Showing posts with label Satire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Satire. Show all posts

Monday, May 28, 2012

Ten Issues - 22

1- Banning middlemen from oil trade could drive down price of crude by 40% : These middlemen add little value and lots of cost as they bid up the price of oil in pursuit of financial gain. They are "pure" speculators - investors who buy and sell oil futures but never take physical possession of actual barrels of oil.

2- Daron Acemoglu on Inequality - The US, the UK and many other countries have become far less equal over the past 30 years. The MIT economics professor says it's important we understand how and why this happened, and what it means for our societies. He also review Five Books.

3- The Emperor Uncrowned - A complete reportage on the rise of Narendra Modi.

4- The new think tank by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha:- Dry intellectual pursuits such as neuroscience and auction theory are solving problems on the ground. We met four people whose models prove how.

5- December 1984 By Sathyu Sarangi : Many of the battles begun 25 years ago, in the aftermath of catastrophe, continue today. A deep and moving saga of the struggle of Bhopal victims.

6- Of chick charts, hen charts and other such women’s stories: Saba Dewan - This could be termed as a pioneer of the Feminist movement in modern-day Delhi. It will be difficult to fathom that such sexist and misogynist behaviour existed in educational institution.

7- Plutonomy and the precariat: On the history of the US economy in decline - Prof. Chomsky explains that the current US economy is built on 'growing worker insecurity' - people who are too busy and poor to make demands.

8- The Importance of Not Being Earnest : The larger implications of a country that takes itself too seriously. - We as the Public India seems to have no sense of humour at all. And all attempt of sarcasm and other sharper kinds of humour.

9- Marx at 193 by John Lanchester - Writer review here importance of Marx and he really did have the most astonishing insight into the nature and trajectory and direction of capitalism.

10- Great biographic article on Prof. Amartya Sen who studies of social choice, welfare measurement, and poverty and do research on fundamental problems in welfare economics.

Quote of the day :- Personally, I'm in favor of democracy, which means that the central institutions of society have to be under popular control. Now, under capitalism we can't have democracy by definition. Capitalism is a system in which the central institutions of society are in principle under autocratic control. Thus, a corporation or an industry is, if we were to think of it in political terms, fascist; that is, it has tight control at the top and strict obedience has to be established at every level - there's a little bargaining, a little give and take, but the line of authority is perfectly straightforward. Just as I'm opposed to political fascism, I'm opposed to economic fascism. I think that until major institutions of society are under the popular control of participants and communities, it's pointless to talk about democracy.” — Noam Chomsky

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Love, Reality and Satire

I love cinema and books. What genre in them ? Rather than looking for entertainment element, I love calm, almost hypnotic and intense films or books. I like them as they give me insight of human nature. With experiences of interactions with different minds in the society, cinema and books have helped me to understand human behaviour. Love, reality and satire are three words that has captured me from a long time. I will state about them further here in mine blabbering.

Satire is only tool through which taboo topics and events can be investigated and offer the audience to experience both laughter and discomfort, sometimes simultaneously. It the best of all mass entertainment that has grown of our natural ability to laugh on our tears. Wit and humor combined with knowledge form the basis of satire. Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality. They reflect bankruptcy of ours belief system that we hold very dear despite of its negative impact. The inherent strength of the content matched with cheeky presentation can only awake humans from a state of apathy.

I have started to drop all sort of beliefs that make person behave like irrational. When one inquire about some issue to others, one raise a question about others opinions and deep down disturb his/her belief system. Doubt is the best way to gather knowledge. Unless not doubted to full satisfation of curiosity and extent of pre-existing knowledge, no one embed the information into his/her knowledge bank. That is why search for good teacher is necessary because information provided about reality first may be wrong.

Family and Society constraint the thinking of humans and tend to make one believe that first answers were only correct one. This static state of knowledge prevents expansion of person's consciousness and mind both. Reality is dynamic in the nature and can't be understand by the person stuck in the traditions and deeds of past generations.

This led to the labeling of the person under an identity. An individual trapped in an limited identity will be exploited by authoritative state or religion. It also constraint a person's open interaction with another individual belonging to different belief system. The dilemma of choosing between integration and emigration from mainstream & picking either freedom or security are most tough of all decisions for an individual.

Labels such as society, culture and religion are superficial in nature and they take away the basic freedom to redefine ourselves with each passing moment. Only an individual exist deep down in all of us. An individual that always love and is ready for rational debate in the matters of traditions. Love is a small margin that somehow separates magic and rational method. It is beyond rationality yet best of all human emotions. Reasons are weapons to uncover mask of hypocrisy but only love can raise moral awareness level of an individual towards everything.

Familiarity is not necessarily the same thing as understanding or empathy. Reality is taken in very limited perception by innocent people who only seek for basic needs of life, hopes for better future and a little entertainment. The innocent people became victims in the fights of identity and ideologies that forced them to take sides in this warfare. When such long abuse of power is corrected, same victims become oppressors and confrontation of belief system is generally replaced by an opposite violence. This violence is generated by the lack of understanding of both sides and a strict affiliation to their own set of values.

Louis D. Brandeis remarked correctly that the greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. Tyranny of one belief system over other has been born out of ignorance, superstition, bigotry. The free expression of the hopes and aspirations of a people is the greatest and only safety in a sane society. That is the only evolution for becoming more humane can be attained by us.

Many politicians are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim. ~Thomas Macaulay