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Thursday, September 12, 2024

History -a generic view to review our stands

 

                                      History- its inevitable and instigated events.

Events may evolve due to evolutionary imperatives or instigated by some ideological inputs. The former is not in our control but the later must be properly dealt with like  contextual perspectives.                                                     

                                  History -its preferred role.

Learning lessons from history more important, than learning history lessons, that have bequeathed to us some time-tested values as reference manual to promote humanitarian compassionate cohabitation.

           History -it must not let life to rewind to the past.

We must avoid sliding into debates of justifications on any basis either religious, historical, ideological, political, territorial disputes and slipping away from any logic, moderation because humanity cannot afford to rewind itself into  12th  century or 10th century barbarism. 

Trying to deny, to defy, to disown, to disorient are manifestations of non-committal cautiousness of escapists and those who prefer indifference over involvement.  

                                        History-its journey.

History cannot be divorced from individuals, institutions, issues, ideologies that have formed and framed a major part of life and hence it includes the experiments of multiple social and political systems which have travelled through many socio-religious cultural systems and the multitude of economic and trade activities all of which that have shaped the survival of human beings and in many cases improved life in many aspects.

“There is no history of mankind, there are only many histories of all kinds of aspects of human life. And one of these is the history of political power. This is elevated into the history of the world.” — Karl Popper

                                                                

                                     History -its vulnerabilities.

Vulnerability of history lies inevitable variables of  the ideological prejudices of the source of records, distortions of some historians and the date from which we choose to refer to the records because the inputs of these vulnerabilities along with some others that are mentioned below go on to become our frames of references to perceive/ to understand/to interpret issues/events.                          

         History- the duty of intellectual bodyguards/narrative setters

 Therefore, we [ at least the ‘intellectual bodyguards’ as Ayn Rand calls or present-day narrative setters and political decision makers] need to clear as many grey areas as possible to have clarity about the frames of references.  

They must act with collective responsibility for the long-term common good rather than giving statements containing selective, SENSATIONALISTIC, calibrated, homogenized NARRATIVES injected with an artificial aura of dignity but carrying hidden agendas, ulterior motives, surreptitious ideological undercurrents, and political overtones.  

                     History- means to overcome its vulnerabilities.

However, there are ways and means to overcome certain vulnerabilities of authenticity through collating multiple methods of advanced scientific tools like DNA proofs, Archaeological evidence, and literary references to arrive at some facts.  As John Adams says, “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence”, and Ayn Rand, “We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality."  

 

            History – prevailing facts that need correction and moderation. 

More experts than victims or issues, more critics than doers, more media trials, more NGOs working for poor than the number of actual poor people, more news Channels [nuisance channels] than news items. The bandwidth for dissent, discussion and different opinions must become much wider and better than merely allowing it to get limited by brain washing propaganda instilled narrow alleys of many branded and brandied about systems and fixed ideologies.

                                                                 

                             History- the contradictions.

Often, we may encounter contradictions due to  human psyche’s penchant for generalizing variety; oversimplifying the complex; sometimes confusing the motives to be either the means or meaning of the quest; justifying all means; fear of various kinds; predominance of certain types of thinking; passing everything through a prism of some popular or prevailing liking or ideology; seeing things with jaundiced vision and prejudiced views; presuming that we need to judge everything and everyone, applying irrelevant metrics to evaluate everything rather than evaluating anything through its inherent merits and so on. Contradictions are very often camouflaged as dichotomies and dichotomies are the indoctrinated and engraved part of many domains of life as Dudley Lynch puts forth very nicely, “The brain forever has dichotomies on its mind-The ancient Taoists did it with yin/yang. Religious types with good/evil.  Philosophers with mind/matter. Particle scientists with wave/particle.  Psychologists with nature/nurture. Law officers with good cop/bad cop. On and on and on. You just had to know that it was only a matter of time before “dualism”—or … harrumph! … co-eternal binary opposition—infested neuro discussions like kudzu” and continues “Maybe, as one thoughtful observer has suggested, even as old dualisms get knocked down, “it seems that there is something about the wiring of the brain that leads to new dualisms springing up.” Talk about Whack-a-Mole! Or as George  Kelly says, “Our psychological geometry is a geometry of dichotomies[italics mine] rather than the geometry of areas envisioned by the classical logic of concepts, or the geometry of lines envisioned by classical mathematical geometries.” (Double harrumph!) in his blog  { “Across planes of consciousness, we have to live with the paradox that opposite things can be simultaneously true.”― Ram Dass. 

 

                       History- Idealistic expectations of how it could be.

 A great work of history, though too idealistic, almost very difficult, would be to perceive or to create a synthesis or find a synergy [  as Sherlock Holmes declares, “From a drop of water a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagra without having seen or heard of one or the other.

So, all life is a great chain, the nature of which is known whenever we are shown a link of it.”] of various factors and contextually find a relevance from  a huge cauldron consisting of a mixture many of the following:-

various events, impacts of  some great individual souls, evolutionary biology, evolutionary sociology, evolutionary changes in the march of civilization, evolutionary political trends, ideas, philosophical inquiries, psychological perception, emotional reactions, discoveries and inventions that have contributed to life enormously and the selective static or stiffness or suppleness of various religious edicts - and weave a very meaningful relationship among these or decipher a pattern of occurrence or recurrence of certain events or evolution of certain factors or emanation of certain ideas or the emergence of certain individuals as powerful personalities etc. so,


History – the unique features of human beings a combination of assets,   liabilities and a work in progress.

 

As Jacob Bronowski says,  “Every animal leaves traces of what it was; man alone leaves traces of what he created” and not only this human beings are much more wise as William Gladstone observes, “To comprehend a man's life, it is necessary to know not merely what he does but also what he purposely leaves undone. There is a limit to the work that can be got out of a human body or a human brain, and he is a wise man who wastes no energy on pursuits for which he is not fitted; and he is still wiser who, among the things that he can do well, chooses and resolutely follows the best.”

 

  History – changing narratives, telesis of terminological terrorism

What do dissent and liberal really mean at present. " Words can change their meaning right in front of you"-John Steinbeck.  Politics, political power, and political leadership are such words and so have become words like dissent, liberal and freedom.  DISSENT need not necessarily mean gross disrespect to institutions of importance and personalities holding top positions with the responsibility of maintaining the dignity of such institutions. So, referring to such persons is a synecdoche of the institution itself.  Spewing venom on anything that does not succumb to specific and selective  ideology peddling backed by groups which struts around with pomposity and presumptive inflated image appropriating terms which have a good aura like intellectual, liberal and putrefying them to suit their petrified ideology cannot be a construed as dissent or freedom of speech.  

                       DISSENT need not be merely :-

 



    






LIBERAL need not mean:-



 





History – a new version that humanity has created and continues to do so.

Human development as sophisticated , matured, sensible, intelligent beings who could co- habit with certain well defined and mutually agreed and accepted trade-offs for a peaceful, comfortable, happy, healthy ,and prosperous living moving with the fast developments in the world. Progressive political management, economic welfare, scientific developments, and technological progress to bring humanity together.

 

History- Life of all species, and humans as one among them may have to be internalized.

 

Life, much less history, is after all not mere chronology of existence and events; nor merely confined to topology of geographical boundaries but a meaningful topology of relationships.

 

Our collective maturity and mindsets need not be curtailed by calendar or politically drawn geographical boundaries but are at liberty to laterally move and make meaningful relationships at present and choose to live sanely with sense of balance and savour synergies as a species  irrespective of religious, political, historical, cultural, linguistic, regional differences.

 

As Anais Nin says, " We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relatives. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations”.

 

The world with all its species was and are always interconnected, interrelated and interdependent and that is the inevitable law of nature. It did not start when the few fancy terminologies like global village, globalization popped up. We are in a more or excessively connected world, and it is a real global village [ we may notice the telesis of terminology to manipulate -why not call it as global metro or global heaven or global city or global town- because it has to appeal to the most gullible human beings who choose to live in villages, work their hard and gawk at every new technology as if it has descended from some heaven – as portrayed in the movie ‘Gods Must be Crazy’.]

 

                          History- Life and real wisdom

 

Life is an unmapped atlas where we are not even sure whether all pieces of the jigsaw puzzles are there to create a shape and it may get its maps based on our choices, beliefs, actions, reactions, thoughts, attitudes etc., and it is our hands to make each one of these continents as great and as good as possible.

 

So, real wisdom may require living in the present context, practicing time-tested values with humanitarian perspectives and bequeath a livable planet, a lovable society with lovely infrastructures and improved living conditions.

  








































































India expressed itself as a nation of strength in the eyes of the world.

When basic humanitarianism slides into debates of justifications on any basis either religious, historical, ideological, political, territorial disputes and slips away from any logic, moderation or sense of compassion, then, it is only a question of the degrees of barbarism that the society chooses to rewind itself into  12 century or 10th century AD.



On Resistance

The month of November 1971, 52 years ago: Very important events were happening in our country (India) - « resistance ». X

I got this write up and speech that follows that freshened the history...

The year was 1971 and the month November. 

“If India pokes its nose in Pakistan, the US will not keep its trap shut. India will be taught a lesson.”
- Richard Nixon

“India regards America as a friend. Not a boss. India is capable of writing its own destiny. We know and are aware how to deal with each one according to circumstances.”- Indira Gandhi 

Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi articulated these exact words while sitting with the US President Richard Nixon in the White House, while maintaining an eye-to-eye contact. This incident was narrated by the then Secretary of State and NSA, Henry Kissinger, in his autobiography. 

That was the day when the Indo-US joint media address was cancelled by Indira Gandhi who walked away from the White House in her inimitable style. 

Kissinger, while ushering Indira Gandhi into her car, had commented, "Madam Prime Minister, don't you feel you could have been a little more patient with the President?" 
Indira Gandhi replied, "Thank you, Mr. Secretary, for your valuable suggestion. Being a developing country, we have our backbones straight - & enough will and resources to fight all atrocities. We shall prove that days are gone when a power can rule and often control any nation from thousands of miles away.”

Thereafter, as soon as her Air India Boeing touched down at Palam runway in Delhi, Indira Gandhi summoned the leader of the opposition, Atal Behari Vajpayee to her residence. 

After an hour of discussion behind closed doors, Vajpayee was seen hurrying back. It was thereafter known that Vajpayee would be representing India at the United Nations. 

Donald Paul of BBC had jumped in with a question to Vajpayee, "Indira ji regards you as a staunch critic. In spite of that, are you sure you'd be at the United Nations shouting your throat (voice) out in favour of the Incumbent Government?”

Vajpayee had a repartee.. "A rose adorns a garden, so does a Lily. Each is beset with the idea that they are individually the most beautiful. When the garden falls in a crisis, it's no secret that the garden has to safeguard its beauty as one. I have come today to save the garden. This is called Indian Democracy." 

The resultant history is all known to us. America sent 270 famed Patton tanks to Pakistan. They called the world media to demonstrate that these tanks were produced under exclusive technology, and are/were thus indestructible. The intention was very clear. This was a warning signal to the rest of the world that no one should help India. 

America did not stop here. Burma-Shell, the only US company supplying oil to India, was told to stop. They were sternly told by the US to cease dealing with India anymore. 

India's history thereafter was only about fighting back. Indira Gandhi's incisive diplomacy ensured oil came in from Ukraine. 

A battle that lasted just a day destroyed a majority of the 270 Patton tanks in the Thar Desert. The destroyed tanks were brought into India for display at traffic crossings. The hot deserts of Rajasthan still stand as a witness where US pride was decimated.

A war that lasted eighteen days thereafter culminated in the capture of 93,000 Pakistani prisoners of war.
  
Mujibur Rahman was released from Lahore Jail. 

The month now was March - Indira Gandhi recognized Bangladesh as an independent nation in the Indian Parliament. 

Vajpayee addressed Indira Gandhi as “Maa Durga.”

These events had a packet of long lasting manifested fallouts. 

— India's own oil company, viz. Indian Oil came into being. 
— India expressed itself as a nation of strength in the eyes of the world. 
— India led the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) from the front. Its leadership was unquestioned. 

Times and events of such strength however did get submerged into the great depths of yore and lore. 

Truthful history till date nevertheless remains as a baton that needs to be passed down generations. 

*Our children must read this, lest we forget.*

Technology and science are vital

From an economic perspective it must be adopted. Even for addressing many other daily  practical problems too, technology driven solutions must be adopted.. 



Signs of growth and development basically are all about shrinking time used for performing tasks and making personal life and social life more comfortable by providing solutions to problems. Most inventions and innovations come from observations not academic qualifications.  So, no wonder students of Education and English have come up with some solutions.

Honestly , I don't have either complete data or ideas about traffic issues in California as I have not lived there. However, traffic problems are a global phenomenon. 


It is all the more important to address it for various reasons like:- this is mostly in metro cities where most top executive live and work ( imagine the collective highly qualified, decision making executives wasting long hours struck in traffic), frequent breaks and restart consumes more fuel and adds more pollution and all other concomitant health issues. Clutch wear and tear is high. The pneumatic energy wasted can be used to toast a few slices of bread or even lights of cars etc.


In 'A brief history of science as seen through the development of scientific instruments’ Thomas Crump explains how each technological  invention has shaped our lives in many ways.

Technology is indeed a catalyst for growth / for aiding our everyday lives, but unfortunately,  the status quo addicts shun it, venerators make hyper claims as if it is going to take over all aspects of lives. 

Unfortunately, either to sound politically correct to left ideologies or pamper the status quo addicts even unexpected quarters conduct seminars like Peter Druker's Forum came up with conferences on a topic like this i.e. was in 2015 ( https://postshift.com/claiming-our-humanity-in-the-digital-age/

). I wrote a big rejoinder.

Technology is religion and gadgets are the new gods.

Humanity and Technology- let us not see them as humanity 'versus' technology.

We must stop viewing most things  as something against all things old and existing. Instead, start viewing them as different and new options.

We must not forget the inevitable 'polarity principle' in nature as part of  evolution.

When we shed this  wrong perspectives of unending list of ‘versus’ and replace them with 'and' instead of ' versus'like:-

Faithful versus unfaithful;

Religious versus irreligious;

Science versus Religion;

Science or religion versus spirituality;

Tradition versus taboo;

Technology versus Humanity;

I can elaborate the damage these have done to the development of humanity leading to petrified ideologies, putrefied perspectives, puerile interpretation of many things and view various polarity principles as paradoxes.

Some morbid and manipulative minds manage to  unite the luddites of the world with appealing slogans, as Murphy’s law says ‘ a good slogan can block reasoning and thinking forever’ by advancing arguments like Ronald Reagan used to do with his famous one liners, “ I notice that everyone in favour of abortion has already been born”.

The influence and impact of technology is too obvious and it has also cleared many areas of confusion which even great academic scholars like Colin McGinn used to express, “ The head spins in theoretical disarray; no explanatory model suggests itself; bizarre ontologies loom. There is a feeling of intense confusion, but no clear idea about where the confusion lies”

Science has helped human beings to explore, to experiment and to understand rationally and also to use that understanding for betterment of all life forms, including the environment.

Technology has accelerated this process and brought the benefits to various spheres of life.

When science chose technology as its partner it made a giant leap. This combination of science and technology displaced vague inanities and also inane vagueness in many matters.

If states and appropriate authorities don't use them, the loss is theirs..

If you feel this can be implemented in Bangalore, Calcutta, Mumbai, Chennai , Meghalaya etc. 

Do come with proposals imbued with authentic data, benefits, implementation benefits, pollution control as also silent monitoring  by authorities. Then, we can try this.