A Perspective

A Perspective

How can we ever know anything for real because everything we know is things we learn from different people’s perspectives. Also, perspectives aren’t facts and facts are not ideas.

To take on someone else’s perspective and to treat it as the ultimate truth is absurd. What one needs to do is venture out into the world and find their own truth. Although, that will not make it a fact but will just remain to be ones perspective.

One can never see and experience everything. It’s an almost impossible task. But one must try to experience different things. Many people are too comfortable in their daily routines and don’t like to do things which make them uncomfortable. But doing these ‘out of routine’ things are the ones that really teach you new ways of living.

It’s not all black and white but just a lot of grey. When you are set in your ways you see everything as ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ But good or bad are just perspectives of how one views a certain scenario. When you debate the idea of good and bad, when you question it, that is when you move into the grey areas – areas of uncertainty and discomfort. This is where real discovery can take place. New ideas, thoughts, perspectives and changes flood through your body and soul. It fills you up with new life.

Change is constant....(unknown). It always is and people who accept it grow, people who resist it stagnate and miss the evolutionary cycle.

15/08/2011
On the train from Lyon to Nice, France.

Choice - A limited and relative term

“They’re not mad. They’re trained to believe, not to know. Belief can be manipulated. Only knowledge is dangerous.”

And so goes on the history of mankind as we know it……

How many curious minds do we find today amidst ourselves? Loads… but curiosity towards what may we ask? Curiosity towards the world we live in…no! Curiosity about the people who rule our world….no! Curiosity about what your neighbor is doing…Yes…let’s hear a hallelujah. Curiosity about how much money your co-worker has in his bank account…Yes…let’s hear it once again…Hallelujah!

‘What have we become?’ one could easily wonder. Yet, who we become is often something few of us have a choice in. You ‘be’ and for generations most of us ‘have been’ ignorant fools who have been driven around physically and mentally by a collective few who possess the powers of illusion.

These powers of illusion are not synonymous to those possessed by wizards or magicians but to the simple gift of the gab that creates sweet-talkers or diplomats or lobbyists. What they possess in their minds is the power of knowledge, the kind of knowledge that understands the basic human behavior and knows how, when and where it can or cannot be manipulated.

How do we know that the superpowers of today don’t manipulate the beliefs of jihadists to carry on a war which is needed for certain vested reasons? And in the name of war laws are passed “democratically” that takes away every last vestige of our freedom. That brings us to another important question - what is freedom?

Aren’t we all free to go shopping and buy more goods and consume, consume, consume till we die? Some may say that is freedom but how can that be freedom when the very act of consumption is something that has been created by the corporate world as a mechanism that keeps on increasing their profits? How can you keep leading a life that has been designed by someone else for you to live and yet call yourself free?

Even if you want to make a choice and are free to make a choice then look at the choices that exist - the choice between Pepsi or Coke…at some level both are the same…creations of corporate gods who want you to believe that you have freedom.

And the sad fact is that there isn’t any silver lining in this dark cloud.

Conversations and commitments

Conversations

...a people grown soft with an easy planet... Frank Herbert - Dune

Reading this quote in the Frank Herbert book called Dune raised a number of questions in my mind. The first thing that came to mind was this question: do we need to pass through tough conditions in life to become tough or are some people just born tough and some weak?

The answer to this came to me while talking to people I know.

While discussing a certain point with a friend about how we as individuals should stand up against forces in power on our planet and their manipulation and exploitation of us and our country's/planet's resources, i learnt that my friend's views were very different from mine. At first I couldn't fathom as to why an educated and well informed person like my friend would take such a stand. My friend's views about standing up to such forces was very straightforward and the gist of it was this - what can i as one man do and why should i take the trouble of solving issues that affect thousands or millions. I am not strong enough to fight these forces and if I try, in the end, the loss will be mine. It is better to just look after your gains in life and move on.

I was really disturbed by these replies and tried to reason it out with him but to no avail. I thought to myself that this was an outlook of an immature and childish mind or that of one still on the verge of adulthood.

In the evening i called my mom to catch up with her and during the conversation we seemed to hit the exact same note as i did with my friend. To my surprise my mom expressed the exact same view as my friend but also repeated to me the same lines that my friend had proffered by way of explanation. My friend lives in Australia and my mom in India. The two have never crossed paths. These combined incidents led me back to the quote i read in the book Dune.


..a people grown soft with an easy planet... Frank Herbert - Dune

There is a lot of truth in this quote. All we need to do is substitute the word "planet" with "life."

People who have never really fought for anything -(maybe petty everyday issues) but nothing that meant their life or their freedom or their children or something that they truly loved - have lost their zeal and vigor. They go on living from one day to another with no real goal or aim but to survive and prosper in the material world. Spiritual gains are limited to offerings made to their religions/religious organizations and other rituals. Soothing their conscience translates to donating a small sum for some cause. But to go out and do some real work is something they cannot even begin to consider. Even if rare moments of inspiration generate a spark, they quickly smother by finding reasons to not do it.

This is not a problem limited to one family, one state or one country; this is something that has dug in deep and rooted itself in the psyches of generation after generation of our species, resulting in the belief that as an individual, I need to take care of myself and my family...the world can go and blow itself up, so long as it's in my neighbor's yard.


We all choose are paths. One is to sit back and observe and criticize but not lift a finger to oppose the actions of those who are causing harm. The other way is to fight against the current and choose to do something about such issues. Many people think that by choosing the latter they will lose everything, but by choosing option 1, there are no guarantees that you won't loose anything and everything eventually, if you allow a corrupt system to thrive.

"If you don't take a chance, you don't stand a chance."
Unknown.

Survival

Survival

Evolution is one of the most fascinating phenomenons of all life on Earth. It is no hidden secret that all life on our planet has evolved to better adapt to their surroundings so as to continue to thrive and pass on their genes to the next generation.

One of the most interesting aspects of evolution though is how different life forms including plants adapt to their environment by a variety of means including changing their appearance and very way of life, to survive. The weakest animal is always an easy hunt and hence dies out before passing on its weak genes and the fittest survives to make the next generation faster and stronger.

This innate quality is found in all beings. One classic example is that of the turtles that come out in the dark of the night to lay their eggs in the soft sand on the beach. The birth of these new born turtles is nothing but a food festival for a number of other creatures who feast on them with relish, taking nourishment. Only the fastest or the strongest of these turtles survive the onslaught to make it to the sea and hence are able to pass on their genes to the next generation that promises to be better and stronger.

As humans we also have evolved as well. But our evolution has taken a different turn. The question that really hits me is what have we been evolving into? Unlike most animals who have changed physically to adapt to their environment to survive the onslaught of predators who hunt them, humans have evolved mentally.

This can be looked upon as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, our standard of living in all aspects has improved immensely from what it used to be a few centuries ago on the other hand lies the darker results of our mental evolution.

Just like the animals, our world too belongs to the fittest of survivors; however, this fitness doesn’t refer so much to the physical aspect anymore but to the mental faculty – brains in place of brawn. In short then, survival of the fittest, when it comes to mankind, alludes to the survival of the most cunning human. By using our mental abilities to trick and outsmart, today we have found ways to eschew the beheading or killing of thousands with blades. Instead we play political and diplomatic games that result in starvation and death of numerous people. Just because there is no direct killing, however, doesn’t mean people aren’t dying because of brutal regimes and certain bully countries.

The more cunning you are the richer and more powerful you get over a period of time and successfully pass on these genes to the next generation making life on our planet even worse as more and more cunningness is passed on to our offspring. These cunning beings also make sure that the remainder of our population remains dumb and does not see them for what they really are. In some places they do this by refraining from developing communities who are so involved in survival at the most basic levels that it’s unthinkable for them to pay any attention to the world stage of politics. In other places, this strategy takes on the alluring form of TV. Major media channels and newspapers are further manipulated like puppets that pay far more attention to “tabloidisque” or sensational pieces of news as opposed the urgent truth that is crying out to be told (think Somalia, Erythria, Panama, Sierra Leone, and several more countries).

It was a BBC documentary on evolution that got me thinking on these lines. But it was after watching an eye-opening documentary called Occupation 101 that I was able to see the unappealing big picture which tells but one story of the many that run on similar themes. The documentary talks about the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. How many of us are truly aware of the details of what has been going on in that region for decades? Why does mainstream media not highlight the plight of the Palestines who are dying in hundreds of thousands while focusing so much on the deaths of people in the 9/11 crash? Does this mean that some nationalities are more valuable than others and therefore deserve more media attention?

Time and time again, it basically comes down to our desire to seek the truth and gain knowledge so we can act as responsible citizens of the world and not only make informed decisions when choosing our leaders but hold them accountable for the acts they precipitate.

Here’s a link to the documentary if you’re interested in finding out the truth. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2451908450811690589&ei=T_oeS7-PL5CEwgPp2I3rDQ&q=occupation+101#

Knowledge, as we know, is power.
BUT
"The Greatest Enemy of Knowledge is Not Ignorance, It is the ILLUSION of Knowledge….” – Stephen Hawking.

Another war for freedom

Lush green world they lived in by preserving their way of life,
always exploited by the higher classes who were envious of their freedom,
surrounded by so much beauty but still never able to enjoy thanks to all the strife,
they sought to breakaway by picking up weapons that could bring back their kingdom.

Soon the war was not just against local landlords,
They were now fighting white collar greedy men,
Oh! What had they to do but pull some more cords,
And keep on fighting for what was always their own they ken.

So pitiful their life that their own brethren don’t understand their plight
Our stupid media calls them terrorists, but that’s just smoke,
They might not always be right but they are not always wrong and they keep on their fight
From farmers to fighters - we are the ones who do this to our own folk.

Paisa Vasul (Satisfaction Guaranteed)

Over the past couple of years, I've been extremely fortunate to visit some of the best Zoo's in Asia. Each of these zoos have had so much to offer that I've enjoyed every moment of my visit; I've been awed and excited with each new discovery. However, every time I complete a visit to the zoo it leaves me feeling melancholic.

The zoos do a great job in trying to create an environment which is suitable for these animals, and birds. However, the one thing you can't help ignoring is the sadness displayed in some of the animals' eyes. Some of the saddest moments for me were to see massive birds like the Giant Eagles being caged with hardly any space to spread their wings and enjoy the pleasures of a good flight - the very reason of their existence. I don't even want to try and think what the leopard or Puma feels being caged just a few feet away from its meal(deer). The smell must be a torture for these magnificent beasts.

One might argue that these animals are put in the zoo for educational purposes and also for their protection from poachers and other dangers. However, observe the people who visit the zoos and you'll find them to be the most annoying factor in the whole experience.

Hundreds of people - singles, couples, families, etc. - come to the zoo with a singular mindset of seeing something grand. So, when they don't see the sad looking monkey doing some tricks or the Lion just lazing around, they start to get upset and do all sorts of things to get their money's worth.

During my visit to the Singapore Night Safari I saw a Caucasian father with his 7 or 8 year old daughter in front of me. The man stood next to the fence and tried to make the animal in the cage look towards him by making a "cluk cluck" type of sound. This was again a visitor trying to get his money's worth by making the animal stand in a posture that might give him the perfect shot. The ironic part was when his little girl asked him, very loudly in a tone that was equal parts annoyance and curiosity, "Why do you always do that?" The dad seemed extremely embarrassed at this question and beat a hasty retreat from the area...Needless to say, he had no answer.

The problem is the lack of RESPECT. Most people in their hearts don't respect or care for these animals. What they want is entertainment not education. Even after repeated requests and signs that tell people not to use the flash feature of their cameras, you'll see loads of ignorant people doing the same thing over and over again. Another big problem, is the noise. The amount of noise created by these visitors is not only annoying for the animals and birds but also for other visitors. It compels you to refer to it as "noise pollution." Children grow up imitating what they've seen their parents do for years and things never change for the better.

To enjoy nature, one must first respect it and then be patient enough to observe each of its nuances. If we do this, our visit and experience at the zoo can turn into something more significant and meaningful - an experience that doesn't end when you walk out the gates but one that continues in the form of the changes you make in your life to show your enjoyment and appreciation thorough conservation.

World in Crisis – who do we blame?

These past two years have been one of the worst economic times the world has seen, well, not really the world. I say that because most of the world, (about 80% lives on an avg of less than $10 a day), is poor. But these past two years have been terrible on the privileged sector of our planet, countries that call themselves “Developed,” - developed more in the art of exploitation than anything else.

Anyways, two years of economic downturn and the people and media have been out writing articles and ripping governments and financial institutions left, right and center. Well, don’t get me wrong, I’m not sympathizing with these scamming fiends, but I think there is more to it than just these people or institutions.

It’s easy to say, I can’t pay my mortgage for my beach side mansion because the government didn’t foresee this future. But it’s difficult to accept that you made a mistake by spending the money you didn’t have and not saving.

The “developed” world citizens have always been spending more than they make, leaving themselves in credit card, mortgage or other debts. Only if they had learned to live within their means, which they still haven’t, then this would never have happened.

The problem is not just these spending habits, but a deeper issue is the lack of acceptance. As soon as we are in trouble we look to push the blame onto someone else. But what about what you have done, do you ever reflect on that. That is a deeper issue which no government stimulus package will ever be able to resolve.

Even if we do manage to get ourselves out of this current economic problem, there is no saying it won’t happen again, unless people learn to live within their means.

The developed world spends and lives the way they do because they can and the developing or under-developed countries can’t because they can’t afford to. But switch the world’s economic powers and make the poorest countries the richest, and they too will lead a wasteful and prodigal life.

To live within your means and to spend only what you have is the only way that our world can survive and sustain itself, not only economically but in all aspects of life on our planet.