We have known it from many sacred books that God has created man in His image. The theologians say it, the preachers preach it. When these people say this, they must be knowing fully well about the true image of god, not that they have seen it. What is it? Pretty or ugly? But I know for sure that man’s true image is not pretty but pretty ugly. I have seen it in so many times and in so many faces. And you know face is the index of mind. That is, man is pretty ugly in both faces and minds or for that matter in body and soul. Does it hurt you? But I just cannot help it. It is etched on my mind and it is evidently vivid in my mind's eye. And again I tell you I cannot help it even it hurts you. It is ugly, one hundred times ugly and even more than it.. Even more ugly thanI imagine.. It is beastly ugly, to say the least. So, what could be the god’s image? Of course, it is ugly. It is not holier than thou as we are led to believe. As we believe and blindly we believe, so we do not see it ugly or rather we do not want it so. But when we see the faces of man? What is it? Beastly ugly as we see it in our naked eyes. So, what can be the faces of God when he created him in his own image? You think and imagine in your mind and in your mind's eye. Mightbe, you will be able to get to the truth. You know truth is where light is.
So, what is the truth. Let us try to explore some truth. Yes, some truth only. As the God created man in his own image, so man created God in his ideas. Without knowing the natural laws of the world, man had no other alternative than to create his own belief system to cope with the situation. Initially man had no idea about the science of cause and effect, he relied mainly on his belief in supernatural power which was supposed to act as the prime mover of the worldly phenomena. He also enjoyed no power to stand on his own leg. So, for all the plights and all the rages he confronted in his life, he prayed for the blessings of that supernatural power. That supernatural power was the be all and end all in his belief system. But who had enjoyed that supernatural power? Who or what was the prime mover? There must be someone who enjoyed that exclusive or absolute power. There must be someone who assumed office of authority for all that. He had no other idea but that idea to believe and blindly believe in all this. He believed that someone was the prime mover. And that prime mover was God whom he created in his idea, in his belief system.
Oh, Alas! the exploration of truth has dragged us into a quagmire. That quagmire is blind belief. But blind belief can never be a scientific truth or any other kind of truth. Truth is no belief or belief is no truth. Truth is truth and belief is belief. The twain sometimes meet each other but that is very rare. If you do not want to know the truth, you live with your belief and belief is almost always blind, stone blind.
So you believe that God created man in His own image. It is your belief but it is not truth. Amen!
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Life After Death
I do not believe in life after death. Do you?
There is no heaven and there is no hell either.
Heaven and hell are situated in the realm of your blind faith which is nothing but a superstitious idea. The existence of superstitious belief is only in the chimera of your mind.
What we cannot see in our naked eyes is absolutely non-existent. But if you say that we cannot see air in our naked eyes but we know for sure that air exists. Yes, air exists. We can feel it, we can sense it.
But we cannot feel or sense the existence of heaven or hell. What you cannot see cannot be believed. Believing is a conviction. Conviction is some pragmatic notion about the human world and the nature which we see under our eyes, feel, sense perceptibly and we are led to believe. That belief is our conviction.
After death, neither we get a new shelter in heaven nor we are burnt in the catastrophe of hell. After death, we are simply reduced to dust of nature. Our physical entity or our biological body is simply decomposed into nature.
We are born out of nature and we die into nature. So to speak, we come from nature and go back to the nature in the end. Our birth and death are a natural process. But it is not natural that we would be reborn some day after our death. Rebirth is not natural as our decomposed body after death can never be composed into another biological body.
Life after death is next to impossible. If it so happens, then all our scientific knowledge would be reduced to nothingness. Those who are deficient in scientific knowledge and scientific temper only believe in that impossibility and rarity. That impossibility and rarity is the scientific knowledge of our biological life.
There is life in this world but there is no life in the other world.
The other world is non-existent. No believer or for that matter no preacher can prove this empirically and emphatically as it is not a thing to be proved empirically and emphatically.
There is no heaven and there is no hell either.
Heaven and hell are situated in the realm of your blind faith which is nothing but a superstitious idea. The existence of superstitious belief is only in the chimera of your mind.
What we cannot see in our naked eyes is absolutely non-existent. But if you say that we cannot see air in our naked eyes but we know for sure that air exists. Yes, air exists. We can feel it, we can sense it.
But we cannot feel or sense the existence of heaven or hell. What you cannot see cannot be believed. Believing is a conviction. Conviction is some pragmatic notion about the human world and the nature which we see under our eyes, feel, sense perceptibly and we are led to believe. That belief is our conviction.
After death, neither we get a new shelter in heaven nor we are burnt in the catastrophe of hell. After death, we are simply reduced to dust of nature. Our physical entity or our biological body is simply decomposed into nature.
We are born out of nature and we die into nature. So to speak, we come from nature and go back to the nature in the end. Our birth and death are a natural process. But it is not natural that we would be reborn some day after our death. Rebirth is not natural as our decomposed body after death can never be composed into another biological body.
Life after death is next to impossible. If it so happens, then all our scientific knowledge would be reduced to nothingness. Those who are deficient in scientific knowledge and scientific temper only believe in that impossibility and rarity. That impossibility and rarity is the scientific knowledge of our biological life.
There is life in this world but there is no life in the other world.
The other world is non-existent. No believer or for that matter no preacher can prove this empirically and emphatically as it is not a thing to be proved empirically and emphatically.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Yes, Everyone Is Tensed
Why each and everyone is tensed and stressed? It seems tension is so contagious a disease. Yes, it is a disease. If it is not physical, it is of course a mental disease. The shrinks says this and we feel it. It is so absorbing that you cannot shake of it so easily if you want. How can a disease so easily be shaken off if it is not properly cured. One thing is almost certain that our physical body and spiritual mind are always in intimate connexion with each other. One cannot exist without the support of other. When one is affected, the other too cries out for due attention and help. Admittedly so and each one of us has to experience this through our whole span of life. And we have to live with it.
But mental illness is something different from physical illness. Generally physical illness grows out of the worm cans of our environment around us. And we can very easily exterminate the germs and we get cured after that. But the case of mental illness like, stress, depression are born out of the social vices, the seven deadly sins. The thing is that we are all carriers of these deadly sins and the society has retained them all as it seems that they are the basis of social organisation. As if the society has no virtues of itself on which it could be betterly organised. Had it been organised on virtues or mostly on virtues, the society would have been a heaven of itself and we would have been endowed with heavenly bliss.
But as if there is no safety-valve to get hold of this modern man's dilemma.
Why there is no safety-valve or safety-catch to control one's tension. Everybody has been suffering from it and no one is from its aggressive potency. When I am under tension or I am tensed, you readily tell me to calm down. And again, when you suffer from tension you too tell me the same thing and advise me the same way. This we try to mutually cure ourselves. But still there is no respite for us. Tension is modern man's obstinate disease. As though, it has come to stay with us life long. When we die, only at that time it will go once for all. So what to do? How to get out of it? There is no easy remedy. Rather let us learn to stay with it, live with it amicably. Do not rush. It will be all in vain.Rather take it easy and keep cool. And do whatever you feel like doing.
When you are a modern man, you have to make do with this modern man's intimate malady. There is no other go. You cannot get away with it so easily.
But mental illness is something different from physical illness. Generally physical illness grows out of the worm cans of our environment around us. And we can very easily exterminate the germs and we get cured after that. But the case of mental illness like, stress, depression are born out of the social vices, the seven deadly sins. The thing is that we are all carriers of these deadly sins and the society has retained them all as it seems that they are the basis of social organisation. As if the society has no virtues of itself on which it could be betterly organised. Had it been organised on virtues or mostly on virtues, the society would have been a heaven of itself and we would have been endowed with heavenly bliss.
But as if there is no safety-valve to get hold of this modern man's dilemma.
Why there is no safety-valve or safety-catch to control one's tension. Everybody has been suffering from it and no one is from its aggressive potency. When I am under tension or I am tensed, you readily tell me to calm down. And again, when you suffer from tension you too tell me the same thing and advise me the same way. This we try to mutually cure ourselves. But still there is no respite for us. Tension is modern man's obstinate disease. As though, it has come to stay with us life long. When we die, only at that time it will go once for all. So what to do? How to get out of it? There is no easy remedy. Rather let us learn to stay with it, live with it amicably. Do not rush. It will be all in vain.Rather take it easy and keep cool. And do whatever you feel like doing.
When you are a modern man, you have to make do with this modern man's intimate malady. There is no other go. You cannot get away with it so easily.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
The Missionary Zeal of Life : Collectiveness
We have come a long way. Too far from the verdant splendour of life. And as if we are all lost in the wilderness of life - the life that endows us with the bounty of pain and pleasure, the summum bonum of our being and essence. We have exhausted all our energy in quest of more and more extravaganza of nothingness. And our beings are paying dearly and bearing the brunt of this catastrophical predicament. Is there no light at the end of the tunnel?
Yes, there is light if we are intent on discovering it through hardships and through struggling for getting at the truth. Truth is the essence of sparkling light. A spark of truth can be in a small measure a prairie fire to bring about a sea change in our lives so far as the joy and beauty of life are concerned. Truth is omnipotent, omniscient and ubiquitously existent but always wrapped in mystery. We have to demystify it exploring all its essences to a vantage point so that we can get hold of our creative faculties in a meaningful mission.
This missionary zeal is what is our life should be up to. We have come a long way but we have reached nowhere, we have not achieved anything worthwhile. The time has come to pause for a while to think and act. Think whether we have achieved anything worthwhile. Think why there is so much suffering. Why so much injustice? So much inequality and disparity among the people? Why so much moral degradation? Why so much wastage of natural resources? There are so many why-s and wherefore-s to look back.
And we will look back to look farther forward. With that view in mind, we will talk. We will talk anything and everything under the sun. From anthropology to zoology, from anthem to zither. We will be the message board of our own collective mind. We will think intelligently and sensibly. We will talk intelligently and sensibly. And we will act accordingly. We all think but we really do not know how to think creatively and constructively. We will ask all questions and we will ask for answers.
We will think and act collectively and that is what should be the mission of our lives.
Yes, there is light if we are intent on discovering it through hardships and through struggling for getting at the truth. Truth is the essence of sparkling light. A spark of truth can be in a small measure a prairie fire to bring about a sea change in our lives so far as the joy and beauty of life are concerned. Truth is omnipotent, omniscient and ubiquitously existent but always wrapped in mystery. We have to demystify it exploring all its essences to a vantage point so that we can get hold of our creative faculties in a meaningful mission.
This missionary zeal is what is our life should be up to. We have come a long way but we have reached nowhere, we have not achieved anything worthwhile. The time has come to pause for a while to think and act. Think whether we have achieved anything worthwhile. Think why there is so much suffering. Why so much injustice? So much inequality and disparity among the people? Why so much moral degradation? Why so much wastage of natural resources? There are so many why-s and wherefore-s to look back.
And we will look back to look farther forward. With that view in mind, we will talk. We will talk anything and everything under the sun. From anthropology to zoology, from anthem to zither. We will be the message board of our own collective mind. We will think intelligently and sensibly. We will talk intelligently and sensibly. And we will act accordingly. We all think but we really do not know how to think creatively and constructively. We will ask all questions and we will ask for answers.
We will think and act collectively and that is what should be the mission of our lives.
Friday, September 7, 2007
Democracy and the Politics of Power
Power is an overwhelming concept which pervades everything so intricately that it creates web around human existence and essence as well. The normative essence of power caters to the lusty needs of some and snatches the very essence of human lives for the others. The others are led to sacrifice themselves at the altar of the almighty. The almighty are the some who wield their absolute power from within and without over the lesser others to revolve around their orbital space and the others are destined not to escape the centrifugal force of that orbital power.
Bertrand Russel has provided a remarkable perception of power in his book 'Power : A New Social Analysis'. He said, "Power may be defined as the production of intended effects. The fundamental concept of social science is power, in the same sense in which energy is the fundamental concept in physics. Like energy, power has many forms." Russel's 'production of intended effects' is the political ideology of power which is socially reclaimed in all spheres of human psychosis.
That psychosis creates a labyrinth from which grows the fear of freedom. The fear psychosis benumbs the critical consciousness of the feared. The feared bemoans the befallen catastrophe over their existence and essence but fear to challenge the absoluteness of power. Their benumbed souls remain as inert as ever. That inertia is the outcome of the production of intended effects of power and the intended effects loom large over horizontal spheres of the feared human beings who are less powerful or absolutely powerless. But it is not that the powerless has no power to wield. The feared too have the power but not enough to overcome their fear.
When we say power, we generally mean political power. Power is politically distributed among the various cross-sections of people. In that sense power is both vertically and horizontally divided and the vertices culminate in a pyramidical superstructure. On the top of the pyramid rests the fearful and on its base writhe the feared ones at the mercy of the most powerful ones. Those with the absolute power at their disposal are the supreme authority to wield their all ammunitions of political power with indulgence and insistence of violence. And violence is not only the metaphor of political power but also the categorical pronouncement and praxis of politics of power.
And, yes, political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. No, it is not just a catchword of Mao's politics. It is the catchword of politics and political power of all hues. Nobody can deny that those who wield the gun, wield the power and vice versa. Power is a manifestation of violence authored and perpetrated perpetually by the authority or that the power-that-be consisting of a handful. It is because that the fearful only have all the power to enthrone themselves to the seat of power, be it democratic or otherwise.
Democracy too does cohere the most fearful and most powerful as democracy without power is like a king without his fangless sceptre. Without power at the base how can the juggernaut of democracy roll on? The powerful are 'the democrat' and the powerless are 'the democratised' in the long course of history of changing hands of power among the most powerful. The democratised have never been democrats and they do not have any affordable power to 'democratise' the democrats in democratic nuances. It is power of democratic politics that eternalises democracy and reserves power for the powerful.
Power is power over the powerless people to dominate over them and to enjoy unbridled authority over them. And ordinary people have got no power to wield the gun, so they have no power of authority and no power over the authority or the powerful power-that-be to dominate over them. Those who do not wield power to dominate are destined to be dominated and be ruled. So, people are ruled, the ruled and people are destined to be the ruled as having no power of wielding gun and wielding power.
Bertrand Russel has provided a remarkable perception of power in his book 'Power : A New Social Analysis'. He said, "Power may be defined as the production of intended effects. The fundamental concept of social science is power, in the same sense in which energy is the fundamental concept in physics. Like energy, power has many forms." Russel's 'production of intended effects' is the political ideology of power which is socially reclaimed in all spheres of human psychosis.
That psychosis creates a labyrinth from which grows the fear of freedom. The fear psychosis benumbs the critical consciousness of the feared. The feared bemoans the befallen catastrophe over their existence and essence but fear to challenge the absoluteness of power. Their benumbed souls remain as inert as ever. That inertia is the outcome of the production of intended effects of power and the intended effects loom large over horizontal spheres of the feared human beings who are less powerful or absolutely powerless. But it is not that the powerless has no power to wield. The feared too have the power but not enough to overcome their fear.
When we say power, we generally mean political power. Power is politically distributed among the various cross-sections of people. In that sense power is both vertically and horizontally divided and the vertices culminate in a pyramidical superstructure. On the top of the pyramid rests the fearful and on its base writhe the feared ones at the mercy of the most powerful ones. Those with the absolute power at their disposal are the supreme authority to wield their all ammunitions of political power with indulgence and insistence of violence. And violence is not only the metaphor of political power but also the categorical pronouncement and praxis of politics of power.
And, yes, political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. No, it is not just a catchword of Mao's politics. It is the catchword of politics and political power of all hues. Nobody can deny that those who wield the gun, wield the power and vice versa. Power is a manifestation of violence authored and perpetrated perpetually by the authority or that the power-that-be consisting of a handful. It is because that the fearful only have all the power to enthrone themselves to the seat of power, be it democratic or otherwise.
Democracy too does cohere the most fearful and most powerful as democracy without power is like a king without his fangless sceptre. Without power at the base how can the juggernaut of democracy roll on? The powerful are 'the democrat' and the powerless are 'the democratised' in the long course of history of changing hands of power among the most powerful. The democratised have never been democrats and they do not have any affordable power to 'democratise' the democrats in democratic nuances. It is power of democratic politics that eternalises democracy and reserves power for the powerful.
Power is power over the powerless people to dominate over them and to enjoy unbridled authority over them. And ordinary people have got no power to wield the gun, so they have no power of authority and no power over the authority or the powerful power-that-be to dominate over them. Those who do not wield power to dominate are destined to be dominated and be ruled. So, people are ruled, the ruled and people are destined to be the ruled as having no power of wielding gun and wielding power.
Kurosawa's IKIRU
Kurosawa's IKIRU is a lesser known film but never lacking in his strong commitment to handling human issues with immaculate perception. The story is very simple. A simple as it could be, there is not much gimmick nor many twists and turns. Even then it is really a treat to watch and worth sitting through to the end.
Tao is is the Unit Head of a public works department. He was left alone by his parents at an early age. His wife too died leaving behind his only son Tong. He himself brought him up with all too parental care sacrificing his personal happiness and joy.
He served his office for 30 years at a stretch never leaving his job undone lived his life among piles of files which seem to be his home and hearth. But the corruption of bureaucracy and red-tapism has tormented him and alienated him from the fellow employees. He only knew how to dispense with his duties. The fellow workers named him 'mummy' and ridiculed him behind his back.
Not only that, to add insult to the injury, his son Tong and his wife too neglected him shamelessly. There only concern was to get money from him. Tao's life was such a tragically woven life that he got liver cancer which he never disclosed to anybody.
Only a fellow cancer patient knew about this. He stopped attending his office which led many of his office workers and neighbours to resorting dirty gossips about him among themselves. He started visiting hotel, restaurants, bars with that cancer patients to get over the predicaments. One day, a young seductive girl came to visit him and he started loving her company. But that seductive girl too eschewed him. At their last meeting in a restaurant, Tao asked her about what boosted her energy made her so frolicsome and jovial.
That girl presented him a limping toy rabbit. Seeing that toy limping, Tao at last realised the true meaning of life which was to live life to one's full content. He regained his lost energy of sorts. He wanted to enjoy life like others but without forsaking his commitment to dedication.
Next day he started attending his office. Overriding all bureaucratic obstacles he built a public park which was a legitimate and long time demand of the local citizens. In the end, he succumbed to cancer singing "Life is short" while swinging on the cradle of the park all alone.
But his mission mission had not gone abegging. All his fellow workers and his son acknowledged his honesty and integrity. The tragedy ends here but with a message. And the 'mummy' came to life and he was, as it were, resurrected after his tragic death. It never ended in smoke.
Kurosawa used a lot of flashbacks to portray the contradictions Tao's life with the decadent world which has tormented his soul in no uncertain terms. The soulfulness is poignantly displayed in all those flashbacks. Without those flashbacks the contradictions could not be revealed in such a distinctive denouement. Toshiro Miffun has once more proved his mettle here with his wonderful performance.
Tao is is the Unit Head of a public works department. He was left alone by his parents at an early age. His wife too died leaving behind his only son Tong. He himself brought him up with all too parental care sacrificing his personal happiness and joy.
He served his office for 30 years at a stretch never leaving his job undone lived his life among piles of files which seem to be his home and hearth. But the corruption of bureaucracy and red-tapism has tormented him and alienated him from the fellow employees. He only knew how to dispense with his duties. The fellow workers named him 'mummy' and ridiculed him behind his back.
Not only that, to add insult to the injury, his son Tong and his wife too neglected him shamelessly. There only concern was to get money from him. Tao's life was such a tragically woven life that he got liver cancer which he never disclosed to anybody.
Only a fellow cancer patient knew about this. He stopped attending his office which led many of his office workers and neighbours to resorting dirty gossips about him among themselves. He started visiting hotel, restaurants, bars with that cancer patients to get over the predicaments. One day, a young seductive girl came to visit him and he started loving her company. But that seductive girl too eschewed him. At their last meeting in a restaurant, Tao asked her about what boosted her energy made her so frolicsome and jovial.
That girl presented him a limping toy rabbit. Seeing that toy limping, Tao at last realised the true meaning of life which was to live life to one's full content. He regained his lost energy of sorts. He wanted to enjoy life like others but without forsaking his commitment to dedication.
Next day he started attending his office. Overriding all bureaucratic obstacles he built a public park which was a legitimate and long time demand of the local citizens. In the end, he succumbed to cancer singing "Life is short" while swinging on the cradle of the park all alone.
But his mission mission had not gone abegging. All his fellow workers and his son acknowledged his honesty and integrity. The tragedy ends here but with a message. And the 'mummy' came to life and he was, as it were, resurrected after his tragic death. It never ended in smoke.
Kurosawa used a lot of flashbacks to portray the contradictions Tao's life with the decadent world which has tormented his soul in no uncertain terms. The soulfulness is poignantly displayed in all those flashbacks. Without those flashbacks the contradictions could not be revealed in such a distinctive denouement. Toshiro Miffun has once more proved his mettle here with his wonderful performance.
Elephants and Millions of Ants - III
3.
I do not know many things for which I go to them.
They are The Unknowledgeable marginally living on the fringes of unenlightenment. They are The Unenlightened. Enlightenment has never dawned on their horizon. They are the wretched of the world.
I go to them time and again to know many things which I do not know but they know. They know too many things to let others know.
I return from them always getting enlightened many times over by their common sense of common good. Their common sense for common good is their wisdom which they inherit genealogically. It is their genealogical knowledge passed from one generation to another.
They know many stunning things with no expertise of knowledge to boast over. It is pedagogy of the oppressed vastly expanded in a democratic world. Democracy is inherently ingrained in their customs and cultures. They know and let others know to propagate wisdom through the length and breadth of time and space. It is not a quagmire of lies and pretences, it is a treasure trove of age-old observations, inferences and experiences. Not only that, a unique mechanism of intuitions has gathered some stunningly beautiful knowledge for them which stand them in good stead in times of crisis and damage.
And they do not know many things. But that do not deter them in any way whatsoever to pursue their course of life. High-falutin mumbo-jumbo is not their way of luxury. They only know what they should know and they do not know what they should not know. What they know is their common knowledge to be stored and restored for common good and for common partaking. Their knowledge is participatory and shared knowledge all the way. It is born in community, it prospers in community but never dies in community until and unless better wisdom prevails in the end.
They do not know what they think not wise.
Wisdom is the very basis of their existence. Relying on all assumptions, presumptions, suppositions and intuitions, their wisdom spreads in thousand wings. Shamamism, occultism and magic wizardry have come a long way down the ages and had died in the natural course of civilization. But they have carried their true legacy of sorts in a new paradigm. That is the virtuosity of their wisdom. Who can deny that Socratic wisdom too has passed through many paradigm shifts to stand to the test of time? Had not the Socratic Paradox given a big jolt among the Sophists? But that ultimately broke open the door for dialectical knowledge.
Theirs is the ants' eyeview of knowledge, seeing reality from the bottom. That grassroot reality is the diurnal reality which never gets bogged down into a blackhole. It is myth, mystery, hearsay, intuition, experience and all possible resources gathered from ancient times to post-modernist period that constitute the cornerstone of sub-altern knowledge system and is propagated through interactive and dialogical converses. And from generation to generation it caters to the multi-culture needs of the common people. It is need-based and value-added as ready reference to functional parity of common senses.
(End)
I do not know many things for which I go to them.
They are The Unknowledgeable marginally living on the fringes of unenlightenment. They are The Unenlightened. Enlightenment has never dawned on their horizon. They are the wretched of the world.
I go to them time and again to know many things which I do not know but they know. They know too many things to let others know.
I return from them always getting enlightened many times over by their common sense of common good. Their common sense for common good is their wisdom which they inherit genealogically. It is their genealogical knowledge passed from one generation to another.
They know many stunning things with no expertise of knowledge to boast over. It is pedagogy of the oppressed vastly expanded in a democratic world. Democracy is inherently ingrained in their customs and cultures. They know and let others know to propagate wisdom through the length and breadth of time and space. It is not a quagmire of lies and pretences, it is a treasure trove of age-old observations, inferences and experiences. Not only that, a unique mechanism of intuitions has gathered some stunningly beautiful knowledge for them which stand them in good stead in times of crisis and damage.
And they do not know many things. But that do not deter them in any way whatsoever to pursue their course of life. High-falutin mumbo-jumbo is not their way of luxury. They only know what they should know and they do not know what they should not know. What they know is their common knowledge to be stored and restored for common good and for common partaking. Their knowledge is participatory and shared knowledge all the way. It is born in community, it prospers in community but never dies in community until and unless better wisdom prevails in the end.
They do not know what they think not wise.
Wisdom is the very basis of their existence. Relying on all assumptions, presumptions, suppositions and intuitions, their wisdom spreads in thousand wings. Shamamism, occultism and magic wizardry have come a long way down the ages and had died in the natural course of civilization. But they have carried their true legacy of sorts in a new paradigm. That is the virtuosity of their wisdom. Who can deny that Socratic wisdom too has passed through many paradigm shifts to stand to the test of time? Had not the Socratic Paradox given a big jolt among the Sophists? But that ultimately broke open the door for dialectical knowledge.
Theirs is the ants' eyeview of knowledge, seeing reality from the bottom. That grassroot reality is the diurnal reality which never gets bogged down into a blackhole. It is myth, mystery, hearsay, intuition, experience and all possible resources gathered from ancient times to post-modernist period that constitute the cornerstone of sub-altern knowledge system and is propagated through interactive and dialogical converses. And from generation to generation it caters to the multi-culture needs of the common people. It is need-based and value-added as ready reference to functional parity of common senses.
(End)
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Elephants and Millions of Ants - II
2.
And the experts flourish with their expertise of knowledge.
They know very well on which side the bread is buttered or in which direction the westerly wind blows. This is their expertise, the expertise which knows for them where and when to start and where and when to finish. This is their expertise and that is why they are oft-quoted and self-styled 'experts'. They never partake of the forbidden fruit of knowledge as they very well know what to know and what not to know for supplementing their vested interest. Vested interest is the name of the game. They impart and spread knowledge about everything as though nothing can be challenged and nothing can be called into question. And their expertise will go scot-free.
The wretched of the earth has not the ability to falsify their knowledge which they claim to know. Their arrogance of knowledge foresees that the unknowledgeable will never dare to break the shackles of inertia of the culture of silence they will never ever strike back at the power-hegemony over them. They are the unknowledgeable and the unknowledgeable have had not the right kind of pedagogy to challenge their authority of knowledge. Culture of silence has made them lowdown and has taught them to accept reality lying down so much so that radicalization of their consciousness cannot be an impediment to the experts’ outright authority. But can that authority not be challenged by the pedagogy of the oppressed by proving them false?
Karl Popper propounded the idea of falsification to verify truth of any hypothetical knowledge which the preachers of knowledge claim to espouse so religiously in their attempts to fortify their reign of arrogance of knowledge. Popper’s methodology is that attempts should be made to falsify, rather than verify, the experts’ “scientific” knowledge. He said that if it was impossible in principles to be able to prove any specific idea false, then it was not “science”. Science is said to be a process of conjectures and refutations which razed all claims of arrogance of knowledge to the ground. So-called knowledge and doctrine can never be beyond human foibles. So, the experts themselves are always exposed to the threats of extinction. They and their expertise are vulnerable as vulnerable as they may be.
According to another new approach as propounded by Thomas Kuhn, knowledge of science normally progresses by small increments under a set of prevailing ideas and methods. This set of prevailing ideas and methods are what we know as paradigm. The normative incremental progress of knowledge of science from situational perspective is paradigm shift. From Newtonian science to Einstein’s relativity theory, there has been a continuous threat and challenge to the set pattern of knowledge. From the Kuhnian viewpoint, no knowledge is a stationary truth as claimed by the exponents of arrogance of knowledge and truth is relative in paradigmatic parameter, and truth is just not truth but approximate to truth as professed by Popper.
In this context, George Orwell’s once remarked, “We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts to show that we are right. Intellectually it is possible to carry on the process for an indefinite time : the only check on it is that sooner or later, a false belief bumps against solid reality…” As such, truth is too vulnerable to that extent that it is supposed to be challengeable and it is to be challenged by falsifying it.
So, truth or knowledge of truth, whether be it expert’s knowledge or simply unsullied truth, always holds a dwindling position depending on the value-added custom aided and abetted by its social functions. If the summum bonum of a truth or knowledge is of highest good to the common denominators, then the other fractional entities should be challenged, refuted and forsaken for the common good. And that truth or knowledge universally accepted, democratically and liberally propositioned in an open-ended frame of reference in which reality is set into motion to stand to the test of time.
(Contd.)
And the experts flourish with their expertise of knowledge.
They know very well on which side the bread is buttered or in which direction the westerly wind blows. This is their expertise, the expertise which knows for them where and when to start and where and when to finish. This is their expertise and that is why they are oft-quoted and self-styled 'experts'. They never partake of the forbidden fruit of knowledge as they very well know what to know and what not to know for supplementing their vested interest. Vested interest is the name of the game. They impart and spread knowledge about everything as though nothing can be challenged and nothing can be called into question. And their expertise will go scot-free.
The wretched of the earth has not the ability to falsify their knowledge which they claim to know. Their arrogance of knowledge foresees that the unknowledgeable will never dare to break the shackles of inertia of the culture of silence they will never ever strike back at the power-hegemony over them. They are the unknowledgeable and the unknowledgeable have had not the right kind of pedagogy to challenge their authority of knowledge. Culture of silence has made them lowdown and has taught them to accept reality lying down so much so that radicalization of their consciousness cannot be an impediment to the experts’ outright authority. But can that authority not be challenged by the pedagogy of the oppressed by proving them false?
Karl Popper propounded the idea of falsification to verify truth of any hypothetical knowledge which the preachers of knowledge claim to espouse so religiously in their attempts to fortify their reign of arrogance of knowledge. Popper’s methodology is that attempts should be made to falsify, rather than verify, the experts’ “scientific” knowledge. He said that if it was impossible in principles to be able to prove any specific idea false, then it was not “science”. Science is said to be a process of conjectures and refutations which razed all claims of arrogance of knowledge to the ground. So-called knowledge and doctrine can never be beyond human foibles. So, the experts themselves are always exposed to the threats of extinction. They and their expertise are vulnerable as vulnerable as they may be.
According to another new approach as propounded by Thomas Kuhn, knowledge of science normally progresses by small increments under a set of prevailing ideas and methods. This set of prevailing ideas and methods are what we know as paradigm. The normative incremental progress of knowledge of science from situational perspective is paradigm shift. From Newtonian science to Einstein’s relativity theory, there has been a continuous threat and challenge to the set pattern of knowledge. From the Kuhnian viewpoint, no knowledge is a stationary truth as claimed by the exponents of arrogance of knowledge and truth is relative in paradigmatic parameter, and truth is just not truth but approximate to truth as professed by Popper.
In this context, George Orwell’s once remarked, “We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts to show that we are right. Intellectually it is possible to carry on the process for an indefinite time : the only check on it is that sooner or later, a false belief bumps against solid reality…” As such, truth is too vulnerable to that extent that it is supposed to be challengeable and it is to be challenged by falsifying it.
So, truth or knowledge of truth, whether be it expert’s knowledge or simply unsullied truth, always holds a dwindling position depending on the value-added custom aided and abetted by its social functions. If the summum bonum of a truth or knowledge is of highest good to the common denominators, then the other fractional entities should be challenged, refuted and forsaken for the common good. And that truth or knowledge universally accepted, democratically and liberally propositioned in an open-ended frame of reference in which reality is set into motion to stand to the test of time.
(Contd.)
elephants and Millions of Ants - I
1.
I do not know many things which I think I should know.
And I do know many things too which I think I should not know at all.
What should I know? And what should I not know as such?
The 'suchness' of things punch reality into the 'suchness of things'. That reality epistemologically is empirical and we take it for granted on a conservative scale of mind. But reality is not such a holy cow that should be worshipped for good without having pertinence to a frame of reference. Reality has its own frame of reference. Hegel says, attitude of thoughts determine the course and identity of reality and it is the prime mover of the dynamicity of history and historical reality. That is, attitude is the main thing and mainstay of dissecting reality to one's choice. And reality pays for it. Then what variant of reality I should know or I should not know?
So, as attitude is the main thing and determinant factor of our way of life, so our attitude only takes the saying power of what we should know and what we should not know at all about reality. We should know what our attitudes determine and what variant of attitude we generally cherish in our way of life so that we can accept reality as a thing-in-itself and as a thing-for-itself too as the case may be. To check reality whether it is a thing-in-itself or a thing-for-itself, we have to crosscheck our basic attitude.
Then, the subjective-objective duality aside, what is our general attitude per se? Attitude grossly is our vested interest and our vested interest is individual and universal as well depending on the objective of our interests. If it is individual, the individualistic attitude will create some closed space wherein lies our one and only ambition to create a set pattern of reality. In that set pattern, one determines the charter of his life. That life is individualistic and seeks for individual knowledge in quest of one's own vested interest in that set pattern. This opens a closed vista of power of knowledge, the knowledge that one knows is to reach him to a closed space allowing no opening for others. That is what individualistic knowledge is. One has the exclusive right over it and with that right he comes to the inference of closely monitoring his vested interest. This is simply regimentation of knowledge.
On the other hand, when the vested interest is universal, it transcends the closed-space reality creating openings for liberal knowledge which is not knowledge-in-itself but a plethora of ideas grounded in ‘suchness’ of reality. That reality is democratically and holistically determined and outsourced in universal objectives to the tenors of time and space. Thus liberal knowledge is positioned diametrically opposite to the individualistic ambition in dimension. When the ambition is universally propositioned, the liberal knowledge becomes more subtle and is disseminated in a wider area of cognitive reflexes. Thus the democracy of knowledge is always in perpetual motion and interactive and dialogical. It is paradigmatically well-behaved and anchored in democratic patterns of thoughts and beliefs.
So, in the case of knowledge being close-spaced, sparsely distributed in discrete particles, it becomes an epicenter of expertise of power, an exclusive power over others, never catering power to others. This is arrogance of knowledge per excellence. It flagrantly violates the democracy of knowledge and that concerned individual, without giving a priority of disseminating knowledge universally to one and all, crowns himself in the Tower of Babel brandishing his well-gotten weaponry to do away with all possible detractors. As a depository of power, knowledge knows no bounds to overcome and overwhelm anything and everything that come its way. Arrogance of knowledge does not tolerate any pothole in its quest of one imperial colony after another. It seemingly becomes an invincible force to reckon with in lust and lustre.
In common parlance, those who wield power of knowledge over others with the sceptre of arrogance of knowledge are the generally oft-quoted 'experts'. They colonise others' mind and enslave them with a purported authority. They do what the colonialists are supposed to do. Colonialists, we know, are the mercantilists. The 'experts' like their predecessors are wont to deal in expertise of their knowledge like any other merchandise. They sell their own brand of merchandise to the unknowledgeable and it pays. It pays them dearly in callous cash nexusas well as in terms of power and prestige But they never know and are never willing to know the feasibility of utility of their wares to universal demands. They just produce, sell and they flourish. And the colonised minds languish as ever like flotsam and jetsam in their own natural habitat, they remain as ever as the wretched of the earth.
(contd.)
I do not know many things which I think I should know.
And I do know many things too which I think I should not know at all.
What should I know? And what should I not know as such?
The 'suchness' of things punch reality into the 'suchness of things'. That reality epistemologically is empirical and we take it for granted on a conservative scale of mind. But reality is not such a holy cow that should be worshipped for good without having pertinence to a frame of reference. Reality has its own frame of reference. Hegel says, attitude of thoughts determine the course and identity of reality and it is the prime mover of the dynamicity of history and historical reality. That is, attitude is the main thing and mainstay of dissecting reality to one's choice. And reality pays for it. Then what variant of reality I should know or I should not know?
So, as attitude is the main thing and determinant factor of our way of life, so our attitude only takes the saying power of what we should know and what we should not know at all about reality. We should know what our attitudes determine and what variant of attitude we generally cherish in our way of life so that we can accept reality as a thing-in-itself and as a thing-for-itself too as the case may be. To check reality whether it is a thing-in-itself or a thing-for-itself, we have to crosscheck our basic attitude.
Then, the subjective-objective duality aside, what is our general attitude per se? Attitude grossly is our vested interest and our vested interest is individual and universal as well depending on the objective of our interests. If it is individual, the individualistic attitude will create some closed space wherein lies our one and only ambition to create a set pattern of reality. In that set pattern, one determines the charter of his life. That life is individualistic and seeks for individual knowledge in quest of one's own vested interest in that set pattern. This opens a closed vista of power of knowledge, the knowledge that one knows is to reach him to a closed space allowing no opening for others. That is what individualistic knowledge is. One has the exclusive right over it and with that right he comes to the inference of closely monitoring his vested interest. This is simply regimentation of knowledge.
On the other hand, when the vested interest is universal, it transcends the closed-space reality creating openings for liberal knowledge which is not knowledge-in-itself but a plethora of ideas grounded in ‘suchness’ of reality. That reality is democratically and holistically determined and outsourced in universal objectives to the tenors of time and space. Thus liberal knowledge is positioned diametrically opposite to the individualistic ambition in dimension. When the ambition is universally propositioned, the liberal knowledge becomes more subtle and is disseminated in a wider area of cognitive reflexes. Thus the democracy of knowledge is always in perpetual motion and interactive and dialogical. It is paradigmatically well-behaved and anchored in democratic patterns of thoughts and beliefs.
So, in the case of knowledge being close-spaced, sparsely distributed in discrete particles, it becomes an epicenter of expertise of power, an exclusive power over others, never catering power to others. This is arrogance of knowledge per excellence. It flagrantly violates the democracy of knowledge and that concerned individual, without giving a priority of disseminating knowledge universally to one and all, crowns himself in the Tower of Babel brandishing his well-gotten weaponry to do away with all possible detractors. As a depository of power, knowledge knows no bounds to overcome and overwhelm anything and everything that come its way. Arrogance of knowledge does not tolerate any pothole in its quest of one imperial colony after another. It seemingly becomes an invincible force to reckon with in lust and lustre.
In common parlance, those who wield power of knowledge over others with the sceptre of arrogance of knowledge are the generally oft-quoted 'experts'. They colonise others' mind and enslave them with a purported authority. They do what the colonialists are supposed to do. Colonialists, we know, are the mercantilists. The 'experts' like their predecessors are wont to deal in expertise of their knowledge like any other merchandise. They sell their own brand of merchandise to the unknowledgeable and it pays. It pays them dearly in callous cash nexusas well as in terms of power and prestige But they never know and are never willing to know the feasibility of utility of their wares to universal demands. They just produce, sell and they flourish. And the colonised minds languish as ever like flotsam and jetsam in their own natural habitat, they remain as ever as the wretched of the earth.
(contd.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
