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This article provides information about the pre-condition that led society for new development initiative:
Surplus energy, awareness of opportunities and the aspiration for advancement are pre-conditions that prepare society for new development initiatives. This is not a linear process. The three factors interact with one another in complex ways to generate a’ growing pressure and ground swell of new activities.
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Accomplishment at a previous level helps release energy and aspiration for further accomplishment. Energy makes for greater alertness and awareness. Awareness of what others are doing evokes greater aspirations and provokes energetic responses. The process spirals back on itself, constantly reinforcing the forward momentum, while at the same time each new level of achievement brings a certain measure of satisfaction and security that relieve the pressure for further effort. Alternations between rising urge and rising satisfaction are one reason for the modulating rhythm of progress and stagnation that is often observed. Following are the main pillar for development:
i. Excess energy is an essential condition for development. The onset and speed of physical and biological reactions depends on seed crystals, catalysts, essential nutrients, the frequency and intensity of interaction between elements, and conducive environmental conditions. So also, the onset and speed of social development depends on the seeding of new ideas in society, awareness of new opportunities, social aspirations and attitudes to change, the catalytic role of individuals, the presence of essential resources and instruments, the frequency and intensity of social interactions, social preparedness and support for new activities.
ii. Development is an expression of social creativity. It requires immense investment of creative energy for society to experiment with new modes of activity, take the risks associated with change, break the active resistance and passive inertia of fixed habits, raise standards of functioning to higher levels, acquire new skills and build higher order organisations. Moving from one level of social organisation to another requires the accumulation of surplus energy as in the conversion of matter from a liquid to a gaseous state. Development is the result of surplus energy moving vertically and being organised at a higher level, rather than merely being spent in horizontal expansion at the same level. The higher-level organisation is able to utilise the energy more productively.
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iii. Indomitable energy has been an outstanding trait of great political leaders such as Napoleon, Churchill and Gandhi and business leaders such as Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, and Tom Watson of IBM. Inventor Thomas Alva Edison was known to work for days on end without sleep in the process of developing 1,100 patentable inventions and founding the General Electric Company. Organisations that are growing rapidly share the same characteristic, which is apparent even to casual visitors to high tech companies in Silicon Valley. Energy is highly visible in progressive urban centres around the globe, from New York and London to Hong Kong and Tokyo. It is, therefore, not surprising that this characteristic is found abundant in societies that have achieved high levels of development or that it becomes increasingly pervasive as societies enter the takeoff phase.
iv. Surplus social energy collects as potential beneath the surface, accumulating until it acquires sufficient force to burst out in new activities. But the mobilisation of this energy for action depends on fulfillment of a second essential condition — awareness of new development opportunities and challenges. Societies that are fully consumed by the struggle for survival have little time or inclination to direct their attention outward to observe what other societies are accomplishing or forward to envision new possibilities. When life reaches a certain level of stable comfort, societies become increasingly interested in and aware of what is going on in the world around them. This awareness may also be thrust on a society by the unwanted intrusion of an external influence. The influx of English manufactured goods into the pre-industrial economies of Europe and the arrival of a modern armed American fleet in Tokyo harbour in the 19th century both had the effect of awakening societies to the opportunities and challenges of development and stimulating them to respond.
v. The increasing pace of development is directly linked to an increase in the speed and reliability of information about what is taking place in other parts of the country, region and world due to improvements in communication and transportation. The proliferation of books and newspapers following the invention and diffusion of the printing press, and the growth of international shipping following the invention of navigation aids beginning in the 15th century, the growth of railways, telegraph, and telephones in the 19th century, and the impact of radio, film, television, computers and satellite technology in the 20th century have exponentially multiplied the dissemination of information and the general level of social awareness. Today more than 60,000 newspapers are published around the globe, including 8000 dailies, with a combined circulation of 500 million and an estimated readership of 1.5 billion people.
vi. Society must also feel a strong aspiration or felt need for achievement at a higher level that will spur efforts to convert a perceived possibility into a material reality. Social development is an expression of social will seeking to elevate the performance of the collective. As society becomes more conscious of the external environment and its own internal potentials, its aspiration and will for progress increases. The greater the knowledge of its potentials, the greater the aspiration.
Failures to respond to opportunities arising out of a sense of social superiority or social inferiority are expressions of a common principle. People respond to the example of those with whom they identify socially. When there is awareness of a developmental achievement by one belonging to the same social and cultural context, it can evoke a powerful urge for accomplishment in society. When the achievement is by one who lies outside the context, it is often ignored.
Thus, the adoption of new crops and cultivation practices by a wealthy farmer may not lead to similar behaviour by smaller farmers in the same community. Age, social status, class, caste, wealth, occupation and other factors help define social identity. But this trend seems to drastically change in the contemporary period.