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Saturday, July 29, 2023

Justifying interpretations give wrong lessons to people.

 Justifying interpretations give wrong lessons to people. 


Blind beliefs in any religion . Blind hero worship or adulation is wrong. 

In a large country like India with immense potential we need only to create opportunities and give freedom, direction, power and money and not resort to control and centralise too much power ( are we seeing it in IPL so many talents and how Hemantha Biswas and Scindia performing now).

Absolute control by any party or individual will lead to chaos when things don't work.

Politics needs to evolve with emphasis on governance

In a way it is a good trend.

I have been a advocate of politics to become, eventually, it will become, almost corporate like management and  execution of social engineering based on data driven, definite deadline specified  delivery of results with well decentralised roles and responsibilities. 

All of these must be systems driven with predefined policy blue prints. 

Proper set procedures in place with scope for adequate room for flexibility to accommodate new and emerging trends and eventualities. 

These approaches will ensure, with emphasis on governance, to deliver rules and norms based economic development , non discriminatory social welfare and all sorts of relevant, well measured appropriate infrastructure.

India's rich heritage and culture

 Replace kind Hindus by stupid Hindus and add indifferent governments, corrupt temple priests. The whole area is kept dirty by everyone without proper infrastructure as is the case with Kumbakonam, Chidambaram etc.

I have been to this place twice a decade back and three or 4 years back. 

It remains undeveloped for all illogical reasons. 

The boats are operate​d by a mafia of boat owners. Why can't the government itself or let some good & big corporate operate proper cruise services ( water is deep enough) to do that. Every time, you take a ride , you feel that the boat can capsize, over crowded, no rules, no control. 

The fundamental problem in India is total lack of interest and involvement in promoting tourism and lack of  pride in our heritage.

The local population is busy with their routine business and revenue generated from visitors. You cannot expect them to pause their activities and wait for infrastructure development without compensation for that period. 

No government is bothered because these things don't get political mileage​.

Any other country would have paid attention for example say kumbakonam by listing all temples in that town, collect the story and history behind all those temples, made a big museum with a theatre and documentary giving details, take on a tour of miniature structure of topography of the place,  manufactured miniatures, key chains, fridge magnets, T- shirts with those pictures etc for people to buy as memorabilia and that would  generate jobs, revenue, visual impact of the monuments, temples, structures lingering all over in houses, shops , home and help things to linger in the mind of the people.

Having failed and continuing to choose to fail in all these, now because everyone has access to the internet we keep sharing all sorts of good, bad, ugly information out of frustration and awe at such a great civilization which had every great and good thing all around from our daily life styles to our surrounding space. 

Which other civilization has that method of teaching , learning , practising the art of making designs , pictures in one of the easiest and excellent ways as our tradition has in Kolams or Rangoli. 

If any other Western country has such a tradition there would be thousands of books, photos, souvenirs using different Kolams with a literature / write up accompanying that.  

What about our simple  Bhajans which impart music. It is very unfortunate that we have lost our 'aesthetic sensitivity' to everything nice around us and about us, instead making everything either merely an aspect of religion and now politics.

These two have all sorts of heaps of  connotations, contortions, contradictions, conditionings and confusions that all those nicer aspects of our civilization and tradition have been subsumed by the brands, labels and identities of religion, now politics. 

Every country on earth, except those occupied by inhumane creatures, preserves, promotes and takes pride in its heritage, monuments, culture and tradition. 

But alas, a country with ( the biggest quantity wise and the best quality wise) art, culture and traditions has ignored it for reasons listed above and many more counter productive activities.


Hope

 Human beings need sense of belonging and identity

This has been well described by Lionel Tiger in his work ‘Optimism-The Biology of Hope’, “Private optimism is a public resource. Public optimism is a private facility. When in myth various forces of life escaped from Pandora’s Box, one remained at the bottom-HOPE. Atlas no longer holds up the world…….even if Gods and other forces have fallen, or become slogans, what Pandora rescued maintains its claim on our attention-That is HOPE. So, let us hope humanity takes care of biodiversity".

WOKEISM and WEF defined 'new order'.

Everyone, especially, the West is already paying a big price and may end up paying a bigger one if it chooses to get itself constantly adjusted, like in the old phoropter of a spectacles shop, if it opts to see the world through media narratives of political correctness secreted by the two lenses WOKEISM and WEF defined 'new order'. 


The stink of this secretion by the two Ws, like a fart inside a crowded lift/elevator, gets into the nostrils of every decision maker from bureaucrats to legislators to judiciary to academic institutions to corporat​e heads

It is a sorry state of affairs, the world paid a heavy price for LEFT ideology, for terrorism and now these two Ws are wreaking havoc. 

This group Khalistanis get their support base from Juice Tin Throw Doe. Soon it will backfire there, then he will be clueless. Before that happens, we need to practically safeguard the petrol that is there in Southern parts of Canada. 

Practical options are vital like the old debate. Once there was news of a second big deluge likely to happen after ten days and the world is likely to get flooded uncontrollably. The POPE told his followers to kneel down and pray; The Islamic religious head told his followers to look towards Mecca and pray but the Rabbi told his followers, 
" Well, if that is the case, all of you have ten days to try to learn how to swim and start building boats".

Engineering colleges educational system not only wastes too many years of a students life

 How does it matter who owns the college?

Educational institutions' infrastructure requires funds and whoever can bring that creates one.

As long as the teaching staff are selected as per norms and students are given proper academic training then it is ok. 

If the purpose of academics is a passport to get an employment why not teach industry relevant education, at least, after the completion of one- size fit all childhood imprisonment called the inevitable mass literacy enforced through state in schooling. 

It is a blessing that Sachin Tendulkar, Dhoni, Jaiswal did not study well in school. 

Were all the missionaries, Chettiyars who built big educational institutions educated? Not at all.

Whereas, neither the big industries nor the corporates bothered to create even polytechnic colleges, at least for their own requirements. They are guilty of not doing something important to the society. 

Imagine, if TVS group had started at least polytechnic colleges in electrical, mechanical and civil engineering courses by 70s or 80s. Our engineers would be in most of the top companies in the world now. 

Whereas, the TATAs, later on the Birlas Jains and now even L&T in the north did open colleges. 

Of course, none of the engineering colleges churn out worthy students because even there cut- copy - paste projects are submitted and as for as exams are concerned it is again memorising and vomiting most of the time. 

Engineering or any science course must be as in Israel , unless the student submits some original project in practical, they don't get promoted, they get only a provisional certificate of having completed the course. More or less the same in US and Europe.

After completing any course and every course in India, when the graduates join any company they are given detailed training on the job which alone helps them to perform. All that they have studied to get a degree becomes obviously useless. 

Whereas, we are busy teaching very high level of trigonometry in plus one which the student never gets to apply anywhere throughout his life ( unless a few turn out to become rocket or missile scientists). 

Our educational system not only wastes too many years of a students life but also burdens them with excessive theoretical knowledge. 

If this is what we talk about engineering courses, think of so many  MBAs and worthless PhDs , now ChatGPT churns out better thesis papers.

That's why the real contributors to economic growth, social development, cultural promotion etc are mostly from people without these worthless alphabets suffixed to their names. 

I know the mockery that goes on in the Engineering colleges almost without exception. 

Monday, July 24, 2023

Language and grammar

 Excellent and true. But the new linguistic approach ( by new I mean as far as I know in the past 20 years) emphasizes more on two aspects ( at the cost of or good riddance to stifling rules in prose and smothering structures in poetry- modern abstract verses have overcome that) because the flexibility is the hallmark of English and that is one of the reasons why it has become more popular than the rest. So, all hard and fast rules are given a go. 



1.Whether the intended communication happens ( no need to please literary purists or classical grammar addicts ). 

( Example : International Arrivals and every metro in the country's airport is National Terminal).

2. To do away with any discordant note-like structure ( even if they are grammatically warranted) which obstructs the flow of thoughts, ideas, theme etc .

We can always say, as many do, big, colourful , conical gopuram. 

Beautiful red kanchipuram silk saree worn by the tall film star was the cynosure of the event. 

Politics is being able to answer the same question in different ways

 A Russian Jew successfully secured relocation to Israel.


At the Moscow airport, when conducting a search of his belongings, the customs official found a statue in his case.

He asked the traveller, "What is this?"

The traveller replied, "That is the wrong question, comrade. You should have asked WHO this is. This is a statue of our great comrade Lenin which I am taking with me as a reminder of his contribution to our great country."

The customs official let the traveller go on his way and when he arrived at the Tel Aviv airport, the customs official there asked the same regarding the statue.

The traveller replied, "That is the wrong question, sir. You should have asked WHO this is. This is that bastard Lenin who persecuted me for being Jewish and forced me to leave my country. I carry this statue as a reminder to curse him every day."

The Tel Aviv official nodded and let him on his way.

Once the traveller was settled into his new home, he invited friends and family over for a house warming party.

When they arrived, one of his cousins spotted the statue on the mantle and asked, "Brother, who is this?"

The traveller replied, "That is the wrong question, my brother. You should have asked WHAT this is. This is 5 kg of pure gold which I managed to smuggle out of Russia with very little trouble."

Politics is being able to answer the same question in different ways and still coming out richer for it.

Indian economy continues to miss the golden opportunities

We need people who  have enough bandwidth, think in correct frequency, know and understand the immense potential and also seriously try to harvest the potential through contextually relevant connections. 

I am not trying to praise or downplay the talents here in India.

The problem here is multi-fold which cannot be either over generalized or simplified or amplified which is of no use.

Fortunately for India there are unexploited golden opportunities for enormous economic activities and growth in multiple verticals not because of the government but despite the government. Here the individual entrepreneurial spirit is high.

These opportunities have emerged  because globally many economies are shrinking, some struggling and a few silently sinking with recessions, inflations and in some cases various activities have got rusted after being rested for two years of pandemic.

However, the Indian economy continues to miss the golden opportunities.

There are failures on major fronts all of which get masked due to lack of sensible debate in any forum of any political party, each one having its own pet ideology or protected dynasty or pampered voters.

Actual employment is low.

Disparities are high.

Liquidity crisis is heavy.

Borrowing is on the raise.

Import bill is big, the worst part is with China.

Both media project​s bad image besides some parts of the real security crisis, can create uneasiness among FIIs. 

Political differences spill onto even overall infrastructure development.

MSMEs which have taken a hit due to COVID hibernation have woken up to face the cold shouldering by the lenders.

Politicians, in most countries,  know only short term remedies and band aid treatments, but the important institutions and educated technocrats too fall into that trap. 

They don't bother to create an ecosystem for any activity knowing well the stark reality of the impact of certain important products, for example semi - conductor industries. Now they are talking of collaboration. It will be merely Taiwan's technology of vital aspects. It will be used as an application or part of equipment manufactured in India by Taiwanese for the world. Taiwan will always be sandwiched between the US- China duel.

The failure of the Indian economy, though at present doing well, is due to various geopolitical factors and also because  for a change the political dispensation is  focusing on creating quasi- business friendly atmosphere with as usual excessive bureaucratic blocks and  regulatory overkill meant more to selectively harass than to ensure strict compliance. These combined with frequent state elections when politics takes precedence over everything else and the entire system is indifferent to anarchy and courts feel anarchic behaviour is right to freedom of expression. 

So,  even ministers who start to work sincerely are forced to keep their work in abeyance and governance takes a back seat due to these elections and major policy decisions are put on the back burner due to anarchic protests and dissents. 

Brainstorming in Indian institutions is spitting catchy jargons, sensational slogans, verbal diarrhea and mental masturbation of copied concepts and no original idea based on ground realities. 

No wonder, of late, write up like the following are popping up.

In 2023, 6500 HNIs will leave India. 

7500 HNIs left India in 2022. 

6In 2018, India was third after Russia and China in terms of the number of HNIs migrating to other countries. This is a disturbing trend.

What happens when you earn upwards of 75-80 lakhs per annum?

You leave India. Or you try to leave India. Not because you are any less patriotic but because it makes more sense to leave than stay. Hear me out.

I know about 20 people who have left India in last 1 decade.…

Geopolitics and information blocks

 Read the full thread to understand the gamut of factors that initiate, influence and impact the geopolitics of the present day. 

Just one over simplified account. This itself may make many wonder , even without any conspiracy theories we are living in a fragile world even uncertain of the exact reasons of fragility. 


Despite all the tall claims of access to information bla bla. The majority of the population lives in blissful ignorance,  while some choose indifference as long as the events do not reach their doors, while the few who are privy to and active participants in these socio-economic harakiri are silent beneficiaries. 

The post mortem reactionaries are used by the readily waiting victimhood peddling activists of all hues and colours who are professional anarchists and outrage society promoters and hence no one takes them seriously even in cases where they may be right because they have chosen to be left with the LEFT. 

COMBATE |🇵🇷 (@upholdreality) tweeted at 8:39 PM on Sat, Jul 22, 2023:
Russia on the Grain Deal at the UN Security Council:  

"Most of you expressed, in one way or another, disappointment at the termination of the so-called grain deal that provided for exports of Ukrainian grain to global markets. I have a question to you. What was it that you… https://t.co/4KOrNBZc8E
(https://twitter.com/upholdreality/status/1682769951289950208?s=03

Thursday, July 20, 2023

Match quality and originality

 

 

 

Josh Waitzkin was a chess prodigy.

 

He won the U.S. Junior Chess Championship at age 11. He became an International Master at age 16. And his life was made into a movie (“Searching for Bobby Fischer”) at 17.

 

But then, around the age of 18, Waitzkin quit playing chess because…

 

He got a new coach.

 

“I was a naturally creative, aggressive chess player,” Waitzkin explained.

 

But the new coach forced Waitzkin to play like the great chess players Anatoly Karpov and Tigran Petrosian—“the most positional, conservative chess players.” 

 

When he was forced to play in a way that didn’t align with his natural proclivities, Waitzkin said, “I lost my love for the game.” 

 

So, he quit.

 

He later took up martial arts, and after just 2 years of training, he won his first national championship in martial arts. 

 

Asked if he took anything from chess into the martial arts, Waitzkin said he leaned into his unique physical and mental traits:

 

“And in my observation of competitors in any discipline, this a fundamental idea. Those who succeed at the highest level, I think, basically manifest their unique character through their discipline.”

 

Takeaway 1:

 

Waitzkin said he was at his best (as a chess player then a martial artist) when his style aligned with his personality. 

 

This is known in economics as “match quality”—the degree of alignment between the traits of a profession and the traits of a person.

 

The NBA executive turned venture capitalist, Sam Hinkie, was asked how he thought about shaping his career path. 

 

Essentially, Hinkie said he tried to optimize for match quality.

 

“By nature,” Hinkie explained, “I think in decades, and I have a steady temperament.”

 

So, Hinkie thought, “Can you get to a place where there is leverage on that kind of thinking, where that kind of steady temperament is rewarded?”

 

Takeaway 2:

 

Waitzkin writes in his book, “The Art of Learning,” that “one of the most critical factors in becoming a high performer is the degree to which your relationship to your pursuit stays in harmony with your unique disposition.”

 

The music producer Rick Rubin is a good example of this.

 

Rubin is a voracious consumer of art. He’s constantly listening to music, reading a book, watching a movie, at a museum, or driving around just to look at beautiful architecture. 

 

“It’s all I do,” Rubin told screenwriter Brian Koppelman. “But not because it’s my job. It’s like, my job is my job because the person that I am loves to do those things.”

 

 

 

“It seems to me that each of us expressing our own originality is the essence of our art and professionalism.” — Jim Henson

 

Indian classical music emphasis on melody and huge bandwidth for individual improvisation

 

There is something very important in music that is the start ( it is called as eduppu in karnatic music). 

 

Also, when lyrics start, the starting note must be in such a way (in almost all types of Indian music be it classical Carnatic, Hindustani, Ghazals, Folk music, film songs etc) that there must be scope for elaboration ( niravals, kalpana swaras, intervals for mistakes of  instruments either making false starts or prolonging after the actual song stops etc. 

 

Therefore, usually, the starts are crystal clear and very few with great mastery try to attempt to compose with tough notes for example in Thodi one can hardly find any composition starting with Madhyamam ( GNB has composed one).

 

All of these are because all Indian music systems emphasizes more on Mano dharma, melody and huge bandwidth for individual improvisation whereas , in Western classical music the emphasis is on harmony. 

 

Western Jazz incorporates improvisation and Indian film songs incorporate harmony. 

 

Even while doing so, they explore into the new realm with excessive caution to ensure that the public acceptance is not lost. 

 

This preamble is because in all the songs that I have shared above I felt there must have been there ( if not a long preface of George Bernard Shaw or the postscript of explanation) in addition to the composition that we are used to listening to often. 

 

Voila a friend of mine fulfilled that suspense today by sharing these lot.

 

For example, even in Carnatic music, compositions like Seetha kalyanam have more than ten stanzas but people mostly render one or two. 

 

wisdom manifested certain inevitable realities of human life's attitudes and perspectives

 Lucretius and Marcus Aurelius,


 
During my PUC I bought his book Meditations for just Rs2/- at old Moor Market.


But scholars like Marcus Aurelius, Lucretius , George Orwell, Voltaire, Lewis Carroll, William James, Richard Feyman, Bertrand Russell, J.K, Sri Aurobindo, Tagore, Victor Hugo, Mahakavi Bharathiyar, Vyasar ( of Mahabharatham) are relished more when we are able to connect to contexts at different times and different milieus because their wisdom manifested certain inevitable realities of human life's attitudes and perspectives irrespective of humanity's much acclaimed march of its civilization, sophistication and modernisation with all their concomitant developments and benefits.

That's why one can reread them many times and still get to learn something new every time one reads. 

Read ,understand ,internalise and implement

 Read, understand, internalise and implement 


Marcus was more leaning towards Greek wisdom, probably due to his predecessor and great uncle, Emperor Hadrien. 

 

The French novel " Mémoires d'Hadrien" by Yourcenar is a real classic . Almost a treatise on how to work out a biographic fiction. 

 

When I read about how she went about that task, it was mind boggling. The clue to Greek wisdom is their deep awareness of the basics of human life which no modern, illusory progress can transform.

 

Incidentally, Hadrien travelled up to India and met some sadhus also. Great work for that epoch!!

 

However, if wisdom could be measured in kilos. 

 

We may have a few hundred trillion kilos around the world in various places, multiple places and available in different languages, arts, preachings, scriptures, books etc. 

 

Out of these we may be fortunate enough to come across a few hundred but internalise less than ten. 

 

Of these, we may have a conducive atmosphere or situation to implement a few and we may end up successfully ending up using just one or two on one or two occasions. 

 

If only all those, who have read most of the religious scriptures, philosophical texts, listened to the advice of elders, could implement a few of them in their life the world would be really a great place to live in.

 

 

 


Definitions and pessimism

Nothing in life, including life itself, can be defined with axiomatic certitude as this or that, merely through intellect and more so through mere verbal communication alone. 


But the intellectuals/ scholars try to grasp something and try to fix some definition as a point of reference to philosophise to modify, to rectify, to change the status quo. 

Otherwise the world would be still crawling under the dictates of kings and religious leaders. 

They do these  as scientists use some measurements as reference to evaluate, estimate, experiment, explain and establish certain laws. 

Hyper pessimism and being critical about everything concerning life around as it exists is not healthy for the mind.

Communication and the tools of communication

 

To start with there must be enough clarity on what we want to communicate.

 Why we want to communicate?

To whom we want to communicate?

When and where we must communicate and most importantly, the overall context must be clear.

 

Then, how we communicate becomes easier, whether the communication is merely verbal or written or visual or audio- visual or musical or through some art or painting etc.

 

The tools of communication, the mediums of communication can be mastered. They are just tools and techniques to be practised and calibrated.

 

Sometimes  certain happenings make us wonder what communication is all about.

 

How grasping and understanding take place?

 

Though there are tools like languages, music, arts, sciences etc with  techniques and skills sets developed over several centuries and their  evolutionary paths too well documented on communication, understanding and execution and so on.

 

But,  beyond all these when a soul or spirit is able to grasp the pulse of  a matter and it fills the mind space with immense focus then spills beyond mind space and evolves a kind of understanding and  execution that go on to defy the time and space bound learning we are all struck with consternation as to what is communication? and How grasping and understanding takes place? 

 

It is nothing but clarity and focus on contextual relevance with total intensity and intense totality.

 

 

 

​The opposite of sacred is not stale.

 The opposite of sacred is not stale.


These types of naïve portrayal of significance to traditions and rituals is not warranted. 

Most rituals and traditions are merely followed by many without bothering to give verbal justifications thinking that doing so is logical. 

Different traditions and rituals are embedded into the routines of life to fill up some missing aspect or inexplicable void which, often, may in fact defy any logical explanation or may be impregnated with great meaning not necessarily verbally explainable nor intellectually justifiable but may have different frequencies of feelings according to the vibration one is able grasp. When one reads esoteric sciences and if lucky, able to learn and to grasp that as well, then various layers of deeper understanding emerge.


Having said that the MAP of Life is Mindset, Attitude and Perspectives. 

I did a MindMap with brief write up as follows for a small training session( of course there were elaborate explanations):-


MAP of Life

1. Life cannot be caged and lived through any single ideology/system /concept or philosophy however great and accommodative it may be.

2. Life is just a part of the churn of the planet where all species live their own way but humans seek special privileges and make a big fuss presuming that the planet is human centric.

MAP of life draws  the atlas of living, i.e. 

Mindset, 

Attitude and 

Perspectives.

We draw our borders through our limited frames of references and define our nationality through some ideological identities. 

3. There is no panacea nor permanent trends or taboos but only contextually relevant rational and humanitarian approaches which can make us enjoy living without much of inhibition, without creating unnecessary divisions, as far as possible , without harming or injuring others physically and mentally, and most importantly without damaging the environment .

4. Chronologically life is mortal and it is just a part of evolution.

5. The human mind at best can transcend classifications and divisions in the form of or name of nationalities, ideologies of all sorts [ religious, political, economic, class, race, gender, linguistic, cultural, regional etc.] .

6. Being mortal it has to live through all sorts of ever changing choices and decisions  prioritizing everything based on contextual relevance.

7. However, despite all these the human mind at times delivers too many theories, concepts and ideas  trying to grasp and to explain absolute and eternal truths or values.

Ankit Shah I Western Economic Model and The Future of Immigrants

 

For a change a must listen fully for all businessmen, financial sector operators, global traders , employees and youth seeking employment especially  with unrealistic dreams based on the assumption that status quo remains the same for the past 6 decades and shall continue to remain so, more importantly to be listened to( by NRIs, US citizens and Africans).

This is predominantly sensible, data driven serious talk show ( happens to be on one of my favourite topics - geopolitics next to evolutionary biology and emerging trends). 

It is also not the usual biased on petty talk on Indian politics.   



I have listened to some of his speeches, read some of his articles. This guy studies the subject of economics with a very broad spectrum and in depth coverage in terms of time ( eras), space ( nations , natural resources, human capital and financial strategies/manipulations/juggling ) and many other aspects of life and factors of society and politics all contributing to the successes, failures and fiasco.

For a change some youngsters who seems to have in depth knowledge and willing to analyse without any bias being part of PGURU'S programs.

I am not an admirer much less would venture to endorse PGURU's programs ( politically often thinks they know everything, seem to presume making noise from self built ivory tower of interpreting politics in India, its social and religious issues).

They have mostly sponsoring unleashing views by those who claim to promote  hardcore Hindutva but who are mostly glib talkers who are frustrated because these blabbering  inflated egos  can hardly accept that they don't even get an opportunity to do anything concrete with their brand of Hindutva ( which is not in sync with the powers who are delivering on ground). A case of bunch of tall talkers with taller agenda with smallest influence or impact.

Geopolitical economy

Of course in such vast topics like geopolitical economy we need to further probe on ground  to know:-

How much of it is true? 

How much of it is exaggeration?  

How much of it is mere conjecture?

How much of it is merely sponsored publicity or political stunt? 

Prohibition increases creative ways to circumvent

Human beings urge to perform activities that are prohibited by law and social mores has throughout history found creative ways to bypass those restrictions.  

Reminded of what G.K.Chesterton wrote in his short story The Blue Cross writes


" The criminal is the creative artist; the detective only the critic," 

Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) tweeted at 2:12 AM on Wed, May 31, 2023:

During the era of Prohibition (1919-1933), individuals involved in Moonshine production utilized unique footwear known as cow shoes to conceal their footprints. Due to the strict prohibition laws governing the transportation, brewing, and cultivation of alcohol, Moonshiners often… https://t.co/SwAyDugyT2
(https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1663647152378134530?t=qvEmx880zKI9i0bYVxofdQ&s=03

Strength , not power; synergy not sensationalism; Nothing is a taboo, know the nuances and calibrate everything to contextual relevance.

Strength , not power; synergy not sensationalism; Nothing is a taboo, know the nuances and calibrate everything to contextual relevance.

From the time the social media empowered everyone, for good, often, most of us share well meaning, excellent sayings, quotations, slogans with good intentions in the morning, which in a way is an additional useful entertainment for old people.  

 

However, whatever we read or see , we must try to go in depth to find out the actual meaning behind and beyond words . Then, we may stumble upon either accidentally or intentionally notice the most important meaning especially, the nuances, that escape our attention.

 

These are accompanied by eye catching nice pictures and they have become, for many of us, a nice verbal and visual treat in the mornings either before or after we opt to read the negative narratives nudged as news in our daily nuisance papers ( predominantly political or calamity news - called as headlines).

 

However, these very slogans and saying, inadvertently, contribute to the predominant malady of modern times i.e., ' failure to reasonably distinguish the 'NUANCES' of words and , more importantly, the immense power of meanings they carry.

 

The greatest short comings in many aspects of our lives are failing to see the ' NUANCES'  and instead, we are getting carried away by the narratives nicely packaged as catchy slogans ( often, they are slow guns) that destroy real understanding of nuances.

 

Economist Don Boudreaux says, " Law's expense is so vast, its nuances so many and rich, and its edges so frequently changing that the popular myth that law is that set of rules designed and enforced by the state becomes increasingly absurd ”.

 

This we will be able to understand, if we read certain great philosophical texts where the philosophers ( those who seek to know and to understand and not to merely convince others- so, being philosophers, they paid greater attention to the meanings than merely sprinklings words around , so automatically, their telesis of terminologies led to convey the intended purpose).

 

Instead of 'power' ( the word power has too many connotations -meanings- and, often, misused and abused because it brings with it positions of unbridled authority ).

 

It would be better to replace it with ' strength' ( strength of self-confidence, self-esteem, self-belief, relevant merit, inner conviction, sense of Dharma- what one is doing is correct in context).

 

Then, courage will evolve automatically, which will guide you not to do things just to please or to convince others, sometimes, not even to obey irrelevant and unimportant rules and regulations ( often they are terms of  euphemisms used to indirectly convey blind following of traditions, beliefs etc and these are promoted further under the garb of discipline to maintain status quo). 

 

But the irrefutable reality is that the world and all life in it and their functions are subject to constant churns and changes.

 

The human minds prefer ( often selectively) status quo in certain things because that helps them to use ready to use templates to monitor and to exercise control. These are against nature. 

 

Nature is like a Virendra Sehwag (whack) or Suryakumar Yadav or B.S. Chandrasekhar ( it will often generate unpredictable impacts- unmindful of the outcomes). 

 

There are certain universal mantras from which no one can veer away humanity’s preference they are, ‘changes and the constantly changing context created by those changes along with their many concomitant characters like comforts, convenience, benefits, utility, profit, happiness, pleasure etc’.

 

All wisdom and value systems must be woven around these universal mantras or at least relevant to these. Otherwise, something else will replace all values, wisdom, principles, practices etc.

 

The most important wisdom is to make the necessary adjustments to emerging changes and contexts.

 

Time and change have become inevitable part of our life because through them, either as measuring tools or as describing our observations, we grasp or try to express and explain the inevitable metamorphosis of life.

 

The only reality is life unfolding itself constantly through various manifestations of metamorphosis.

 

All the rest are ambiences of life [as Jaggi Vasudevji says because there are dimensions of life beyond the logically definable parameters] or accretions that we choose to understand life.

 

First great biologist Darwin, I would prefer to call him the father of evolutionary biological science-who incidentally advocated the theory of natural selection, because he laid the first blueprint for such a specialized study [some of them may be wrong or all of them could be disputed and radically changed], and he had the honesty and humility to declare, “Variation proposes and selection disposes.”

 

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1997/oct/09/evolutionary-psychology-an-exchange/

 

Evolution goes about its jobs unmindful of whatever we do or do not do, that decides and determines everything including our birth and death as biochemical organisms which are bound to decay or to die or to reorganize or to reborn or to recreate into something else eventually.

 

While innards and inherent qualities are inevitable and beyond our choice, at least, our utilization of strengths /reactions to shortcomings can be sane and more sensible, that is what must be the attempt of any subject be it philosophy, spiritual science, or pure science. 

 

These require strength of conviction not power.

 

Again, talking about evolution, a very interesting and vast subject by its very meaning indicates the innards of all species with inevitable strengths as well as short comings, rather the multiple embedded contradictions. 

 

The best we can do with all our brains and technological advancements available at our disposal is to minimize/compensate for our weaknesses like starting from using basic tools to using spectacles to implanting stunts and pacemakers for heart problems to name a few.

 

As Guy Murchie declares, “Evolution itself is an open ended and indeterminate process”… “Given the remarkable progress in our understanding of biochemistry, molecular biology, and evolution as a whole … we have failed to develop concepts, ideas, even a language that could capture the dance of this life”. 

 

Here is a list of very worthy articles available fortunately free on the 

net

 

http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/ [ incidentally I have all his works along with all the works of other evolutionary biologist like Richard Dawkins and the great Guy Murchie’s ‘ the Seven Mysteries of Life ‘.

 

I wish for a more comprehensive understanding one must also read the following works:-

 

Kathleen Taylor’s ‘The Brain Supremacy’,

Walter Gratzer’s ‘Giant molecules’,

Frank Close’s ‘The Infinity Puzzle’ and most importantly

Tirumoolar’s Tirumanthiram,

Vilayanur S. RAMACHANDRAN and for a more sane philosophical and rational non-religious outlook also read

Neale Donald Walsch,

JK,

Osho,

Bertrand Russell etc.

 

That's why  Keats wrote, "Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard

Are sweeter: therefore, .......".                                                                            

 

" Society is always engaged in a vast conspiracy to preserve itself - at the expense of the new demands of each new generation.”  ~John Haynes Holmes

 

Sascha Vongher mentions in ‘Science as Rationalization And Ultimate Religion by 

 “Every adaptive system has what can be called a perception apparatus and information processing structures and so forth. Science is part of the perception/thinking of social systems. All perception has its “blind spot”. Perception is ignorant of everything except for a tiny slice that it evolved to select and focus attention on. Thinking is there to interpret in a certain evolved way. Humans, being parts as well as environment of social systems, cannot grasp the perceived world of social systems, let alone map out their blind spots. Scientists are especially suspect when it comes to judging the blind spots of science.” 

 

Self-imprisonment works in these ways without even our realizing it.

“Everything changes as you move through three stages of awareness:

first, that beliefs are the result of conditions.

second, that beliefs are the cause of conditions.

and third, that beliefs are themselves conditions.”― Eric Micha'el Leventhal.

 

George Bernard Shaw  wrote, " The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

 

We must remember that we owe to so many ( who were not luddites) who have made our  evolution to enhance from Kuru disease generating cannibals  [this disease happens because of cannibalism] to cyber–Guru Venerators.

 

Worth listening talk  Kathryn Schulz: On being wrong | Video on TED.com  www.ted.com

 

In fact, I remember reading a book some 40 years back by A.E.M. JOAD titled "That There is no such thing as Morality" and along with that BERTRAND RUSSEL'S "IN PRAISE OF IDLENESS" and this is precisely the reason why the works of

John Brockman books become interesting reading namely, his books ( imbued with facts and fantastic interpretations) like 'THIS IDEA MUST DIE',

'WHAT IS YOUR DANGEROUS IDEA', 

'This Idea Is Brilliant' ( Lost, Overlooked, and Underappreciated Scientific Concepts Everyone Should Know),

Pierre Lecomte du Noüy's ' HUMAN DESTINY', 

James Trefil's, ' 101 Things You Don't Know about Science and No One Else Does Either’ . It must be 1001 now.

 

Ideally the best book of slogans and sayings must be titled "Nothing is a Taboo", with chapters on  "know the nuances",  "calibrate everything to contextual relevance" etc. 

 

I feel there is lot of wisdom in the following piece which Phenella writes in “The Unwritten Comedy”.

 

“To be ignorant of many things is expected

To know you are ignorant of many things is the beginning of wisdom.

To know a category of things of which you are ignorant is the beginning of learning.

To know the details of that category of things of which you are ignorant is to no longer be ignorant.”