tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83237571444802668622023-11-16T08:46:28.745-08:00I have to sayMy critical take on different things from around the world.PassingByhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14883450312267760767noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8323757144480266862.post-20323863497619969252013-08-19T06:21:00.003-07:002013-08-19T22:21:55.178-07:00Spirituality and Science OR Spirituality vs Science? <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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One of the most deeply rooted and age old debates in our society is the one between spirituality and science. For centuries, spiritual seekers have associated science with man trying to question the work of God and maybe play God himself, and the Scientific community has given very little credit to spirituality.<br />
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I choose to use the word spirituality and not religion because by talking about spirituality and science, I wish to focus on the subjects of faith and rationality, experience and exploration and try to find any connection that might exist between the two. And in this context, organised religion can be kept aside for a while.<br />
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Spirituality and science are often seen as opposing concepts and in general people who speak for science are against spirituality and vice-versa.<br />
But when I try to examine the nature of spirituality and science, I do not see them as opposing concepts at all, rather to me they seem to be deeply inter-linked. Rather than being two completely detached and different ways of looking at the world, they seem to me to be two steps of the same process -- of understanding all that is life.<br />
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To me spirituality is synonymous with experience. Spirituality and spiritual conclusions/inclinations/faiths are usually a direct result of an individual's experiences and instinctive voices and science is exploration into the logical reasoning behind an experience. So to me it seems that spirituality is the first step of 'being' which is nothing but the act of experiencing life.<br />
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And once an individual has experienced, he/she wants to look into the rationality of that experience. To explore and find a logical reason for what the experience of the instinctive voice tells them.<br />
So in this way of thinking, spirituality and science are two steps of the same process of being a human. First you experience and then you try to understand and find a reason for that experience.<br />
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In other words spirituality and science seem to be nothing but the two halves of our brains trying to understand and comprehend the unified reality in two different ways. The right side spiritually experiences the world and then the left rational half sets on the process understanding that experience.<br />
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And so conflict between spirituality and science in the world, to me, is representative of the conflict between the left and right side of our brains. The key to life in any context seems to be balance, but our world which is representative of our states of minds is clearly out of balance. We seem to be living in a world dominated by the Left side of our brains. And how are we to get a complete and unified view of the world when there is conflict between the two halves of our brains? Only when the left and the right side come together with their understandings and conclusions can we hope to achieve a complete picture of the world by the harmonious use of our brains entirely.<br />
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Logic, mathematics, and science gives us numbers, figures and infinite possibilities but one thing science can not do is reduce these infinite possibilities to one outcome. That is where you and I, the observer comes in. Every moment in our lives presents us with infinite choices but it is our choices that reduce all these infinite possibilities to once concrete tangible outcome in the real world.<br />
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I very strongly feel that human beings trying to explore life and universe through science without taking the observer/spirituality into consideration will never work. Here is the analogy that time and over again leads me to this conclusion - Let us imagine the entire universe as one big jig-saw puzzle, and human species being a part of the universe is one of the jig-saw pieces. Now what is happening is that this one jig saw piece called human has pulled itself out of the overall picture and is trying to find the 100% in the 99% of the puzzle, which it will never find. Only when human scientific exploration puts the human piece of the puzzle back into the equation will the puzzle be complete, not otherwise.<br />
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Scientific development on a lot of fronts seems to be meaningless, and on a lot of other fronts it seems destructive because we are exploring possibilities of our universe without considering who is exploring?! And why did we begin the exploration in the first place?!<br />
I strongly hold that human exploration on scientific and technological front will find the direction and reason that it clearly lacks currently only when spirituality is rightly recognised as the first step of human exploration and is deeply embedded into our scientific and technological endeavours.<br />
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Spirituality and science are not opposing in nature as it might seem at first, rather they are two steps of one unified movement of human existence and one can't be complete without the other; one is blind without the other.<br />
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PassingByhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14883450312267760767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8323757144480266862.post-81457148892341651182013-07-19T04:24:00.002-07:002013-08-26T01:38:39.549-07:00Humanity as an extension of myself<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">Physics, p</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">hilosophy, h</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">istory, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">chemistry, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">biology, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">agriculture, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">geology,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">archaeology, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">anthropology, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">a</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">rt, </span>e<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">ducation, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">psychology, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">sociology, and the list goes on and on. Humans have had to catalogue and categorise information about life under numerous names based on the nature of information to bring some sense of order to a seemingly random and chaotic universe. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">Life is so immense and complex that it is impossible for one individual to explore all the different facets of life and hence different people working in different fields, exploring many different facets of life works perfectly on an individual level and on a collective human level. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">Such diversity in interests among people helps build a more holistic view and understanding of life for the whole of humanity at large. At the same time it enables individuals who are caught up in their individual fields of work to understand life on its different fronts for which they don't have the time. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">Humanity could very well be visualised as a man with many faces and limbs, each one with its own special power and interest, and this is where I suddenly find myself thinking if this is precisely what Krishna was referring to when he showed his all superior self to Arjuna according to Indian mythology 'Mahabharata'. Forgive me for pulling you to mythological realm without any prior warning. </span></span></div>
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It is self-empowering and comforting for me to see the whole of humanity as an extension of my own self rather than as a fragmented divided system. Also I wouldn't dare put one field over another as being more important, because it is only when knowledge from these different fields come together that we can begin to get a complete picture of life and its meaning. </div>
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So here goes out a big heartfelt gratitude to all those scientists, anthropologists, historians and all other professionals whose curiosities and hard work have given me the understanding of the world I have today. </div>
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PassingByhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14883450312267760767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8323757144480266862.post-55116158916063306582013-07-18T01:13:00.000-07:002013-08-26T01:42:19.050-07:00Hate crime and not Criminals<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="s1">To begin let us first consider a hypothetical situation where a society is in a state of total collapse, where there is a lack of food, water, and money. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">In this given situation I think most of us; in fact all of us would resort to stealing, looting, fighting, and killing for survival if we had to. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">But in a day to day normally functional society, most of us will not need to resort to such behaviour for most of our lives. Most people are found saying things like – “Stealing is wrong and I would never steal. And if someone does he/she should be punished for it”, without realising that they would never steal because they never find themselves in a position where it becomes a choice between stealing or dying and that may be some other people steal and kill because they find themselves in such situations. I think in such drastic scenarios most of us would steal and kill if we had to.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">But in a normally functional society that we live in on a day to day basis most of us will not need to resort to such behaviour for most of our lives. And most of us judge other people’s actions as right or wrong from our individual level of comfort, without realising that we have created a society in which everybody is selfishly competing with one another for survival, and in such a paradigm everybody is constantly trying to secure more resources for themselves and lesser for everybody else. In such a selfish and competitive paradigm people who succeed get rich and continue to get richer, while people who didn’t have the situations working in their favour lose and stay poor. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">So poverty is part of our social structure, it is woven into the very fabric of human society. If there are rich people, there will be poor people. Unless of course we evolve to a point where we all freely share all our resources equally. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">And in this poverty stricken daily reality of the majority of the world’s population living under poverty line, struggle for survival is a day to day reality and just like any other human being would in such situations, these people resort to whatever means they have to, in order to feed and protect themselves and their loved ones. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">So looking at the broader picture we are all as individuals equally responsible for the crime in the world, because we let our selfishness blind us from seeing that in our individual pursuit for more, we let some of our brothers and sisters slip through the cracks and live in conditions that no human or animal should live in. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">And if pushing fellow humans to such situations of desperation wasn’t enough, we then punish them by the law for doing something that we all would have done in similar situations. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">And in doing so, we are doubly wronging our fellow human beings. First we push them to a point of desperation and then we punish them for doing something that we all would have done in such desperate situations. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Of course I cannot deny that there are some sociopathic people out there who commit crimes because they love it. But I have to admit that most of the sociopathic tendencies are bred in the horrible conditions that the poor of our society live in. And so even in case of such sociopathic people, it is the environment or the condition that is to be blamed which is poverty. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">And poverty is the direct result of uneven distribution of wealth which arises out of each one of our individual attitude of trying to secure more for ourselves and less for everybody else. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">In conclusion, I think arresting and locking up individuals who have committed crimes might be necessary, at least till a situation has been understood and resolved. But it is nowhere close to ridding the society of crime. </span><br />
<span class="s1">An unhealthy act is an outcome of an unhealthy mind, and an unhealthy mind is an outcome of an unhealthy environment. We need to examine the environment. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Through this thought I wish to at least make people think twice about this issue, if not rid the society of crime completely.</span></div>
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PassingByhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14883450312267760767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8323757144480266862.post-6752157115828519352011-12-26T09:10:00.000-08:002011-12-28T04:50:41.704-08:00Ron Paul Revolution<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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With 2012 American elections drawing closer, international and American media is buzzing with one name - Ron Paul.<br />
A
lot of independent media websites, activists and young individuals are
supporting Ron Paul and the 3 big points on his election campaign agenda<br />
1) End the wars,<br />
2) End the Fed, and<br />
3) End the war on drugs<br />
and are upholding him as the only deserving candidate to be the next American President.<br />
Where
as on the other hand, most of the main stream media outlets are trying
to down play Ron Paul by either completely ignoring him, grossly
under-representing him on television, and in some cases by constantly
trying to focus only on his alleged past actions from over two decades
ago rather than paying more attention to what the man has to say today,
which clearly comes off as a desperate attempt to tarnish his image in
public's minds. <br />
I guess even the corporate media understands that
other candidates are so incompetent that they have to go out of their
way to do everything they can to make sure that Ron Paul doesn't just
sail through the election campaign to become the next president. <br />
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What
ever it may be, one thing is for sure Ron Paul's increasing popularity
is keeping the opposition leaders and the corporate controlled media
houses on their toes. <br />
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But even though Ron Paul is the
current favorite amongst a lot of young people, political analysts and
independent activists because of the sincere points he is raising, let
us not jump into conclusions about anything without putting it in
context with what political history has to teach us. <br />
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Just
like Ron Paul is being hailed as the face of change today, it was not
long ago when Obama was being up held as the face of change and hope. The first elected black president, and beacon of hope, Obama revolution with slogans like "We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change we seek."<br />
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During
the election campaign four years ago, most of the political pundits,
commentators supported Obama's campaign but four years down the line and
everybody including his most dedicated supporters want nothing to do
with him. <br />
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Ron Paul is appealing to a lot of
people today because of the promises he is making about the changes he
plans to put in place once he becomes the president.<br />
But making and breaking promises is one of the oldest games in politics.<br />
Just making promises doesn't make Ron Paul any different from any of
the presidential candidates from the past. What matters is whether he
will live up to his word once elected or will he just turn on his words
just like most presidents do.<br />
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There are mainly two possibilities that could play out in the up coming elections as far as Ron Paul is concerned.<br />
1) He is yet another puppet politician being put in place to appeal to the public's concerns but will not make any of the changes that he is talking about once elected. In this case he will most probably go on to win the elections through all the publicity he will get whether positive or negative and will not change anything. <br />
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Some of you now might feel that it is impossible that Ron Paul is a
corporate or political puppet because he is raising such genuine
concerns and points that go against the very corporate and political structure.<br />
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But we have to understand that with help of
social networking websites and other internet based activities today
governments have a surveillance power like never before. Not only can
they create and study trends of the over all mood of the public, but they can drill down to
individual level to understand what each citizen is thinking and doing.
And with help of such elaborate surveillance system it has become very
easy for political/corporate lobbyists to put forth a candidate who has
been tailored to speak to the public's concerns at any given time.<br />
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I don't think that emergence of Barack Obama as a face of change
four years back was an accident either. He was definitely a candidate
who was tailored to address the public sentiments four years back.<br />
But people are raising deeper questions now, and Ron Paul is out there addressing those concerns.<br />
I
am not saying that Ron Paul seems to be yet another puppet put out
there to dupe the public. Most probably he is not a corporate puppet and
has been firm on his point of view for a very long time, much before he
started running for president. But I just had to point out that this
possibility exists.<br />
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2)The second and more likely possibility is that he is a genuine and unique individual who will fight for what he believes in till his own end. In which case two possibilities can play out<br />
a) He will be successfully ignored and down played by the media and the opposition and he will lose in the election race. <br />
b) He will go on to win the presidential race against all odds. To understand what might follow if this happens, we will have to briefly look back at the American and Global political history to put him and his political agenda in context.<br />
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Mahatma Gandhi, John F Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, John Lennon they all have two things in common, first that they all tried to point out the faults in the system at the most fundamental level, and tried to bring about a fundamental change in the system and the second that they were all assassinated.<br />
Now with this said, let us try to put Ron Paul's political stand point in context.<br />
He is talking about ending the wars at a time when there is a whole industry based upon military, wars and re construction. A powerful industry that loves to reap profits from human death and destruction. He is trying to end the war industry at a time in human society when the society is built on war and violence. <br />
Secondly he wants to end the central bank or federal reserve bank system. The people behind the Federal Reserve are the real owners and rulers of our world. So it is like telling a king I am going to destroy your kingdom, what do you think the King is going to do to you?<br />
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And third End the war on drugs - The industry built around pedaling of illegal drugs is a transnational behemoth and reaps profits like no other industry on the planet and is run by ruthless mafia lords with help of politicians around the world. Do you think they will let anyone take away that kind of profit away from them by legalizing drugs? They will not. Besides the leaders don't want to educate people about drugs, they just want to keep them scared by calling them "Illegal drugs". <br />
Besides legalization of drugs might be a blasphemy for religious people, they wouldn't want to see their kids having free access to drugs. <br />
At the end of it all one of these drug lords, politicians, bankers would have had enough of Ron Paul's honest point of views and will get him assassinated and pin it on some frustrated father who was too scared that legalization of drugs will destroy his son's life who just got out of a rehab because he was too fucked up on drugs anyway. <br />
Ron Paul is talking about shaking the very fundamental pillars of the corrupt society we have created. And while I would be truly delighted to see such positive changes take place in our world, it is precisely what the rich bankers, businessmen and politicians do not want to see. They do not want people walking around talking about how our current social economical and political paradigm is flawed at the most fundamental levels. No they don't want that. <br />
They just want temporary fixes and band aids so they can continue their system of control till the end of time.<br />
And these ambitious rulers will do what ever they have to in order to hold on to their position of power and control, this is very evident from the history.<br />
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I do not know if Ron Paul is as genuine as he seems to be. But I truly love his political stand point and wish him all the very best.<br />
He is a part of the system and he is trying to shake the system down from within, something I think can not be done because there are elements in the system who are too addicted to power and control. They are rich junkies, junkies who get orgasmic attaining more power and control and just like any other junkie they will do whatever it takes to get their next fix.<br />
<br /></div>PassingByhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14883450312267760767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8323757144480266862.post-51095687011751555362011-12-18T07:10:00.001-08:002013-08-26T01:44:13.921-07:002012 | The Year Of Self-fulfilling Prophecies<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9uq8WE3EHQ2AHV3M24zp0UdgBhfCQ_Xptt8KOA8RoZ19QGy_DPm6OH_LPIu5IPDoB7osdCCnW9m27nDn1JOqF9asL_On2ehJvfHsuBnS5HnXorvTJpdYzCKJDLoN4kW5ub-qmWL3ktKA/s1600/3276407960_b21bb09121.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5687737034981098802" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9uq8WE3EHQ2AHV3M24zp0UdgBhfCQ_Xptt8KOA8RoZ19QGy_DPm6OH_LPIu5IPDoB7osdCCnW9m27nDn1JOqF9asL_On2ehJvfHsuBnS5HnXorvTJpdYzCKJDLoN4kW5ub-qmWL3ktKA/s400/3276407960_b21bb09121.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 381px;" /></a><br />
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Its December again and most people are as usual gearing up to welcome the new year in style, deciding about places to travel to and parties to attend and I have to admit that it is very hard to stay out of the festive spirit, but I decided to take some time out to see if we should be celebrating the arrival of the next year, or should we rather be busy preparing for some apocalyptic events that 2012 might hold for us?<br />
2012 is supposed to be special isn't it? At least if we are to believe a lot of theories out there it is and now that we are almost ready to enter into the new year, i think it would be a good time to gauge what we can expect from the year ahead. <br />
I personally think that 2012 will be nothing more than a year of self-fulfilling prophecies.We will come back to what a self-fulfilling prophecy is, in a while. <br />
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First let us look at why the year 2012, specifically the date 21st december 2012 is upheld as the doomsday, end of the world day by different groups of people and theories. <br />
Listed below are different sources of information that people interpret as being the sign of the end of world arriving in 2012. <br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />1) Mayan calendar:</span> <br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtOQcOtFwrsTqGEEJ8k8MrbYWUKK7lz3J7QtxPrrrbq_NfnQjricSXaarHI5iFBjnn_Zl615yEHN4dCQ64ZXaRbcHqRb9dE3KSQEgLssjhtXFsfiImS7IChMz_Z8Kz7ipF_xjNPZQ_gSQ/s1600/12742.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5687780925471928274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtOQcOtFwrsTqGEEJ8k8MrbYWUKK7lz3J7QtxPrrrbq_NfnQjricSXaarHI5iFBjnn_Zl615yEHN4dCQ64ZXaRbcHqRb9dE3KSQEgLssjhtXFsfiImS7IChMz_Z8Kz7ipF_xjNPZQ_gSQ/s400/12742.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 379px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
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The Long Count calendar identifies a day by counting the number of days passed since a mythical creation date that corresponds to August 11, 3114 BCE in the Gregorian calendar. According to the Popol Vuh, a book compiling details of creation accounts known to the K'iche' Maya of the Colonial-era highlands, we are living in the fourth world. The Popol Vuh describes the first three creations that the gods failed in making and the creation of the successful fourth world where men were placed. <br />
In the Maya Long Count, the previous creation ended at the start of a 14th b'ak'tun ad will end on December 20, 2012.<br />
Which can simply mean, that this calendar which was meant to depict a certain amount of time on a cyclic time frame ends on December 20, 2012. That is like saying that the last date on the 2011 calendar will be December 31st 2012. That doesn't mean that the world or time will end on that particular day. It just means we need to print fresh calendars for the next year. Long count calendars last for thousands of years and I am sure if Maya were still around they would have been busy working on the next long count calendar. <br />
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To me a calendar containing dates for a limited amount of cyclic period is no shocker. We get a calendar for a year which contains dates for that year, once the year passes we get the calendar for the next year. Similarly it comes as no surprise to me that Mayans made a long count calendar for a fixed amount of cyclic period that lasted 5000 odd years. I guess they would have planned to make the long count calendar for the next cycle as well when the time came. But they didn't even last through their first long count calendar and that ends on December 21 2012. <br />
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On a lighter note, this Mayan calendar theory seems to be nothing more than what the cartoon depicts below. <br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIW40bAoYpawoBLOa5DvQGfmY0tQm_NR6iD_k5zDMelLqJmFGbzH81-mkTkYeFZqt-irQYUThN9nebjZP0yPRFKoVdpXGg8q5Vgl1KHj9raAt7hJ3bJ83UDOVz7ZWd4VHsqUBBP9_nSsY/s1600/mayan+calendar+cartoon.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5687785214486240290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIW40bAoYpawoBLOa5DvQGfmY0tQm_NR6iD_k5zDMelLqJmFGbzH81-mkTkYeFZqt-irQYUThN9nebjZP0yPRFKoVdpXGg8q5Vgl1KHj9raAt7hJ3bJ83UDOVz7ZWd4VHsqUBBP9_nSsY/s400/mayan+calendar+cartoon.gif" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 381px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
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All said and done, that calendar is some marvelous piece of intricate stone work to say the least. <br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">2) The I Ching:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvtUo0v0_sYpToDVF3cwPli0hp5UY68qdxfSxsJBRcxtaCiOAObje3c3XrCsdjFTdRuVZkkBPZWLib58Uty2b5oWFezwwLZ09Jqn0bB69gs7TLMQS8suDhZ0R6j0RvFM5FITBSz13AbrA/s1600/I_Ching_Song_Dynasty_print.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvtUo0v0_sYpToDVF3cwPli0hp5UY68qdxfSxsJBRcxtaCiOAObje3c3XrCsdjFTdRuVZkkBPZWLib58Uty2b5oWFezwwLZ09Jqn0bB69gs7TLMQS8suDhZ0R6j0RvFM5FITBSz13AbrA/s320/I_Ching_Song_Dynasty_print.jpg" width="259" /></a></div>
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The I Ching (Wade-Giles) or "Yì Jīng" (pinyin), also known as the Classic of Changes, Book of Changes and Zhouyi, is one of the oldest of the Chinese classic texts. It is an ancient Chinese system of fortune-telling. It does not predict anything by itself, but rather describes a system of making predictions by casting signs.<br />
Although the I Ching makes no predictions itself, it was used by Terrence McKenna in his "Timewave Zero" theory. This is where the assertion that the I Ching predicts 2012 comes from, and not from anything in the I Ching itself.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">3) Terrance Mckenna's Time wave Zero theory (Based on I ching):</span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5UgFdnRkSe4_Yyfb6dH30T4SpvwydUccfJSAyg7LE64vGn8H5eF5iY0Azl3HeDeKFfyH1NWmhd37Wpb3HYf24mD-2l8BUI4PjtPXMzh_hoZkO1mA-ll789mtdXhrentIcoPBUAVoKnAo/s1600/timewavezero.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5687776751577929954" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5UgFdnRkSe4_Yyfb6dH30T4SpvwydUccfJSAyg7LE64vGn8H5eF5iY0Azl3HeDeKFfyH1NWmhd37Wpb3HYf24mD-2l8BUI4PjtPXMzh_hoZkO1mA-ll789mtdXhrentIcoPBUAVoKnAo/s400/timewavezero.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 187px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 270px;" /></a><br />
Terence Kemp McKenna was an Irish-American philosopher, psychonaut, researcher, teacher, lecturer and writer on many subjects, such as human consciousness, language, psychedelic drugs, the evolution of civilizations, the origin and end of the universe, alchemy, and extraterrestrial beings. He used the I ching and plotted a graph of what he called 'Novelty' against time. Novelty at any given point in time is representative of the new change at that point in time. <br />
This graph stops on December 21st 2012, which Terence Mckenna said means that "Linear time would cease to exist", and they called it the zero state. <br />
"Achievement of the zero state can be imagined to arrive in one of two forms. One is the dissolution of the cosmos in an actual cessation and unravelling of the natural laws, a literal apocalypse. The other possibility the culmination of a human process, a process of toolmaking, which comes to completion in the perfect artefact: the monadic self, exteriorised, condensed, and visible in three dimensions; in alchemical terms, the dream of a union of spirit and matter".<br />
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In other words, with the speed of evolution accelerating, amount of change taking place in a given time is increasing drastically and maybe there will come a time when the rate of change will reach such a speed that change is all that will exist. Various fringe scientists have tried to calculate this point of infinity, giving us calculated dates ranging from 2010 to 2050. Dates that many of us will live to see. Perhaps the date is Dec 22, 2012. Ethnobotanists and fractal time experts Terrence and Dennis McKenna believe so, and they present their ideas in Invisible Landscape: Mind Hallucinogens and the I Ching (1993).<br />
This when seen quite simply makes sense on the technological front. The evolution of technology is rapidly accelerating, today new technologies replace the old ones every month, so it is not so crazy to think that there would come a point where new technologies will replace old technologies everyday and a constant change is all that will exist. <br />
In a nutshell their graph only suggests that 2012 will be a very eventful year with a lot of changes which looking at the current global scenario is not surprising at all. <br />
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The three Abrahamic religions Islam, Christianity, and Judaism seem to have very similar apocalyptic prophecies associated with the second coming of the Christ figure and the rise of the Anti-christ leading to invasion of the holy land of Jerusalem Israel. But none of these prophecies have any time line that says this would happen in 2012. They are the prophecies about the end times, and since the surfacing of the mayan calendar end of time in 2012 theories, people have been combining the two in their heads to mean the same thing. <br />
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Hindus don't seem to have any particular prophecies about the year 2012, even though some people claim that certain parts of the hindu literature point to the ending of 'Kalyuga' that we are in currently now and the beginning of a golden age called 'Satyuga' in or around 2012. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">But
I will not be too surprised if all radical Hindutva groups go around torturing
and killing minorities trying to “make a pure way for the golden age”.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
I tried to look for a Buddhist point of view on 2012, but they don't seem to have any prophecies either. Except on someone's website I read that Buddhists see intervention by UFOs in 2012 but I couldn't help myself from not taking that too seriously. <br />
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4) <b>Galactic alignment, Pole Reversal, Weakening Earth's magnetic field and Planet X/Nibiru</b>:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGhLqkehGz3TgfrkamF-IPkriIasAh2BS56b9yTmfcJR4BH_uox_-y1N8eXaZ3tKwYyo1UY1n5XIDwyymcHIVr1PQ0DK25-7sJ11XmSSs7gV7JJ7hHPeVQlhbPCjhhJ8bpIU8d-3M-fTA/s1600/mayanlord2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGhLqkehGz3TgfrkamF-IPkriIasAh2BS56b9yTmfcJR4BH_uox_-y1N8eXaZ3tKwYyo1UY1n5XIDwyymcHIVr1PQ0DK25-7sJ11XmSSs7gV7JJ7hHPeVQlhbPCjhhJ8bpIU8d-3M-fTA/s320/mayanlord2012.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGypdIvr506L46RHmmN2aJqLqM0buIIvE40_DvSKaKuoA_3rsvQ7MkapJfYgm8R1erevC08AX56IxTg-7GgUBcKO_JKTYfhq5tY3wTss9xNZ5xEVcLr8iGEjdEU_0M22NCii0zEeyEFfw/s1600/28_03_Earth_magnetic_field-300x290.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGypdIvr506L46RHmmN2aJqLqM0buIIvE40_DvSKaKuoA_3rsvQ7MkapJfYgm8R1erevC08AX56IxTg-7GgUBcKO_JKTYfhq5tY3wTss9xNZ5xEVcLr8iGEjdEU_0M22NCii0zEeyEFfw/s1600/28_03_Earth_magnetic_field-300x290.jpg" /></a></div>
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Ancient civilizations seem to have referred to the cyclic motion of the heavenly bodies as a method of time keeping, and different positions, and orientations of planets and stars were used as reference points for this time keeping just like the numbers on the face of watch mark different points in a 24 hour day. Galactic alignment seems to have been referred to by the ancient civilizations for the very same reason. Occurring of this alignment would just mark a point on the cyclic long count time keeping and there is very little chance that anything cataclysmic would take place due to this alignment. <br />
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Pole reversal is a scientifically proven phenomenon, due to which earth's north pole and south pole switch their positions periodically. Even though a pole reversal might occur in the future, there is no hard evidence to suggest that it would occur any time soon, leave alone on a specific day in 2012.<br />
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A lot of scientists and theorists believe that earth's magnetic field is weakening, which might be scientifically proven. But again, there is no evidence that it would reach a point that would lead to something cataclysmic in 2012. <br />
As far as Planet X/Nibiru is concerned according to some it is supposed to be the 10th planet in our solar system that will return around this time. But scientists find no evidence of existence of any such planet in our solar system and as logical beings let us refrain from believing in something that has no proof of its existence. <br />
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5) Nostradmus's apocalyptic quatrains:<br />
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Nostradamus has attracted a following that, along with the popular press, credits him with predicting many major world events. <br />
Most academic sources maintain that the associations made between world events and Nostradamus's quatrains are largely the result of misinterpretations or mistranslations (sometimes deliberate) or else are so tenuous as to render them useless as evidence of any genuine predictive power.Moreover, none of the sources listed offers any evidence that anyone has ever interpreted any of Nostradamus's quatrains specifically enough to allow a clear identification of any event in advance. It is only after a major event taking place that someone interprets one of Nostradamus's works to have predicted that event. <br />
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I am sure I have not covered all the possible 2012 theories that are out there, but the ones listed above are the main prophecies and theories that suggest that 2012 will be a year of dimensional change, apocalypse, end of time and the list goes on.<br />
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Anyway now let us get back to the question of what a self-fulfilling prophecy is. <br />
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According to <a href="http://www.blogger.com/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-fulfilling_prophecy">wikipedia</a><br />
"<span style="font-style: italic;">A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true, by the very terms of the prophecy itself, due to positive feedback between belief and behavior. <br />The self-fulfilling prophecy is, in the beginning, a false definition of the situation evoking a new behaviour which makes the original false conception come 'true'. This specious validity of the self-fulfilling prophecy perpetuates a reign of error. For the prophet will cite the actual course of events as proof that he was right from the very beginning.<br />In other words, a prophecy declared as truth when it is actually false may sufficiently influence people, either through fear or logical confusion, so that their reactions ultimately fulfill the once-false prophecy.</span>"<br />
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In layman's terms a self fulfilling prophecy is one where an individual or a group of people uphold or propagate something someone said in the past and make sure that they do whatever it takes to make that prophecy come true.<br />
There has been a lot of propaganda on the news, information channels and other media in general about 2012 and we have to understand that establishment, and most of the mass media network never air anything that they don't want the public to know about.But 2012 has not been ignored at all, if anything it has only been blown out of proportion to serve a hidden agenda. <br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The History
Channel that is owned by Fox network has aired a handful of special series on doomsday that include
analysis of 2012 theories, such as <i>Decoding
the Past</i> (2005–2007), <i>2012, End of Days</i> (2006), <i>Last Days on Earth</i> (2006), <i>Seven Signs
of the Apocalypse</i> (2007), and <i>Nostradamus 2012</i> (2008)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The Discovery
Channel also aired <i>2012 Apocalypse</i> in 2009, suggesting that massive solar
storms, magnetic pole reversal, earthquakes, super volcanoes,
and other drastic natural events may occur in 2012.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";"></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">There was also a Hollywood blockbuster titled '2012', which showed how 2012 will be a year of utter destruction where mother nature will destroy the very life it sustained. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">And if you know your history, you will know that governments have used mass media, cinema industry to further their propaganda for a very long time. From trying to make marijuana illegal to driving away illegal immigrants was all done by persuading common public of their dangers through propaganda movies. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"> </span><b><u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";"></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">One thing is for sure, even if the governments or establishment is not directly behind all the talk about 2012 in the media they at least have no problem with the hype that is being created about it or they would have kept this knowledge away from the common man and the only reason so as to why the governments promoted and allowed theories about 2012 on mass media seems to be- "because it helps their cause". </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span><b><u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";"></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">With the help of the media there is already a lot of anticipation, doubt and fear that has been created in people's minds. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-US">While a small portion of people who do their own research might not give into these scare tactics, the common man has successfully been utterly confused. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"> </span><b><u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";"></span></u></b></div>
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I personally think that nothing extra terrestrial or unearthly will happen in 2012, rather everything that will go down in the coming year will be completely man made and it will be to serve a very selfish human purpose. <br />
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People from different faiths and religions will make sure that their prophecies come true. Christians will uphold their leader as the Christ figure,and the opposing Islamic or Jewish leader as the Anti-christ and Muslims will hold the christian leader as the Anti christ and they will fight over their holy land and rights and make sure that things are played out exactly how their respective holy books prophesied. <br />
And systematic collapse of world economies, combined with wars, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAkeJzFicQk">climate control using Haarp</a> and shortage of living resources will sufficiently convince the easily gullible public that it is the end of the world as their respective religions had predicted. <br />
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In fact most of the stage for events that will unfold next year is already being set. Global economy it seems has once again been systematically and deliberately pushed to a point of no return just like it was during the great depression in 1930s which inevitabaly lead to WWII.<br />
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Some of the similarities between 1930s and now are uncanny. This is exactly how the economies were systematically collapsed during the great depression and countries were led to war and innocent young people were forcefully drafted into armies to fight and die. <br />
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Countries are collapsing one by one, tension between countries is rising, talks about the first great war of the 21st century have become a common place affair.<br />
And as the next step in the fulfillment of these self-pushed prophecies- the war between the holy land of Israel and Iran seems to be drawing closer everyday, and once that happens it will become a religious affair and people will be convinced that it is end of the world indeed.<br />
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It will be the next step in what Hunter S. Thompson very aptly termed "A christian Jihad" when he saw the twin towers go down to the ground on September the 11th. <br />
It will be nothing but furthering of a political and religious agenda that is very systematically being put in place and will most probably be executed without much hassle as most people won't be able to wrap their heads around all the chaos that will follow.<br />
Population reduction and a paradigm shift from a world run by sovereign
countries to a world run by a single one world government in order centralize the world power seem to be the
primary reason for the stage that is being set as I type this out. <br />
2012 will be an year when the global bankers and leaders will set the stage where they can easily push forth the idea of a New World Order and a One world government and tattered and destroyed by the wars, diseases, killings and the social collapse people will settle for anything that promises peace and order. <br />
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If some of the independent researchers and journalists are to be believed the leaders plan to reduce the population of the world to a mere 500,000,000 from the current 7 billion.<br />
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By the time our leaders get done with their evil plans the human spirit would have been raped, tattered and destroyed and people who live through this hell will at the end of it beg for peace and mercy at any cost, and will settle for anything the establishment forces on them in exchange for a chance to live. All the human freedoms will be taken away by the establishment, allowing just enough to turn people into mechanical work machines. <br />
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The new leaders will be hailed as the Christ figures, and the ones that lose will be marked in history books as the evil and a new global empire will be installed and pushed forward as the beginning of a more peaceful time for humanity united under one government where divisions like country, religion will cease to exist.<br />
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They will sell war as peace, and slavery as freedom and people will buy it because they will be too weak to fight back.They will sell the one world government idea as a chance for humanity to grow beyond man made boundaries and unite and people will buy that.<br />
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But when the day comes, don't be fooled by their lies. The leaders only care about controlling every god damn thing in the world, and they will stop only when they do. They will make it look like they are doing all this for you the common man, but when they do remember that they will be the farthest from the truth.<br />
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2012 will not be the end of the world, it will be the continuation and furthering of an already ongoing systematic collapse of the society that will eventually lead to further centralization of the world power into the hands of fewer men, and these men will decide how we will live and die.<br />
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PassingByhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14883450312267760767noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8323757144480266862.post-72903903723874712292011-08-17T05:15:00.000-07:002011-08-18T06:24:53.530-07:00Anna Hazare | Face of Change Or NOT!!!!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUZdY26bxh-GxzWmVON3kXviO_Ggg1lTQdwFnnLNoeFyubuL9ngU9iJApmXd7DTDugnl6bGvus9qVSSBfUcM412E-y_YMpm3wKrZP2rpJ7m7fyihNDt-Ky3l6KXaX_AwHO5pe7Yjv2Heo/s1600/Anna+Hazare+strike.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 299px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUZdY26bxh-GxzWmVON3kXviO_Ggg1lTQdwFnnLNoeFyubuL9ngU9iJApmXd7DTDugnl6bGvus9qVSSBfUcM412E-y_YMpm3wKrZP2rpJ7m7fyihNDt-Ky3l6KXaX_AwHO5pe7Yjv2Heo/s400/Anna+Hazare+strike.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5641797838269377554" /></a>
<br />
<br />Everybody is overjoyed to see that a lot of people are joining Anna Hazare to end corruption.
<br />But where people see unity and hope for change, I see hopelessness like never before.
<br />
<br />While for most people, the hope for a corruption free country might increase with every new person that joins this mindless revolution.
<br />I see every new person who joins this fasting movement as just one more person who has no clue about the real problem behind corruption, and the hope for a truly corruption free society moving one step closer to going down the drain.
<br />
<br />It makes me sad. Sad to see that 21st century Indian society still thinks that a deep rooted problem like corruption can be tackled by fasting.
<br />
<br />Is this the best our leading social workers and thinkers can do?
<br />
<br />Shouldn't we logical people try and see if there is a direct connection between the problem of corruption and fasting? Isn't that how we go about problem solving? To understand the problem thoroughly and then come up with a way to fix it?
<br />
<br />And no matter how deep you go into the problem of corruption, you will not find a connection between fasting and corruption, trust me on that.
<br />
<br />What is the difference between a child refusing to eat because his mother refuses to act according to his will, and Anna Hazare refusing to eat till people around him refuse to act according to him?
<br />
<br />I don't know what the difference is, but I do know that both scenarios reflect on a lack of understanding of the problem, and hence a lack of understanding of how to go about tackling that problem.
<br />
<br />And if our leading activist's understanding of the social problems is equivalent to that of a child's, then it is not fair to expect too much from the common man.
<br />
<br />Also if a child, who doesn't understand much about how the society or people function, and a 74 year old man resort to the same way to get things done.
<br />Then it makes me wonder, do people learn anything about life at all?
<br />
<br />But looking at all the people and their hope of achieving change through the method that Anna Hazare is employing is not surprising at all. Since no one seems to be doing anything about solving the problem, people are just blindly following anyone who is trying to do at least something. Whether that something has anything to do with the actual problem seems to be of little importance to us.
<br />
<br />They would have followed anyone else who would have decided to keep digging a hole in the ground till corruption ends.
<br />Imagine over one billion people digging stupid holes to end corruption, and now think about those same people fasting to achieve the same thing and you will get what I mean.
<br />People are just ready to follow anyone who is ready to lead, without any critical thought going into the fact if there is any connection between the actual problem, and the method being employed to solve it.
<br />
<br />Some people at this point would like to lash out saying at least he is doing something, what are you doing?
<br />
<br />To that all I have to say is that - while something might be better than doing nothing. Doing nothing is definitely better than wasting your time doing something nonsensical like fasting to end corruption.
<br />
<br />Besides the truest revolution is the most silent one. There will be no one on the streets pointing fingers at other people or asking other people to change themselves and stop being corrupt. Because people will be too busy observing their own corruption in their daily lives and changing themselves.
<br />
<br />And that's what I am doing to end corruption, recognizing the corruption in me and changing myself.
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<br />It might not seem as extravagant as Anna Hazare fasting on streets with thousands people behind him, but at least it's honest and true.
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<br />Fasting to end corruption, will only remove 10 corrupt politicians, and put different 10 corrupt ones in their place. And a few scandals down the line people will realize that these 10 are no better than the previous 10.
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<br />If history has taught us anything, it is that even Mahatma Gandhi couldn't end corruption by fasting. He just managed to replace the corrupt British faces with our own "desi" Indian versions of them.
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<br />According to the dictionary, Corruption is "Lack of integrity or honesty, or Moral perversion". Now look into your actions on a daily basis, and see how much of integrity, honesty, and morality exists in your own choices. Then we can talk about other people's choices, leave alone politicians.
<br />
<br />Looking at the meaning of the word shows that corruption is something that exists at every level social existence. Friends are corrupt with one another, brothers are corrupt with one another, neighbours are corrupt with one another, lovers are corrupt with one another.
<br />
<br />So how can the problem of corruption be ended by just putting 10 or 20 corrupt people in jail? When there are over billion other people still walking freely on the streets being corrupt their every waking moment?
<br />
<br />If we are talking about bringing corrupt people to justice and to be put into prison, then don't just stop at bringing down a few politicians whose corruption has been caught on tape. 99% if not 100% of the population needs to be put in jail.
<br />
<br />Corruption is so rampant in our society that with every corrupt person put in jail, I very much doubt that there would be anyone left out of the prison to lock us in.
<br />
<br />We have to understand that politicians are just the leaders of our corrupt society, the rest of us make up that corrupt society.
<br />Leaders are just leading by example. Blame yourself for the corruption, not some people sitting in the parliament.
<br />
<br />If we agree that our society is corrupt, then the next step is to accept that we are all part of this society that is corrupt and hence are contributing to the problem.
<br />
<br />The corrupt India is not just made up of 20-30 or 100 or even a 1000 corrupt politicians, it is made up of over one and half billion corrupt people.
<br />
<br />Anna Hazare's Lok pal bill will definitely not free India from corruption. It will at best
<br />1) give corrupt citizens more freedom to point fingers at equally corrupt politicians and in the process allow them to continue being in denial about their own corrupt selves, and,
<br />2) Will train politicians to be more subtle and cunning about being corrupt, and hence in turn making them more efficient at being corrupt.
<br />And honestly I fail to see the bright side of having politicians who are more skilled at fooling the public.
<br />Look at USA, that's what has happened there.
<br />I cite America as an example because I feel that it has already reached a point where every developing country including India is trying to get to. We are trying to imitate the American way so seriously that looking at America’s current state is like looking into India’s future.
<br />The people of the United States have been fighting and hoping for a corruption free society for as long as we have and may be longer and look where trying to fight corruption by going on the streets got our American friends. The American government and world bankers are sucking the life out of their own citizens, and the people of the rest of the world and they still manage to convince a large portion of human population that they are the good guys.
<br />Are the politicians of India any less corrupt than their American counterparts? I would say no they are not, they are as corrupt if not more. Indian politicians still lack the finesse that comes with the art of being thoroughly corrupt. But we are slowly getting there, because if we keep trying to fight corruption in such naive ways, we will just end up creating leaders and citizens who are more skilled at exploiting fellow humans.
<br />The point being that even if the lok pal bill is passed, it will not make anyone any less corrupt than they were a day or a month ago. So the whole theme of the movement that everybody is so excited about - End Corruption and Corruption Free India will go for a toss.
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<br />
<br />Corruption rises out of people giving more importance to their own selfish interests over the common interest of everyone else involved, and if we honestly ask ourselves we will see that we all do it.
<br />And the only way to end corruption would be to look at everyone as your own, and to give equal importance to overall welfare as we give to selfish needs, then we will achieve a balance in our actions which will eventually give rise to a corruption free society.
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<br />The only true everlasting change can come about through self change. When people stop feeling the need to point fingers at other people and start observing perversion and corruption of their own mind, we will see a corruption free society.
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<br />This whole Anna Hazare charade can best be described as- A blind man leading a whole country of blind citizens promising them a world that he himself has never seen and doesn't know how to find.
<br />PassingByhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14883450312267760767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8323757144480266862.post-24893304147209466962011-08-15T03:07:00.000-07:002011-08-22T05:18:53.710-07:00Prostitution | Poverty meets Sexual Suppression<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsWSJUCcaNh0N9yOGtByTXSaGBwd8_te5CcrcQO9hmyXsAxPOyiK6rJnltI0JVFwPWCDwaCsyOBM5vs1D4FfNhp__HSpJSiF0FSu13cqnj3pjVwT6RBc9ZJd0pgbA6i4bo1axgQpTS-aE/s1600/29577844.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 244px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsWSJUCcaNh0N9yOGtByTXSaGBwd8_te5CcrcQO9hmyXsAxPOyiK6rJnltI0JVFwPWCDwaCsyOBM5vs1D4FfNhp__HSpJSiF0FSu13cqnj3pjVwT6RBc9ZJd0pgbA6i4bo1axgQpTS-aE/s320/29577844.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5641035429075036002" /></a>
<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg43CQ86D_psFQ-FMp9_knhBSS-GyW1Rpwgo6mUOYu_4kQOto2xY0cSfsOtctG0Ph7kfzl6Th8ZU9cGDYyTKN8n9d8IXBN0Tp1k3zC9HKjpHGeQkZLKPjdpLDHSYOLuJMo4SxU9vjnzUUo/s1600/man_cruises_amsterdam_prostitutes_imagelarge.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 242px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg43CQ86D_psFQ-FMp9_knhBSS-GyW1Rpwgo6mUOYu_4kQOto2xY0cSfsOtctG0Ph7kfzl6Th8ZU9cGDYyTKN8n9d8IXBN0Tp1k3zC9HKjpHGeQkZLKPjdpLDHSYOLuJMo4SxU9vjnzUUo/s320/man_cruises_amsterdam_prostitutes_imagelarge.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5641039070146143842" /></a>
<br />
<br />
<br />"Prostitution is bad, and must be stopped at any cost", is the general response you get from most people.
<br />
<br />And all the feminists and the women right activists, cops and all the rest of the social moral policing circus go barging straight into the brothels catching the helpless prostitutes and their desperate clients in the act, that can hardly be called love making even by the most twisted and sick minds and drag them out half naked in public straight to the prison. And in the process snatch away whatever little dignity they had left.
<br />
<br />Even though everybody agrees that prostitution is bad, nobody seems to really know what it is exactly about prostitution that is bad. Because if people knew what was wrong with prostitution, then they would also know how to fix it.
<br />
<br />You can usually tell how well an individual or a group of people understands a problem, by looking at the way they try to solve that problem.
<br />And our way of dealing with such issues, reflects on a very poor understanding of the problems of the world to say the least. The way we handle social problems like prostitution cannot even be called finding a solution to the problem. At best it can be looked at as desperate attempt at trying to cover up our own mess.
<br />
<br />Of course there is no denying that some people are into the profession because they make a lot of money, are happy being sex workers.
<br />And if a person is happy prostituting herself/himself, I have nothing to say to them. It’s the rest of the helpless unhappy sex workers that I am concerned about.
<br />
<br />Most individuals are too busy leading their own little selfish lives and have no time to ponder over these social issues, and since people have not had the time or concern to come to their own intelligent conclusions about such problems, they just mindlessly repeat what they have heard other people say over and over again without having any understanding of the actual problem.
<br />Something on the lines of "Prostitution is an ugly scar on the face of humanity, and must be gotten rid of".
<br />
<br />While I totally agree with the fact that prostitution is ugly, sad and degrading to women, I disagree with the method being employed to counter prostitution with the same intensity.
<br />
<br />Prostitution, just like war is a product of our society.It has grown out of the very structure of our society ans is a result of the very way of life which we have all agreed to live by.
<br />
<br />But while most people very willingly like to take a lot of personal pride in talking about the seemingly positive results or accomplishments of the way of life of our species, the most common and over rated one being technological advancement.
<br />On the other hand we as individuals and hence as societies are equally reluctant to accept and embrace the adverse impacts of our social paradigm.
<br />And since we refuse to accept that all social problems are consequences of all our choices and actions, to keep hoping for any real change to occur only seems more and more pointless.
<br />
<br />Problems like prostitution are dealt with as if it is an ugly burden that was imposed on our society by some external force and needs to be gotten rid of.
<br />
<br />The haste with which we want to turn a blind eye to, or cover up these ugly faces of human paradigm reflects on a nauseating sense of shame and embarrassment that we as individuals and societies are too fearful to face.
<br />
<br />May be deep down inside we all know that each one of us is responsible for these problems, but we keep running away from facing ourselves.
<br />Because if we accept that these social and individual problems are a result of our way of life, then we can no longer point fingers at other people for these problems and will inevitably have to change the way we live.
<br />
<br />So in order to avoid having to give up our selfish lifestyles, we quickly try to detach ourselves and our actions from these problems and make believe that a problem like prostitution is something that is being forced on to us for no fault of ours and try to fight it as an external adversity that exists independently of our choices and actions.
<br />Just like how a father wants to take all the credit for his son's achievements if the son is successful according to social norms, but wants nothing to do or claims to have nothing to do with his son's failure if he is not successful, all of us as individuals only want to associate with the positive aspect of the social paradigm and claim to have nothing to do with the negative.
<br />
<br />Anyway let us try and see how our choices, decisions and actions as individuals lead to a problem like prostitution.
<br />
<br />On taking a closer look it becomes clear that prostitution seems to be the love child of two more basic or fundamental problems with our society.
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<br />1) Poverty
<br />2) Sexual suppression
<br />
<br />Let us look into how each one of us is contributing to the problems of poverty and mass sexual suppression and in the process try and witness the birth of prostitution from our very actions.
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<br />Our social design is based on a very animalistic drive of selfish competition for survival. You look around and you see everyone competing for everything, for schools, for colleges, for jobs and for every other senseless thing.
<br />Through all these competitions, everybody is trying to secure more resources and money for themselves, in order to improve their individual chances of survival. Now when everybody is trying to pull limited resources and money to their own houses and bank accounts, there is bound to be a struggle and fight for resources and power. And where there is a fight someone has to lose.
<br />So some people manage to successfully compete and secure more money and resources for themselves, while the others lose and are forced to struggle for a basic survival. And people who managed to snatch away resources and money now find themselves in a stronger position to compete further and continue to hoard more and more for themselves. We see everybody increasing their bank accounts deposits, whether it be politicians or any common man.
<br />And the people, who had failed to secure resources for themselves, now find it even harder to compete with people with more resources. And hence in our society we see that rich people keep getting richer, and the poor get poorer.
<br />So while we see some people staying in mansions worth millions of dollars and driving super expensive cars, many others barely manage to find one meal a day.
<br />
<br />We all see building our individual bank account deposits as a very natural thing to do but we make a lot of noise when politicians do it. Not because it's corrupt, but simply because they managed to hoard a lot more than most of the common public could.
<br />
<br />The problem is that everybody creates an image for themselves, and calls it ‘me’ and builds their lives centered on it. To this image of ‘me’, people usually attach a few other people and call them my, this usually includes few family members and in some cases friends.
<br />And the moment there is something that is ‘me’ and ‘my’, there automatically comes into existence something that is ‘not me’ and ‘not my’.
<br />So people might postpone or give up the idea of buying the next big TV, car, or house if their own sisters and mothers were on the verge of being forced to prostitute themselves to make a living because they belong to the image of ‘me’ as my mother and sister.
<br />But since people fail to connect to the whole of humanity as ‘my’, even though women have been forced by poverty to sell their soul and dignity for survival, all of us continue to build our individual bank accounts so we can take that next big holiday abroad, and buy the next cool gadget. Because we see these other women as 'not my' mother or sister.
<br />Hence we see how all of us individually are responsible for the plight of women in this male dominated society.
<br />But prostitution is not a supply driven market, but rather a demand driven one. Women with all other hopes lost, decide to make a living by selling themselves because a demand for such a service already exists in the society.
<br />
<br />And this is where we come to the second problem of sexual suppression.
<br />
<br />Even if someone, whether man or woman is prostituting themselves because there is a lot of money in the profession, the fact that a need for the existence of a profession like sex worker arises out of sexual suppression cannot be denied.
<br />
<br />It seems that as part of the society, we all contribute to sexual suppression to some degree or the other for two reasons.
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<br />1)Even though different cultures and countries handle sex with varying degrees of sensitivity. One thing that is more or less common to all cultures and religions is that chastity, and abstinence are looked at as moral virtues and sex is either considered a taboo or less respectable to say the least.
<br />Now As I said earlier, that everybody creates an image for themselves called ‘me’ or ‘I’.
<br />And just like competing for resources is necessary for survival, competing for a positive social image is equally critical to social existence.
<br />Social acceptance is very necessary for survival, because a negative social image leads to inevitable ostracisation of the individual.
<br />Another important point that needs to be made at this point is the fact that sexual instinct is the second most dominating human instinct, after survival.
<br />And caught up in a social paradigm where sexual instinct is suppressed rather than faced and understood for what it is, people being too fearful of being judged negatively for their sexual desires end up suppressing them. And as a result of suppression of such a basic instinct, doesn’t successfully put the sexual desire to rest, but forces it to come to surface in morally deprived ways like prostitution.
<br />
<br />If psychology and study of the human mind has taught us anything, it’s that the only way to get over one’s fears, and anxieties is to face them, and not to suppress them. Suppression only leads to depression, and conflict.
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<br />2)The second reason for sexual suppression being the fact that just like we selfishly compete for resources, we also compete for sexual partners. And it usually helps to condemn or discourage other people from engaging in sexual act, so that with everyone else out of the way we can improve our own chances of sexual intercourse.
<br />Our contempt for sexual act seems to arise more out of jealousy than out of concern for moral values.
<br />I am sure everybody wants to be part of as many out of the box sexual experiences as possible, but since people find themselves deprived of fulfilling their desires. They discourage other people from achieving that too, by labeling the act as evil, or unhealthy. As a species and civilization we clearly love sex. Our increasing population is a testament to our sexual inclination. But while we like to go wild behind closed doors, once out we like to maintain a sombre image. And as this social charade of double standards continues, many people are completely deprived of sex and all the sexually frustrated people find themselves heading to the red light districts to get what the society deprived them of.
<br />So we see here again, that for our selfish need to maintain a positive social image as individuals, and to compete for sexual partners we lead a two faced life and have created a social paradigm that when combined with poverty in a male dominated society inevitably leads to prostitution.
<br />
<br />Continuing to live in a social paradigm
<br />1)Where everybody is selfishly competing with one another for survival, and people are forced to do anything and everything to make a living and,
<br />2) where the second most strongest instinct of sex is continuously suppressed and tabooed rather than explored and intelligently understood.
<br />
<br />and then trying to stop something like prostitution, will directly result in even more stronger suppression of the sexual drive and will only end up bringing out the sexual needs in ways so sick and perverted that will make prostitution look like child's play.
<br />
<br />The only way to free humanity from these miseries is to shift from a social paradigm where everybody leads a self-centered life to one where concept of 'me' and 'my' becomes obsolete.
<br />Once people truly grow beyond their selfish needs, then possibly we can think about sharing our resources equally and handling and understanding life without perversion for selfish means.
<br />Any other method to tackle social problems like prostitution short of the required self-change will only be a band aid, or temporary fix and not a solution.
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<br /> PassingByhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14883450312267760767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8323757144480266862.post-47809516164695945852011-07-01T03:52:00.001-07:002011-09-28T02:30:22.634-07:00Tribes & The diminishing hope for peace and unity<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDGQQ3_p_yA4aG03EfVNo52bnG80oqHA46AbC4w6CSy8GZgc5QkTOlmkxoLo_8dac4HbuHxZWBrG4fkhyXgI_UmjadSrLvben8cCetURfA1fESweJ2fRwCQvuEOXkjPLUPEOg1aRKVAeQ/s1600/6a00d83420ecf153ef0115700a797d970b-500wi.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 133px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDGQQ3_p_yA4aG03EfVNo52bnG80oqHA46AbC4w6CSy8GZgc5QkTOlmkxoLo_8dac4HbuHxZWBrG4fkhyXgI_UmjadSrLvben8cCetURfA1fESweJ2fRwCQvuEOXkjPLUPEOg1aRKVAeQ/s200/6a00d83420ecf153ef0115700a797d970b-500wi.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5639972618565813394" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgca3iTPegxCu6f2ZCLcaJCZH-iZzKL12PdmKcaK_0BidVAtFpNqOXGtMvCfG6iSH1vg9GOQFVU1x502EZGreeIL5l_1qVHlKB5s5wBOnwavxs5XMH5bSwn1E4_1TbWjR-b8uvckrLhZm0/s1600/surma_1_l.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 133px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgca3iTPegxCu6f2ZCLcaJCZH-iZzKL12PdmKcaK_0BidVAtFpNqOXGtMvCfG6iSH1vg9GOQFVU1x502EZGreeIL5l_1qVHlKB5s5wBOnwavxs5XMH5bSwn1E4_1TbWjR-b8uvckrLhZm0/s200/surma_1_l.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5639972624761937778" /></a><br />The word tribe or tribal usually brings to our minds images of half naked people covered in seemingly funny body mutilations and drawings living in small groups in the jungle. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi97oo_S1cjSKIiAKi8K9GUI8t0bAbopBSKWIRvsEE6C0GyTBXpP3pvdW2XUm88YBZeIDqArPGWEx1YgR3Y5aX4XEle3f-1vbyiW2-1BwdETRmSw6_wRGjswR3pReb_3CjB-PxjawPPnp0/s1600/papua-dayak.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 147px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi97oo_S1cjSKIiAKi8K9GUI8t0bAbopBSKWIRvsEE6C0GyTBXpP3pvdW2XUm88YBZeIDqArPGWEx1YgR3Y5aX4XEle3f-1vbyiW2-1BwdETRmSw6_wRGjswR3pReb_3CjB-PxjawPPnp0/s200/papua-dayak.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5639972626562946658" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb5t8Gab2aUFUyrMX42e-hMRS0bc1OCqYElvfAjjsWHCkEe1m7kuIxcfkuV22eFAL5e3z3S6YDqvp4-jbv9ZS1fEpLj46CAtSzCgsqpFq4sUWtx7morcbz1KjoC1fVEF_PP9orOkkavS8/s1600/africa2DM1902_800x507.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 127px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb5t8Gab2aUFUyrMX42e-hMRS0bc1OCqYElvfAjjsWHCkEe1m7kuIxcfkuV22eFAL5e3z3S6YDqvp4-jbv9ZS1fEpLj46CAtSzCgsqpFq4sUWtx7morcbz1KjoC1fVEF_PP9orOkkavS8/s200/africa2DM1902_800x507.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5639972625229835042" /></a><br /><br />But its true meaning goes way beyond the common place understanding of the word. <br /><br />According to dictionary a tribe is “a division, class, or distinct portion of people, from whatever cause that distinction may have originated”. <br /><br />It usually helps to understand what words were meant to convey when they were first constructed, rather than what they have come to mean today after decades, if not centuries of misuse.<br />So coming back to the real meaning of the word tribe we see that any sub group that exists in humanity today constitutes a tribe. <br />Hence every culture, nation, religion, region, language, color, caste based division that exists in the world today constitutes a tribe of its own. <br />And each of these groups has its own ideas about everything. They have their unique social norms and practices, religious rituals and beliefs, sense of clothing, taboos, and notions of attractiveness and so on. <br />And since each of these groups makes a tribe, all people who identify themselves with any of these groups and follow the belief system of their respective group are tribal by the very definition of the word. <br /><br />For example every patriotic Indian, American, German, or every fervent Muslim, Christian, Hindu is a tribal person. <br /><br /><br />Till people continue to be a part of these existing tribes, and follow the belief systems that were fed into them by their society they will be tribal. <br /><br />For instance notions of beauty in our modern world are in a way as tribal as in the Mursi tribe of Africa. <br />Just like their sense of self-mutilation as an idea of attraction might be based on some irrational concepts or traditions that have been going on for a long time so are our modern ideas of self-mutilations. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNyPsO-X469ZX27OHBY-KQ-U2bOfOp6HcMH9Rq033sWYcs0P8kyI86emtNCwM05yPWCTIF-JVxmQITsFjAlPXsObpnHfSTzDtki2O_hT0ABO5B5IktnsESwj5EUP4DyM4L3nF_I9ZOzHQ/s1600/sexy-tattoo-girl.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 168px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNyPsO-X469ZX27OHBY-KQ-U2bOfOp6HcMH9Rq033sWYcs0P8kyI86emtNCwM05yPWCTIF-JVxmQITsFjAlPXsObpnHfSTzDtki2O_hT0ABO5B5IktnsESwj5EUP4DyM4L3nF_I9ZOzHQ/s200/sexy-tattoo-girl.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5640602394352275362" /></a><br /><br />Just like their notions of beauty might not appeal to us, ours might seem equally unattractive to them, simply because we hold on to our tribal notions, and they to theirs.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYuqwQ2iKyFRcufeIFpP6q-8-1OUiJFaDu5Z2obLPiVPb3EP4HGnJfW6yHeKoJv4S1rEBkDhWFXlHaI21vUJwPgz1EihQSJupeWTW7PInFHEgj24E_A4xWqM8JrcPpwgOl4FGqySe8Eyg/s1600/african-girls.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 132px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYuqwQ2iKyFRcufeIFpP6q-8-1OUiJFaDu5Z2obLPiVPb3EP4HGnJfW6yHeKoJv4S1rEBkDhWFXlHaI21vUJwPgz1EihQSJupeWTW7PInFHEgj24E_A4xWqM8JrcPpwgOl4FGqySe8Eyg/s200/african-girls.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5640602392386030434" /></a><br /><br />The point being that not only does the concept of self mutilation as a form of self expression seem pointless, and illogical. But also that it has turned into another tribal concept or fad that people blindly follow. <br /><br />Every body in the modern world wants to get a tattoo or a piercing done because they see people around them do it and because it has been accepted as a sign of beauty, attractiveness and coolness. And who doesn't want to be cooler than the people around them? Everybody does. And the moment you follow a lifestyle blindly, you are tribal. <br /><br />And while our approach towards self mutilation might seem a little more refined than the people from jungle tribes, we can always find extreme cases of mindless self mutilation even in the urban jungle. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdohgfJW1H2irV1qIbn3RU2jD1HJIdqw3y-6_tDQIA1Aiq1o3OtQVuhenE3nsZBiUZZhqbv_lAr_nRv_I-QhEU3WMHNY7GHrMEycDVOqgIIPKdJlaPhuuluTFfJBXlIQgfarnYwm1pcTE/s1600/8294_21june11.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdohgfJW1H2irV1qIbn3RU2jD1HJIdqw3y-6_tDQIA1Aiq1o3OtQVuhenE3nsZBiUZZhqbv_lAr_nRv_I-QhEU3WMHNY7GHrMEycDVOqgIIPKdJlaPhuuluTFfJBXlIQgfarnYwm1pcTE/s200/8294_21june11.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5640602398259134162" /></a><br /><br />Besides reducing self-expression to mere physical appearance is as shallow as it can get. Self-expression should be about expressing one's true inner self. <br /><br />But to find one's unique self-identity, individuality one needs to look into him or herself. And since most people have no interest in exploring themselves, they are all more or less the same individuals from within, and try to find their individuality on the surface through external modifications to their shallow selves. <br /><br />Their individuality is only skin deep. <br /><br />So if you are a person who blindly follows any norms, rules and ideologies of a society, instead of being an independent thinker who comes to his own intelligent conclusions about life separate from the herd you are tribal. <br /><br />It must be clear by now, that more than anything else being tribal is a state of mind. It is a way to go about life- an ignorant way, that requires people to be a blind follower of patterns and practices. <br /><br />While a few tribes might have come into existence simply as remote totally isolated cultures, we see that instead of these cultures coming together and uniting as they are slowly being exposed to one another, they are headed quite in the opposite direction. <br /><br />Not only do these different tribes of nations, religions and so on rigidly refuse to come together, but these existing tribes themselves are further being divided into more and more subgroups. <br /><br />Because we see ourselves detached from everything else around us, we as individuals constantly tend to search for our individual identity detached from the over all one, the whole of humanity. And no matter how further we keep dividing humanity into smaller and smaller groups, there will always be a person or more who will still feel the need to detach him/her/ them selves from the existing divisions and create an identity of their own by further dividing humanity.<br /><br />Our ego creates an image of 'me' and 'my'. And the concept of 'my' can attach itself to anything including ideas and notions. So ego attaches itself to ideas, notions, way of life as 'my', and wants nothing to do with anyone who doesn't agree with these notions. Every single person wants to see other people live according to his/her belief system. <br />And when other people don't act according to one's belief system, one's ego in order to feel superior to the other people, and their ideologies tries to detach itself from all that doesn't agree with it's ideas by creating a label for itself 'my' separate from the rest that is 'not-my'. <br />So we see that the existence of divisions is necessary for the ego to satisfy its need to feel superior. For example the divided identity of a group like Hindus needs to exist and persist separate from the Muslims and other religions so that each of these groups can feel superior to one another. That is the reason that these groups never agree to grow beyond these divisions and come together. The need to feel superior surpasses all human intelligence in this case. <br /><br />This is very visible in the fact that every existing group of humanity believes itself to be superior compared to the rest. Hindus feel superior to other religions, and so do Muslims, Christians, Jews and so on. Every country and it's people feel superior to other countries and their people and so on. This desperate need to feel superior can be observed in every walk of humanity both at individual and collective level. <br /><br />Each individual's egoistic need to feel superior to everyone around him/her, keeps people from accepting all the other existing people, their ideas and lifestyles as part of whole of humanity, and trying to unite all of them to attain one improved unified understanding of everything only remains a dream. <br /> <br />Instead our ego keeps us divided from everyone and everything around us. And so instead of coming together as humanity, we are dividing humanity into smaller and smaller groups to find our individuality. <br />And we will keep distancing and dividing ourselves from others around us, till each one of us is utterly alone, with no other human being in sight for miles. <br />Hopefully then our ego will find it’s individuality. But with no one else around the whole concept of individuality and the struggle to find it might just lose its meaning.PassingByhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14883450312267760767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8323757144480266862.post-62892599724497117062011-06-29T04:33:00.000-07:002011-07-08T06:34:38.521-07:00Human Or Reptile?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgytJFlDwRGW3p_6xG9MRd7qPU9bYxkCE1KDmfbM61VeMXLJWhogR-x0uGNGSd9h6rrgECLFTSTsehHyWmFQFXUxCKd5Dya4BSqXGC3nG-AcNt-DitoVQvi7fcnCf9tKv0mfP2LIH7wgog/s1600/Reptoid-reptilian.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 328px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgytJFlDwRGW3p_6xG9MRd7qPU9bYxkCE1KDmfbM61VeMXLJWhogR-x0uGNGSd9h6rrgECLFTSTsehHyWmFQFXUxCKd5Dya4BSqXGC3nG-AcNt-DitoVQvi7fcnCf9tKv0mfP2LIH7wgog/s400/Reptoid-reptilian.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5624278874062428482" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2LuQfulHeW_SJbbNjZMAmV3jcuX0_0qT_jlH1gQpU7Ys-wsnAr2grWAWlVdl_vhyjiLHsGrsTSVBG1LRAvrSp4ZXG7aT24DygIBviZhPY6KZ7TjUjVfqz7hzYHiSwtARV-0zbDCest8k/s1600/reptilian-brain.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 289px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2LuQfulHeW_SJbbNjZMAmV3jcuX0_0qT_jlH1gQpU7Ys-wsnAr2grWAWlVdl_vhyjiLHsGrsTSVBG1LRAvrSp4ZXG7aT24DygIBviZhPY6KZ7TjUjVfqz7hzYHiSwtARV-0zbDCest8k/s400/reptilian-brain.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5624278776589771762" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI3CHEFbUy4gVcOROl3v37yB8kBUjptOW4BlLwgCmfpCu4P6pirxRLFIzLzWo0VJft8fN5MD-OgXyjiDdDfhMkTpJbaiGHU6HWRD_EIzkuSp4ls5Br_HGS9T51YidSkYHUbG2uYFPq7Xc/s1600/triune+brain.gif"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 335px; height: 298px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI3CHEFbUy4gVcOROl3v37yB8kBUjptOW4BlLwgCmfpCu4P6pirxRLFIzLzWo0VJft8fN5MD-OgXyjiDdDfhMkTpJbaiGHU6HWRD_EIzkuSp4ls5Br_HGS9T51YidSkYHUbG2uYFPq7Xc/s400/triune+brain.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5624278699561778674" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Reptiles have survived on earth for a very very long time. And the reason behind their success is simple – Conserve as much energy as possible, and spend just enough of it necessary for basic survival and reproduction. <br />Thinking about it for a while, the reptilian approach towards life can be described in one word – Lazy. <br />The snakes are quite happy just surviving. Besides there is not much they can do with life anyway. Nature has given them just enough to survive. They live to live and they die. They are biologically engineered to do just that. <br />So if you see a snake slithering across the grass in the park. You don’t have to stop and ask it where it is headed and for what. Chances are that either it is headed to find a mate or to find some food so it can tuck it's self back into it’s comfortable burrow. <br />Also it would be worth keeping in mind that snakes are not very friendly creatures, so it would be advisable to not intrude on a busy snake. Because it’s reptilian brain will most likely see you as a threat and the snake might attack. And we all know that is not a very healthy thing for you. <br />Rather a jog around the park would be something I’d suggest for good health since you are in the park anyway. <br />Even though reptiles like snakes, and lizards have been around for millions of years. Their brains did not evolve beyond mere cold blooded survival because they had evolved enough to survive just fine in their paradigm. <br />But over these millions of years a line of evolution ended up with us humans. So logically enough, since we have evolved from reptiles, our brains have evolved from them too.<br />And it is a widely known biological fact that our brain can be looked at as consisting of three layers, namely.<br />1) The innermost and hence at the core we have the reptilian complex<br />2) Over that we slowly evolved the limbic region as reptiles gave way to early mammals<br />3) And right on top, we humans have developed the final part of our brain that makes us human to begin with – The Neo-cortex. <br />And all our actions without any exception are a result of combinations of all these instincts our brain has collected over billions of years of evolution. <br />But even though our brains our bigger and more capable than that of any other animal on this planet. We don’t seem to be living very differently from the rest of them. <br />Today the human society is only evolving along the lines of reptilian concept of laziness. <br />Our technology, and our way of life is only aimed towards making us more lazy and lethargic. Just like the reptiles- We are obsessed with conserving as much energy as possible, and we see it as a good thing too. <br />Affluence, comfort, social classes, and quality of life are all closely associated with how one can get more lazy and comfortable and get more and more of their work done by other poorer people. Be it driving, washing dishes, cooking food, doing the lawn or taking care of children.<br />We consider hiring other people to spend time with our own kids as a classy act. A thing for the successful rich and the famous. This will give you a good idea about how lost humanity is. <br />And everybody in society who is not in a position that fits with these notions of a good quality life is striving to get there. We are constantly chasing materialistic objects for momentary satisfaction. <br />Doesn't anybody ever wonder how our ancestors would have lived their life before the advent of all the modern technology? <br />Then people wonder how the ancient people had so much knowledge about the mind and the universe. <br />Because they spent time on things that mattered. <br /><br />A humble life is never seen as an option for the so called smart people in the society. <br />But I resonate more closely with Henry David Thoreau’s idea of an intelligent lifestyle. <br />He said “Any man intelligent/wise enough would choose a life of poverty over that of affluence.”<br />As a civilization and a specie at large, our reptilian instincts have dwarfed our newly found intelligence completely. <br />Looking at the way we live our lives as a global culture, our reptilian instincts stand tall and proud like The Himalayas, while our intelligence is like a feeble individual contemplating the thought of conquering the majestic peaks. <br /><br />It is not impossible, it has be been achieved in the past. <br /><br />As Hunter S. Thompson rightly and very gently described a scene from a bar in his book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – “I was right in the middle of a fucking reptile zoo, and somebody was giving booze to these goddamn things.”<br />And reptiles have all the right to live a reptilian existence because that’s what they are capable of.<br /> But what are we going to hide behind? What reason do we have to still be living such decadent, creepy and grossly unintelligent life? <br />When is the intelligence going to take control of our rampant crazy and out of control reptilian instincts, and pull humanity forward? <br />When are we going to stop seeing comfort, laziness as ends in themselves? When are we going to open ourselves to the true potential of human life of creativity, love and peace?<br />As Einstein said in his essay – The Life As I see it <br /><br />"I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves -- this critical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. The ideals that have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed empty to me. The trite objects of human efforts -- possessions, outward success, luxury -- have always seemed to me contemptible.”<br /><br />Any man truly aware of what it means to be human would choose eternal bliss of kindness, beauty, art and truth over the trivial meaningless concepts like luxury, comfort, materialism. <br /><br />Today human race has still not reached a point in evolution where it truly deserves to be called humanity. <br />If one were to compare the fundamental aspects of paradigm of dinosaurs with our own. I doubt one would spot any differences. <br />It was cold blooded unintelligent survival 220 million years ago and it still is the same. Those reptiles mindlessly competed with one another for survival, so are we. <br /><br />So while the common man without much thought feels that humanity is slowly moving forward. I see something quite the opposite.<br />If I am to look at the ground reality of things, humanity seems to have not moved one inch out of the jungle. Well! scattered individuals have through out history tapped into the unchanged beauty and truth of the universe. <br />But as a species not only have we failed, we are in fact headed in completely the opposite direction, if we are moving at all that is. <br /><br />Today humanity seems to be headed on a one way track to destruction, and hope for any positive change is diminishing by the hour. <br />And if the human specie does go down, it is not the humanity that will fail. <br /><br />True humanity never really got a chance.PassingByhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14883450312267760767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8323757144480266862.post-32452250142863757462011-03-22T22:18:00.000-07:002011-12-25T23:56:38.134-08:00A look at ourselves through the eyes of our leaders<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwpYtrf27DvOTng2WU0VDQS0SCHNYHKpoH8R0FJqWwMwdWS4lMuOfshW19mWDDCUzLx5va4P2Dn-RdtlRTKq_9CxYloDECtfoo_prmXvJuwRdyodBvREbbXclLbBv6XMxgQ-xd1RlzBHY/s1600/6a00d834517df069e200e54f789c5d8834-800wi.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5587143367862292642" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwpYtrf27DvOTng2WU0VDQS0SCHNYHKpoH8R0FJqWwMwdWS4lMuOfshW19mWDDCUzLx5va4P2Dn-RdtlRTKq_9CxYloDECtfoo_prmXvJuwRdyodBvREbbXclLbBv6XMxgQ-xd1RlzBHY/s400/6a00d834517df069e200e54f789c5d8834-800wi.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 357px;" /></a><br />
<br />
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It all began with your forefathers,<br />
and while you foolish people fight among yourselves<br />
We still give the orders.<br />
And will continue to.<br />
<br />
You may ask how?<br />
<br />
The same way we have till now.<br />
<br />
<br />
By feeding on your ignorance and petty arrogance.<br />
While you people debate on whose point of view is more genuine.<br />
<br />
By giving you ways to keep yourselves entertained, so that even though the truth is in front of your eyes,<br />
You will not see it because with all this charade we have you hypnotized.<br />
<br />
We always controlled your life, and we still do<br />
We can kill you when we want and your loved ones too.<br />
<br />
So don't come in our way by doing too much thinking.<br />
Just buy all the nonsense we have been feeding.<br />
<br />
Look at your friends and learn a thing or two,<br />
Just remain willfully ignorant or we will come and kill you too.<br />
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Just enjoy this materialism we have invented for you and be satisfied,<br />
Why do you waste your time fighting for these people who just care about being proven right?<br />
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We have ruled over you for generations, so listen to what we have to say<br />
Nothing will change till your brothers understand the truth you want to convey.<br />
But we are sure that your egos will keep you divided, and yet again we will have it our own way.<br />
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And yet again we will have it our own way.</div>PassingByhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14883450312267760767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8323757144480266862.post-60435968919017609832011-03-17T23:47:00.000-07:002013-07-22T01:13:27.989-07:00Bollywood and It's Role In Indian Society | Escapism<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD3NKw1am-oFXst4ynIT3KNRZA_SeHCHvXaxU_n79vu3QCIGnvDfhOWKGR2qLqDhYxKD2F_B9T3ThNOOt4cpqUvFi8phaWFBjIhqXSbTUQDlnRFn7nM__H_uNcaUPr-Qthq2rsfdAS3xI/s1600/bollywood.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5585309221335742546" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD3NKw1am-oFXst4ynIT3KNRZA_SeHCHvXaxU_n79vu3QCIGnvDfhOWKGR2qLqDhYxKD2F_B9T3ThNOOt4cpqUvFi8phaWFBjIhqXSbTUQDlnRFn7nM__H_uNcaUPr-Qthq2rsfdAS3xI/s400/bollywood.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 400px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 282px;" /></a><br />
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Usually I am not a TV kind of a person, but these days I am in Uttar Pradesh and I am guilty of being in front of the television more than I would usually like for various reasons.<br />
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But yesterday while flipping through channels I came across this movie called Agaaz (starring Sunil Shetty as the lead), and decided to watch a few minutes of what was going on.<br />
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The scene was that the protagonist was being stabbed by political rowdies, while his baby sister was being raped by one of the gang members in broad day light while the whole society watched in silence.<br />
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And now I think I understand why there are so many repetitive bollywood movies being made and watched for decades.<br />
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Also I am not a big fan of Bollywood films because of the very same reason - I feel they are repetitive in the kind of emotions or scenarios they are trying to bring out. Because I personally like to explore as many different emotions as life has to offer.<br />
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Most of the bollywood films deal with the same scenarios of love between people of different social statuses, political rowdyism and so on.<br />
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But now I understand the reason behind this.<br />
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These scenarios are a part of people's daily lives, and while real life usually does not have happy endings. These movies certainly do.<br />
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Since people have lost hope of justice in society, they at least like to see truth win over evil in their fantasies by putting themselves in the shoes of the protagonist or any other character.<br />
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This is the reason why there are innumerable movies being made and watched over and over again about the same life scenarios.<br />
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This is a perfect example of cinema being used as a form of escapism.<br />
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And this is in a country who tag line is "Satyameva Jayate" - "Truth always wins"<br />
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If this doesn't open your eyes to how hypocritical society is, nothing will. And remember me and you and everyone is part of this society. So don't detach yourself from the term "society" while reading this.<br />
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Also these kind of films are still more popular among the rural population of the country as compared to their urban counterparts.<br />
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But by that I don't mean there is less injustice in cities. But the urban people don't get to see such injustice out in the open so often because they are much higher up the social/economic ladder.<br />
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But these kind of scenarios are still a part of daily lives of the rural folks.<br />
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Nobody wants to change the society. While the poor helpless people live their lives with no hope of justice, the rich and influential people who can make a difference don't want to do anything.<br />
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They just want to give them ways to escape their miserable existence for a few hours. And there is a reason why the rich and influential who can spend billions of dollars on such cinema don't want to do anything about these hopeless situations.<br />
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And the reason is - Because they are already rich and safe. These problems are not a part of their life, and so they sit and do nothing about such hopeless inhumane scenarios. All they do is make a spectacle out of these sad situations in the world so that they can make more money from these hopeless people and get richer and richer.<br />
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Such movies will continue to be made and watched till life doesn't become worth living for majority of the population.<br />
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Also escapism in cinema is seen as such a normal and obvious thing. To the thoughtless people of course. Think about this for a minute - What good is a life if you constantly need ways to escape it?<br />
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Now why don't things change? Because everybody is selfish. Anybody who is happy sitting comfortably in their homes and look at these problems of the world while only taking care of their own careers and lives is selfish and is part of the problem and not the solution.</div>
PassingByhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14883450312267760767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8323757144480266862.post-51467941078743525052011-03-16T20:50:00.000-07:002013-07-22T01:14:30.197-07:00Music & Language<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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First let us understand the importance of music, and the role it plays in our daily lives without us even realizing may be. <br />
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Till 1960s scientists felt that the primary function of Human DNA was protein synthesis. But now they know differently. Scientists now say that only 3% of DNA's function is protein synthesis, the rest 97% of DNA's function is to respond to sound frequencies, and vibrations. <br />
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This new revelation might explain the profound over-powering experience music often has on people. <br />
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Also many scientists and musicians have collaborated on projects to record the vibrational frequencies of the four base molecules of DNA and convert them into sound frequencies and make music out of these frequencies. So it turns out everybody is like a note of music really. <br />
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Now coming to language. <br />
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Before well defined spoken language came about,there were only sounds. Just like even today all species of animals have sounds that they use to interact ideas and emotions. <br />
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These sounds might not make any sense to us, but they very well get the idea across to the members of their own species. <br />
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Obviously enough today these sounds seem inefficient to us humans because we feel there are better ways to express ideas. <br />
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But language was born out of nothing but these primitive sounds. Out of our need to communicate more efficiently. But even though the languages used today might be a little superior way of interacting, it's hardly an improvement as far as true communication goes. <br />
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Words are dead and inert, and a meaning has been assigned to each one. But they are still sounds, more refined sounds may be. But still sounds that we use to express our ideas. <br />
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But how do we know that we actually communicate our ideas using language? <br />
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For example the word 'food' might have completely different meanings to different people. To a rich guy it might be symbolic of the food he ate in an expensive restaurant the previous night or all through out his life and might bring about a happy memory. <br />
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But the same word might have completely different meaning to a poor man who has only seen his family and himself struggle for food. For him it might be a word he attaches a lot of sadness to. <br />
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So we see that language is limited and sometimes true communication, in fact most of the times true communication might take place without any exchange of words. <br />
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Now let us examine the role of language in music. <br />
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We have seen that language is limited. Hence when you listen to a song with lyrics it produces limited <span style="font-weight: bold;">familiar</span> emotions that a language is capable of producing.<br />
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Where as, in music without lyrics where you are producing emotions just with music without words, your musical experiences are no more confined by language and its limitations. Hence the listener experiences more pure emotions and is open to unknown and different states of mind.<br />
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Also if you can produce emotions in a song without being bound by words, and language it somehow seems like much more pure form of music. It also seems that it takes a lot more out of a musician to bring emotions out without the use of language. <br />
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Even the experience for the listener is more pure and limitless. <br />
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I am not comparing the two kinds of music as good and bad and I am not discriminating against one kind of music and supporting another with a bias. I listen to any kind of good music. But I am aware of the limitations of different kinds of experiences.<br />
And by putting you through experiences untouched by language and culture which is a product of the past, this kind of language free music might also help you open your mind up to possibilities that language can never bring about.</div>
PassingByhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14883450312267760767noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8323757144480266862.post-11325626178821017132010-10-12T02:11:00.000-07:002010-10-23T12:32:34.631-07:00Hiding from Reality | Symptomatic Approach : It's Origin and Ineffectiveness<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOZLL0W3M4sMLoYOB0I4OcCxjFZIo3uDhDTTELQBE1WWZF3bO_6MlerR8Xtn1VH0TnplQupYnEUfdKvy79KOdE_06IyG-9ad8hn6OHRz6sG4hOowb5tX7P5zTS_aFNAGOeGbHMzVtQBL8/s1600/071214_SO02fear_vl-vertical.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 370px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOZLL0W3M4sMLoYOB0I4OcCxjFZIo3uDhDTTELQBE1WWZF3bO_6MlerR8Xtn1VH0TnplQupYnEUfdKvy79KOdE_06IyG-9ad8hn6OHRz6sG4hOowb5tX7P5zTS_aFNAGOeGbHMzVtQBL8/s400/071214_SO02fear_vl-vertical.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527091552525042482" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Self-survival instinct is at the very core of all the drama of life here on earth. <br />It is the most fundamental drive in the animal kingdom, common to all living beings but individual to each one, which means that each animal is responsible for his or her own survival.<br />And when each and every animal is individually driven most strongly by his/her self-survival instinct, it is logical to say that only the fittest survive, because there is a competition and a struggle against one another for survival. <br /><br />There are two sides to this struggle for survival - on one side animals of any species have to struggle and fight with other members of the same species for life resources, and on the other they have to struggle to keep safe from the predators. <br /><br />Also to me it seems that any animal that can live freely and independently without risking his/her life will prefer to live freely.<br />So we see that animals like the cheetah or the eagle who are at the top of their respective food chains and have very few or no predators to fear of, can and do live and hunt independently.<br />Whereas a lot of other species of animals like deers, monkeys, buffaloes, elephants who are not strong enough individually to survive alone in the wild usually stick around in groups or herds.<br />But it is important to understand that these animals don't stick around in groups because they want to look out for one another or for the common good of the group. <br />Rather the fundamental reason behind relatively weak animals staying in groups is that it improves each one's individual chances of survival. <br /><br />A good example to illustrate this point would be to consider a herd of deer grazing together in a field. Now if a cheetah or a pack of lions were to attack this herd, every deer would run for his/her own life away from the group rather than facing the danger together as a group. <br />Hence it's clear that these animals stick together in a group as long as it keeps them safe or at least makes them feel safe individually, but the moment this feeling of safety is threatened they leave the safety of the group and run away.<br />Same is true in case of human beings as well. Say a few people are in a movie theater, and the theater catches fire. Now what do people do? Do they stick around together and try to get the whole group out safely?<br />No they don't! Everyone runs for their own lives. Forget about sticking around together to save each other, in a hurry to save themselves people don't even care if they kill a few other people in stampede. <br /><br />So we see that all animals come together in groups because it gives them an improved sense of individual safety, but the moment that feeling of safety is challenged, each one is on his/her own again. <br /><br />We humans are animals too, animals who are capable of intelligent thought and logic and all that, but looking at what we have done with ourselves and our world, we clearly haven't let our intelligence make us very different from the rest of the animals. <br /><br />Human ancestors lived in groups as well, alongside all other animals, fighting for survival in the wild.<br />And they started living in groups for the very same reason as all other animals did- because they were too weak to survive alone in the wild, and living in groups increased their individual chances of survival.<br />So we see that even the earliest human society began as nothing but a group of animals who stuck around together for their own individual safety.<br />And when individuals in a group are only concerned about their own well being, there is bound to be a competition for resources and power. <br /><br />Just like all other groups of animals, the earliest of human groups had leaders too. <br />Usually the strongest one would more or less self-appoint himself as the leader, just like even in today's world. <br />So our ancestors lived in the jungle in families under leaders in exchange for a feeling of safety from other animals. <br /><br />Slowly we came out of the jungle, and started living in relative safety of tribes and villages, under new leaders. Now we didn't have to worry too much about the wild predators. But as individuals we were still insecure about our lives and being too weak to survive alone still wanted to live together in groups. <br />But as I said the only reason animals/people stick together in a group or a society is due to fear of something. <br />In the jungles we stuck together because we had fear primarily of predators. Once out of the jungle we needed something else to be afraid of in order to stick together in tribes.<br />And we found this fear in form of tribes or groups of other people. <br /><br />This individual insecurity/fear that people have for their own lives has been exploited by our leaders for a very long time. We as animals are always afraid for our lives, and our leaders give us something to be afraid of to keep us together under their leadership.<br />The leaders understand that to keep people together, they have to be kept in a constant fear of something or the other. <br />There has to be an enemy image for the society to stick together. <br />But the leaders alone are not to be blamed, they have merely played on our insecurities. <br />The people are the ones who want something to be scared of so they can stick together as a society, leaders just happen to want the same, so every now and then they create a new enemy for the society to face. <br />The current favorite of our leaders seems to be terrorism.<br />So we see that in a selfish paradigm where each one is merely bothered about his/her individual survival, it is impossible for anyone to live without fear. Because each one sees other people as a potential threat to his/her survival. <br /><br />Now when as individuals, we feel threatened by other individuals for survival, it's obvious that this insecurity reflects at society level as well. Because if individuals living in different societies feel threatened by each other, then the societies too are going to feel threatened by other societies. A society is nothing but a collection of individuals anyway.<br />So we fight individually for survival with one another, and we also fight as societies with other societies for the same reason.<br /><br />Our ancestors fought with one another for survival in the jungle, and we are still fighting with one another for the very same reason - individual survival. <br />Only thing that has changed is that those fights and skirmishes between early tribes of humans, over the years turned into bloody battles between kingdoms, and today they have turned into wars between countries. <br />Now we think we have evolved and are better than those lesser evolved animals because we have climbed off the trees, and come out of caves and built ourselves clean cities, and handsome clothes, and expensive cars. <br />But we haven't really evolved, with all this external glamor we are only trying to cover up the true animal nature that is still the driving force behind our lives. <br />If we have evolved anything, it is the ways in which we can compete with one another for survival. <br />While other animals compete with one another for survival based primarily on their physical strengths, we humans have invented a whole array of concepts to compete with one another for survival. <br />Religions, Castes, social classes, fashion, nationalities are all concepts that show how desperate we are to give ourselves and each other as different identities as possible, so that when we look at one another we only see how different we are from one another and hence a threat to each others individual survival. <br />As neighbours we fight, as different religious groups we fight, as different castes we fight, as different countries we fight. So we are constantly fighting with one another for our lives. <br /><br />But now one may ask - what exactly is the problem here? Human beings are animals and they live like animals! So what's wrong with that? <br /><br />The problem is the fact that we humans can think intelligently, unlike all other species of animals. <br />So when a powerful lion snatches away food from a weaker lion, and the weaker one goes hungry, the stronger one doesn't think about the plight of the weaker lion, because he can not. He is purely driven by his self-survival instinct and does not have the capacity to think about the consequences of his actions.<br />But because we humans can think, when relatively powerful human beings compete and snatch away food from weaker human beings, it makes some of us question our actions . And hence the whole debate. <br />Besides I think when a lion has eaten his stomach full he might leave the rest lying around for other lions to eat. <br />But we humans want everything for ourselves, even if we are done eating, we had rather hide the remaining food till it rots than give it to other people. <br /><br />In spite of our ability to think and understand logically and even after thousands of years of technological advancements, the problems facing the human society haven't changed at all. <br />Thinkers like Plato from ancient civilizations spoke about the same social and moral issues that we face today. Which means that there is a realm in human existence which has remained unchanged over all these years. <br />This is the psychological realm, or realm of the consciousness. <br /><br />But why have we failed to eradicate these issues for thousands of years? <br /> <br />To me this seems to be due to lack of our sincerity towards addressing these problems. <br />But why have we shown lack of sincerity towards these serious social issues? <br /><br />When people get cancer, do they go to the doctor and ask him to just remove enough cancer cells to eliminate physical symptoms to allow them to go about their daily life or do they ask him to remove the god damned thing from the root itself as soon as possible?<br /><br />They obviously ask him to remove it from the root as soon as possible, so we see that there is sincerity when an individual's life is at stake. But even though society has been suffering from these ailments for thousands of years, we have failed to face the root causes and get rid of them.<br /><br />And our failure to show same sincerity towards these social cancers shows that just like all other animals,even humans are still driven purely and only by their self-survival instincts, and welfare of the entire group is of little or no importance. <br />There seems to be no trace of wise use of intelligence in the design of our social paradigm. <br />What we have done instead is that we have used our intelligence along the lines of primitive animal instincts like competition, self-survival, possessiveness, crude violence and so on. And this way, what we have created are more ways to effectively compete with one another for survival, or in other words more effective ways to destroy each other.<br />Remember that we humans came together and began staying in societies only because living in society made us feel more secure as individuals and not for the betterment of humanity. That is why in our society we see that everyone is competing with one another for everything- There is competition to get into school, then to get into college, then a job, and so on. So we see that we are merely living together and competing with one another for our individual survival, rather than coming together and thinking about the common good of the society. <br /><br />Now when society is nothing but a group of people who are pretending to be together and looking out for one another, but at heart only care about their own life and needs, there are bound to be conflicting situations, and homeless, poor, hungry, and abused people in the society. <br /><br />The reason we have failed to eradicate these social issues for thousands of years is because we have failed to understand the root cause of all these social issues. Unaware of the underlying root cause, we have only been trying to cure the symptoms that show up on the surface. But since the fundamental problem is still not understood, these symptoms like poverty, homelessness, crimes, wars keep coming back. <br /><br />Of course there is no denying that a lot of people out there genuinely want to do something about these poor, hungry, homeless people. <br />But rather than trying to drill down to the root cause behind these problems, they go out there and try to fight these symptoms as if they were independently existing problems. Which is a very shallow approach. <br /><br />In our current society, NGOs and other social welfare organizations are also committing the same mistake by trying to solve social issues like child labor, women abuse, poverty as individual independently existing problems. But this kind of approach will never work,because these problems are mere symptoms of the fundamental problem with our society- which is our selfish paradigm. <br />We see that these problems have been there since the inception of human society, and they are still around because we have been trying to cure the symptoms of the fundamental problem, rather than trying to understand the fundamental problem itself. <br /><br />When I think about the possible reasons behind our failure to understand the fundamental issue behind all these problems - two possibilities come to my mind.<br /> <br />One could be that we have been so deeply conditioned psychologically over millions of years that as individuals we feel that fighting with one another for survival is the natural and the only way to live, and to us this selfish lifestyle doesn't seem to be the cause of these problems, instead we feel that these problems are independently existing unique social issues, and need to be dealt with like individual problems. <br /><br />The other possibility could be that in society people who are in a position to make a difference are the ones who are well-off, the underprivileged themselves cannot do anything about their situation. And the people who are well-off including most of us and our leaders don't want anything to change because we have successfully competed against the weaker to secure a safer environment for ourselves.<br /><br />I feel that the true reason behind our failure to understand the root cause behind social problems is a combination of both of these two possibilities. While on one hand as masses and individuals we have failed to evolve beyond our individual insecurities for life, on the other our leaders have deliberately kept us fighting for survival with one another so that they can continue to rule our society. <br /><br />And in this human civilization of ours, which is already paralyzed by our selfish nature, invention of a concept like God has only further paralyzed humanity. <br />Religions of the world make people feel that everything that the world is, is a part of God's design, and so when they see problems in the society, they take it to be a part of God's plan and completely give up the idea that they might have something to do with these problems. Since people hold God responsible for everything, the whole concept of god takes away the responsibility of our actions away from us. <br /><br />For such religious people here is a mental exercise - Let us for a moment agree that God is looking after everything, now think about the world as it is now - with humans and all their human problems. <br />Now for a moment imagine the world without human beings. Eventhough God is still looking after the world and other living beings, don't all social issues disappear with humans as well?<br />Now put humans back in the picture and we see all problems coming back all over again. <br />I think this simple thought experiment is enough to show that human beings themselves are the cause of their problems.<br /> <br />As I said earlier that except humans all other animals have <span style="font-style:italic;">only</span> their self-survival instincts to live by, and there is nothing wrong with their selfish paradigm because that's the only way for them to survive. <br />But we humans can think, and yet we have not used a trace of our intelligence in trying to understand life better. <br />Continuing to live in this selfish social paradigm and then trying to cure the social problems which arise because of the very selfish nature of the society is naive and ignorant and is not the solution. <br />The only way to get rid of these social issues if we are at all serious about it, is for us to try as individuals and as societies to evolve beyond our selfish insecurities and understand that it is possible for us to live beside one another without having to fight for survival. <br />And once we understand that every person and every living being has the right to and wants to live as much as anyone of us, hopefully then we can come together as improved conscious human beings and create a society for the welfare of one and all.PassingByhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14883450312267760767noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8323757144480266862.post-78376408835727627712010-07-23T02:29:00.000-07:002010-10-11T22:21:18.754-07:00Censorship! Another word for Hypocrisy?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZE8tK8xsdmO4HlxR73-gJmrX3NCAc6h1ohIThUkH07R611InMPs6h573tGks-ov5nGnOcaFT_FvuE0TEvSBbS6nJXH_xcpANQv5OYqWUfSXFpqGUfN81IhT7-amFQcUKHCfL1hsa1NLY/s1600/censorship-1.gif"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZE8tK8xsdmO4HlxR73-gJmrX3NCAc6h1ohIThUkH07R611InMPs6h573tGks-ov5nGnOcaFT_FvuE0TEvSBbS6nJXH_xcpANQv5OYqWUfSXFpqGUfN81IhT7-amFQcUKHCfL1hsa1NLY/s320/censorship-1.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5497032176489432418" /></a><br /><br />Downfall of humanity has been it's closed mindedness, and a concept like censorship is one of our many self destructive methods to make sure that nobody interfers with this free fall of ours till we hit rock bottom and smash ourselves out of existence. <br /><br />We wouldn't want anyone showing us the right way for humanity to take, that would be too intelligent for us foolish & petty animals. <br /><br />Even though censorship interfers with artist's work to different degrees in different countries, the basic underlying reason behind it is our failure to accept another man's point of view, and also to stick to one of the most fundamental of human rights, which we like to talk about a lot, but seldom practice, freedom of expression. <br /><br />Well if you are expressing an opinion that at least a billion people share in common with you then you have all the freedom of expression that you could ask for. But! if you are thinking about expressing a radical,unique, and an original point of view, you better be doing it from behind a bullet proof glass.<br /><br />According to the dictionary censorship means "Counterintelligence achieved by banning or deleting any information of value to the enemy". <br />And looking at the way censor board has functioned in the past, it is clear that anyone who doesn't conform to the views put forth by the government, and wants to express his/her own, is an enemy. <br /><br />It's also important to point out that censor board is actually controlled by the "Ministry" of Information and Broadcasting. So don't for one minute think that it's not political. <br /><br />This is our way of isolating, rejecting, and undermining the ones who wander away from the herd mentality to find their own path, just like a herd of sheep does. <br />Friedrich Nietzsche very aptly pointed out that<br />"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently".<br /><br />In fact what is the use of 6 billion people walking around with almost identical point of views? It's a complete waste of human energy and time. We could just assign one person to have a point of view in every field, and we could all just follow that, couldn't we? Why do all the thinking ourselves?!<br /><br />Oh! But hey, that's exactly what we are doing. Isn't it? We have one institution for every field which tells the rest of us what to believe and what not believe and what to think about and what not think about, be it religion, politics, or economics.<br /><br />We are often told that censorship is necessary for a safe and peaceful society. But is it really so? <br /><br />I am not sure about the safety and peace, but I do know that censorship is definitely necessary for the politicians and businessmen to make sure that we don't see or read anything that they don't want us to see or read. They very well know that ignorant public is easily manipulated and led. <br /><br />Censor boards and other political/religious bodies usually have a problem with artistic work dealing with either<br /><br />1) Real incidents of the past like genocides, riots, wars, political policies and so on,or,<br /><br />2) Sexual content/abusive language, or, <br /><br />3) Against current religious norms.<br /><br />Let us explore these three points and see if the censor board and the whole concept of rejecting unpopular ideas is doing any good to the society. <br /><br />According to the Supreme Court of India:<br />“Film censorship becomes necessary because a film motivates thought and action and assures a high degree of attention and retention as compared to the printed word. The combination of act and speech, sight and sound in semi darkness of the theatre with elimination of all distracting ideas will have a strong impact on the minds of the viewers and can affect emotions. Therefore, it has as much potential for evil as it has for good and has an equal potential to instill or cultivate violent or good behaviour. It cannot be equated with other modes of communication. Censorship by prior restraint is, therefore, not only desirable but also necessary."<br /><br />First of all, most of the movies and books that face trouble with the censor boards and political-religious bodies usually deal with the reality of the state of affairs in the society, or with an incident from the past i.e., war,riot etc. <br />I haven't seen a single movie or read a single book which for no reason urges people to be violent, and I don't think there are too many of such works out there anyway. <br />And let's say for the sake of argument that there are such movies and books out there that instigate people to be violent, but what do people have their brains for? If I came across such a work, I would with an open mind see what it's about and if it seems illogical to me, I will move right on. Besides if someone is stupid enough to be influenced by a movie or a book to kill other people, then isn't it possible that the problem is the person himself and not the book or the movie? <br />Chances are good that he was thinking of killing a whole bunch of people for a very long time, may be he even bought a gun much before he read that book or watched that movie. <br />So why should the rest of the sane people be refused to indulge in free flow of art and information because of a few morons? <br />And even if there are propaganda movies and books out there that wrongfully instigate violence, isn't there a clear difference between such movies/books and the ones which are plain artistic representation of the reality of affairs in society? <br />Why do always the latter kind of books/movies face trouble?<br /><br />And Why should the movies and the books be considered dangerous and unfit for the society? The movies and books are not violent, the society is. The movies and books only bring out what already is. <br />If the society can handle and live with the reality itself, i am sure it can handle a movie or a book about it. <br />And by the way it's the people of the society that brought about all the wars, riots, killings, girl infanticides, and child marriages in the first place. <br />So why are we trying to stop artists from talking about these facts, rather than stopping these horrible acts themselves? Doesn't it seem a little un-intelligent for us "Intelligent beings", we are so proud of saying that. <br /><br />All we are doing is censoring any work that talks about the reality of social/political/religious affairs, under the pretext of safety and peace of the society. Nothing more. <br />What we fail to understand is that banning a book or a movie is not going to make a society peaceful. <br />Violence has been there since the beginning of time. Other animals are violent too, but they don't have any violent books and movies. They are violent because it's in their nature, it's their instinct to be violent for survival, they don't know any other way, neither do we. <br /><br />We are violent for the same reason, we are semi-conscious beasts ourselves. It's in our nature. We are far from understanding the meaning of peace as a society. At least a few light years away, and banning books and movies, and shutting people up is not going to help.<br /> <br />Secondly, different modes of art appeal differently to different individuals, and I don't think it is right for an institution like supreme court to make a generalized staement that movies have more impact on people, because to some people books are more engaging than a movie, and to some others music might be. <br /><br />Now talking about censoring sexual content:<br /><br />There are currently 4.2 million porn websites (12% of the total) and growing. The pornographic industry of the entire world is larger than the revenues of the top technology companies combined: Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, Apple, Netflix and Earthlink.<br />Daily, 65 million pornographic search engine requests are made (25% of total)and 2.5 billion porn emails are sent.<br />42.7% of internet users view porn. <br />That will give you an idea how hungry people are for sex. Yet as a society we have failed to accept sex openly. <br />You'd think that the total sexual urge of any society would be the collective total of the individual sexual urges of the people. But even though as individuals we all want as crazy a sex life as possible, as a society we act like it's a shameful act? <br /><br />As individual people we walk around with hard-ons but our society is like a 75 year old man with a limp dick. <br />Isn't something wrong here? I sense double standards. <br />Sex is alright in the bedroom, but in the living room we don't like to talk about it. <br />None of us would be here if it wasn't for sex, so why act like it's such a bad thing? <br /><br />A lot of people blame pornography and prostitution for having a bad influence on the society, but neither are bad of and by themselves. They are demand driven markets. When people don't get sex they either go to a porn website, or to a brothel. You can't blame them for that. <br />Reproduction is the second most fundamental obligation of any living thing after survival. So anybody whose got his dinner sorted out is going to want to fuck, and there is not a god damn thing in the world that can stop them. <br /><br />People also like to use children as an excuse against sexual content. But where is the sense in, at one hand trying to convince children that sex is an imaginary and evil thing, and on the other forcing them to believe that santa claus is real? Why is everything so upside down? <br />We are so weak and scared of dealing with the simple facts of life that we are forced to use our children and culture as our shield. <br />Besides your children are going to find out about sex anyway, either through self exploration or with the help of the uncle next door. So why not talk to them about it yourself, they will definitely appreciate that more. <br /><br />And let's face it, the root cause of all sexual crimes is not prostitution or porn, it's the lack of sexual awareness and our failure to accept sex openly for what it is.<br /><br />By mindlessly censoring sexual content censor board is only allowing the society to continue to elude the issue of sex, and hence is not doing a thing to help the society positively. <br /> <br /><br />Last but not the least censoring of independent ideas about God, and religion: <br /><br />I don't want to delve into the details of how hollow, illogical, archaic and insecure all the religions of the world are. All I want to say is that- if millions of hindus, muslims, christians have the right to proudly talk about their beliefs and gods and build their temples and churches, why can't the people who don't want anything to do with religion of any sort be proud about their beliefs? <br /><br />What happened to all men being equal and all? <br /><br />If a hindu has a right to be a proud hindu, and a muslim to be a proud muslim then what is wrong with me being a proud non believer and talking about it? <br /> <br />Why do a few non believers make billions of believers so insecure? If the religious people have so much faith in their god and religion and if they are so sure that god exists, then what can a few men's opinion do? <br />Why can't these self-righteous people just ignore the non believers?<br />I will tell you why - Because they are insecure about their own belief systems, and they don't want anyone reminding them of that. <br /><br />In conclusion my question boils down to this - Where is the sense in trying to fix the society by banning books and movies? <br />Even if our movies are censored and our books are screened to protect the easily influenced people and children, who is going to protect them from the stinking garbage that society itself is. <br />All the artistic works that a censor board has a problem with come from the people of the society, and are usually about the society anyway. <br />So even if all the movies and books disappeared, people would find reason to be violent in the society itself. <br />Hence we see that censorship doesn't help the society positively in anyway and the justification for censorship being a neccessity is pure political jargon meant to serve the purpose of the establishment and not of the people.PassingByhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14883450312267760767noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8323757144480266862.post-61779203605163973082010-06-18T03:08:00.000-07:002012-01-03T08:53:56.005-08:00Vegetarian & Non-vegetarian: A perspective<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgige5UuneWD1kXGfZLHUcsf87LQDZv2fb3-Z0bxI6ESHRMwiYU00PuMhVqgNmt8Jsy1kx3nG9TY9SDlmBmYYr64WHH2CHI7vLhqs3vhfhbWS9WoCHVKzmw70Fb-iwba_eBh8xc2ODHV8Y/s1600/belsen01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="373" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgige5UuneWD1kXGfZLHUcsf87LQDZv2fb3-Z0bxI6ESHRMwiYU00PuMhVqgNmt8Jsy1kx3nG9TY9SDlmBmYYr64WHH2CHI7vLhqs3vhfhbWS9WoCHVKzmw70Fb-iwba_eBh8xc2ODHV8Y/s400/belsen01.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Can anyone please explain what the moral difference between the two acts
depicted above is?</div>
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I am really sick and tired of half-dead souls trying to justify killing and
exploiting other animals for food, profit, clothing and other selfish reasons. </div>
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"Oh well! Plants have life too! What do you have to say to that?"
is usually their response. And from the look on their face you can usually tell
that they feel really smug, and happy with themselves for having come up with
that thought.</div>
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First of all, a person who immediately jumps to "Oh well! Plants have
life too!", as a comeback has either not given the subject much thought or
is not serious about having a sincere discussion and just wants to win the
argument. </div>
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The problem with debates in general is that, people usually stop listening
to each other and forget the basic reason behind the discussion, and it becomes
all about proving the other person wrong. So you see it becomes a war of egos between
the people involved, and the debate loses all connections with the subject
being discussed.</div>
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That's what happens in a vegetarian/non-vegetarian debate too. Rather than
really trying to understand what the other person means by saying - "There
is a visible and obvious pain and suffering involved in killing animals that is
being ignored", we straight off look for a way to find flaw in the logic
by pointing out that "Hey! Plants have life too".</div>
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If you are a person who can kill a human being, butcher an animal, and cut
down a tree with the same amount of ease then you have all the right to put the
argument of plants having life forth because you truly feel the pain of humans,
animals and plants equally. </div>
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But most people say that because they see it is a clever retort, rather than
saying it because they truly see the pain of plants like they see the pain of
humans and animals.</div>
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And more importantly if you are a person who can look an animal in the eye,
see the fear, and see his or her desire to live and still kill it, then you
definitely can't understand the pain of plants. And you are using the point
about plants having life just as a way of defending your ego and point of
view.</div>
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The discussion is no more about plants, animals, humans, life, kindness,
cruelty, evolution, logic, honesty or all the other greater causes of humanity,
you have pulled the discussion about human evolution down to your place in the
gutter and have made it about you and your ego, and your need to be proven
superior to another human being because you still haven't even learnt to look
at other human beings equally and are fighting with other people for
superiority. </div>
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And in this personal selfish war between egos to dominate over one another,
the emotion/feeling that was to be understood is completely missed.</div>
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Secondly here is what I have to say about the plant argument.</div>
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We humans were in the jungle for a very long time, having no notions of
right or wrong, then slowly we came out of the forest and slowly evolved into
civilizations. Till now we were killing humans, animals and trees all alike. </div>
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Then somebody came along and said "Hey! You know what, all men are
equal and we should treat everybody equally", and the rest of us were like
OK, let us try to treat all men the same way.</div>
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But before we could even begin trying to treat all humans equally, somebody
came along and said "Oh! All animals are equal and it is wrong to kill
other animals for selfish human needs".</div>
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And then while we were trying to wrap our heads around the last two moral
concepts, science allowed us to understand the life of plants and allowed us to
look at them under the microscope and the final realization dawned upon us that
plants have life too, and if we consume plants then we are still destroying
life. </div>
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Now we have these three deep realizations that we need to understand and
inculcate.</div>
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But wait, as I said we hardly got started on trying to treat each other
equally. We humans still haven't managed to accept one another as equal. </div>
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Just pick up any newspaper or tune into a news channel and pay attention to
some of it and you will get what I mean.</div>
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And if we can't even understand other people’s pain like our own, then let
us not waste time pretending that we can feel pain of plants.</div>
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We just throw arguments like "plants have life" to win an argument
without realizing that we have to start with trying to treat one another
equally, only then can we talk about treating animals and then plants the same
way.</div>
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What is important is that you start today and try to treat everybody as
yourself a little more everyday and then try to look at animals around you as
equal, and may be by then we will figure out a way to survive without harming
anything at all. But we shouldn't just dismiss the need for changing ourselves
at all right now, just because we cannot see a possibility of changing
ourselves 100% all at once. </div>
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Let us try to make ourselves a little more loving every day and slowly we
will see ourselves become less barbaric and more gentle and kind. </div>
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I think to be alive means to have come into existence, (which not to mention
is out of one's control), and having come into existence to survive, till
death.</div>
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So having said that, it is impossible to survive without disturbing the
surrounding Eco-system at all.</div>
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For example, to walk across a grass field, one has to step on the grass and
that's going to cause some damage, and there is no way around that.</div>
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But as intelligent beings, we should survive/exist causing as less
pain/suffering/damage to other living beings and environment. </div>
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And that is the difference between killing billions of animals each day, and
not killing billions of animals each day.</div>
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It is a simple concept-Cause as less suffering as possible.</div>
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We should at least be ready to change our ways of survival and living freely,
as we evolve and understand our world more, instead of just stagnating
evolution by trying to justify our current way of life by arguments we don’t
fully comprehend. </div>
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There is another set of people who like to play the superior species card.</div>
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"Oh! We are on top of the food chain; we are superior to the other
animals. And in nature stronger animals eat weaker animals”, or something on
the lines of “I didn’t evolve to the top of the food chain to be a vegetarian.”</div>
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I feel that there is no animal more inferior to a human being who thinks he
can do whatever he wills with other animals because he feels superior to them.
How is that different from rich people, politicians, and the rulers of this
world treating the rest of us like insects? </div>
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But when we are at the receiving end, we complain and when we are at the
delivering end we cite the same sick racial mentality as our defence. </div>
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Talk about hypocrisy. </div>
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As far as food chain and wild animals eating other animals is concerned- Let
me break it down for you.</div>
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Animals like Lions/Tigers/Hyenas are biologically conditioned into their paradigm;
they cannot help but feed on other animals. If they don't kill other animals
for food, they will die. Also this is Nature's way of maintaining a balance.
Through such food chains- the population of different species is kept in check.</div>
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But we humans are not biologically conditioned to only eat animals and if we
kill animals for food, we do so for taste and appetite which are luxuries and not
necessities for survival. </div>
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And there is a big difference between killing an animal because you can, and
killing an animal because you need to as far as your decision making is
concerned as an individual. </div>
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Lot of people love to pose this particular hypothetical when this topic is
being discussed – “So if you found yourself in a situation where you had to
either kill an animal and eat it or die, what would you do?”</div>
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Here the person is not really interested in knowing what I would do in such
a situation. That is least bit of his or her concern. The person is only trying
to justify continuing killing animals by trying to show that even I might do it
if I had to. </div>
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Honestly, answers regarding such hypothetical situations where a person has
been pushed to a point of desperation for survival cannot be answered sitting
comfortably in a room. I don’t know what I would do in such a situation would
be my honest reply. </div>
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I think I would let myself starve to death than live at the expense of
another’s life. </div>
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But in a day to day reality we hardly face situations where we have to
choose between life and death and we act on what we want to do rather than what
we need to do. And it is this day to day behaviour that we are talking about
here, not some apocalyptic end of the world scenario where there is no food
around. We are talking about human behaviour in a normally functional society
and so let us stick to that and not wander off topic trying to justify our
current lifestyles with such ludicrous comparisons. </div>
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Also many people feel that non-vegetarians are helping maintain the balance
of nature's food chain which I think is not the case. We lost touch with nature
and her balance a long time ago. </div>
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Let us try to discuss this together. </div>
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We kill animals on massive scales every day, and due to the profit based
structure that our food industry is fundamentally based upon, the whole process
is designed to minimize costs and maximize profits, and so in this mechanical
system, the well-being of animals is completely left out of the equation. </div>
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Besides that, because of the massive demand for non-vegetarian food, we are
eating away all the balance nature tried to preserve through food chains. We
are doing a lot of things to nature, but preserving balance is definitely not
one of them. </div>
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We are over fishing the seas to a point that majestic fish like Great white
sharks have been pushed to the list of endangered species, millions and may be
billions of animals are killed every day for food. </div>
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The way we treat our cattle is no different from how Nazis treated Jews
during WWII. If you want visual evidence of this then watch <a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6361872964130308142">Earthlings</a>,
and you will find out where your food comes from and at what cost? </div>
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The fact of the matter is that we humans, to
satisfy our taste and appetite put animals through the same torture and pain that
Jews went through at the hand of Nazis during Holocaust every day and we don't
even know it. Nobody wants to know where their food comes from. </div>
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Jews were at least saved from Nazis by other
countries. For these animals there is no hope. I think most of these animals
must have lost all hopes of living and wandering free. These animals will have
no happy stories to pass down to their younger generations. <br />
It’s a grim reality, theirs.</div>
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Everybody likes to sit in their living rooms and talk about the problems in
the society, without having a clue about how they are contributing to the
problems themselves. It is ignorance at individual level that creates such a
clueless society. </div>
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"Nobody seems to have a clue about what is going on."</div>
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Everybody likes to hide behind- "Well! You can never be too sure you
know."</div>
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I say “Well if you can never be sure, then put your empty head on the pillow
and go back to sleep. As we can see you are sleep walking through life anyway!"</div>
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Everybody wants to see peace and love in the world, they want to end all
wars and cruelty, and stop the useless killings and all the hatred, they want
everyone to be treated equally and with care and gentleness and then these same
people go back home and slit a chicken's throat, hang it upside down and leave
it there to drain out all the blood, and then cook and eat something that was
just alive, and looking at them a few minutes ago.</div>
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And then these same people wonder why there is so much violence in the
world.</div>
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It's simple! It's the same violent tendency whether it is towards a member
of the same species or another species is of little importance. A person can
either be cruel and barbaric or gentle and kind, but he can’t be both at the
same time. </div>
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It is our ability as human beings to disconnect one's self from the
suffering of another living being that allows us humans to be violent with one
another and other animals.</div>
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I am sure that this world will not know peace till there is cruelty to other
animals. Pure barbaric cruelty and violent tendencies are very deep rooted in
us from the times we were in the jungle and this primitive instinct knows no
boundaries. </div>
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The fact that we are still so barbaric and cruel is what concerns me. It shows
that evolution has still not gotten our species very far out of the jungle as
yet. </div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
We are still struggling in the deep thick jungles of our minds where
darkness and uncertainty rules and the mind doesn’t know right from wrong
because it can’t see anything in the darkness of ignorance. Our mind is living
in constant fear trying to keep us from making any changes to your lifestyle
because that might threaten our survival. </div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
Your animal brain is keeping you from opening up to the love of other
animals and from feeling oneness with other living beings. </div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
This is not a debate about plants and animals anymore. It is about evolving
out of our cruel violent tendencies. Human evolution requires us to be more
intelligent and kind and loving. </div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
No man can evolve into a better human being/conscious being and still
inflict pain on fellow living being.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
For me the choice between vegetarianism and non-vegetarianism is very
simple. I see contact between me and another human being or another animal as
an interaction, and I would like to confine my interactions with other people
and other animals to ones that give love and happiness and want nothing to do
with hurting or torturing anyone whose pain I can understand.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
Today I can understand the pain of animals and humans so let me start by
trying to treat humans and animals with a little more love everyday and maybe I
will come to a point where I can look at plants the same way too, or maybe I
will never understand the pain of plants. But what is important is that I am
ready to go where my honest understanding takes me.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
We have to be ready to evolve and move ahead and to do that we have to slowly
get rid of our barbaric violent tendencies and become more kind and considerate
to our environment in general. </div>
<div align="center" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;">
<b><u>A few quotes on Vegetarianism along
Similar lines of Thought</u></b></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child,
as it is to the caterpillar. -- Bradley Miller</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he
who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love. --Pythagoras
(6th century BC)</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore,
if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of
his appetite. --Leo Tolstoy</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life
on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet. --Albert Einstein</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
We don't need to eat anyone who would run, swim, or fly away if he could.
--James Cromwell</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
As long as there are slaughterhouses in this world, there will be
battlefields - Leo Tolstoy</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
So, eat what you want, but don't try and justify it with incomplete logic.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
On an even deeper level, the discussion about vegetarianism and
non-vegetarianism seems to get further detached from the argument about plants
and animals and becomes more about human ego or human image. </div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
To be more specific, the discussion becomes more about the concept of ‘me’
and ‘my’ that is the result of the image we create for ourselves and for
others. </div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
So each individual calls him/herself ‘me’ or ‘I’ and considers all people,
objects, animals, places, concepts that are close to one’s heart as ‘my’ or ‘mine’.
</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
Now the moment we bring the concept of ‘me’ and ‘my’ into existence, there
automatically comes into existence something that is ‘not-me’ and ‘not mine’
and that is where all problems start. </div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
The direction in which people channel their good, friendly, loving side and
their indifferent, cruel, and selfish side seems to be based on what people
consider their own and what they consider not theirs. </div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
I wouldn’t say it is impossible, but it will be very hard to find a person
who can kill torture his own pet animal or his own loved ones because for that
person all these things are ‘his’, but the same person might be ready to kill
an animal or a human being that is not ‘his’ to satisfy his own needs. </div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
Everybody lives inside their own self-imposed boundary of me and my, and all
people and animals are fighting with one another from behind and over these
boundaries. </div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
So people are fully capable of loving other people and other animals as long
as they consider these people or animals as their own, and these same people
are equally capable of being savage jungle beasts to people or animals they
consider strangers. </div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
So the main culprit behind all violence that our planet has ever seen seems
to be the concept of ‘me’ and ‘not me’. All animals including humans destroy
life around them to support and feed and protect what they consider precious
and ‘mine’. </div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
While other animals are hard wired into that paradigm, we humans on the
other hand have stumbled upon the possibility of growing beyond this
self-centred paradigm that leads to nothing more than wars, killings, fights,
and suffering and actually attain peace. And the only way to move towards a
more peaceful social paradigm seems to be to expand the circle or the concept of
‘my’ to involve a little more of the universe every day. </div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
Expand your circle of love till it includes everything around you step by
step, and then you will understand what it means to be at one with nature. </div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
Only when we are ready to evolve freely to become better people as
individuals, will the society evolve and only then will the world be free of
all suffering, pain, war and cruelty to one another and other animals. </div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
It is not a debate anymore. It is not about humans, animals or plants specifically;
it is about coming face to face with our cruel tendencies and rising above
them. Once you rise beyond barbaric cruel tendencies you will find love, and
that love will extend to fellow humans, animals and plants alike. </div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>PassingByhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14883450312267760767noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8323757144480266862.post-6459463215867443782010-04-22T00:33:00.000-07:002010-10-11T22:21:55.743-07:00A Brief History Of India<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGaLfOYO8dqKTgQqFXNGHuSW4p9ghvbBL3-MubJm-yOulZFuSuXBh5DVV9oswJSGDanp6lDkavtyj-L-YqHQXezd0IVj0-U9hjxn_rMgrZVuv5OEFzq06vGtEeFcnySADwHoIde1pyms8/s1600/map_406.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGaLfOYO8dqKTgQqFXNGHuSW4p9ghvbBL3-MubJm-yOulZFuSuXBh5DVV9oswJSGDanp6lDkavtyj-L-YqHQXezd0IVj0-U9hjxn_rMgrZVuv5OEFzq06vGtEeFcnySADwHoIde1pyms8/s320/map_406.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5462862279442027314" /></a><br /><br />Violence has always been a part of human history, and the history of India like that of any other country is no different. <br /><br />It's full of massacres,and blood-shed over few men's hunger for power and conquest. <br /><br />The Aryans settled down in the Ganges plane and lived there in what we may call 'relative peace', keeping in mind what followed over the centuries.<br /><br />As rest of the Indian history is full of invasions and conquests. <br /><br />First the Persians and the Greeks, then Alexander. Followed by the Maurya period. Which reached a peaceful state under the rule of Asoka as he was deeply influenced by Buddhism. And then for a long time there were Hindu dynasties ruling most of the Indian subcontinent. <br />Even though the Hindu rule had it's own fundamental flaws in form of religiously defined social structure of castes, absence of other major religious groups in the Indian sub-continent allowed for a comparatively peaceful existence. <br /><br />But the things that shaped the future we see today took place once the Moguls arrived in India. Because this was the first time that Hinduism met Islam. <br />This marked the birth of hatred between Hindus and Muslims. But the common Hindu and Muslim people had nothing to do with the invasions. It was the will of the Mogul rulers that brought about the bitterness between the two communities. <br /><br />Hindus blindly began hating Islam and those who followed it, the story on the Muslim side was no different. Yet again we see, that it was not about religion at all, instead it was about a few powerful men and their will to conquer more land and attain more power. <br />Religion as always was used to manipulate the minds of the common people through the dirty politics of the rich, fueled by sick and perverted hunger for more power. <br /><br />And one of the last rulers of this country were the English, and the damage they did to this country is still in a state of dis-repair. As the others before them, colonial raj was driven by need for power, profit, and control over the world. <br />They came here under the pretext of The East India Company and stayed here for over two centuries. <br /><br />Their infamous divide and rule policies are well known to the world. They kept the caste system in India prevalent by issuing government policies based on caste system and religion, thus forcing people to feel kinship only with people belonging to their own social group and class, and in doing so alienating themselves from the people belonging to other castes. <br /><br />While the English lived in royal fashion through out the British raj, famines in India, often attributed to failed government policies, were some of the worst ever recorded, including the Great Famine of 1876–78, in which 6.1 million to 10.3 million people died and the Indian famine of 1899–1900, in which 1.25 to 10 million people died. <br /><br />It's really hard to believe that the shrewd bureaucratic minds behind the British raj, who had successfully colonized many countries under their rule that lasted for centuries, failed to come up with fitting government policies to keep the people of India alive let alone happy. <br /><br />To me these famines seem to have been systematically created by the British rule in order to reduce the population and keep it in check and in turn reduce the resistance of the Indian people against the raj. <br />Systematic plans for reduction of human population in order to perpetuate the state of affairs, are still a part of the hidden global policies of the elite. Hence, to me it only goes on to make more sense that this has been happening for a long time.<br /><br />Besides, aren't famines determined by the forces of nature? Don't famine occur due to natural phenomenon like crop-failure? Since when do government policies create famines, unless they are deliberately meant to do so? <br /><br />After such racial and biased rule over India for years, when the time came for the English to leave India, they didn't do so without delivering the final blow to the Indian people. <br /><br />The partition. <br /><br />After forcefully thrusting the caste and religion driven identity over the Indian people through these cunning policies, the British further widened the gulf between the two major religious groups in India i.e., (Hindus and Muslims) by creating the congress party which was primarily a Hindu party. <br />This created a feeling of insecurity amongst the Muslim population of the country, who felt that their interests would not be addressed by this Hindu majority party. Thus Muslim league came into existence. <br />It was the clash between these two parties that led to the partition of India. <br />And if one were to believe the enormous amounts of evidence that is present, it is clear that most of the violence around the time of partition, was systematically engineered by the two parties on both sides. <br />Party workers instigated and took active part in the gruesome rapes and killings, and they in turn were funded by the two parties. <br /><br />After the borders were announced, millions of people sought to rejoin their new country, convinced they could no longer live together. Nine million Hindus left Pakistan and six million Muslims left India. A million refugees crossed the borders on foot, forming human columns over dozens of miles long, in rags, exhausted, starved, crushed by sorrow. Others, leaving in trains, never arrived. Witnesses described “death trains” filled with mutilated cadavers, the train wheels dripping blood. There were between 150,000 and a million deaths in a few months. <br />The British showed least interest in trying to prevent the riots. Most of the British soldiers had been called back to the UK due to the losses incurred by the English during the World War II. And the two newly formed countries were in complete disorder and were in no shape to deal with the riots. <br />Thousands of Sikh women got killed by their own family members in the name of honor killing. Some figures say that around 75000 women (Muslim,Sikh and Hindu) were raped and murdered. Their breasts slit off by angry men. <br />Mother India just like Mother earth raped over and over again by her own sons. Her screams are long gone now. All hopes for any help have faded away. <br />Now she lies there with a bruised body and spirit, being raped by each one of her children one by one. Each one fighting to get some more action. <br />And like any mother, all she wanted was to see her children live in peace with one another sharing what ever she had to offer. <br />But like wild beasts we snatch at her, everyone trying to have a go before the other and get their hands full with as much as possible.<br /><br />The hateful incidents of the partition created differences between Hindus and Muslims that are still as fresh even after more than 50 years. But the horrors of partition were hidden from the new generation under the false pretext of Independence. <br /><br />I feel that 15th of August every year should be mourned rather than celebrated. <br /><br />Besides, keep in mind that before partition Hindus and Muslims fought against the British raj together for years, when you think about how the politics of a few power hungry men mercilessly manipulates the fate of the rest. <br /> <br /><br />The way events have unfolded over the centuries in the past and what they have led to in today's world is a rather sad and paradoxical state of things when we understand that we are suppose to be the "Intelligent ones". Yet we cause more blood-shed than any other species on earth. <br />I see no sign of intelligence in all that's happened, and in what's happening now. <br /><br />The will of a few men has always decided fate of the rest of the unsuspecting people, and it has resulted in disasters of epic proportions every single time. <br /><br />Don't you find it appalling that every single significant page in our human history is marked by nothing but bloodshed? <br /><br />Why don't we ever read about two groups of people meeting and being elated at the same? Why don't we rejoice and understand the bigger picture! Why do we always feel threatened by another group. If you think about it that's what wild animals do too. Lions see another pack of lions coming into their territory and their only intuition is to attack and save their land and their resources for themselves. Do you see the similarity here with what we do? <br /><br />And so I ask again! Where is the intelligence part of it?PassingByhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14883450312267760767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8323757144480266862.post-28075201955426413192009-11-25T22:41:00.000-08:002010-10-14T23:07:26.867-07:00A Little consistency!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbTpbDx4nlr01m65PO0_iwofXJfAQlV69UkgKhAdzeAxDVvk_G7V2SdjniL78m9HJaJPvVwpNr2UTimH_cp3UwH8BXcXCHbXAgvn0XJG9x89MX_4PDxQLeXn_xPcGWbBOpcX9p9SyDN94/s1600/logicfree.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 229px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbTpbDx4nlr01m65PO0_iwofXJfAQlV69UkgKhAdzeAxDVvk_G7V2SdjniL78m9HJaJPvVwpNr2UTimH_cp3UwH8BXcXCHbXAgvn0XJG9x89MX_4PDxQLeXn_xPcGWbBOpcX9p9SyDN94/s320/logicfree.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408299123211206530" /></a><br /><br />Around 38 million sharks, 35 million cows, 100 million pigs, 8.39 billion chickens are killed every year by humans for food in the US alone. That's 23 million chickens a day, and we are not even talking about the countries like India and china and their massive populations. <br />This is a generously short introduction to a very long list of animals being killed by us everyday for meat, and other industry products such as leather. <br /><br />Every year in the United States alone , more than 9 billion animals are killed for food; millions more die of stress, suffocation, injuries, or disease in the food industry. In his or her lifetime, the average American meat-eater is responsible for the abuse and deaths of some 2,400 animals, including approximately 2,287 chickens, 92 turkeys, 31 pigs, and 12 steers and calves.<br />How about having some memorial stones for these animals too? <br /><br />After looking at this photo here, it seems more than appropriate to have memorial stones for these animals as well. <br /><br />My point here is that - Our actions are utterly random and rarely are these actions backed up by sound reasoning. <br />What sense does it make to have memorial stones for a few dogs who had nothing to do with the war in the first place. They were just forced to perform certain tasks in exchange for food. I don't think they signed up a contract with the marines to serve the country till their last breath. I bet they didn't even know whose side they were on. <br /><br />I think that if a few dogs deserve a memorial stone for assistance with the army on war efforts, which in turn leads to killing of more people, then the billions of animals giving away their life for our survival deserve a memorial stone in every city of the world. <br />All I ask for is a little consistency and mature reasoning in our actions.PassingByhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14883450312267760767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8323757144480266862.post-36037647113516957012009-10-25T00:29:00.000-07:002009-10-28T09:52:30.779-07:00Peace<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.happybirthdaypeace.com/symbols/page/1233640751_rainbow_peace_symbol_l.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 306px; height: 306px;" src="http://www.happybirthdaypeace.com/symbols/page/1233640751_rainbow_peace_symbol_l.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><br />Let's talk a little about Peace, because I think it is one of the most widely used words, and yet it remains to be understood appropriately by the majority. Most people just get lost in symbols like the one right above, and fail to understand what those symbols really mean. <br /><br />What is peace exactly? Is it just the opposite of the word War, and nothing more? <br /><br />If the meaning of the word itself is not clearly understood, then how can we ever know what we are trying to achieve and decide how to go about it? <br />Even though peace could mean the opposite of war, it is not the complete understanding of what the word peace stands for. <br />What would happen if all the countries of the world decide to destroy all their weapons and end all the wars? Do you think that current human civilization would be free of all conflicts, murders, rapes, robberies and fights?<br /><br />I think NOT. <br /><br />The majority of the human population today continues to live their daily lives semi-consciously. But the good news is that more and more people are waking up to the truth everyday than ever before in the recorded human history. <br /><br />In order to understand the true meaning of a deep concept such as peace, an individual needs to be a conscious and an extremely open minded person. <br />After all it's only a matter of evolution. <br />Every new piece of information that improves the understanding of a human being is evolving him every moment of his/her life. According to scientists, every physiological interaction, every new experience that a person has in his life time leaves its mark on his DNA. <br />Our lives, and the current times that we live in are nothing but a small step along the long process of evolution. <br />Most of us humans still haven't evolved enough to thoroughly appreciate the nature of concepts like 'peace'. Well! Some of us in the past have, and most of us look up to them as public figures and leave it at that.<br /><br />When I say most of us humans still haven't evolved enough, I don't intend to belittle anyone. Neither am I trying to suggest that most of us are ape-like and only few have evolved enough to be called human. <br />According to me, the physical evolution from one species to another stops with us humans in our branch of evolution. <br />The evolution that we see now is the evolution of our consciousness and understanding of nature of things( or science) that's occurring through the free flow of information. <br />A research that I came across a few weeks ago proves that even if our brains grew any bigger, it wouldn't make us any smarter. So, that in a way leaves us only with evolution of our consciousness. <br />So one thing that separates a consciously aware individual from a not so evolved person is Information. <br />As a man gains more information, his understanding of things improves, and that makes him more aware. And that's all you need to understand the notion of peace. A completely free, open, and well informed mind.<br /><br />You all know how everyone wants to feel superior to the people around them in some way or the other, may be through a better mobile phone, a better car, house, clothes, accessories , educational qualifications, professional qualifications and other social divisions.<br /> <br />There cannot be peace in this world until and unless we humans evolve enough to understand that all living beings and so all human beings are equal, and learn to look at everything around us in the same light as we see ourselves. <br /><br />One of the most fundamental building blocks of our current human society is hierarchy, which is any system of persons or things ranked one above another. Such a society can never find peace, unless the society itself changes. But the society in turn is nothing but a collection of people. So it turns out that unless the individual people change, the dream of a peaceful world will only be a dream. <br /><br />So its clear that waiting for your governments/leaders to establish peace is an enormous waste of time. Everyone who wants to see peace around, needs to become the change they wish to see. In fact if the people of the world change, governments will have to follow.<br /><br />When we have no urge to feel superior to anyone else, the world will know peace. Because when everyone learns to see everything as one, the concept of superiority/inferiority will be obsolete. <br />Religion, caste, regionalism, color, sex, Nationality, Patriotism. These among many others are a few concepts that divide man from man. <br />But they hold no value, because most importantly we are all humans living on this one planet together breathing the same air, drinking the same water and cherishing the same sun and the moon. <br />Besides, when our sun becomes a dead star and destroys our solar system with it, isn't everything on our planet going to become one with everything else in our solar system? We will all go back to what we came from - Energy.<br /><br />If we learn to love one another and everything else around us unconditionally, then we will know the true meaning of peace, love ,and happiness. <br /><br />Everyone needs to find their own way to understand peace, and unconditional love. So if you really want to see a peaceful world. <br /><br />CHANGE...PassingByhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14883450312267760767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8323757144480266862.post-73199701414181791132009-09-24T02:18:00.000-07:002009-09-24T03:28:08.395-07:00The Moon<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfndRuHw1Ta6wE2sGLV2FGe29eR1ZBB7ThUaFygLHrtZ7Nw7GUyvypyjiqU1NuatafmwkE0d9n3tQ5cY1CBiVn2y3uh__kHDKwqTrlz02t88yZgMvRoLizdw_VW8usvJC1DsMVAAyiijc/s1600-h/moon.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfndRuHw1Ta6wE2sGLV2FGe29eR1ZBB7ThUaFygLHrtZ7Nw7GUyvypyjiqU1NuatafmwkE0d9n3tQ5cY1CBiVn2y3uh__kHDKwqTrlz02t88yZgMvRoLizdw_VW8usvJC1DsMVAAyiijc/s320/moon.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384961429325304306" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Today I decided to pass by our very own Moon after reading an article titled<br />"<span style="font-weight: bold;">India's lunar mission finds evidence of water on the Moon</span>"<br /><a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/space/article6846639.ece">Click here to see the article</a><br /><br />It's an immaculate article as far as the format, and the language is concerned. Besides that, this discovery is an exciting one, and could have a lot of impact on the coming future.<br />I am also quite surprised that NASA failed to find traces of water on moon after all their efforts, and ISRO found evidence with their very first lunar mission. It looks like to me that somebody has been keeping secrets.<br />All that aside, the part of the article that I think needs to be talked about is and I quote -<br />"The discovery is a significant boost for India in its space <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">race</span> against China."<br />Another excerpt from the same article<br />"They will also provide a significant boost for India as it tries to catch up with China in what many see as a 21st-century space <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">race</span>."<br /><br />Now this is where I think we are losing our ground as a species.<br /><br />Let's start with the main motive behind the various lunar programs owned by various different countries.<br />The factor that gave birth to the space expedition programs was our need as a species to understand the universe better. To find out if there is life on other planets as well, so that we can evolve our understanding of nature and universe as a species.<br />But somewhere along the line we lost track of our priorities and are now fighting with one another over who discovers life first. Isn't something wrong here? Shouldn't we think about this for a while?<br />Shouldn't it be about celebrating as a species that we found water on the moon? Shouldn't the media and the governments be talking about -What this discovery by our fellow country means for us humans? Shouldn't all the countries be working together on exploring the space?<br /><br />Wouldn't it be more efficient and peaceful if we worked together on the questions that face mankind?<br /><br />But nobody seems to notice. Instead people take pride in these kind of events, somehow everybody wants to feel superior to everybody else. I am sure there will be a lot of people out there today talking about how proud they are to be indian. Even the news channels will be asking people how they feel about India being the first country to discover water on moon.<br />Every channel is out there sending out the wrong message and they have no clue they are doing so. Their motto is - "anything that sells".<br /><br />And then we blame the media. Media is merely out there showing you what you want to see. Anything that gives them higher ratings. Of course the main stream media is politically fueled and controlled, but if we don't buy into their gimmicks who would the media cater to?<br /><br />We need to self educate our-selves and be critical thinkers. Not just accepting the point of views thrown at us by other people and the society, but rather we should all have our own point of views. No matter how absurd they may be.<br /><br />I see discovery of water on the moon as global triumph of humanity, and I am not one bit proud that India discovered it.PassingByhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14883450312267760767noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8323757144480266862.post-80484792137656818792009-09-23T04:09:00.000-07:002009-09-24T03:28:58.593-07:00Time travel<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://kuvaton.com/kuvei/evolution5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 550px; height: 728px;" src="http://kuvaton.com/kuvei/evolution5.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Now, now before you let your imagination get better of you after reading the title of this post, let me assure you that this is not about complicated scientific theories related to time travel. But rather about our understanding and common use of the time frame.<br /><br />Some of you might already know that time is not a real thing, but rather an imaginary concept that we humans have created in order to help us understand various events that take place around us.<br />Those of you who do not understand that time is just an illusion, there is nothing to be worried about because what I have to say here can be understood otherwise as well.<br />Having said all the confusing things that I have already, let's get back to the topic at hand without further complications.<br />When we talk about time, we think of three possible ways in which time can be divided. Namely, past, present, and the future. When we think or talk about any period in the past, we tend to form an image about the living conditions or standard of living of humans in those times. For instance if we think about the 18th century, we instantly form a very generalized image of that century in our minds based on our knowledge of that time.<br />We do this for a very simple yet an important reason, and that is to have basis for comparison with other periods in time. What we fail to understand is that our ideas are highly generalized.<br /><br />What I mean to say here is that while many of you reading this blog are living with the comforts that the 21st century has to offer, most of the current human population is living a 17th century lifestyle. For a lot of people today electricity, phones, televisions are still a dream.<br />The things that we take for granted in our daily lives are still a dream for majority of the current human population, and this according to me holds good for any point in time. Be it past, present, or the future.<br />In simpler words, a few people in the 18th century would have lived more comfortable a life than many of us in the 21st century, while many people in the 21st century are still living a 18th century life.<br />The image above shouts out loud about the very same thing. It's the sad story of mankind.<br /><br />It is a tragedy that in this so called Modern age, where man is already exploring the outer space, there are many of us who are still living in the stone age, and nobody seems to care.<br />For most of us fortunate ones ipods, high speed internet, fancy cars seem to be the definition of the times we live in.<br />But ask the not so lucky folks and see if they have even heard of or seen these things. They would be content even if they got a meal a day, but even that doesn't come easy.<br /><br />This problem and others are all a result of our thoughtless actions. We humans have failed to explore the inner space before setting out for the outer, and that is the root cause of all problems.<br /><br />A wise man once said that - we humans as a species, lost our way a long time ago, and we need to find it again, and it's only going to happen one person at a time.PassingByhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14883450312267760767noreply@blogger.com0