Education, Employment & Earning

The difference between animals & humans is the latter's curiosity about the world. This curiosity, being recognised as an essential human characteristic, led to the organising of Education. After acquiring education, it was utilised to obtain gainful employment,  generating Earning for livelihood. This classical progression seems to be given the go-by in recent times.

Instead of the first step in this chain, namely curiosity, leading to Education (or knowledge) has almost disappeared as the primary human motivation, being replaced by Earning (or Wealth) as the primary human goal, followed closely by Status (as a means of feeding the Ego) as the be-all & end-all of human existence. Employment is also not because of interest in the work, but to earn optimum money, whether ethically or not.

Because of this mindset, even religion & culture, being the other two uniquely human attributes, are also sought after, only if they provide wealth or fame (another facet of Status). Praying to God is also for the latter two objectives. Cultural activities are also tolerated only if they produce Wealth or Fame. Same goes for Sports also. Instead of playing for "Joie de Vivre", as they are meant to be, the same old goals of Wealth & Fame are the dreams at the end of the rainbow.

Worse, those engaged in the pursuit of knowledge, culture, sports or spirituality for their own ends, are deemed a laughing stock by quite a large majority of unenlightened population. Even the great Dr. Samuel Johnson reportedly said "Only a blockhead ever wrote except for money!". If this trend of the only human interests being wealth & status continues, can the mental regression of humans into sub-humans be far behind?