50th Anniversary Seminar
Though I have a bachelor’s degree in Economics, working on my Masters in Business Administration, it was difficult for me to digest the PROUT philosophy in the beginning. I have tried to remain open and keep my patience through my initial studies of PROUT, which contradicted many of the ideas I’ve been learning in the University. After a few months I began to open my mind and imagine how a PROUT world would be. However, the compassion of the PROUT philosophy did not seem practical in today’s world. There are so many realities to overcome, no matter what economic system we follow. And I still am not confident to say that I completely comprehend PROUT.
It so happened that Ravi Batra was speaking at a seminar held for PROUT’s 50th anniversary in 2009. This came at the time that the world was facing a deep economic crisis during the past year. The goal of this seminar was to review the course of the crisis: past, present and especially the near future. Do we have solutions to deal with it? Do we have a chance to put PROUT ideas into these solutions?
The participants divided into three main groups: Expert professors in each field, NGO’s, and the public. The course of the seminar was divided into two main sections. The first section was a conversation with economist Dr. Ravi Batra involving subjects relevant to the current economic crisis. In the second section the three groups discussed all kinds of current local economic issues and phenomenon, relating PROUT ideas to the situation. Predictably a big clash was generated while explaining and further discussing the meaning of PROUT. We argued about the definition and individual interpretations every time PROUT was mentioned. However, the seminar ended in a good flow and most participants agreed with the main points of PROUT. We made friends who were new to the ideas of PROUT, but wanted to work to promote the PROUT ideas to the public. Some of them were still disheartened about the tremendous, ugly beasts created by capitalism and have little confidence in winning against them. Still they believe it is their duty to fight for what isright, even though it seems an impossible task. My belief is that we anticipate and create the world we envision and we enjoy and suffer at the same time.
It has now been three months from the time I attended the seminar. However, I still remember the flow of that day. I wonder whether this economic crisis has given people a chance to review the way we make money and the insecure, out of control money markets we have created. From what I observe, probably not so much. People still use the same ways to grasp all the money and security they can. No persuasive economic solution has arisen to convince people that our economy will improve. Even so, I still believe the most important goal of the seminar is to grow PROUT seeds in each and every participant and hope that those seeds will sprout sooner or later. I believe we’ll see more and more people working for the ideals of PROUT in this world. After all, we do rely on the collective social flow to realize PROUT. In time it will raise the human spirit to an even higher standard.
