Pune: Drought Of Empathy In Emotionally Volatile Society, Says Prof Milind Joshi

Pune: Society's growing fanaticism and emotional volatility pose a crisis, warns Prof Milind Joshi. Amidst the heightened emotional intensity, there is a severe shortage of empathy, he emphasized during an interview with Karam Pratishthan. The senior writer and orator highlighted the urgent need to foster rationality and optimism.

Joshi pointed out that the widening chasm between society's moral and material lives has resulted in cultural lag and growing apathy. He lamented the erosion of rational thinking, which has led to blind hero-worship. Once esteemed for erudition, good conduct, and character, individuals are now judged primarily by material standards in a society obsessed with ostentation.

Joshi likened an insensitive society facing emotional malnutrition to a malnourished one suffering from a lack of food. Despite a facade of material prosperity, intellectual poverty is becoming increasingly apparent. He stressed that literary figures can effect social change through their intellectual positions, urging writers to pursue truth independently of factions or cliques.