Optimism is the opium of the people.
- Milan Kundera (in the novel 'Joke')
The quote alerts us to a common pitfall.
What we need is a healthy balance of optimism and realism.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Optimism Is Opium
The quote alerts us to a common pitfall.
What we need is a healthy balance of optimism and realism.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Pattern in Thoughts
Sometimes, on looking back at previous work, you find a fortuitous thread that suggests more coherence exists than is felt through daily developments of concepts.
- George Siemens, an expert on learning, in his blog
What Is Spawning Violence All Around Us ???
Serial blasts in Assam: news on TV this morning.
There is so much of violence around us today: Islamic terrorism everywhere in India, Maoist violence in the eastern and central parts of the country, ULFA terrorism in Assam, and various streams of terrorism in the rest of the North East. I am intrigued; I feel ignorant for not being able to comprehend all this violence. Well, to be honest, I have little understanding of even the Punjab terrorism prior to the Operation Bluestar - assuming I can ascribe the violence after the Operation Bluestar and the Delhi riots to the injury these events caused to the Sikh psyche.
One can say that the Islamic terrorism is an international phenomenon, but what about the Maoist and other streams of terrorism that are indigenous?
I think I am not clued in on the origins and motivations of this violence because I am disconnected from a large mass of the country. And I am not an outlier; my disconnect and ignorance are reflective of the state of the nation today. There seems to be an unprecedented socio-cultural disconnect in the country today along class, community and regional lines. The urban India is socio-culturally disconnected from the rural India like never before; the middle-class India is socio-culturally disconnected from the lower-class India like never before.
How has this disconnect come about? If anything, poverty and hunger levels have come down sharply in the last 20 years. Then why is there so much of social unrest? Is it because of the widening gulf between the rich and the poor despite the poverty levels coming down? Is it to do with the growing awareness among the marginalized people and their aspiration to claim their rightful place under the sun? I am groping for answers.
There is so much of violence around us today: Islamic terrorism everywhere in India, Maoist violence in the eastern and central parts of the country, ULFA terrorism in Assam, and various streams of terrorism in the rest of the North East. I am intrigued; I feel ignorant for not being able to comprehend all this violence. Well, to be honest, I have little understanding of even the Punjab terrorism prior to the Operation Bluestar - assuming I can ascribe the violence after the Operation Bluestar and the Delhi riots to the injury these events caused to the Sikh psyche.
One can say that the Islamic terrorism is an international phenomenon, but what about the Maoist and other streams of terrorism that are indigenous?
I think I am not clued in on the origins and motivations of this violence because I am disconnected from a large mass of the country. And I am not an outlier; my disconnect and ignorance are reflective of the state of the nation today. There seems to be an unprecedented socio-cultural disconnect in the country today along class, community and regional lines. The urban India is socio-culturally disconnected from the rural India like never before; the middle-class India is socio-culturally disconnected from the lower-class India like never before.
How has this disconnect come about? If anything, poverty and hunger levels have come down sharply in the last 20 years. Then why is there so much of social unrest? Is it because of the widening gulf between the rich and the poor despite the poverty levels coming down? Is it to do with the growing awareness among the marginalized people and their aspiration to claim their rightful place under the sun? I am groping for answers.
There is a lot of triumphalist noise in India today. There is a sense of profound economic achievement and much of it is justified, but it is also important to listen to other noises. Something extraordinary is happening between the rich and the poor. Once, there was at least a common culture between rich and poor, but that has been eroded, and people have noted that.
… A large number of people are not benefiting from the economic boom.
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