the feudal lords, giving birth to an assembly which would become the English Parliament. There followed several conflicts between the parliament and the king, including the English civil war (1642-1651), during which the royalists were defeated and King Charles I decapitated. Within the Parliamentary faction there were even more radically egalitarian factions like the levellers and diggers, who foreshadow socialism and communism of later centuries. This tussle eventually culminated in the Glorious Revolution and the ensuing Bill of Rights in 1689, when the supremacy of parliament was unambiguously established. Parliamentary representation itself was gradually expanded from lords to include prominent commoners. Similarly the Habeas Corpus act (1679) enshrined the principle of lawful detention and the predictable rule of law and fair trial more broadly. These precede by decades or centuries similar developments in other nations.

Thus we see political developments in England, which progressively secure the citizenry and their property, and provide rule of law, preceding the developments of the scientific and industrial revolutions by centuries. Combining this unprecedented "egalitarianization" of political power with an expanded educated class enabled by the printing press, and other secondary factors, it is unsurprising that England was best positioned as the nucleus of the ensuing scientific and industrial revolutions.

These egalitarian expansions of political power continue and even accelerate during and after the scientific and industrial revolutions, possibly as a consequence of mutual reinforcement. The reform acts of 1832 and 1867, the Representation of the People Act of 1884, 1918 and 1928 further expanded the political franchise, first to adult males of some wealth (about 1 in 7 adult males), then to a substantial number of males, then to all men and some women, and eventually to all adults in Britain. Building on this egalitarian trend, in the early to mid 20th century we see the introduction of free education, Welfare, the National Health Service and so on.

The same correlation between political and scientific progress is seen, to varying extents and with varying timelines in different countries like France, Russia, USA etc. Thus we may conclude that there exists a strong correlation between industrial development and prosperity on one hand and the degree of distribution of political power in the other.
 

MUTUAL REINFORCEMENT  BETWEEN THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND POLITICAL FRANCHISE:


Putting these pieces of the jigsaw together, it is likely, in my view, that a combination of an increasing (and increasingly) educated class, combined with favorable economic and political regimes, led to initial scientific and industrial innovations, leading to somewhat broader prosperity. This prosperity (and attendant political power), if suitably disseminated, in turn will lead to greater literacy and higher education, expanding the educated classes which are essential for scientific and technological progress, thus creating further fuel to feed technological innovation, leading to an exponential process which starts slowly but accelerates sharply as a critical mass of educated citizens builds up. In support of this model, the available data shows that literacy in England greatly exceeded that in India or China by centuries. This model is shown schematically below:

This model also cogently explains the slow but steady progress seen during the scientific revolution in the 15th to 17th centuries and then the exponential nature of the industrial revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as the parallel march of technological and political rights growth, mutually sustaining and reinforcing each other. In support of this proposition, we see that England, the first nation to undergo the industrial revolution, also underwent its anti-monarchial revolutions (the Magna Carta in the 13^th century and the English Civil War in the 17^th) long before similar events in other countries like France (1789 and later), Western and Central Europe (19^th century, see events of 1848), Russia (early 20^th century), China (between early and mid 20^th century) etc.

The mutual acceleration will continue until the incremental productive capacity generated by a given act of power and resource dissemination exceeds the value consumed as the cost of that act. In other words, as long as:

P(act) > C(act); where P is the incremental productivity and C is the cost of implementing that change.

For instance, the provision of free education or public works like sewage treatment plants can be considered to produce a value in terms of more productive citizens, which is generally greater than the cost. In light of this model, it is unsurprising that for centuries, a continuous dissemination of political power and, for related reasons, public services like universal education, healthcare, welfare etc has been the trend in the West.

Thus, for centuries, P(act) has been greater than C(act), and an ever expanding circle of empowerment has been the trend in and habit of the West. However, the psychological mechanism pushing for this expansion is a blind, unqualified sense of empathy. Thus, we see that the seminal leftist ideology of the 19^th-20^th centuries, Marxism, as well as softer leftist (i.e. power diffusionary) movements do not argue for improved representation or more public services as these become cost-effective owing to greater prosperity flowing from industrial development, but rather construct millenarian schemes depicting eternal warfare between classes. The same instinct manifests itself in modern times as feminism, gay rights, animal rights, etc. It is not much of an exaggeration to say that modern Western empathetic impulse can be summed up as follows, "the underdog is always right". 

This may help as long as P(act) is greater than C(act), but carried to excess by blind instinct, it could easily veer into territory where C(act) is greater than P(act).  

In this, it is analogous to the epidemic of obesity prevalent in many countries today; an instinct to consume and store of excess calories as fat, which was useful during the era of subsistence agriculture, can rapidly become counterproductive when circumstances change (the calorie glut produced by industrial agriculture). To reflect the parallels to obesity, I shall refer to excess, counterproductive empathy as empathobesity.

TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING?

Thus we see that the history of Western political empowerment has been one of an ever expanding tent; from uncontested monarchy to a group of lords, to wealthy white men, to middle class white men, to all men, to all adults, various welfare arrangements, to the sexual revolution, to mass importation of migrants, to homosexuals and transgenders, animal rights, and perhaps in the near future, legal personhood for chimps and cetaceans (5,6) and so on. At some point however, the constant broadening of the circle can become counterproductive and lead to decline rather than progress. I believe that the West passed this point sometime in the early to mid-20^th centrury, and developments since have generally been empathobese and responsible for the stagnant and decaying West we see today.

I discuss some of these developments below.

1) Feminism: Feminism is the notion that women should have the same options as men; the underlying empathobese assumption is that men and women are essentially identical and all differences is imposed by patriarchy simply to oppress women. It is worth noting at this point that it is likely not an accident that matriarchal or matrifocal societies like the Mosuo or Khasi, are few and are confined to inaccessible locations of the globe; these are models of social organization evolutionarily uncompetitive with patriarchy and have only managed to survive competition from patriarchy in these remote places.

In practice feminism has meant complaints about how men are disproportionately represented in desirable jobs like CEOs and legislators, and demands for quotas to rectify the same. Rather less mention is made of the deaths of millions of men in world wars or that workplace deaths, bankruptcies, and most sewage workers or garbage collectors are also men. Feminism has developed during the 20th century, possibly catalyzed by the availability of contraception which freed women from childbearing and has resulted in the mass entry of women in the labor force.

Now, an expansion of the labor force is generally good development, as the expansion of the educated classes was likely a catalyst for the rapid progress seen in the industrial revolution. However, the entry of women into the labor force in massive numbers has inevitably come at the cost of child bearing and is thus shortsighted; after an initial spike in the labor pool, the ensuing shortfall in offspring will lead to a greying and aged workforce with fewer, not more, workers and more elderly dependents.

The birthrate in the west now ranges from barely 1 in the Mediterranean nations to closer to 2 in some like France or Sweden, although how much of this is owing to migrants is unclear. The ensuing shortfall of young workers in the west is predicted to lead to economic decline; for instance, social security in the USA is expected to run out of funds to cover its obligations by 2036 as the number of retirees rises without a sufficient youthful demographic to support them (1). Combined with the economic stagnation that the west has found itself in since 2007, possibly in part as a consequence of the demographic decline, this has led to a sense of deep malaise throughout the West; for the first time, a majority expect that the next generation will be worse off than its parents, reversing a decades long trend (2,3). The west, historically a byword for progress and prosperity, now seems destined to a period of stagnation at best, and more likely decline.

2) Hostile sub populations: By itself, a demographic and economic slump may be overcome eventually; the period of weakness and decay will eventually subside, even if it takes generations. Yet, coinciding with precisely this weak and vulnerable phase, is the presence of hostile, unassimilated and growing populations within the West, especially in Europe. The empathobese dogma here is that all people are the same as those in the West and have no underlying ideological divergence. 

Muslims in Europe form significant percentages of the populations of many of the biggest nations of the West. These sub populations have a history of separateness and even conflict with the mainstream West, as well as a political self awareness different from, and at odds with the traditional liberal West, combined with generally poor socio-economic achievements. 

A rational examination of Islam globally yields the following pattern. In most country where Muslims are the majority, non-muslims are prohibited from preaching to and converting Muslims, whereas the converse is allowed. These restrictions are more severe in countries like Saudi Arabia where Islam is more prominent. Similarly, in many countries where a substantial Muslim minority is present, we see hostility or outright militancy, such as in Australia, Philippines, Thailand, India, China, Russia, as well as Western countries like the UK, France, Sweden, Spain, USA, Canada etc. 

 The Muslim percentage of the population of the UK has doubled in the decade to 2015, and is even higher in the 0-4 years of age demographic (4). The same picture obtains in France or Sweden. 
This year alone, Germany is on track to receive about a million Muslim migrants. Coupled with this increase is the unassimilated and hostile attitude to the West as well as all other non-muslims; the regular occurrence of terrorist attacks in the UK and France, the inability of the authorities to stop these, especially the November 2015 attacks in Paris, the large number of Muslim citizens of Europe heading to the Islamic state, and promising to bring Islamic law to Europe, and the unshakable sense that they just might, gives a foreboding picture of the future of the West. The empathobesity of the West makes it politically incorrect to point this out, let alone act accordingly, and thus the issue is allowed to fester and grow, adding to the sense of impotence besetting the West.

3) Serial military defeats and the stench of weakness:Since the end of the Korean War, the West has been humiliated in all the major conflicts it has entered, Vietnam, Iraq 2003 and Afghanistan. These defeats have not come about due to a lack of firepower or technology but the unwillingness of Western populations to bear prolonged news of casualties, even those of its opponents. Thus, the Vietnam war was lost not in the jungles of Vietnam, where the Americans did not lose any major battles, but on the streets of America where massive anti war protests made continued war untenable. The impression that emerges is one of weakness, irrespective of the merits, or lack thereof, of these wars.

In addition to these sign of dimming vitality (demographic, economic, military decline) is the bizarre and unscientific turn of recent Western policy, such as that of gay marriage. From an evolutionary point of view, marriage is a stable platform on which to rear the next generation. As such, it only makes social sense to confer privileges and subsidies on child bearing couples, for they privately bear burdens of child rearing which will bear fruit collectively when those children become productive citizens. However, the West has bamboozled itself owing to empathobesity into extending these privileges to homosexual couples simply for making sexual contact with each other.

Meanwhile we see glimpses of what empathobesity may bring in the future; attempts to confer personhood on chimpanzees and even cetaceans (5,6), none of which can even comprehend, let alone reciprocate these gestures. Although this seems ludicrous now, so did gay marriage only a decade or two ago. Referring to the equation above, P(act) is now far below C(act).

Thus we come to the quote at the beginning of this article. A sense of empathy and wider dissemination of political power, which helped initiate and fuel the revolutions that propelled the West to the top, applied in excess, in changed circumstances, is now causing its decline. 

What alternative belief systems can replace the empathobesity dogma? I shall discuss this in the coming weeks.

Lastly, if you found the ideas presented here interesting, please consider disseminating them and refer people to this blog.

References:

1)      https://www.ssa.gov/oact/tr/2011/II_D_project.html

2)       http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/05/12/what-will-become-of-americas-kids/

3)      http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/826aeefe-6f6e-11e1-b368-00144feab49a.html#axzz3tQOlciqE

4)      http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/11/muslim-population-england-wales-nearly-doubles-10-years

5)      http://www.nonhumanrightsproject.org/category/courtfilings/

6)      http://us.whales.org/issues/primer-on-non-human-personhood-and-cetacean-rights