The puzzled woodpecker

 

These days the world blast into me

In sights and sounds of horror

Shrapnel hit aches that synapses cannot locate

Muted video of dreadful sights spills all over the floor

limbs, guts, blood 

paused.

 

Woodpecker on the palm rattles like a machine gun

puzzled at the midnight sun

Tree on the street corner takes the full brunt

Burning branches raised to sky

In a trance of great revelation

Taking in the last moments of closing eye.

The tragedy and travesty

International community has failed again atleast they could now work for complete cease fire. Meanwhile Russia cannot continue in UN nor any multilateral agencies (but then one cannot help bring the parallel of US-UK continuing even after attack on Iraq). What a mess, its always the common people who pay the heaviest of price. It's also failure of systems that leads to common people as fodder for bigger ambitions of sociopaths and megalomaniacs. If systems worked to enlighten people -assert their humanistic values, rather than convert them into haggling herds who are manipulated by controllers then they would be vigilant and work for better world. Democracy would have functioned as egalitarian expression. Each one of us nurturing regressive systems are complicit in deterioration that leads to such tragedies. Regressive system's grander worldview isolated from realities coalesces into producing horrible people as leaders. Market Capitalism and Religions are severely degrading societies, and is not allowing humanistic egalitarian systems to work and face the existential challenges.     

Crime against humanity

 Its also a failure of multilateral organization like UN that is least representative of contemporary reality.  Western leaders (expansionist NATO) are complicit too. These are not leaders but herd controllers haggling for power with characteristic ego that see everything disposable, an insatiable urge to acquire, grab and control. These are consolidated outcome of systems that are being nurtured. Its a byproduct of process that segregates and create the other. If you are actively participating in systems that insulates, isolates and dehumanizes then you are equally complicit. War happens when the other is completely dehumanized. Its a breakdown of care. Each death is a wail against systems that doesn't value human life and are least concerned about its impact on life on earth.   

WTF we don’t need this now

What a waste of energy and time. We don’t need this now. We have important things to work on. These are the kind of leaders we have produce when we give primacy to power, ego, greed, control, money and other superficialities. It’s a nation as business venture. These are what defines success in the contemporary world we live in. There is a stampede going on to acquire. These absurdities are what is taught as defining history and graded for future. How can one blame the leaders? 

War is an expression of entitlement of few over other. It’s an assault on humanity. It’s a gross violation of nature. What a waste. Despair. Cry.

History is iterative

 

History repeats itself first as tragedy then farce said Marx. How incapable must humans be if they are incapacitated to learn from experience or are unable to perceive their reality? Life learns from experience and every life form evolves with iterative involvement with its surrounding. Our senses are attuned to perceive. Every cell is open to experience the surrounding to survive. It learns, assimilates and grows. This diversity of life wouldn’t be possible if life was isolated from realities of its existence. Even mutation, the one that are successful hence replicated, is a not really a blind shot. It’s a sprint for survival that is very much hinged to existence. It’s a determined attempt to evolve, to latch the chaos, the potentialities and opportunities to survive and thrive. Life is in continuous iterative relation with its reality -immediacy of habitat and constancy of natural laws and limitations. 

History repeats itself if it is moving in a circle and is isolated from reality. History therefore can repeat if societies are incapable or are incapacitated to learn. This can only happen when societies nurture systems that insulate them from reality. Therefore, individually we perceive the threat while collectively the system makes us incapable to respond. We are incapacitated to trust our senses or use our mental faculties. If the reality becomes too oppressive we get into survival mode, it’s a short-term reaction to maintain the status quo that favours the powerful. The impasse Homo sapiens face is very much due to this disconnect. Religion and market are systems that worked for short term gains, its exaggerations and myth building enterprise are having serious ramifications with its overwhelming influence. Systems like religion that came into existence when humans rode donkeys, scooped water from nearest pit to drink, shat in the corner and sat around fire in caves open to elements, created myths to fill in the lack of knowledge and to feel secure while they perished from minor infections deemed as wrath, have become anachronistic nuisance that attracts dead minds and putrefied souls. Ridiculous holy books (that are understandings in its historical cultural context with some insights) have become sites for sickening sanctimony that attracts rabidity not seen in decent humans. The situation is dire. Humanity is on the verge of collapse due to ever encroaching signs of catastrophic reality that is framing the bleak future. The absurd show of grand conceptions cannot go on.          

For history to not repeat and end itself societies must invest on systems that are vibrant and attuned to senses and sophisticated to nurture the symbiotic relation with surrounding. It must evolve to be responsible and perceptive part of greater whole.          

 

Sculpting the social landscape

 

It’s a constant endeavor of controllers of institutions and narrations to convert human being into herds. The more unthinking they are the better it is to manipulate and control. This then takes the society away from social realities and contemporary crises. There is a reason why the power structures across the world have failed to address the urgency of climate crisis. There is a reason why media till recently tried to undermine, obfuscate and divert these existential crises (I was expecting the high-end British media like TheGuardian -that has wider audience due to colonial advantage and narrative control, to fail when it came to understanding movies like Don’t Look Up. And boy didn’t they mess up. The arrogance was typical). Self-assuredness of grip over herds and easy manipulated binaries leads to complacency. They really didn’t factor climate crisis would be this disruptive (likes of BBC taking their sweet time as they survey the scene for control). 

They are incapable to sense the reality of the situation since they are too preoccupied to manipulate the narration for control, as also showcasing themselves as some kind of saviour in this little world that they try to bludgeon us in. Facts becomes victim to narrative flair of emotions. Every news therefore becomes an occasion to control and manipulate, to give it the needed narration that seeks to undermine the reality. Systems that are hinged on this make-believe world consolidate the fake. Influencers like market feed this chicanery while religions ask us to strive. When you undermine the reality critical faculties of human beings get undermined. When senses are weakened, or told not to trust, the mind gets confused. The perpetual insecurity that follows is an indication of humans losing their grip into herds or are atomized as frustrated lives into escapism. They lose their capacity to use their intellect. As social landscape gets manipulated and sculpted in isolation it loses its vigor to face the reality. Systems failing to face the contemporary challenges is a clear indication of how much reality has shifted while herds are kept occupied in binaries of absurd and inane entertainments. There are reason why indigenous people -who are deemed primitive, are aware of the urgency. It isn’t a coincidence. Their society may not be as sophisticated to get the science and technology to travel to mars or edit genes but yes, they are well attuned to sophisticated world and natural systems that we are indelible part of. They know the waft of the dung and mind of the bird. It shouldn’t therefore surprise that science began its journey with this searing probe into reality. Somewhere down the line technology gave the herd their collective will. Its been downhill since. If we don’t become humans again, dismiss systems that dehumanize, and assert our humanity, reject vehemently and vociferously each and every attempt to undermine our being then it’s truly over for us. It’s a wake-up call.         

 

Wanted 

A threat to humanity 

Deeply saddened

****

The other shore

You will only know when you reach 

You sense in the presence

Ecstasy, and sadness

Glimpse the profundity of stars and flowers

And what connects

Getting the context

History is also about intersections. It has repercussions on contemporary world and interactions. I wasn’t aware much about Blacks and Jews and the context of intersectionality. Indeed, I wasn’t much aware about genocide of Jews either. I came to know about Concentration Camps in school history (most likely in 10^th or 9^th standard), it was a minor mention in international history. What I recall was me thinking it to be a place where people went to concentrate. One word that was drilled into me was: concentrate. I recall an English teacher (in KV Jaipur) who taught English in Hindi and used very few English words. And the word she used quite often was “concentrate” as she randomly hit notebook on the head of anyone giggling, talking so on. It was only later, in my 20s, I came to know about cruelty of Hitler, Nazis. Then I watched documentaries, read books, as also watched movies to get the full impact of the horrific events. I recall feeling extremely uneasy watching footages. What I wasn’t aware of was semantics used and the gravity and import of it, and recently I too have been keenly working on these usages and the contexts. Whoopi Goldberg incident is helping to get the grip. Last week I read Maus by Art Spiegelman that was banned in some school in USA by the Christian inspired administration (note I stopped using terms like far right/far left, no more fueling binaries. Looking for context of issues, and not polarization into baying groups). I immediately ordered a copy online. I am also reading much postponed Victor Frankl. Yesterday while thinking I recalled reading this (pic herein). It’s an instance of blatant racism on Black (Afro-American) by a Jew who had ironically survived the holocaust (ofcourse there is a context of him being paranoid about food/groceries but nevertheless there is something here). Black-Africans who were captured and sold as slaves have a history of horror and trauma of centuries that is beyond human imagination. And they still suffer and face discriminations, and what makes it singularly revolting is that it is because of something a human being is born with -the color of skin, and not because of believe system or voluntary choices. It is therefore is blot on humanity. It is in this context I find the rebuke of Whoopi Goldberg quite painful. There is a context that is being willfully neglected. It is much complicated than one cares.  

The more I read more I am convinced that Jew as a race is a construct. “Features” of Jews are caricatures based on prejudices that were generalized hence capitalized by Nazis to create the other. There doesn’t seem to be any other explanation however hard one tries. Religion is a construct, and any attempt otherwise is a violation of human right, a sinister attempt to segregate human, and negating contemporary reality. In the last few days I was trying to understand why this view a “profound ignorance”, none forthcoming. It is as if these are commonly agreed, understood and is a closed matter. Upstart like me has no business to poke, indeed not qualified or too insignificant. I keep an open mind. 

Controlling the narration

 

Religion is not a race. It’s a believe system. Nobody is born with, or into, a religion – if so then it is a violation of child’s right and restriction on humanity, a persistent threat. People are born into a race, into a region, into a gender. As societies evolve even these shouldn’t matter. Race, region or gender are insignificant in evolved society. What matters is worth of human. Worth of every life. Diversity then will be diversity of understanding, ideas, thoughts and expressions that contribute for better realisation.

Whoopi Goldberg is right when she asserts that holocaust "was not about race, but about man’s inhumanity to man" or rather human being’s inhumanity to another human being. We shouldn’t forget that women were also equally active member and facilitators of Nazis. Nazis "deemed Jews to be an inferior race" doesn't make it a race issue. Surely what Nazis “deemed” shouldn’t be point of reference for any discussion at all. Almost all Europeans in 1930s were Caucasians. So, it’s clearly about religion being used to perpetrate and justify genocide. The narration must be about how religion is the cause of misery, and how Nazis used it to create myths hence enemies among friends and neighbours. It shows the hold of religion and fiction on psyche of people that they could condone murder and extermination of innocent people whom they knew. It’s the depth of depravity and must be recognised with all its cruelties and facts. If ever Ms. Goldberg can be faulted it could be the tone (“it’s about them the white people”), and that accusation too is tenuous. She was just asserting the facts. We live in crude, crass and increasingly polarized world where nuances get lost in the din. Also, the attempts at hyperbolic extrapolation of events in 2022 to 1930s is dangerous distraction. The world has evolved much since 1930s in a way that was unthinkable even few decades back. Few Nazis in some corner of USA is now flashed all across the world. The contemporary complexities are different. Likes of Trump (one feels violated to even mention his name) were mollycoddled and nurtured by greedy crass media looking for eyeball catching histrionics without any concern for repercussions. While people were too tired of mainstream politicians manipulating and using correct meaningless words while they sided with rich and powerful, and status quoist abuse and lack of innovative involvement in systemic exploitations. That this con artist carries on blatantly despite breaking law many times shows how much the deep state is compromised. The role of dark web and BigTech were also not taken seriously (the gravity of which the policy makers at the highest level must have been briefed). Attention seeking manipulative algorithms have polarized and degraded democracies all across the world. They have severely undermined critical thinking, subjectified facts and framework for sane discussion or communication. While billionaires becoming richer during pandemic points to serious flaw in the system. Climate catastrophes seems to be least of concern indicating even bigger existential malaise.             

Religion is not race. It cannot be. It’s important to be aware of semantics used and narrative control, the context and complexities, and repercussion on contemporary world. Racism is an important matter and shouldn’t to be diluted. It has serious repercussion on contemporary world. There is an attempt to sanctify and fossilize religions into race hence identity. It’s a gross human right violation and imminent threat to humanity.    

A threat to humanity

Its about time that the world takes the threat of likes of Rupert Murdoch seriously. There are little versions of Murdochs all across the world, and these greedy psychopaths have severely degraded democratic institutions and are having debilitating impact on humanity. Stop him.   

On the other side of mob

It could be the skin colour, the otherness of thoughts or attire

The accent, a rumour, or plainly you in the wrong place

A gap to fill time

The thrill to enact, or a game to measure

Bludgeoned bodies on scales of argument

Blood as elixir of power

Color of the sea

 

Grey in the dawn 

Steely blue in sunny morning

Soft green of the day

Wild ochre in dusk

In the moonless night

frothing fringes mark the dark and the sane.

Some nights the moon melts

and lit planktons in blue green of the dreams.

Does the dolphin know the color of the sea?

Does he dream the color of earth?  

Does he dream? 

Book recommendation for the month end:

Obviously when they don't want you to read something they take you as herd. Human beings can take their own decision. Read what they don't want you to read. Think what they don't want you to think. Write what they don't want you to write.

The Thuggery

 

Shouldn’t it be Britishery?

The question here is where does the reference thuggery come from? How did it get into English? Thug in hindi means cheating, and is commonly used. There is no word as thuggery in hindi it’s a british creation. Thug gets its reference from medieval times when small time highway robbers looted and strangulated travelers. When Britishers started to colonize the region through East India Company they exaggerated these and portrayed them as blood thirsty monsters in the process the racist colonizing exploiters were positioned as benign protectors. Many of these highway murderers were classified as criminal tribes and the tribe members prosecuted for no reason. Studies points to these portrayals as mostly a construct -based on no empirical evidences, by cunning britishers with narrative control ably helped by caste cannibals -playing the traditional role of enthusiastic sycophants to power. Britishers therefore created Thug Department (the irony!) in 1830s to demonize and contain these threats. These small-time criminals were isolated from their socio-economic conditions into monsters who believed in divine sanction for killing as some kind of ritual. It’s quite obvious that the myth of divine sanction can only succeed socio-economic factors, it can easily be understood as an attempt to moralize their transgress. Thug narration was worked as metaphor of other -the unpredictable sinister natives. This gave colonizers a moral authority to justify acquisition and exploitations. After transfer of power Castetva forces instead of rectifying these grievous mistakes continued with these brutalities. Ganesh Devy (in a study conducted in as late as 2000) notes that some of these tribes continue to suffer from human right violations that in many cases go unchecked by the law enforcement authorities -the police, the continued teaching of the Criminal Tribes Act in the curriculum for police training is cited as a major reason. He claims that the police are “taught” to believe that they are born criminals, leading to their continued persecution in spite of legal safeguards against the same.

In a much reasonable narration thugs can be viewed as those who rebelled against the system of exploitation and exacted what they thought appropriate in their circumstance. Thugs did in open what squatters did inside sanctum. Thugs sacrificed humans while squatters sacrificed souls. The audacity of colonizers to classify thugs as criminal tribes while they themselves were racist murderous exploiters spanning the globe needs special attention. All these elaborate ruses were hinged on something called justice system that they conceived. These were meant to streamline exploitation while giving the semblance of propriety -which was to be taken as justice. These famously harmonized with squatter’s cannibalistic framework. Therefore, the critical and common-sense question of how justice can prevail in injustice system was never confronted. There is a reason why Indians took up to becoming lawyers and ended up serving the colonizers with gusto (one fellow even went all the way to South Africa). Even now the tardiest and one of the most incompetent judicial system on earth has lawyer luminaries many of whom control power at the top most level while the society suffer.

The question that bothers me though is why the word thuggery was accepted into English without any challenge. It shows amazing level of moral vacuum among Indian elite who actively connived to normalize these (ofcourse there are worst references from putrid pit into English which is as worse as racism but still normalized, these should be expunged at the earliest). Why is that racist colonizer Britain doesn’t have any reference in English that is concomitant with its past brutalities?

Why is thuggery a word in English while britishery isn’t? Boris Johnson represents the britishery. 

Grateful

   ...for helping to understand and insights during trying times in my 20s. Mindfulness. 

*Imagine if squatters and their depraved value system had not strangulated this region we would have such wonderful people amongst us here in India (what is nurtured now is parody of entitlements and arrogance, obnoxious self help gurus trying to play Zen masters with hilarious outcomes). Also, we wouldn't have to waste time and energy on regressive values and general crassness that one see all around. Ofcourse Buddhism is another system with herds who can create horrors in Myanmar, SriLanka, Cambodia...but if you are not a follower but an observer then there is enough space for syncing with being a human, awareness of existential absurdity and humbleness of present moment.