From Politics to Science
“In the future, democracy is not going to last long, because the politician is already ignorant before the scientist; he is already in the hands of the scientist. The future belongs to the scientist, not to the politician.
“That means we will have to change the word democracy. I have a word for it: meritocracy.
“Merit will be the decisive factor. Not whether you can gather votes by canvassing all kinds of promises and hopes, but your merit, your real power in the scientific world will decide. And once government comes into the hands of the scientist, then everything is possible because I have called science, objective religion; and religion, subjective science.
“Once it comes into the hands of science, the world map will be different, because what is the fight between the Russian scientist and the American scientist? They are both working on the same projects; it will be far quicker if they work together. This is sheer stupidity, that all over the world the same experiments are being repeated in every nation; it is unbelievable. All these people together can do miracles. Divided, it becomes more expensive
“For example, if Albert Einstein had not escaped from Germany, then who would have won the Second World War? Do you think America and Britain and Russia would have won the Second World War? No. A single man’s escape from Germany, Albert Einstein escaping from Germany, has shaped history. All these bogus names: Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, Hitler, they don’t mean anything. That man did the whole thing because he created the atom bomb. He wrote a letter to Roosevelt: “The atom bomb is ready with me, and unless you use it there is no way to stop the war.
“He regretted it his whole life, but that’s another story. The atom bomb was used, and the moment it was used there was no question of Japan going on fighting. The war was won: Hiroshima and Nagasaki burning ended the Second World War. Albert Einstein was working on the same project in Germany. He could have written to just a different address – instead of to Roosevelt, to Adolf Hitler – and the whole history would have been different, totally different.
The future is going to be in the hands of the scientist. It is not far away. Now there are nuclear weapons, politicians cannot manage to be on top. They know nothing about it, not even the ABC.
“It was said while Einstein was alive that only twelve persons in the whole world understood his theory of relativity. One of those twelve people was Bertrand Russell who wrote a small book for those who could not understand it: The ABC of Relativity. He thought that at least they could understand the ABC – but even that is not possible, because if you can understand the ABC then the whole alphabet becomes simple. It is not a question of only understanding ABC; then XYZ is not far away. The real problem is to understand the ABC.
“Now all these politicians don’t understand anything at all. Sooner or later the world is going to be in the hands of the people who have merit. First it will move into the hands of the scientists.
“This you can take almost as a prediction that the world is going to move into the hands of the scientists. And then a new dimension opens up.
“Sooner or later the scientist is going to invite the sage, the saint, because he cannot manage it alone.
“The scientist cannot manage himself. He can manage everything but he cannot manage himself. Albert Einstein may know all about the stars of the universe but he knows nothing about his own center.
“This is going to be the future: from politicians to scientists, from scientists to religious man – but that will be a totally different kind of world. Religious people cannot go asking for votes. You will have to ask them. You will have to request them. And if they feel that your request is sincere and the need is there, they may act in the world. But remember it will not be politics at all.
So let me repeat, the politician can become religious if he drops politics; otherwise it is impossible. The religious man can become part of politics if politics changes its whole character; otherwise it is impossible for a religious man to be in politics. He cannot be a politician.
“But the way things are moving, it is absolutely certain that first the world will go into the hands of the scientist, and then, from the scientist it will go to the mystics. And only in the hands of the mystics can you yourself be safe.
“The world can be really a paradise. In fact, there is no other paradise unless we make one here.”
To continue reading and see all available formats of this talk:
Osho, From Ignorance to Innocence, Talk #15 – They Say Believe; I Say Explore