April 03, 2008

Red Oleanders

"There was a time when, in the human world, most of our important dealings with our fellow-beings were personal dealings, and the professional element in society was never hugely disproportionate to the normal constitution of its life.

...Today another factor has made itself immensely evident in shaping and guiding human destiny. It is the spirit of organisation, which is not social in character, but utilitarian...

... But the personal man is not dead, only dominated by the organised man. The world has become the world of Jack and Giant the Giant who is not a gigantic man, but a multitude of men turned into a gigantic system."

Rabindranath Tagore, October 1925, in the Vishwabharati Quarterly.

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