TOWARDS AN ADVANCED NATION

The reason lies in the very nature of media. The subject of media is to write instant history; it has no interest in the past or the future. The sole focus here is what is going on in the present. Due to this nature of media, it has failed to bring about any positive change in society. Thinking about the past means taking lessons from previous experiences. The past is full of experiences and every experience has a lesson; but when we are not interested in the study of the past, we deprive ourselves from such lessons, and thus from reassessing our lives. On the other hand, the future means thinking about tomorrow. The best planning is only one that is future-oriented, but the media has no interest about future events either. In such a situation, the media simply becomes a source of intellectual enjoyment on a daily basis. One who is engaged in it—both, in print and electronic forms—can only think about the present and their formula of life becomes, ‘right here, right now’. This state of mind makes them self-centred; they cannot think about social values. Social betterment needs a mind that is sociallyoriented, but people of the above kind live with a self-oriented mind, and such people cannot play any role in social reform. Another aspect of media is that it is not a mission; media is an industry. This nature of media makes it unsuitable for playing any role in terms of social reform. Social reform is a mission, it cannot be a business. And media, being an industry, like any other business organization cannot play a significant role in terms of social reform. This is not a value judgement about media; it is simply an objective assessment. A Good Society A good society is the cherished ideal of every human soul. But a consensus has yet to emerge on what constitutes a good society. This is undoubtedly one of the most complex questions facing man today. It would be no exaggeration to say that three major initiatives, designed in their separate ways to offer a solution, have been utter failures. A hundred years ago it was generally assumed that the setting up of a national government would provide the answer. It was felt that foreign rule was responsible for the rot that had set in society, and Dialogue is not a meeting of rivalry but is a brotherly meeting. Such noble tasks are performed by rising above the victory-defeat psychology.