Fiction cannot tackle reality

Meanwhile, i read, there are rising number of cases of stigmatizing and ostracizing taking place. Fear of the dreaded virus is legitimate but the methods adopted in reaction by people wielding societal influence smacks of deep rooted depraved value system. Many doctors, nurses (even air hostesses) are being asked to vacate by despicable house owners and rent seekers. Imagine that these are the people who are putting their life on line to serve. Instead of providing moral support (that the PM so admirably initiated) some are being called "dirty". That is how they treat crucial and essential occupations. Dirty. Don't think these are coincidences. These are legacies from sanctum very much nurtured by purity seeking squatters and the ecosystem that thrived through castetva forces severely degrading this society. Corona is only a precursor to some serious cataclysmic challenges that the society is set to face as climate breakdown related changes gain momentum. This society is not really conceived to deal with these challenges. It lacks basic humanistic foundation of compassion and decency. One respite is that their influence is relatively less in the world than monster mullah's degradation that is spreading at an alarming rate and gun trotting life denying horrendous white racist Christians of US who wield immense power over the world.

Its amply clear that fiction minded (read religious) are constant threat to reality. These regressive values work to deny most of the crucial problems humanity face. When it is god's wish how can you take responsibility?! These segregation thriving fantastical fictions are going to be serious threat to communitarian response and humanitarian concerns. Further, these fiction minded who stick to the frame that deny reality in the garb of faith cannot be part of path breaking solutions (at the most they can be minor accretional contributors with all humbleness that religion inspires and denies). Innovative mindset needs a searing contact with reality and an openness to question and logically construct. Religions actively deny it, and is indeed a virus of mind that seeks to destroy humanness. Religions are freeloading on humanity, and its quite clear that its a dead weight nurtured and authenticated by some extremely devious section at the expense of all that defines humanity.       

We must thank unfortunate Italians for warning

These are the worst of the times and best of the times (apologies to Dickens). The virus is making a relentless march. Cities after cities are in lockdown. It is sad but the silence is overwhelmingly satisfying. Considering that India is overpopulated and psychopathically noisy this is such a respite not only for people who value silence but for other species too. It is as if earth has started to breathe again and a pernicious virus in its system is checked. Irony.

Sometime back a very interesting book was on the rack: Bullshit Jobs: A theory (by anthropologist David Graeber), he argues that there are millions of people across the world — clerical workers, administrators, consultants, telemarketers, corporate lawyers, service personnel, and many others — who are toiling away in meaningless, unnecessary jobs, and they know it. Bullshit jobs are jobs which even the person doing the job can’t really justify the existence of, but they have to pretend that there’s some reason for it to exist. There is a difference between bullshit jobs and shit jobs they’re not the same thing. Graeber elaborates “Bad jobs are bad because they’re hard or they have terrible conditions or the pay sucks, but often these jobs are very useful. In fact, in our society, often the more useful the work is, the less they pay you. Whereas bullshit jobs are often highly respected and pay well but are completely pointless, and the people doing them know this”. This is another irony and in a primitive society like India bullshit has always been prioritize over essential. It begins from the deviance of the sanctum. The only parameter of blessing is money and power. So we have scenes of youngster leaving essential jobs to join administration –the one that is elevated as epitome of intelligence among the unthinking populace and carries the perks and power assimilating all the feudal trappings. Few weeks back I was with these retired administrators in some interview panel (probably one of the least sick jobs) and asking question to the candidate as to “opportunities for india in corona spread” words like “supply chain disruption” “advantage over china” were liberally used for intense satisfaction of retired bureaucrats posturing as intelligentsia (they do have body language and compelling semantics though, clearly being in BS jobs with lots of power have taught them tricks of con artists. I too keenly learn this!). And this was in delhi, and I carried my sanitizer and was quite sure that the virus was in the next turn. When you are aware of what is happening around the world and take news in its seriousness, and not as an entertainment, then you will be concerned. You may even panic considering amazing level of ignorance and nonchalance of people around. You cannot blame the people they don’t take warning seriously because they are not aware. They are not aware because this society values bullshit. Literacy rarely becomes education hence they are easy fodder for manipulators. News is about entertainment and touches lowest commonest denominator at every available opportunity. With no moral ethical context conscience is rarely an issue. They normalize third rate movies and stupid game of cricket as news, they nurture manipulative mediocre actors and cricketers as influencers. A microorganism is here to sieve the bull shit. Primitive societies are in for a soul searching moment of meaninglessness.  

Thankfully India has the lessons of unfortunate countries like Italy and Iran. If we didn't have these warnings marketers would have scuttled all efforts for profit and hundreds thousands of people would have died by now. It is the same motivation that influence the biggest con artist of all time: Donald Trump. He is a breathing slimy feed appropriating everything for market to nourish. He epitomizes its crassness to dangerous insulating bullshit grandeur. He represents the degradation of the world we live. He is a constant reminder of what will happen to humanity.

As India is in lockdown PM Modi has taken some rightful actions and shown to be a compelling motivator in these bleak times, and to the chagrin of castetva forces posturing liberal saviors who seek to band him with rightist nutcases across the world with the help of fattened western fluffs, he is a seasoned and matured astute politician who knows how to work the deal with much restrain. He has been consistent when it comes to focusing on emerging challenges such as renewable source of energy, climate change matters so on. It is however necessary that neoliberal context needs to rethink on basic income to the unorganized sector. 

A society that doesn’t have much sense to distinguish right from wrong nor any parameter to decide these in such instance righteous authoritarian interventions works well. Mr. Modi intervened at the right time to drill the seriousness of the situation. As a political leader he has been a great communicator. Most Indians are incapable to take decisions that has concern for society as a main context, being blessed they are incapacitated to conceptualize themselves as subservient to crucial social restrictions that is indeed matter of life and death. Many see these as affront to their special place in universe. In their grand world every occasion is an occasion presented specially to them to capitalize. It is a society in prisoner’s dilemma with no basic communitarian understanding. Hence it is important that rules are strictly enforced. Again we must thank unfortunate Italians, Spaniards and Iranians. We are incapable to be proactive nor can act with conscience. We need to be shown, and convinced, of the consequences with gory details with repeated requests. Since even this is difficult to get sense of the reality to zombies –who have been isolated from reality for too long, severe action must be initiated against the violators.  

In the midst of de-bullshitting

In the conception of might the state creates grander narrations

Hoarding weapons of mass destructions, accruing more   

There is always bigger threat to protect from

Nation’s security is citizen’s paramount duty.

Sacrifice.

Religions compete to gain its place as guardian angels

Building larger canopies of taller claims

To herd its devotees to safer shore.

Faith.

Market bring slicker side of happiness

That desires multiplications, additions and squaring of details

Consumer is to be fed.

Choices.

A sneeze.

A moment for microorganism

To make the sacrifice laughable

To make the faith absurd

To make the choices meaningless.

Clarity.

             

#WorldPoetryDay

Going viral

This is what going viral really means. When reality strikes all fiction and sensitivities have no use. The foundation of society and human understanding that has isolated itself in abstraction of ego, expressions of parochialism and immediate gains are now forced to face the crumbling conceptions. It’s a reality check that was long overdue as hype, exaggeration and omnipotence was becoming defining parameters. Market and religions contributed to this sense of wellbeing in deviant value system. Vicious type of opportunists evolved in this ecosystem who worked to define the framework of crassness and greed. Knowledge driven inquisitive logical outlook that cared for compassion and empathy was undermined for tapping the primal base of human character, role models were created within these while society coalesced and celebrated these degradations. Crude and opportunist value systems were actively nurtured and presented as success while ruffians controlling religions showered blessing.      

  

  Meanwhile as some humans advanced, the societies evolved, they got more complex and the complexities were sought to be synergized with the emerging realities and to reflect humanitarian concerns. These evolved societies strived to represent the humanity. Globalization was essentially humanitarian expression to bring humanity into one frame before it was hijacked by market opportunists to extend their exploitative and crude frame. Globalized world is now a reality thanks to technological innovation that has reduced distance and made differences redundant. In this evolved world the differences that is appreciated is the one that brings the synergy of uniqueness as human. Democracy was an attempt in this direction before it was scuttled by entrenched feudal forces and reduced to joke but still remains attuned to human reality provided individuals evolves and are able to tap the potential of education and opportunities to work a better self. European Union was such expression in limited scale, and considering the history of this region it was a tremendously appreciable effort. These intentions were also in tune with emerging challenges of globalized world that is essentially a byproduct of technological innovations.    

       

The globalized world presents challenges that needs collaboration at the global level. Climate change, extinction events, pandemics, terrorism so on needs a globalized response. Whatever frame that nurtures divisions, segregations and false narrations of identities will fall by the side when the reality strikes. Vested interests have been nurturing deviant dehumanizing values to control common people and extract opportunities from the misery. The rise of xenophobia has much to do with pushing these opportunistic market values in the garb of globalization thus alienating common people from their unique attributes, local connections and contexts. Dehumanized frustrated people are easy fodder for nationalistic narrations and primal connections. The rise of religious fundamentalism has much to do with nurturing the anachronism of religions as identity by high end manipulators under the garb of moral angst with absolutely no skin in the game. While the common people’s aspiration and insecurities were persistently undermined. These constructed exaggerations on which some clever people were settling their redemption has been jolted in recent times by climate related challenges and increasing desperation among people. These though were sought to be undermined by working on high end angst binary. Wherein people’s insecurities where posited as rising threat to minority (which ofcourse was identified and firmly hinged on vicious religions at the expense of genuine minorities including divergent ideas). Nationalism was sought to be fought with feudal references and norms while market incursions within the comfort of hedonist luxury. Everything was sought to be dealt with control over narration and connection to deep state. Carbon footprint were ignored and climate change sought to be sidelined before they no longer could as things had start to become obvious. Anachronistic nonsenses were packed as benign religions that constantly degraded humanity, giving confidence to dangerous zombies while persistently undermining emerging threats. Science was positioned as binary to religion in this clever conception rather than natural evolution of thinking mind. An inquisitive logical critical mind could easily see through the juvenilities of religion that is striving to gain the space of spiritual inquiry within its stultifying dehumanizing segregatory frame. It was but natural for reality to strike. It strikes through natural disasters. The intensity and frequency of which have increased in recent times. But these too were cunningly factored in and juxtaposed as grand wrath of god and were judiciously isolated from reality (of climate crisis) and placed under religious frame to seek atonement. Punishment and wrath are constant references in religions meant to keep the zombies under check. Ego driven religions have special use of huge natural disasters and calamities, the imagery of deluge and floods, devastating fires so on perversely satisfies the narration of wrath of god onto common people. Afterall only our god can create such grand disasters. Hence he has to be omnipotent, in a deft move followers too share this claim of omnipotence over others as also ego driven insular megalomaniacal insights that put them firmly over common people. That is why threat by microorganism is baffling to their little mind, and is such a humbling experience.  This cannot be really fit into the grand nature of things. It is such an embarrassment to megalomaniacal driven conceptions of religions.  

  

When reality strikes it grabs the balls to squeeze out the hallucination. Exaggerated self-worth and manipulation has no space. Nations are lines on the map while religions are nothing more than sinister virtual games that has no sense of reality. Its strips dictators to bare and force them to share the information. Corona virus wouldn’t have spread if China was democratic and valued human rights same is the case with theocratic megalomaniacs controlling Iran who were in denial mode. USA could have initiated much better response if it were not for market driven manipulation that seeks to obfuscate reality and connection of people to their surroundings.  Human beings are part of nature that is sustained by earth’s system that took millions of years to evolve. In geological terms humans are just blip. We live in wider connection with world in this fragile space. It is quite apt that it needed only a microorganism, a virus, to show us our place in grand scheme of things. It is the great de-bullshitting event of our times. It is humbling.