Random thoughts - Positivity or Wishing Away?

In my opinion, symbolic solidarity should be community-driven events. The government shouldn’t get involved in it. People should show solidarity with the government by following the rules and regulations enforced by it to mitigate a situation. Any symbolism, they should be sceptical.

In any dire situation, you could be one of the three players. A person in power, who needs to make decisions and come up with plans to mitigate the situation. A person not directly affected by it but also has no say in anything. A person who is directly affected by the situation. I would consider the issue of manual scavenging as an example here. 

Mr Modi in his book(now withdrawn) ‘Karmayog’ wrote that manual scavenging could have been a “spiritual experience” for some of the Dalit castes. It is one of the positivity that the caste apologists routinely dispense of.

Manual scavenging is a problem. Wishing away the problem by viewing it in a positive light as a spiritual experience means different things to all those three players.

For a person in power, it’s just shirking responsibility under the guise of hoodwinking positivity. For an unaffected person, it’s a way to feel good about themself by reinterpreting the guilty feeling and imagining it non-existent. For the person affected, that kind of thought is unthinkable(the statement angered many Dalits) or if they are forced to accept that, it shows the total breakdown of their life or total hopelessness of their situation.

That is an extreme example. Normal people might not think in that way. But there are other situations, where people try to channelize positivity in the name of solidarity. But the difference, between the people who have power and the people who don’t, remains the same as in the above example. Italians showing regular solidarity during the crisis which is organized through social media messages or we holding candlelight vigils for our fallen soldiers within our own communities are like second or third group people with no actual power. But if a government does it, it’s a different matter.

We need to show solidarity with the government by being obedient to the laws it enacts to mitigate the situation but we need to be sceptical if the government itself indulges in symbolic solidarity. It’s basically shielding itself from any kind of criticism by equating its inadequacy even with all the power to the common people’s guilt feeling borne out of the helplessness or lack of power. It’s also very evident from the previous solidarity symbolism that people tend to misunderstand it and make the matters worse. The community-wise spontaneous solidarity gestures are still welcome as it doesn’t give additional work to government organizations to clear up other mess that might arise.

Reference:
https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/pm-modis-views-manual-scavenging-have-changed-quite-bit-over-seven-years

Random Thoughts - Education System

Many of us have to make up our mind about the field we are going to chose for the rest of our lives after 10 years of schooling. I believe some (if not  most) of us are confused or lack the passion for any particular field at that age. Nevertheless, we are forced to focus on certain fields even though it may include few topics which are there for students to choose more than one field. Also, once you complete two years of PUC (+2), you choose a field based on your marks. This sort of creates an academic class system.

Instead we need to have a 'Chaos University' where every subject under the sun are taught. So, you have engineering topics sharing space with law and history, pure sciences with arts and vocational courses and so on. Students are allowed to take credit courses in any random order until the day they decide whether they want to become a linguist, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer or doctor. Maybe, mastering one or two (depending on number of  years of their stay) vocational courses might be made obligatory. A student can stay a maximum of 10 years in the university. Basically, I'm trying to realize MOOC in real world.

I think one can join the university immediately after their 10th. I don't see why there should be additional two years in this system.

Random Thoughts - Scientific temperament

The following experiments could be a total waste for any practical purposes but to improve the scientific temperament in our country are totally necessary.

1. Getting a job with or without praying 

 - Praying group along with preparing and appearing for the job interviews went to religious places regularly and made vows if they landed one

 - Control group only prepared and appeared for the job interviews

2. Having a child with or without praying

 - Praying group along with trying different fertility measures went to religious places regularly and made vows if they had one

 - Control group only tried different fertility measures

Random Thoughts: Human tendency - II

I sort of think these are the mistakes people make while believing in stereotypical notions about god/religion, nationalism etc...

1. Generalization of exceptions that confirm their biases. Going as far as claiming those are better than scientific understandings.

2. A complete ignorance about being privileged and thus promoting their identity and their status as natural order of things.

3. Sidestepping glaring problems by only providing lip service as those don't hurt them (could be short sighted -> is that ableist? Am I allowed to use it since I'm short-sighted?).

Random Thoughts - IX_b

It's IT returns time and as usual the topic again comes into discussion. Some of the typical excuses that people give for trying to evade or pay less taxes are;

- Government eats up the money

- See the facilities that I have received. Bad roads, bad roads...

I wonder what percentage of tax money is lost to corruption. I don't have exact numbers. I'm thinking anything between 3 to 20% based on these two articles.

1. Flipping the corruption myth

2. YSR’s ‘sheer size’ of corruption shocked US diplomat

Now taking the worst case scenario, let's say in India we are losing 20% of our tax money to the corrupt officials. So, there are two observations that could be made.

1. Considering the fact 80% of the money is spent on developmental activities but even then it doesn't feel that way with the state of things on the ground, the money collected through taxes and money spent are very low for a country like India. I suppose higher proportion of allotment would have resulted in same percentage of loss to corruption but an effective higher amount for a project.

Only 2.7% of the population pay taxes (direct) and which make up 18-20% of total tax revenue. So possibilities are many. 

2. Considering still 80% of the money goes into developmental activities, individuals can still take heart that not everything is being wasted. The sense of victimhood that they exhibit is a mask or rationalization of their own corrupt self. I mean this point is very obvious without the data but somehow they feel that their passionate defence with raised voice and scandalized tone absolve them off their sins. But I still feel these hypocrites are better than honest corrupts.

Random Thoughts - Astrology

I have this nagging thought that whether one should only oppose Astrology as a pseudo-science or should also consider it as a criminal offense if an astrologer makes negative predictions. I would guess sometimes they should even be arrested for culpable homicide. Two events have set me thinking in this direction.

Couple of years ago, I participated in a discussion in an atheist forum. One of the participants gave many examples where he had seen the predictions of an astrologer coming true. I found many of them dubious but the one prediction that interested me was about his father's death. According to him, his father died on the same day that was predicted by the astrologer.

I know a family who are hopeless believers. Unlike that rationalist with an ambiguous attitude towards astrology because of his experiences, I get plenty of hilarious examples from this family that only strengthens my conviction about its pseudo-science status. But I suppose I should be neutral and go by only the scientific studies. Couple of recent ones in the family are;

1. An old woman who is supposed to be dead by August 4th of this year is still alive
2. A young man is looking for a suitable match. He has 'Mars Fault' so can only marry a girl with that condition. But there is an additional clause that faults in both Horoscopes should lie in same house. Or so their astrologers had told.

From the prospective brides' side, it turns out that;
- The additional clause that faults should lie in the same house is wrong and in fact based on other positions, faults in different houses are auspicious and the same house is dangerous
- The guy's horoscope reading itself is wrong and he doesn't even have that 'Mars Fault'!

These prospective brides' astrologers are even more reputed than the guy's astrologers or so accepted by the guy's family. I'm sure they will overcome this momentary crisis of faith and get back to astrologers with even more vigour. Last checked they haven't gone to that astrologer and asked their money back(or chided him) since the old woman is not dead.

Anyway, I believe the reason this old woman didn't die like that old man was because he knew about the prediction and she didn't (keeping underlying medical conditions common in both cases). I would think any negative prediction would have psychological impact like 'white coat hypertension'. It would be better to study any such "successful" negative predictions with this angle. What if those persons would have had few more years to live but for those predictions?

Random Thoughts - Love_Lust

This article on Asexuals is inline with the previous findings that love and lust are mutually independent feelings. According them, asexuals can be divided into 'romantic asexuals' and 'aromantic asexuals'. An asexual can fall in love with other person.

As implied, sexuals are defined by the presence of 'lust' and asexuals by the lack of it, not only that, both sexuals and asexuals can be defined by the presence or absence of 'love'.

So, humans can be;
- Sexually romantics
- Asexually romantics
- Sexually aromantics
- Asexually aromantics

However, a sexual individual's orientation could be any of these combinations based on the person s/he meets.

If I think about it there could be persons who lack the feeling 'love' completely just as some people lack 'lust'. I think these people are yet to 'come home'. So, when I talked about presence or absence of love in the beginning it's about mutual phenomenon. But lack of love can be a self phenomenon just like lack of lust.

Random Thoughts - XI_a

Taking my previous post further and considering normal human behaviours (in contrast to different behaviours discussed in psychiatry), I would think it's impossible to find a general truth. We can certainly find individual truths but the summation or the averaging does not give a common truth. This might be obvious, but the disappointing point would be even if one finds an individual truth there is no guarantee that one can create an ideal society for that individual to live in. That kind of society is when obviously impossible in a herd society, it's also not feasible in an individualistic society.

This doesn't mean that an ideal society for an individual is utopian. The word itself is highly limited in its understanding and myopic in its meaning. The present day society is obviously a utopian dream for the past societies. It's a word used by reactionaries who undoubtedly in every barbaric societies of the past, with their position secured, would have justified it with similar vocabulary. These sophists would find true communism existing in the USA when its economy struggled.

The concept of global village or nation without boundaries, even when it comes to fruition, will not create an individual's ideal society. We may need to create nations of ideologies. I don't think there are many ideologies. We need to create only two societies. One is based on lust, where inviting for a cup of coffee is a civilized way of expressing sexual desire. The other is based on love, where any euphemism or physical hints for sex is unacceptable and one can only profess love. The lust is expressed not from words but hinted from the physical presence in lust spaces.

Thoughts - XI

If humans are born as mere FPTAs, I think the quest for self-discovery is absurd.
...
I wrote that and then started searching for information on self-discovery and discovered Thomas Szasz.

I did think earlier that Psychiatry should replace religion without thinking much about implications.

Random Thoughts - X

I used to wonder why skin colour has not homogenized among castes in South India. I suppose the reason could be that cousin marriages didn't allow such a phenomenon. The mixing of light or dark skinned persons need not be on regular basis and the change in one generation was masked by endogamy of successive generations within the family. With cross cousin marriages losing favour, I suppose the indisputable dark skin colour will become ubiquitous in future.

Random Thoughts - IX_c

Even though majority middle class Indians have remained loyal to their 10-20% corrupt self and didn't take part in the movement against corruption recently, there was a tiny fraction who did take part considering their greater uncorrupt self. I wonder whether it's a hypocrisy or what. I'm not sure.

What these fake billers or tax evaders are protesting probably is the lack of human decency in direct interactions. Evading tax probably doesn't come across as villainy as that villainy in a way self directed and also requires a broader view of the society.

The interactions with a policeman or government officials in charge of licensing or a railway ticket collector is not something that one looks forward to. We would  meet these people with power expecting them to demean their propriety. It disgusts us how people can be so nonchalant and ask money directly or indirectly. It humiliates us that people in the mainstream society indulge in the loot of our natural resources or misappropriate the money we give as tax.

It is as if without any personal animosity, people have decided to debase themselves and spoil the well defined personal interactions. We have to face the unpleasantness of these interactions which has nothing to do with our fault but just because some people want to make undeserved extra money.

If anything, corruption has killed justice and respect in man to man interactions. This has added bitterness in our sense of civilized human beings. It's not the money but likely, this loss of decency when it comes to personal interactions and loss of trust with people who misappropriate money, that demoralizes people.

I guess many people were not protesting against corruption but fighting to reinstate propriety and trust in our society.

Random Thoughts - IX_b

I suppose some people need to have this self-satisfaction of being corrupts in their small way as it shields them from the reality of humiliation of being looted. I don't understand the smugness of all these fake-billers when they anyway pay the bulk of their IT and pay taxes in multiple ways. Of course, respect to people who skip paying taxes completely. But again what about our natural resources?

Random Thoughts - IX_a

The article I mentioned in my last post declares people who joined a recent movement against corruption in India as hypocrites. These people presumably are corrupts themselves in their own small ways but come out to protest against bigger corruptions. I would think there are two reasons for the author's opinion.

First, it's a view that some things are meant to be pure and even a single violation of whatever background would permanently defile it. Views like these are unacceptable.

For the second reason, let us consider a hypothetical situation where these protests become successful. Would not that make these hypocrites to continue with their true self inviable? So obviously these should be cynical hypocrites. That shows the majority who participated in the protests belong to this category since the whole middle class has been stereotyped as 'hypocrites'. The middle class that didn't participate in the protests are a majority of:
- Cynical but original uncorrupts
- Non-cynical but hypocrite uncorrupts
- Non-cynical but original corrupts

This absolute farce of corrupts fighting corrupts fascinated me. I wanted to delve on it further after my initial categorization. The problem I found in the list of corrupt practices was that, not all of them could be called corruptions. I'm further refining the list. Before that I've to define the term corruption.

Corruption: Any action for undeserved  gain (monetary) for self and/or related ones directly or indirectly resulting in loss to others directly or indirectly.

1. Paying in "black" when buying a house: Qualifies as corruption

•     Property buyer and seller are both corrupts. The government deserves the money. 

2. Bribing cops to get away with minor offences:
    - jumping the signal or breaking one way, no u-turn: Criminal act but not corruption
    - Carrying no proper documents (forgetting RC, license): Mistake but not corruption
    - having no proper documents: Criminal act but not Corruption
    - no pollution certificate: Stupidity (Pollution certificate is an official scam by the governments) but not corruption

• Penalty money is not a benefit to the government but way of controlling the criminal act. However, the bribe taker gets undeserved money and may in turn also responsible for any potential damages because of the criminal act of the lawbreaker. The lawbreaker may gain violent pleasure but corruption is about money. 

3. Paying "capitation fee" in higher educational institutes: No corruption from the person as the benefit has to be earned but corruption by the management. Unclear criminal act as the loss to a more deserved isn't confirmed since capitation fee is legal because of loopholes.

• Here actually the parents are a victim as they have paid undeserved amount to the school thus incurring the loss and the school management has gained undeserved benefit. 

4. Bribing for school admission: No corruption from the person as the benefit has to be earned but can be criminal act and a corruption from the management.

• Same as (3a) but criminal act because a deserved candidate might have lost out. 

5. Buying an illegal driving license (or any license): Criminal act but not corruption

• It's a pure criminal act by a citizen but corruption from the government officials. 

6. Paying extra to get gas cylinders ontime, when in short supply: Criminal act but not corruption

• The gas cylinder is deserved however it's a criminal act as it results in loss to a citizen ahead in the list 

7. Fudging bills to claim refunds: Qualifies as corruption
8. Avoiding paying income tax: Qualifies as corruption
9. Bribing cops when they come for passport identification: Insecurity (passport is not a benefit but the right of a citizen) but not corruption
10. Pulling strings even paying touts, to confirm a waitlisted railway ticket: Criminal act but not corruption

• Same as (6) 

We can observe that out of 10 only 3 qualify as corruption(1, 7 and 8). Of the rest;
- the government officials are sole corrupts in 2, 5, 6, 9 and 10 (50%)
- Private institutions and individuals in 3 and 4 (20%)

It is very important to define the corruption precisely because every "hypocrite" is against corruption as defined above. What we see here is nearly sixty percent cases are criminal acts. Few are desperate situations but some others are the result of pleasure seeking through violent behaviour. I suppose Indian children should be taught to channel their risk taking inclinations to planned adventures where probable victims would be only themselves. The solutions to some of the desperate situations (eg. quality schools) are the responsibility of the government.

We cannot say Indian middle class has indulged in corruption in multiple ways but is undeniable that there are few instances where  they do indulge in corruption. All the three instances mentioned here basically boil down to paying the taxes. But this is not an unrestorable hymen. Of course, there are people who argue for giving it for charity instead to our corrupt governments which misappropriate it anyway. I don't agree with this line. But giving for charity and then not claiming income tax benefit probably one way of restoring the purity.

Random Thoughts - IX

I thought of categorizing middle class corruption listed by this article in the Outlook magazine.

1. Paying in "black" when buying a house: Corruption
2. Bribing cops to get away with minor offences:
- jumping the signal or breaking one way, no u-turn: Corruption and criminal act
- carrying no proper documents (forgetting RC, license): Mistake by the person
- having no proper documents: Corruption and Criminal act
- no pollution certificate: Stupidity (Pollution certificate is an official scam by the governments)
3. Paying "capitation fee" in higher educational institutes: No corruption from the briber as the benefit has to be earned but corruption by the management. Unclear criminal act as the loss to a more deserved isn't confirmed since capitation fee is legal because of loopholes.
4. Bribing for school admission: No corruption from the briber as the benefit has to be earned but corruption by the management.Unclear criminal act as the loss to a more deserved isn't confirmed since capitation fee is legal because of loopholes.
5. Buying an illegal driving license (or any license): Corruption and criminal act
6. Paying extra to get gas cylinders ontime, when in short supply: Corruption and criminal act (your benefit some one else's loss)
7. Fudging bills to claim refunds: Corruption and treason
8. Avoiding paying income tax: Corruption and treason
9. Bribing cops when they come for passport identification: Insecurity (passport is not a benefit but the right of a citizen)
10. Pulling strings even paying touts, to confirm a waitlisted railway ticket: Corruption and the criminal act (your benefit, some one else's loss)

Updated:
http://bantwal.blogspot.in/2011/05/random-thoughts-ixa.html

Random Thoughts - VIII

I believe, apart from aid by government agencies, charities done through religious organizations are the only acceptable way of helping the needy. In both cases, the self-image of the recipients won't be dented. In the case of government, people think it's the duty of the state to support them. Charities in the name of god make people humble before a non-existing entity, so in practical terms they won't lose their self-respect. Any humiliation would be purely imaginary. Philanthropy or charity in any other form is bound to kill the recipients' self-respect.

Random Thoughts - Love_Lust

Ho-M

Ho-F

He-M

He-F

Ho-M

I

LV

LS

LV-LS

I

LV

I

LV

LS

LV-LS

I

LV

Ho-F

I

LV

I

LV

LS

LV-LS

I

LV

I

LV

LS

LV-LS

He-M

I

LV

I

LV

LS

LV-LS

I

LV

I

LV

LS

LV-LS

He-F

I

LV

LS

LV-LS

I

LV

I

LV

LS

LV-LS

I

LV

He-> Heterosexual
Ho->Homosexual
M->Male
F->Female
I->Indifferent
LV->Love
LS->Lust

Just wanted to tabulate various combinations of sexual orientation(not considering all) and mutual instincts. This is a oneway table. This should be read from left column point of reference. I wonder if there is a better way to represent this kind of tables. And if there is a terminology for such tables.

I'm not entirely sure if there can be love between two people of the same sex. The extreme clue for love could be found in the action of suicide. This situation is very obvious between persons of the opposite sexes. However, I don't have any real life evidences for the same sex couple. Nevertheless, I consider it's a possibility because the other day I watched a movie "Little Miss Sunshine", where it was shown that a professor tried to commit suicide after being spurned by his male lover. Does that mean it is possible for a person to be in love with the same sex but  in lust with the opposite sex? I don't have any such examples. However, the opposite case, where a person is in love with the opposite sex but in lust with the same sex is normal. Francis Bacon's life is a good example.

Random Thoughts - V

What if there is an Indo-Pak war? India and Pakistan will suffer but the world will be a better place for everyone else.

Random Thoughts - IV

First it was Madeleine Albright and now it is Hillary Clinton. I suppose Bill Clinton has surrounded himself with overawed feudal women.

Random Thoughts - III

Caste Consciousness is alive in Pakistan 

He said his wife was accused of blasphemy after getting into an argument last year with a group of women when she was sent by the wife of a village chief to fetch water.

Mr Masih said the other women challenged his wife and said it was sacrilegious to drink water collected by a non-Muslim.

"My wife took offence, saying, 'Are we not humans?' This led to an altercation," he said

News

Random Thoughts -II

Union Telecom Minister A Raja has been blamed for causing a loss of Rs 1,76,379 crore to the state exchequer in the second generation (2G) spectrum scam, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pointed out in its final report.

News

We could have used that money for;
- 6 Commonwealth Games, or
- 456 Chandrayana Missions, or
- Defense budget for 2011-12