A well read society is a harbinger for healthy change

From the dark ages when Man used leaves for clothing and raw meat as their food, to the current information age when he has been able to build skyscrapers and mammoth network of roads, from the pre-historic man for whom it was a hectic task just to light fire, to the contemporary man who has made such sophisticated weapons that could destroy the whole world with the blink of an eye, all these facts echo a very dynamic human attribute that he wants to alter, improve and progress. The main enigma is that what are the factors that provoke human mind to ponder upon his circumstances and to take initiative to bring about a change? Glancing at the history, one would reach a solid conclusion that only those people or societies have become the agents of change who gave paramount importance to education which can be regarded as the cornerstone of an erudite society. Starting from the era called the classical age, Greeks were regarded as the touchstone of knowledge. Greek civilization was the most literate of its time and hence led the change. Philosophers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle granted a new paradigm to the way of thinking and taught the commoners to think beyond borders as a result of which they reached at the pinnacle of glory. That was the main reason of Greek city-state being ages ahead of its contemporaries. In medieval ages during the era famously known as Ecumenical Renaissance, Muslims used to dominate both east and west in every sphere of knowledge. It was mainly because of some renowned literary personalities like Avicenna, Al Khwarizmi and Al Ghazali etc who proved their mettle by pursuing untiring efforts to learn, research and invent. They took great initiative to enlighten the society with the beams of their vision and embossed in them a learning attitude. The Muslim world became the symbol of grandeur where people used to come covering distances of thousands of miles just to study. Then in the modern age when the west especially Europe witnessed both reformation and renaissance, which chiefly set its course and Europe started its journey towards enlightenment. Again the major contributions were made by the learned people like Hobbes, Lock, Rousseau and Montesquieu etc who by their sheer knowledge and wisdom led the shattered society toward success. People who used

to fight like barbarians, upon getting proper education and learning, revolutionized their society and dominated the whole world. Now in this world of information age, one could clearly differentiate that only those nations have become the ambassador of change which have given first and foremost priority to literate their citizens in every manner. This has been the major reason that they have been bestowed upon the title of developed nation. The greatest result of education is tolerance is a very famous dictum of Shakespeare clearly hinting toward the fact that nations nurture only in the light of education which breeds tolerance, regarded as the basic ingredient for the maintenance of a healthy society. It is untrue that the nourished nations have achieved this status in a matter of days and didnt have to really strive for it. There is an effort of hundreds of years behind the well-groomed nations. The current super power and the most cherished country, America, saw many difficult periods like civil wars, racial discriminations between whites and blacks and most importantly the deadly economic crisis especially of 1929. Similarly there is a long history of struggle by the British people who fought perpetual wars of hundreds of years with their equally volatile neighbors prominently Germany and France. Japan which was bombarded with nuclear weapon and two of its important cities were vanished and moreover earthquakes hit it continuously, has risen up to become one of the most advanced nations in the globe The common factor between all these developed nations is that they focused on nurturing its citizens which in turn became the symbol of change and transformed their societies into mature and healthy ones. The biggest gift of education was the realization it created in the citizens which embossed a sense of responsibility in them to do something to defeat the status co and act appropriately to bring about a meaningful change. They took the steering in their own hands, struggled day in and day out to make their nation a citadel of grandeur. On the other hand all the 3rd world or under-developed countries have a common notion that quality education, which also includes personality grooming, has always been restricted to the top tier. Due to this dilemma, people continued to suffer the atrocities committed by the potentates. Masses continue to become scapegoats under the tutelage of corrupt elite whose myopic vision does not permit them to possess out of the box thinking. Commoners are not provided with equal opportunity to excel as a result of which the

transformation from an ill and decomposed society to a healthy one is blocked. A positive and healthy change can only be brought in the society if the people are well-read which gives them the vision to understand the root cause of the problem and therefore put their effort in the best manner they can to heal the wounds. To give a death blow to rotten status co has always been a hard nut to crack. There is no alternative to bring about a healthy change in peoples lives then to educate them and make them stand on their feet. Only literate societies have the tendency to do their own catharsis, learn from their mistakes and get rid of inappropriate practices. It is nothing other than education which creates a sense of realization that something must be done against the harshness of elites and proper ways must be devised to bring about a positive change. History is always like an open book clearly showing the incidents occurred in the pasts, the decisions made and the consequences that had to be faced by the decision makers. It has been a uniform pattern throughout the history that only those nations have progressed where education and knowledge were given first and foremost preference which in turn groomed and enlightened its citizens with vision to keep their society healthy and prosperous. Lucky are those who earnestly observe the past incidents and learn from them, otherwise their names are lost in the huge pile of history.