Geology Tiger, I really liked this point you are making:

पढेरलेखेर मात्रै कुनै मान्छे बिद्द्वान हुनसक्दैन, बिद्द्वान हुन बुद्धी हुनुपर्छ। अमेरिका घुमेपछि ठुला ठुला बिल्डिङ, फराकिला सडकहरु र चिल्ला कारहरु त सबैले देख्छन् तर नेपालमा यसो हुन नसक्ने कारण के हो भनेर बुझ्नसक्ने धेरै कम नै हुन्छन्। ती अबुझहरुको लागि अमेरिकनहरु म्लेच्छ नै हुन्।

By the way, I love the way you write: honest and from the heart. It is refreshing.

But my friend, I feel that your definition of dharma and religion is too narrow. Dharma and religion come in many forms. Communism is also a form of religion. Corporate culture is also a kind of a religion.

Read this article:
http://www.ventzine.com/article/prajwal-kafle/american-dream-a-nepalis-perspective

The modern propaganda goes: earning money by hook or crook is the way to find security, love and happiness. The panacea to all of life’s problems is ‘material symbolism’ as promoted by the Church of Multi-National Corporate Culture (COMNCC).

Corporate evangelists 
It’s quite understandable why people would respond to the ‘spiritual calling’ of corporate culture with such force. Dedicated corporate evangelists religiously appear to inspire us during commercial breaks. The amount of energy and charisma they put into their advertisements make me shake in rapture. Each corporate evangelist wants us to join their particular church. Ah, so many choices of spiritual discipline to join, so little time and money. 

The economic bear 
Of course, you can’t have a church without also having a devil to be against. In modern COMNCC, the devil is portrayed as 'the bear.' The bear is the global economy that is very hungry and chomping at our heels. This bear is what everyone is supposed to run away from by not falling behind in the rat race. This global economy is all devouring and never satisfied. We all fear being eaten alive by the bottomless pit of the stomach of the economic bear. This bedtime story is told in many different shapes and forms on many channels of the media.

The effects of the bedtime story on us kids
Every kindergartner knows that a good bedtime story needs to have a good moral. What is a good story without a moral right? The moral of the bedtime story of the economic bear is that we should feel shame and guilt. We don’t need to personally feel shame and guilt, but since we know that the story is told in every household across the nation and the world, when we talk to someone at a party, we feel that they are judging us based on where we stand in relation to the chomping bear. Pretty clever, huh? We fear being detested and rejected by those around us because we aren’t good enough for their friendship. We fear not being loved by the people we identify with because we are not seen to be deserving. We fear being laughed at because the wealth we own does not match up to the ‘acceptable’ standards of those around us. So we find ourselves constantly comparing our own economic standing in relationship to others. In such an environment, each person fears having less than the people around them. 

The fastest rat in the race wins 
It’s like that story of the two friends who are being chased by a bear. One friend runs faster than the other feeling that he doesn’t need to outrun the bear, he only needs to outrun his friend. The lesson is that in order to be saved by the bear, we need to make sure we are surrounded by people who are weaker and run slower than we do.

There are two options to play this game of the economic bear chasing you with gnashing teeth:

1) Either learn to run faster than the other people around you. Afford to buy yourself and your loved ones ‘Nike’ shoes, pain killers, muscle cream, plenty of Gatorade and other performance enhancers. This is the option taken up by developed nations.

2) Or trip the guy next to you.

In developed nations, where there are lots of opportunities, you learn to run faster. In under-developed nations, where there aren’t a lot of opportunities, you learn to smile in front of people but to drag them down when no one is looking. In essence, you learn to be Manipulative Mike. This is why there is rampant corruption and back biting amongst people in under-developed nations.