Nista Madya Utama Concept as Javanese Local Wisdom to Achieving Welfare and Peace
Abstract
This literature review is based on the development of life in the millennial society of the 21st century where people are required to compete for achieving their aim. Welfare and peace are the goals of the community. Meanwhile local wisdom is proven to be a vehicle that can reach a prosperous and peaceful society. The purpose of this paper is to describe the main concept of Nista Madya Utama in Javanese culture, describe the implementation of the concept in the community, and also describe the benefits of the concept in community lives.
Nista Madya Utama concept was discussed based on concepts taken from New Javanese literary texts, namely Serat Wulang Putri and Serat Wulang Putra. The text was discussed using Seung's semiotic theory then analyzed using hermeneutic method. Our results showed that Nista concept is the concept of life that must be avoided and prohibited, Madya concept is an alternative concept for middle-class community, while Utama concept is the concept that should be done for life. Nista Madya Utama concept indicated that it can be implemented in millennial society. Utama concept is value that must be carried out by high-class community, officials, and best done by the all people, while the Madya concept is an alternative choice of value for middle and lower class community. The benefits of these concepts if implemented in the community are as a controller of human desires in order to achieve welfare and peace.