General Laws of Development - An Outline

Feb. 15, 1994

Social development is only a segment of existence and evolution of Life. What applies to Life in general applies to growth of societies in particular, the Law remaining the same. The most central truth of DEVELOPMENT is that it is not a programme or policy or strategy but is a PROCESS of life. Being a process, it is ever present in all societies whether it moves forward or is apparently stagnant. This being a scientific process, rather a process that can be organised as a science, any theory of development will be valid in the measure it enables us 1) to explain the changes in the society in the past, and 2) to predict the future.

A theory so organised must enable humanity to hasten its growth.

This outline can be divided into laws of development, their relation with the individual, the collectivity, organisation, sectoral life, social institutions, resources, money, planes of life and the required atmosphere wherein smooth development takes place. The subtle truths of existence have their say on this activity too and knowing them, though not necessary in ordinary times, will be significant in periods of transition or cataclysmic upheaval.

General Laws of Development

   1. The law that governs the development of the individual, societies, or organisations is the same.
   2. Development is a process, ever present and natural to all forms of life.
   3. Development is not a programme or strategy or even a policy.
   4. Being a process of the whole, development cannot be fully understood in a partial sector.
   5. Societies achieve first and after a long period understand the process of achievement.
   6. Achievements begin in parts and slowly merge together.
   7. Apparently man acts first and understands later while in truth subconsciously he understands first and then acts through understanding.
   8. The accumulating social knowledge in the subconscious surfaces consciously in the pioneer.
   9. As a rule the pioneer who thus expresses the collective social inheritance of knowledge meets with stiff resistance from the entire society which tries to annihilate him.
  10. Success for the pioneer comes only when he survives this social opposition.
  11. The pioneer's success wins any recognition when it translates itself into one of practical value.
  12. The success of the pioneer spreads by competition or more so by jealousy when the society is poised for growth.
  13. All societies are in vigilant sensitive awareness with respect to what they have till then achieved.
  14. Competition with the pioneer touching this sensitivity, the new activity spreads fast to the entire society.
  15. The forces of development are social, psychological forces and therefore neutral and amoral.
  16. The unit of development is what we describe as COMPLETE ACT.
  17. A complete act is one wherein ALL -- physical, vital, mental -- requirements are present in full measure, in a developmental atmosphere.
  18. The process of development starts with the release of energy which when turned into force by direction and organised into power yields the desired result.
  19. The organisation of this energy into power through the middle stage of force takes place in 4 levels viz. physical, nervous, mental and higher mental.
  20. We know them as physical skill, vital attitude, mental decisiveness and the value of the higher mind.
  21. The level of the organised values determines the maximum achievement possible by the society or the individual.
  22. Custom, usage, tradition and culture are various versions of the organised values of a society whereas the same for the individual is known as character.
  23. The process of (creation) development is by the individual's initiative and choice through Form expressing the involved content through rhythm and process.
  24. The same law yields the opposite results when one is on either side of the line that represents the average individual.

This process of development embraces all general laws of life like: 1) one moves to the next plane when that plane is saturated with achievement, 2) life begins to decay when growth stops.

Development and Organisation

  1. A work arranged according to a fixed pattern falls into a system. Several systems join together to create an organisation.
  2. Any organisation has several components (e.g. 5 components of a company) which when in balance yield maximum results.
  3. Increasing the strength of any one of the components will increase the total results until it disturbs the harmony.

Individual

  1. He is organised in several layers of manners, behaviour, character, personality.
  2. Character enables one to preserve the past.
  3. Personality is that which enables one to venture afresh.
  4. What an individual aspires for ardently, he is capable of accomplishing.
  5. It is the individual who makes the collective subconscious conscious in himself.
  6. All individual achievements are really achievements of the collective.
  7. HE is the centre of development, not the resources or systems or strategies.

Institutions

  • Institutions are organisations dedicated to specific ideals.
  • While an organisation can spread itself all over the society, an institution carves a niche for itself.
  • Organisations achieve in general and spread horizontally, while institutions raise the value of results vertically towards an idealistic goal.

Social Sectors

  • Each sector by its placement in life energizes the next in the hierarchy when saturated and overflowing.
  • Speed of result formation increasing in one sector hastens the growth of the whole society.

Resource

  • Resources for development are material, organisational, psychological as well as mental.
  • What makes a thing a RESOURCE is the human discovery of its potential.
  • Man and his mental competence are the resource of all resources.

Atmosphere

  • An act is not completed to yield results when all the inputs are fully present.
  • It is through a rhythm and a process the act yields the results.
  • The rhythm and the process enveloping the ACT constitute the atmosphere wherein it can fructify.
  • The unseen subtle connections between the components of an act and its required atmosphere have in them great practical power for achievement.

Planes

  • Society, the individual, an act -- all of them exist in 3 or 4 planes, viz. physical, vital, mental and higher mental.

Money

  • hough money is one of the many institutions society has created, its position is unique for several reasons of inherent value, viz.
    • its universality of convertibility
    • easy storage and transportation
    • speed of movement
    • accurate measurement
    • its capacity to precisely gauge almost every other social activity
    • its universal attraction to MAN all over the world.
  • The rules and laws that govern its creation, function, etc. are the same as the rules for other institutions; but it can be used for development as a powerful lever which is practiced all over the world.

In this computer age, it is scarcely realised that a nation's development can be doubled in its pace just by doubling the speed of money.

Conclusion with miscellaneous information

  • When the distinction between growth, development and evolution is drawn on clear lines, it makes the inquiry more precise, offering greater clarity.
  • Sectoral scales of development devised and used by themselves can increase the speed of a nation's progress.
  • Should the present position of any nation's status be put on a scale of one dimension or multiple dimensions and compared with the standard model, it becomes an effective instrument in the hands of the development agency to hasten the pace of development.
  • Knowledge of the whole process of development makes the impossible possible in certain situations (e.g. A.K. Sen's theory).
  • The super-dinar has had a good start because it is man-centred.

A comprehensive theory of development with appropriate measuring instruments like 'scales of development' and more particularly the indices that can measure the coordination between any two sectors will be a weapon hitherto unknown to nations seeking development. When its individual version  is presented in a capsule form of symbols, tokens, indices, indicators, reflectors, coordinates, etc. it will empower any individual to raise his performance level considerably. Employed psychologically, this instrument can fight violence, crime, dissipation and other similar   modes of self-destruction in the lowest stratum of the society while those others above that level can use this scale to banish failure, sorrow and frustration from their personal lives.