Shaping political awareness by shifting self-serving mindsets

Behind principles and laws, there are simultaneously two active forces: on one hand, human emotions and self-interest, and on the other, values and moral consciousness. Every human being possesses emotions and self-interest as well as values and moral consciousness. These are inherent aspects of human consciousness. To build a political system and political parties for the people, beyond the interests of entrenched self-interests, we must deeply understand the moral essence of humanity. The perspective of entrenched self-interest must be discarded.

To understand the essence of moral consciousness, we must first understand the essence of consciousness itself. What is consciousness? Consciousness is the ability of a highly developed being to perceive both the external world and its inner world, and to respond to external influences or stimuli. A living organism’s body is a highly developed entity, within which consciousness arises through the influence or touch of the environment. Without the impact or influence of the environment, there is no consciousness in the human body or in any other living body. In human consciousness, there are emotions, feelings, willpower, intellectual ability, judgment, and more. Values and moral consciousness are part of the entirety of human consciousness. It is through consciousness that life is defined. The mystery of life is infinite, and the mystery of human consciousness is also endless.

Consciousness gains existence and remains based on the support of the object. Without the support of the object, no form of consciousness can be found. The material support of consciousness is dual:

One, from one perspective, consciousness is expressed and evolves by relying on the body of the living organism — its senses, nervous system, and brain. Outside of the living organism’s body, there is no consciousness without the direct support of its senses, nervous system, and brain. There is no consciousness in a dead human or a dead animal. The body of an animal, the body of a human — the senses, nervous system, and brain are all made up of material substances. The mysteries of biological substances and living beings have been partially uncovered by fields like zoology, psychology, sociology, biochemistry, and medicine, and these fields continue to advance. Experimental psychological and mechanical tests can now provide specific information about how certain parts of the human brain are activated for emotions, perception, thought, feelings, greed, fear, etc. It is expected that more information will be uncovered in the future. The key thing to remember is that, without the support of the body, without the support of material objects, there is no form of consciousness in the void. If we forget this characteristic of consciousness, our observations and conclusions about consciousness, values, moral consciousness, life, and related matters will inevitably be flawed.

To solve the problems of individual and national life, both the biological and environmental foundations of individual and national life must be considered together. Progressives in Bangladesh need to understand this complex issue. If only one side is considered, the conclusions will be flawed, and the efforts will fail. The entrenched self-interest groups and imperialists are using the knowledge of psychology against the people to preserve their power.

Two. On the other hand, just as consciousness has a neurological foundation, it also has an environmental foundation. It is the influence or touch of the environment that activates the senses, nervous system, and brain of a living organism, and gives rise to consciousness. Without the touch or influence of the environment, consciousness cannot arise from the senses, nervous system, and brain alone. There is no activity in the senses, nervous system, or brain without the touch or influence of external objects. Consciousness has no existence independent of the environment. It must be remembered that just as there is no consciousness, feeling, perception, joy, sorrow, willpower, intellect, or judgment without the senses, nervous system, and brain, similarly, these things cannot exist without the support of circumstances, surroundings, or the environment.

Consciousness has, on one hand, the biological foundation of the living organism — its inner world — and on the other hand, the environmental foundation, or the external world. On one side is the ego, and on the other side is the "other." Without these two foundations, no consciousness can be found. At the core of consciousness lies both the internal biological foundation of the living organism and the external or environmental foundation.

To solve the problems of individual and national life, both the biological and environmental foundations of individual and national life must be considered together. Progressives in Bangladesh need to understand this complex issue. If only one side is considered, the conclusions will be flawed, and the efforts will fail. Entrenched self-interest groups and imperialists are using the knowledge of psychology against the people to preserve their power.

At the core of human consciousness are emotions, self-interest, values, and moral consciousness. Emotions are intense desires to do something, which arise due to various external causes. Self-interest refers to fulfilling one’s own needs and satisfying desires, cravings, and expectations. Humans seek to ensure and enrich their existence, fulfilling their desires, needs, and aspirations. People want self-preservation, self-assertion, and self-expansion. They desire pleasures, power, and fame. This is where their self-interest is reflected. How a person fulfills their self-interest is intertwined with their values and moral consciousness. In independent Bangladesh, it is evident that people's values and moral consciousness are gradually weakening, while self-interest and emotions are becoming stronger. People are primarily guided by opportunism.

Values refer to the sense of worth — the awareness of what is valuable, what is worthless, what is more valuable, what is less valuable, what is beneficial, what is harmful, what is profitable, and what is detrimental. Since humans are social beings, they cannot solely think about their own interests in matters of self-interest; they must also consider the interests of others in society. For the sake of personal security and success, one must also evaluate the good and bad of others. If this judgment is not controlled, it results in harm. This sense of judgment is what we call values. A healthy and normal person, both male and female, possesses values within their consciousness. For values to function effectively in collective life, rules and laws are necessary.

The policies and actions of entrenched self-interest groups and imperialists must be separated from the policies and actions of the general public. The politics and ideals of the people must be distinctly different from those of the entrenched self-interest groups and imperialists. A separate party must be formed with the principle of universal welfare. One of the key activities of the people's political party will be criticism and self-criticism. Alongside confronting reactionaries, activities focused on self-formation, self-criticism, and self-improvement must be carried out.

Ethics comes from the concept of policy. A policy is a method of practice. To achieve something, to succeed in any endeavor, it cannot happen spontaneously. To achieve success, one must first clearly define their objective, and to achieve that objective, one must understand the laws of nature and apply their intellectual and physical energies in a practical manner, adopting a realistic course of action. To accomplish large and complex tasks, many challenges must be overcome. Ethical philosophy involves analyzing and judging such matters. However, academic ethics is like searching for a black cat in a dark room where the cat is not present. In reality, the solution to ethical problems does not come merely from study and research; it requires action alongside study and research. Both thought and action are necessary.

For human livelihood, nothing exists in nature in its ready-made form; people must use their willpower, intellect, and labor to create everything they need. Humans are productive and creative beings. They produce crops and create philosophy, science, literature, and art.

In a state and society, law is the higher form of policy. The government holds the legitimate authority to enact and enforce laws through the use of power. Both law and policy are grounded in human values, whether it is the self-interest of the few or the principle of universal welfare. Moral consciousness is the part of human consciousness that guides individuals to distinguish between good and bad, right and wrong, beauty and ugliness, what is right and what is wrong, duty and neglect, welfare and harm. It drives individuals to take action in favor of what is good, right, beautiful, beneficial, appropriate, and dutiful. Moral consciousness also has, on one side, the intrinsic biological foundation of humans — the inner world — and on the other side, there is the external world or the surrounding foundation, the circumstances, environment, and, in short, the external world.

In the formulation of policies and laws, the thought and approach of imperialists and entrenched self-interest groups must be separated from the idea and practices of universal welfare. Without this distinction, the universal welfare will be undermined. When there is no political party or leadership for the people, the people become deprived and deceived. To understand the conflict of interests, values, moral consciousness, and the nature of moral problems, a deep understanding is needed of the philosophical issue regarding the essence of humanity, which is discussed in philosophy. People need to understand themselves from the perspective of their inner life, social and natural environment, history, and future possibilities. For moral improvement, knowledge of various surrounding factors, psychology, and history is also essential.

History shows that the conflict of interests, moral issues, and the problems of the rule of law cannot be resolved by focusing only on the mental world or only on the environment. To solve these issues, both the mental world and the environment must be considered together. Additionally, to make the changes in the mental world sustainable, the environmental foundation must be altered.

No problem can be solved by thought alone; both thought and action are required to resolve an issue. To move forward on the path of progress, one must continuously confront reactionary forces.

Abul Kashem Fazlul Haque: Thinker and former professor, University of Dhaka.