The predicament

Everyone agrees that the world is facing a serious value crisis. No society and no domain of social action is free from value crisis. Sharma (2002) says that the current global situation is marked by social entropy or negergy (negative energy). Quoting Justice V.R.Krishna, Iyer, calls this a situation of “ethical entropy” and refers to “developments which are seriously eroding our polity.” Of late, the issue of corruption and the talk of nexus between politicians, bureaucrats and the corporate leaders have acquired a significant space in media and civil society discourse. The term entropy is taken from the second law of thermodynamics according to which in all systems there is a tendency to remain either in the same state or move towards more and more disorder. In the world increasingly characterized by mobility of science and ideas from more developed parts to less developed parts (very much like flow of heat from regions of higher temperature to regions of lower temperatures), disorder is increasing. One reflection of this is that in most areas of social life roles and relationships have become very complex and prediction of human behaviour is becoming difficult. It may be noted that in the social context the term entropy has been used more for disintegration and disorder rather than for flows from the rich to the poor or flow of resources to the poor. The world is changing very fast. As a matter of fact in every domain of society there are uncertainties, multiplicities and chaos.

Further, Sharma (2002) identifies that there are eight developments contributing to social entropy. They are:

1. Alienation of self from Self

2. Environmental degradation

3. Gender insensitivity

4. Excessive consumerism and greed

5. Corruption

6. Income inequalities

7. Rise in income and various forms of terrorism

8. False consciousness