I have moved

Time for me to start afresh. Please see my new blog at: http://ramraghav.com/

State of Indifference

Der König herrscht aber regiert nicht
The king reigns but does not govern
- Otto von Bismarck

Mired in the fundamental existential issue of availability of basic economic and financial resources, the average Indian citizen might possibly be excused for displaying a remarkable disinterest in issues that concern the conduct of the State, in realms cultural, societal and nationalist. It only requires a measure of curiosity, a re-reading of history and a re-evaluation of commonly accepted wisdom to realize that certain political notions internalized in Indian society stand independent of the economic and socio-political situation of its peoples, and serve as both the cause and consequence of the official apathy now being propitiated in the name of the said people. And to realize that what may be mistaken for insouciance is, in fact, indifference.

From the mountains of the Karakoram, to the plains of Bengal, from the hills of Assam to the valleys of Lanka, the cultural and linguistic boundaries forever identified with being Indian have withered and crumbled, and yet failed to produce any coagulation whatsoever of a unison of identity among the original inhabitants of these lands. Indeed the one strikingly visible consequence of millenia of territorial alienation and cultural fragmentation has been the thorough orwellianism of collective judgement. The Stockholm Syndrome is passe, for now it is the age of the Delhi Syndrome, where the aggrieved not only sympathises with the culprit but goes beyond the call of duty and defends, justifies and propagates the ideas of the latter. And so it comes to pass that a self-proclaimed egalitarian society accords "reservations" to select communities, that a "secular" republic decrees differing personal laws for different religious groups, that a "sovereign" nation watches with detachment the brazen land-grabbing being practiced by its neighbours to its detriment.

We watch, meekly, as our soldiers are murdered and mutilated by bankrupt banana republics. We watch, callously, as our ethnic brethren are humiliated and exploited against all norms of civilized morality by neighbours whose inclinations towards cultural despotism has been proven continuously through history. We watch, pusillanimously, as countries whose foundation are predicated on existential enmity institutionalize mechanisms to kill and maim our hard-working tax-paying citizens.

That this must happen in a democratic soceity only reinforces the argument of this essay - that the hypocrisy of judgement displayed in India is a facet not merely of the government, but of the people that determine the government. Arguments such as that governments are essentially determined by the "undereducated" classes are fundamentally specious, for the popular thought processes of the adequately "educated" classes are hardly any different. For it must be learnt that education can serve only as the means to an end, and not the end itself - the end being better sense of judgement.

Admittedly, we do sometimes make the right noises. That our sovereignty will not be open to debate. That our territorial boundaries will not be negotiated upon. That terrorism as a tool of State policy will not be tolerated. That the human rights of our peoples will not be trampled upon without consequence. But then, these are exactly that - noises. With no consequence. For we then proclaim as "well-intentioned" activities whose only intentions were that of ethnic cleansing, sup with "well-wishers" who only the day before had been busy invading our country, negotiate in "good faith" with those whose only faith lies in ambitions of imperium. For we then return to our customary practice of labeling friend as foe and foe as friend, of prioritising tactical interests over strategic, of mortgaging righteousness to propound expedience.

Perhaps it is that such twisted logic is not one that been internalized - perhaps it always has been internal to Indian society. After all, the earliest evidenced intrusion of "Indian" cultural space, the Persian invasion, was not the cause but the demonstrable consequence of internal fragmentation. Perhaps it is an uniquely Indian trait that perpetuates such fragmentation, which leads to a deeper resolve of indifference, which results in further fragmentation, the cycle repeating itself ad infinitum. Perhaps, in that case, we are destined, or doomed, as your perspective may guide you, to wither, crumble and eventually dissolve as a nation. And perhaps even as a people.

Types of Lies

A random realization that occurred to me as I awoke this morning, but seemingly sensible nevertheless.

The three categories of lies:

1. Lies of convenience
2. Lies of expedience
3. Lies of necessity

And God Created Geeks....

They awake at morning light
Having churned their thoughts all night
Computers and calculus incite
These weird geeks' to all their might

They live to work day after day
All they can talk is math, code and rays
But what is worse than hearing them bay
Is that they expect me in their parleys

Not once over their 12 hour day
Do they feel the urge to check Yahoo, CL or eBay
It's not that they work so hard for their pay
Just that this is to them a roll in the hay

It was just a thought I might
Spell out my daily plight
For this place from which I write
Is not a pretty pretty sight!

Orwellianism Epitomized

From the bickering in political channels to the representative corps of societal vigilantes, to even the private privations of familial conflict-resolution, if there is one brand of cultural identity that is proudly claimed as being "Indian" (although in truth it is not), it is the exaltation incurred in the propounding of Orwellian logic: what is right is wrong, and what is wrong is right.

That the said logic, by itself, serves as a warning of the consequences of unwarranted societal engineering would seem to matter no whit to the clones that now pass through the assembly lines of intellectual mass production. That the clones only propagate culturally acceptable civic justice (!?), thereby implying the social benefit of the said vigilantism and the consequent necessity of the aforementioned civic justice then become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Continuous inundation of associated propaganda then ensures the inurement of society to the twisted logic insofar that attempts to even highlight its foundational hypocrisy is met with vociferous opposition.

Evidence of the claimed transgression of righteousness is not hard to come by: if the crowds of "liberals" holding candle-light vigils to plead the case of convicted terrorists, the legions of "conservatives" celebrating the delivery of "justice" on women in "provocative" attire by the abhorrently inappropriate desires of their fellow male compatriots, and the famed insouciance of the "centrists" who couldn't care less for all but themselves are not the very epitomes of Orwellian reasoning, what indeed are?

Indian intellectual engineering has reached a state of such completeness that the wisdom in producing armies of certain professions over the active and assisted detriment of certain others, the admissibility of contrasting sexual and social mores for the genders and the re-analysis of civic and cultural institutions are not even open to debate!

Perhaps the most distressing consequence of the propagation of popular hypocrisy, is the intellectual hypnosis that India's youth finds itself in, proving conclusively that the experiment in self-imposed societal engineering has indeed been immensely successful. For the aids of technology, globalisation and quasi-anglicisation are, in the final analysis, just that: aids. For the keys to change must lie within. For intellectual engineering can only be countered by reverse intellectual engineering, a process that must begin with the application of thought, and the acknowledgment of the trance that society finds itself in. For it needs to be realised that hypocritical self-perpetuation can only serve to be the antithesis of progressive civilizational evolution.

Illusions of Global Peace

The world seems to have learnt to live with certain constants: the customary expressions of collective insecurity under the garb of wariness of American "hegemony", the equally customary "committments" to the exploration of "alternate" world orders by the wary (and varying) "friends" of the said hegemon, the cyclic waves of good-will and animosity between mutually distrustful neighbours, and the periodic (and one could almost say methodical) condemnations of "zionist conspiracies" to destabilize what one is expected to imagine to be an ocean of peace in the middle of an arc of inarable and inhospitable land known as the middle east. That in a world of shifting realities there are atleast such small mercies that can reliably be looked forward to is indeed remarkable; however, that the said small mercies show up to be protracting disputes in human relations is rather disheartening. Add to this the increasingly internecine doses of identity-based violence, inurement to which has become an unsurprising facet of daily life, and one is tempted to ask of oneself the question, "Is this the end of the road for the global peace honeymoon?". But, then, perhaps the more pertinent question to ask is, "Does it even exist?"

There are those who would have us believe that the last century, indeed the last decade, has been a period of exponential growth in the scale of such conflict, acceptance of the same as an economically saleable commodity and indifference to the nature of human suffering such conflict must inevitably involve. There are those who attribute such "metamorphism" of the human psyche to increasing materialistic thought, declining religious faith and "moral decadence". And then there are those who warn that an unchecked spiral of human conflict will eventually lead to comprehensive mutual extermination. Doomsday indeed.

The subtle yet compulsive penetration of socialist intellectualism is now so complete that it is has become a fashion statement to declare oneself as being aligned with the doves of "peace" rather than the perceived demons of practicality. To express support for arguably righteous instances of physical action is to invite the wrath of being labelled a "war-mongerer", not to mention the all-too-liberal use of superlatives such as "extremist" and "fundamentalist". Strident voices of "public opinion" seem increasingly capable of, and willing to, holding initiative subservient to inaction, and righteousness to otiosity. "Make peace", we hear, is the mantra for the "educated". And sometimes governments listen. And flounder.

They flounder in the face of agressive nations, of renegade "leaders", and of militant ideologies. They flounder because their doctrine of compulsive "peace" has left them uneducated in the principles of realism, because their craving for "peace" has transported them to illusory paradise. They flounder because they fail to grasp the machinations of human psychology. And, worst of all, they flounder because they fail to realize ignorance is not always bliss.

New age goebbelsian propaganda would have us believe that conflict is only a manifestation of human greed, that its resolution must lie in a dialogue of “mutual respect”, and that munificence is incumbent on the high and mighty. It would seem to matter no whit to the propagandists that certain essentials of human existence imply the inevitability of conflict, that "mutual respect" can not be imposed and can only be self-earned, and that graceful munificence to the undeserving can only be interpreted as foolish extravagance.

Rightenousness is not a passcode to be uttered in the hushed undertones of ones private life, it is a concept to be lived by and demonstrated. And collective rightenousness does exist, and it is this that makes it incumbent upon soceity to acknowledge its boundaries and ensure defensive enforcement of the same. To fail to understand this is ineptitude, to fail to act on it is negligence.

That the natural development of race, culture and language must lead to identity-based alienation is inevitable, as is the desire to defend the same from unsavory external influences. That war and peace are both natural states of man is fact, for without peace war would be unsustainable, and without war peace would be unattainable.