We are witnessing realtime implosion of neoliberal hegemony

   

Trump has unleashed neoliberal collapse through his protectionist virulently anti-globalist measures –a schadenfreude moment for the world, as neoliberal hegemony that controlled discourse across the political spectrum in last many decades, from right to left, scramble for cover screaming dire consequences for the world. To uncover this farce, let’s trace through brief history on how they pushed the world into neoliberal tentacles. The rise of European imperialism and British colonial empire during 19^th century was on the foundation of classical liberalism (Adam smith, self regulating market through invisible hand of supply and demand, free trade) that capitalised industrial revolution for economic growth, it collapsed during great depression and Second World War exposing limits of laissez faire, paving way for Keynesian model of state intervention (New Deal) that dominated through mid-20^th century before collapsing under neoliberal surge that reframed core ideas of classical liberalism seeking to unleash capitalism’s power by freeing market from all constraints, left to its own devices it is proposed to produce greatest economic growth. It works with free movement of capital, goods, information and people across borders. Neoliberal globalisation is about deregulating market, spreading capitalism through market driven innovations and monetising everything in market terms. Human actions and relations, or even nature, have value if it can be monetised and bartered for profit in market. Classical liberalism was much circumspect and had some concern for humanity in its core hence innately held that everything shouldn’t be monetised or marketised. Neoliberalism has greed in its core, unleashed by grabbing whatever came in its path for its marketable worth and transactional value. Reducing government agencies, and privatising it, so as to compete in the market to survive and decide worth through market fundamentalism. Market was metaphor to invoke unleashed freedom of jungle for survival the fittest. Neoliberal order fused ideas of deregulation with personal freedoms, open borders with cosmopolitanism, and globalization with the promise of increased prosperity for all, a sophisticated conception, a janus faced system that shows different faces to different section on the scale of power and control. A face of benign libertarian posturing for powerful and a face of brutal exploitation for poor, a face of freedom and choices, and a face of extortion and dwindling common resources....even the word liberal gives the impression of originating or caring for liberal values –it was carefully confined to market as much as freedom restricted to expanding consumer choices and actively creating more need. Greed is normalised as choice, irresponsibility is freedom. Neoliberalism integrated natural resource extraction, production and finance at a global scale extending classical liberalism of colonial exploitation by connecting and normalising democratic societies to authoritarian regimes.

Market fundamentalism defined neoliberalism means market will find efficient optimal outcome in every case. Democratic government is incapacitated to take responsibility, even in critical areas with significant social ramification and much needed financial intervention, is how neoliberal spreads its hegemony. It has led to acute level of inequalities and concentration of power and wealth with few individuals creating an ecosystem of hypocrisy and charade of concern, gradually people lose confidence in democratic institutions and pave way for authoritarian leaders –not very ironically promoted by neoliberal forces. These ‘leaders’ exhibit clear signs of compromise hence are nurtured and elevated (countries like Britain are too compromised as a society, the reason why they churn out such low quality leaders deft in school level debating skills nurtured in an ecosystem of what is spoken is rarely intended and very rarely acted upon –these turn of sentences are prized by posers in erstwhile colonies). The farce becomes theatrics of democracy. Meanwhile as democratic states are weakened and fledgling democracies collapse the authoritarian systems gain and consolidate –and with new powerful technologies priming in these exploitative frameworks it is set to get worse as countervailing capacity of state is substantially shrinked and negated, with it aspirations of millions of people asserted through process of democracy.            

Under neoliberal system state’s role was passive hence weakening of public power and consolidation of private power; reassign economic power to private market forces, prioritising free market principle over people and nature. Critical public good services were systematically eroded and transferred to private players ostensibly for efficiency that is assumed to come with greed and self interest. Simultaneously as the state’s autonomy is compromised its capacity to effectively shape market forces is outsourced and lost. Market becomes a beast with its own will. The benign ‘invisible hand’ grew talons to grab anything and everything to monetise and consume in its gargantuan greed. It is now a neoliberal state, a nominally democratic political system. Superficial transactional values create disconnect and rise of primal feudal connections rallying atavistic emotions paving way for authoritarian undemocratic value systems. Neoliberalism was positioned as political economy of freedom, this was deviously hinged to weakening of social solidarity while cleverly appropriating and replacing human urge to free from stifling regressive collective. It was being presented as natural liberal option for humanity with market replacing state as agent of natural progress. Market deemed as system without power centre, while hierarchy it creates is natural expression of competence and merit in free society, a perverse Darwinian fitness within market defined parameters. Market efficiency is constructed as very definition of human efficiency. What defines market defines humanity is the assertion. Hence all human conceptions and aspiration will be defined from markets perspective to get meaning. State machinery henceforth is subservient to the needs of market since it defines human aspiration. From neoliberal value system perspective market is as natural as jungle and the rules defined by nature/god hence state interference is interference on natural law itself. Human in such conception is consumer fighting to survive in the competition for resources, power and profit. Grabbing more is sure sign of success hence emulated. The ruse of neoliberalism as freedom is for assimilating and asserting power, in political economy of private power, in whatever way possible to monetise and gain. It is about shifting power to powerful private entities (over market) under the garb of freedom from state and encouraging unfettered competition as emulating natural laws. State is repurposed as an agent for globalised money flow –using words like investment, which sought opportunity for easy money multiplying. State was systematically deregulated to favour powerful finance capital over operating companies that were providing valuable services and essential goods.

USA and UK moved firmly into neoliberalism in 1980s, and soon the world followed, a concerted strategy to weaken state –a democratic institution to counter private corporate power, and in the long run systems that provide direction for technology to evolve. If AI is presenting the worst possibilities then it has to do with the exploitative systems that are nurtured. Democracy is a counterbalance against brutalities of state, as also against irresponsible corporate and private interest. However flawed democracy maybe it is an attempt, or framework, to represent grassroot hence opposing feudal control, while education creates awareness thus negating regressive forces, it evolves into voice of reason and assertion of enlightened collective (at the least the wisdom of crowd). Unlike greed-filled merit-neutered from existential reality that neoliberal system values, democracy provides freedom to evolve as individual synergically connected, or the extreme possibility of nihilistic disenchantment, for better deal with reality. Neoliberal value system actively works to keep the divisive agenda (it becomes easier in primitive societies), encourage primal concerns, to keep the individual isolated. The result is a society of cogs in their grim struggle to succeed while each and every milestone in these miserable lives tabulated and monetised. Inane entertainment and banal occupations incapacitates reflective thinking and awareness of existential absurdity. The individual in neoliberal system is a juvenile who needs to be kept distracted and is trained to be excited by primate sensibilities. It encourages regressive collective that reduce humans to herd unlike aware individuals who synergise into active collective deeply connected to reality for progressive change.   

Neoliberalism vandalism is treason on life on earth. It spread through exploitative value systems and feudal institutions with deviously appropriated semantics of progressive values. It is proposed as natural evolution as if emulating life itself. Money is seen as blood passing through veins of nations to energise and prosper the world. The garbled juvenile chicanery of money dealers has wrecked the world with market defined development and growth. It has severely diminished life and living systems. Every effort must therefore be made to dismantle this neoliberalism assault on life. Nature has nothing whatsoever to do with monetary system or financial institutions. To start with nature is not in competition as is being exaggerated by juvenile minds to justify their primitive ways and limited primate mind to keep itself busy. Competition, if ever, is limited to specific context to encourage diversity and robust deal with complex reality, and surely not for permanent acquisition and complete domination that infantile transactional thinking conjures. Nature doesn’t really work that way. It will collapse if it does, and wouldn’t evolve. Natural systems optimise to grow and thrive in mutualism with constant feedback to factor the possibilities and limitations of laws of nature and availability of resources. Life is evolving for billions of years; its level of sophistication is so complex that it seems a miracle. Human created systems can attempt to factor in and learn. Meanwhile crass infantile financial systems cannot be allowed to hinge itself to nature to appropriate short term gains and insatiable greed. Life doesn’t vandalise. It is deeply connected to its surrounding for its survival (extrapolate that to life on earth), its strategies are in sync with life giving forces. This consciousness attains sophistication as lifeforms evolves. Sapiens were expected to express this enlightening expressions of life. Alas.

What we have instead is unregulated market promising a connected peaceful stable world of prosperity. What it meant was state’s role restricted as guards of vandalism –by keeping common people in control, for blatant neoliberal exploitation as “investment friendly” while corporate circumvent the same rules (take for instance exploitation of water and energy by carbonated sugary water manufacturers that was documented more than two decades back https://depalan.blogspot.com/2011/03/anecdotal-study-on-nature-of-mncs.html). Legitimate role of democratic institutions were seen as interference, common resources were opened up as trade and environmental laws deregulated for “investment and development”. Through feudal structure and greed neoliberal system extended its hegemonical influence to all spectrum of political persuasion from right wing to left (indeed china is major lynchpin in neoliberal world order). Under neoliberal sway authoritarian undemocratic societies and regressive values extended their influence and consolidated control. Neoliberalism is so entrenched and naturalised that we have strange presence of neoliberal centre right and neoliberal centre left mock fighting for control as a touchstone for colossal hypocrisy –their saccharine laden apple not falling too far from neoliberal tree (far left posing as progressives showcasing characteristic irresponsibility by pushing for globalisation’s unfettered migration as high moral commitment the reason why far right have gained intuitive traction over majority of voters). With all spectrums of political parties supplicating to neoliberal order the opposition is equally compromised (take glaring examples of US and UK –that unleashed neoliberalism vandalism onto world, whether Democrats or Labour). The backlash against wanton greed, irresponsibility, increasing inequalities, deterioration of environment, was capitalised by opportunist forces. They played with the fear, growing insecurity and apathy, by invoking primal urges and theatrics of primate masculinity perceptions as decisive leaders who will lead them to secure world. President Obama was presented with unique opportunity in 2009 to reign in the neoliberal vandalism as it stood at the precipice utterly exposed at its ethical lack and greed saturated hypocrisy of horrible world that was constructed over the last many decades, but he went for safest, indeed ‘nicest’ (aligning with market image) option of going with big banks. Neoliberalism order has so compromised and weakened countervailing institutions that democracy has become a cynical exercise for common people. Acceptance of authoritarian leaders and theatrics of demonstratively decisive is rooted in this backlash against ineffectual and compromised status quo wherein common people are bartered for bigger claims all the while nothing substantial is done to evolve or deconstruct the oppressive system. Don’t forget brutal dictator Pinochet (insurrected by CIA backed coup) facilitated neoliberal experiment in Chile to begin with. Neoliberalism needs brutality of state under the garb of rule of law, it works well when democratic institutions are weak, social contract corrupted and individual are isolated and competed into wrongly appropriated Darwinian natural law. It is therefore natural for brutal societies to gravitate towards neoliberal value system. While democratic nations are increasingly shifting to authoritarian right as a backlash of decades of neoliberal vandalism, it facilitated authoritarian countries like China, Russia, Saudi etc to consolidate their power in an anchorless world devoid of ethics. Primitive Saudi feels empowered enough to control and degrade important international meet like CoPs that has immense ramification on humanity.       

What Trump has set free through his disruption is a pernicious mutant variety of neoliberalism that shed globalism (especially migration, its demographic and economic consequences on local population) to perceived superiority of native intelligence and revivalism of folklorist hearsay, all this in the frame of social media mediated chaos of misinformation and disinformation, lack of authenticity and incapacity to critically think. This mutant is extremely vary of globalist liberal world for unleashing, ostensibly progressive, value systems that threaten their carefully constructed world -sold to herd as nostalgia of great past, essentially selectively tailored myths. “Many supposed disruptors of status quo are agents of less of a backlash against global capitalism than a frontlash within it” (Quinn Slobodian in Hayek’s Bastards). The irony is, unlikely Trump is better suited to deconstruct disestablish neoliberal order than likely (but disappointing) Obama. Strange as it is, it is the right that has undertaken this role with much seriousness while the left is reduced to stuttering spectator increasingly out of touch with emerging reality. Neoliberal order is imploding in realtime. Trump is demolishing its edifice and exposing the slithering fattened specie that was thought to be sacred by all conventional wisdom across the spectrum controlling the narration. Stock exchange (another of exaggerated manipulated neoliberal short term speculation gain) plummeted, market media went into frenzy –they are immune to real existential crisis such as the dangerously rising temperature (deplorable bbc still seeks balance). Another irony, not noted by compromised systems, is that as the neoliberal economic system implodes it is a respite for earth and most lives on earth (including humans- it is assumed that neoliberal channelized wealth and glitter indicates well being, and that wanton consumption and irresponsible market friendly ways is approximation of human worth). Though devoid of progressive underpinning and ethically contradictory Trumpism is still better suited to dismantle neoliberal world order. We live in a strange shifting anchorless time. It is a ripe moment for a new narration that sync and is responsive to the reality we live in. We cannot have same mistakes repeated and expect things to be right (accumulation of power is never good nor feeding herd solution) as the stakes are too high. Critically, neoliberalism is incapable to face crucial problems of our times (let alone solve) like increasing inequality, climate crisis, global demand and consumption model that severely degrades biodiversity, weakening of democratic institutions and rise of religious fundamentalism, humans increasingly incapable of critical thinking so on, when it is deeply embedded in the cause. Neoliberalism is a degradation that excites primitive value system; opportunism and greed creates regressive ecosystem for technological innovations and evolution. It is a significant concern for AI going rogue since the ecosystem incentivise short term gains while delegating/outsourcing consequences to common space. What is at stake is human civilisation, indeed life on earth itself, which needs large scale long term investment, innovative thinking, something that is impossible without active and effective participation of empowered state at global level. It cannot be about opportunism efficiently accomplished to please the money counting investors and share holders before moving to next opportunism of wanton consumption. Problems created and accentuated by neoliberalism cannot have neoliberal solutions. Modern economics has failed to factor in powerful externalities, which are not found in economic theories, and have significant impact.       

It is proposed that neoliberalism fuelled economic growth created prosperity therefore added value despite shortcomings. Hence it is assumed that we have no alternative to neoliberalism –it is the natural order, and that it has to be saved and salvaged from failure whatever may be the consequences (too big to fail). Keynesian economic growth in mid 20^th century was much robust, not only that, unlike greed it was more about hope and collective concern. Clearly, neoliberalism has created much havoc on societies around the world and carnage on environment and nature. It is about time it is dismantled. With diminishing US power, hence the lynchpin of neoliberal world order, it is fortuitous occasion for crucial international organisations like UN, WTO etc to stop acting as the instrument of neoliberalism and its nefarious hegemonical hold over democracies and exploitation of weaker nations (in the aftermath of colonial European exploitation China now has completely vandalised Africa for its resources simultaneously nurturing authoritarian regimes by providing latest surveillance/intrusive technologies). Organisations like UN are incredibly important and have crucial role to play to face the globalised threat to humanity. These need to be overhauled and democratised to respond to complex reality and not remain ossified in the past. Perceptive people are aware of unsustainable nature of neoliberalism as it sucks clean the fringes (poorer societies and natural resources) as it generates wealth, in the recent times the mounting decay expose deep fractures in its down spiral. With growing inequality, depleting resources, control and consumption by irresponsible few as also real time impact of climate breakdown, there is a political weakening of neoliberal foundation and a widening profound disconnect with reality of the world. There has to be an alternative to neoliberal vandalism.

Till recently those who questioned neoliberal consensus were ridiculed and sidelined. The fissures in toxic system was becoming apparent, late 90s saw East Asian crisis, then Enron collapse (also indicting consultant companies whose role seems to be intellectual emasculation and as henchmen of neoliberal sophistry) and tech bubble burst (2001) –pointing to corrupt ecosystem, Iraq invasion, banking crisis (2008) –state intervened to rescue private financial institutions and banks, exposing neoliberal lies of market discipline, extensive study of inequality hampering growth (Piketty, extremely relevant economist), catastrophic negligence of neoliberalism in dealing with climate change and bankruptcy of market solutions, finally pandemic exposed neoliberal incapacity during crisis and importance of state intervention. To be fair Biden administration understood the drift, and actively worked to rein in neoliberal runoff and regulate the big companies and private capital, support pro-union against corporate exploitation –this is the compelling reason why big corporate shifted to Trump. Biden was arguably one of the best US president (in the context of times) but he messed up by not delegating and making it a ego issue, a moral collapse, while it was obvious that he is cognitively declined. Meanwhile for TechBros democracy is a programming error that needs autocratic Caesarism hence Trump.       

What is also true is that world is no longer flat but complex and neoliberal hegemonical simplicity is spreading thin and unravelling for all to see. The growing public discontent and economic injustice is being effectively capitalised by consolidation of authoritarian right while neoliberal left lost traction as it try to appear humane in its desperate compromises (of exaggerated identity politics that did more harm while theatrics of diversity took it to ridiculous). They are too entrenched in neoliberal to break away or accept the hypocrisy. Neoliberal left is particularly dangerous specie that weaponised woke and passed it on to neoliberal right to play havoc on nuanced understandings. The surge of authoritarian right is very much effectuated through the vacuum created by neoliberal economic policies weakened democratic institutions. For beleaguered herd primate legacy provided compelling theatrics of saviour leader, the aggressive masculinity that keeps the pack safe. Meanwhile even as neoliberalism collapses (market fundamentalism ridiculed, globalisation replaced by masculine nationalism) the power and money is accumulated with few people who use it to further their grip, it’s a plutocracy that is positioning as saviours. So as humanity face existential threats that needs urgent globalised response what we see is powerful few detaching into surreal world limited by their own lack of imagination and making it a show of ridiculous crass and utter horror. We urgently need newer innovative collective involvement and grassroot level people participation. There is still no coherent economic doctrine to replace neoliberalism but it is clear that alternate needs compelling narration of collective voice and a deep felt empathy for debilitating predicaments people face as life sustaining world as we know collapse. It must strongly dissociate from using oft repeated neoliberal semantics of concerns that will surely hang around to find traction. It doesn’t sync with reality of the world. Market lobotomised media will fret and hop in neoliberal hegemonical pit siding from left to right to capitalise the angst. They have lost their relevance (particularly the legacy media). The binary of left and right is too trite and simplistic evaluation of complexity of the times we live in. Labelling and categorising leads to activating loop of the past hence superficial evaluation of the present. Contemporary has to be evaluated in the entirety of the unique present and not extricated and weaved from frayed threads of the past. The parallel comparison to the history is too tenuous, mostly tossed in by insipid academicians seeking relevance. It’s a left wing oligarchical control of narration, of historical dialecticism so on. The reason why solution is not only always wanting but is lost on people since it doesn’t reflect their reality or concern. It’s a pedantic semantic jugglery to establish pecking order in academic oligarchy for narration control. It doesn’t impress outside their carefully selected circle nor does it have any real life impact.         

 Neoliberal facilitated plutocracy has become a serious threat to humanity. The world is not here to be entertained by their inanities and simplistic grand plans that systemically dismantle progressive foundation into frivolous participation. Also, narrations of juvenile systems specifically classified as minority and migrants must be closely scrutinised, regressive barbaric values or feudal patronising concerns cannot be normalised nor miseries delegated to common people for bigger cause -for neoliberal globalists to appear empathetic, these are superficial concerns to keep populace distracted. Whatever degrades/disconnects with reality cannot be part of collective voice nor systems that approximates people into herd has any place in emerging world. Beware of such people they seek herd, a ruse to convert neoliberal nurtured values into feudal hold as change. It is not about deviously classified minority concerns or compassion for migrants or transgender, it is about systems that creates such situations. It is not about crony capitalism or about falling wages or losing jobs or economic inequality or migrants or woke that authoritarian right is capitalising from imploding neoliberalism to nurture plutocratic control as they persistently weaken liberal democracy while neoliberal left tries to appear saviour in its hedonist plume. We have well passed the posturing, nor are we interested in constructed binaries of left and right to appropriate, capitalise and toss crucial issues into meaningless. It is systemic change that is needed while every trace of neoliberal structure dismantled as it weakens democracy and nurtures authoritarianism. Empower democratic institutions and vibrant diversity with each human evaluated as a thinking individual who synergise for collective voice and evolve for better world (be constantly vigilant against herd churning control systems and their feudal angst, only an individual can be vibrant part of democratic collective, or else it is undemocratic and source for degradation). This will empower democracy and nurture a responsive system to face the complexities of the times we live in (for instance, it is not about carbon tax –it is a typical neoliberal clever solution, a distraction, which is disconnected to reality. What is needed is renewed public investment in mitigative and adaptive measures, and an active role of state in tandem with other nations in a global effort), a strong liberal democracy hinged on progressive diversity and humanistic solidarity. The power must come from fundamentals of public good and not from fundamentals of market. The state is not transactional it has moral obligations. It is obliged to empower voice of people over herd and value human dignity as a foundation to alternate social economic structure.  Wellness matters but wealth generation is not a criteria for happiness nor meaning of life, it is only an aspect deeply connected to the context, and surely, cannot be taken in isolation to fit the neoliberal narration. It is quite clear that beyond basic needs wellness is connected to quality of world we live in. Only psychopathic system will aspire for more money while the resilience of ecosystem dangerously deteriorates with rapid biodiversity loss and the world as we know collapses and incapacitated to nurture life. It also points to deeply flawed system that claims to be rational but is incapable to rationally evaluate the unfolding existential threat.       

Russia, NATO, sphere of influence, and primate legacy

 

People around the world watch with increasing dread the daily deterioration of scene in Ukraine. This is the region that instigated two world wars -to call it world war would be an exaggeration since it gives centrality to Western narration and control over world history, it though significantly impacted the world. It was war of forces whose colonial influence spread across the world. Much of the world was in an exploitative frame of brutal colonizers and local feudal barbarians. ‘World war’ had cataclysmic impact on common people in Europe, while the later war incinerated thousands of common people in Japan and continued for decades with horrible effects of radiation. Most common people around the world were not impacted, probably not even aware. That is not the case now. We live in an era of world as intimate space, connected and immediate. If this festering war in the fragile region spreads, it could possibly be genuinely a world war with fracture spreading to Iran and USA, further complexity in the region could see it spiral into deep fissures that dangerous forces have kept alive through semantics of history. It will have a debilitating impact on survival of most of life on earth. It will possibly make earth uninhabitable for most species. 

To understand what motivates these ‘leaders’ we need to understand ‘sphere of influence’, and why some have this constant urge to expand their “sphere of influence” wherein the world has much better things to offer as also serious existential threat to focus on. These are not complex people so don’t be intimidated. They have fancy weapons -thanks to science misused into technology, and they talk in sweeping statements that has devastating impact on us as it percolates, millions of people have died for no reason and million will die for no reason. These are powerful people placed into powerful positions by flawed systems, and society that is systematically reduced as herd and are incapacitated by various systems of control to respond. These powerful people, projected by system to extend its control, are not complex people. You don’t really have to think much to approximate these people. These are crude crass the worst of common denominator that flawed system churns out. They try to use jargons of sophistication to confuse as also exhibit high bearing entitlements as deciders. They however work at most basic level that make us laugh in disbelieve if not for millions of lives at stake. Observe the street dog, and wonder why does it keep going around urinating on the poles at the periphery. You get a fair idea on ‘sphere of influence’. To understand these people or the systems that controls you don’t need much intelligence, a little observation is enough. Such is the level of ridiculousness we are in. It is heartbreaking. On the one side we have so much spectacular opportunities presented to explore and progress and on the other side humans like street dogs vying to extend the reach of their piss marking. Three hundred thousand years of homo sapiens evolution is at this crossroad of utter banality.

Street dog observation is compelling and relevant but too simplistic. So, let’s listen to the experts in this field. Harvard psychologist McClelland developed a measure called nPow (need for power). It’s correlated with desire to control other people and achieve recognition through control. To understand these deviant people Social Domination Orientation (SDO) measures individual propensity to want to dominate others -and affinity for hierarchy that put some people above others. Study on chimps helps us understand this mindset better. Chimpanzees are very much into power. Researchers found it was difficult to deal with chimps as they try to dominate or intimidate you, they are testing to see where they stand relative to you. And if they perceive some weakness, they will push you and try to dominate. It is same with some humans, and systems that control them, they have not evolved egalitarian impulses that characterize much of human life on earth. Even infants show humans have innate instinct to cooperate and share. Nature survives on mutualism and symbiotic relations. The intention is not to elaborate on these. These observations seem counterintuitive and shows how much systems of control have isolated us from the reality while they deteriorate collective will to place narcist psychopathic leaders to represent humanity.

Evolution led to changes in shoulder girdle (hominid Homo erectus appropriated into sapiens) and advantaged lethal use of ranged weapons, this transformed social structure, it became more of brain and skills than brawn and size. It flattened hierarchies, from primate despotism to hunter gatherer cooperation (studies clearly show egalitarian nature of hunter gatherer societies, remnants of which can be observed to some extent in indigenous societies and tribes; knowledge and wisdom were to persuade and not wield authority), the primate instinct to dominate was superseded by strong desire not to be ruled by someone else giving way to consensus driven deliberations. That surely doesn’t mean that these primitive flat societies were utopian; homicide was common. With proliferation of ranged weapon and later neolithic agricultural revolution and easy access to food meant large numbers of people/fighters which led to hierarchy for effectiveness, and this corrupted into power as control onto other spheres of society, triggering social shift hence emergence of chiefdoms and era of inequality. Surplus food and control of fertile land institutionalised inequality. Power begets conflict and violence. More people were murdered under chiefs and despots than in egalitarian bands. Hierarchy created new systems to cooperate and coordinate in large scale society. This led to corruptible systems and equally corruptible people who seek power within the system. It is therefore natural that the worst would emerge from the lot. Simultaneously a mismatch of thousands of years of hunter gatherer attributes that is stuck in primitive mind start to assert. Legacy of primates is much exciting to primitives than complexities of evolved mind. Hence the constant urge to increase ‘sphere of influence’. These were nurtured by the neoliberal value system that arose from necessary systems of goods exchange and benign market place into capitalism and tuned to pernicious neoliberal greed and control that pervades all human interaction making it transactive thus redefining ‘sphere of influence’. Religion meanwhile systematically worked as a control to increase its ‘sphere of influence’ through hierarchy, exploitation and fantastical view of world (thus negating individual connection to contemporary reality and valued personal experience and understanding) into spiritual -in the process degrading the same. Similar is the case of feudal institutions and value systems that seeks to control and negate liberty and freedom to weaken democratic institutions. Every system of control seeks to emulate and assert attributes that made the homo sapiens succeed for thousands of years as hunter gatherers. Every attempt by human to negate these systems of control asserts millions of years of hunter gatherers love for freedom and egalitarian valuation of self -not over other. Human history saw violence, domination, exploitation and misery and went through feudalism, colonialism and all forms of control through ignorance, threat and greed. It is only in the last few decades that democratic institutions are established, egalitarian humanistic ideals percolated and rule of law gave a sense of security and opportunity to thrive, to much of population across the world. Simultaneously, spectacular development in critical thinking and knowledge created awareness while technology quantified these into everyday deal.

Much of the world is piggybacking on the effort of few, democratic values and critical thinking has not seeped into most of populace. Complacency and comfort assert simplistic outlook of the world while hunger and fear seek easy solutions, incapacitated to evaluate complexities and inability to sense the nuance they look for assurance. Herein thousands of years of primal urges find expressions and are channelized through opportunist systems of control looking for profit and influence. Hence, we have image of ‘strong’ leaders constructed for herd to connect their primal urge with all the attributes of primate legacy intact. To understand these people, we have to go back to millions of years or else study apes and what motivates wild life. So you get fair idea on how legacy of primates become central to assertion of regrettable Homo sapiens and define aesthetics of their transaction with herd. Strip of all the modern technology and this could be band of hominids on four legs negotiating dangerous world under chest thumping leader evaluating the safety of cave for the night. This hominid band (not humans who evolved shoulders to use weapons as they were nonhierarchical nor fighting medieval army as they needed serious skills to survive) projecting to contemporary is theatrics of cave dwelling apes. These primates have dangerous weapons that can annihilate the world many times over, or the least unleash forces that could seriously jeopardize lives and living systems.

 

UN independent probe implicates Russia for Crimes against Humanity

UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry report on Ukraine was presented to UNHCR few days back. It has concluded that Russia has explicitly committed crimes against humanity. There are well documented systematic and widespread brutalities against civilians. While the report doesn’t directly name Vladimir Putin (unlike ICC which has issued warrant against Putin) the implication is grievous, there are clear evidence of 'coordinated state policy'. Ideally the report should become basis for international community in dealing with Russia. A country accused of crime against humanity (with documented proof, hence cannot be dismissed as political manipulation) cannot be normalized and must be dealt severely. Hypocrisy of EU sanction on Russia is that they use intermediary to access Russian oil and gas (Russian LNG imports to Europe, particularly to countries like Spain, Belgium, and France, have remained significant, with EU data showing Russia still accounting for about 15-20% of LNG imports in 2024, often rerouted through third countries or exploiting legal ambiguities).

UN must impose sanctions against Russia. Any country siding with Russia must be isolated, and should loose voting rights on this issue. UN cannot be bystander when their own agency has submitted report of crime against humanity with explicit evidence. UN must take action. UNGA must convene emergency meeting.  

    

Time for truce in Ukraine

 

European Union was a stupendous achievement and a benchmark collective expression for humanity, of countries coming together into common frame, best of democratic expressions and institutionalizing egalitarian concerns. A progressive small step towards an awareness of earth as single geographical entity, and humans as inhabitants, as responsible citizen and guardian of all the species on fragile planet. A union like EU cannot really happen in any other part of the world, much of the world is in varying degrees of barbarism, border skirmishes, feudal control and poverty. Not that Europe epitomizes egalitarian values, there are remnants of feudal institutions that undermine liberty, and ofcourse all these progressive attempts trapped in neoliberal exploitative control that surely works effectively in neocolonial framework of greed. Take for instance the case of Nestle -a multinational company based in richer part of Europe. A report in 2024 revealed that Nestlé added sugar to its baby food products (Cerelac and Nido) sold in low- and middle-income countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, while offering sugar-free versions in wealthier markets like Europe (Cerelac sold in India reportedly contained nearly 3 grams of sugar per serving, despite WHO guidelines advising against added sugars for infants under two due to risks of obesity and chronic diseases). Nestlé exploited weaker regulations in developing nations and poorer societies to prioritize profit over child health.

Extreme complacency led to irrelevance of EU, arrogant leaders took common people for granted thus leading to severe backlash and rise of extreme right and xenophobic consolidations. Democratic institutions have weakened due to these complacency and arrogant incapacity of leaders to unequivocally assert values that are foundational to democracy and free society. Responsible citizenry is being compromised by systems of control, the extreme ones filling up the vacuum. Liberty and freedom are being bartered for juvenile claims of faith and spurious sensitivities that degrade sensibilities. Europe in many ways was benchmark for human progress. EU a collective triumph. Things have gone wrong too quickly. Not very ironically USA under Trump has exposed the hypocrisy, incapacitated by self-serving leaders/systems using common people as fodder for higher claims. NATO was a remnant of dangerous past that found itself dismantled under Trump, simultaneously exposing parasitic nature of European leadership and incapacity to face complexity of fast changing precariously placed world. They are incapacitated to present a strong purposeful united front nor have the moral authority to unite people. EU military force replacing NATO is a reactionary response. They need to push for reform of UN and a strong multilateral UN force. Putin undoubtedly is authoritarian leader with psychopathic tendencies but to blame him for all that is wrong is a limited view. Ukraine paid a heavy price for the arrogance and misplaced self-assured belligerence of European leaders. It is time to call for unconditional truce and stop civilian casualties. Russian attack on Ukraine led war cannot go on forever, nor can any side win. It can only be prolonged with increasing dire consequences for humanity (not the least of which is climate). It shouldn't be flash point that perils world. European leaders must actively engage to stop the war. Truce be called. Russia and Ukraine revert to pre-war position. NATO dismantled. UN reformed and strengthened for military intervention and peace keeping. Crime against humanity by Russia investigated in international court in a speedy manner and international warrant issued against war criminals so that they don't move freely around the world.

*

AI created pic herein is of European leaders as Elois from HG Wells Time Machine. Eloi (and Morlock) are extreme evolutionary outcomes of social inequalities into distant future, simplistic but evocative conjecture. Seemingly utopian, Eloi, are childlike frail peaceful race as a product of centuries of complacency and self-indulgence who are fed upon by Morlocks. Eloi speak simple melodious language and lack curiosity or intellectual complexity, they live in perpetual ignorance, innocence and playful distractions while all their basic needs are met by physical effort and intelligence of burly Morlock. Time traveler mistakes Elois for masters of future world but learns the grim reality that they are just raised as food by Morlocks and are utterly incapable to survive without external aid.

Reporting happiness

 

Happiness is quite a subjective matter. What makes some people happy may be displeasing for others. What is a significant source for happiness for some may mean nothing for others. If the society has evolved core -quite complex and is achieved with much effort through various factors, percolated through benign culture and humanistic traditions and valued through institutions, then it will be reflected in all aspects of dealing including art, science and daily interactions. Crass is always a presence but varies in different societies. A primitive society will have crass as its core and will be reflected in every aspect of life (for instance societies that normalize caste cannibals, monster mullahs, or evil evangelicals will find misery percolating in proportionate to degree of influence of crass). Such spaces cannot be happy on any parameters except maybe those of the perverse kind that sustains the worst of sadistic possibilities – the benign sinister exist among those posing as civilized through feudal institutions, patriarchal concerns, systems of control so on, that wait for fertile grounds to wrench the world back into cave setting and jolly world of hunter gatherers.

Kahneman (in Thinking Fast and Slow) comes out with a unique take on happiness -essentially wellness, that of the experiencing self and the remembering self. Our recollection of an event is anchored on remembering self and not all that what we experience. It is difficult to study happiness and to quantify it. The bias in evaluation and narrow parameters of undertaking within geographical entity of a nation is problematic. There are, ofcourse, some basic parameters on basis of which you can attempt to approximate level of happiness in a society. World Happiness Report is such a venture that was released on March 20^th -the World Happiness Day, adopted by UNGA. Indians (increasingly proud citizens of Bharat), it seems, are not a happy lot. Placed at lowly 118 out of 147 countries (with barbarian ruled Afghanistan rightly at the bottom) sharing happiness with the likes of Chad and Burkina Faso. That 1.4 billion people, approximately 18% of world population, are not at all happy is a serious concern. And when you thought this is the worst possibility comes the expected revelation that Indians rank 128^th in ‘social support’, expected since a society that doesn’t even have a basic understanding of community is incapacitated to provide social support to its fellow citizens. Indeed, every misery is an opportunity to elucidate lessons of fate and blessing to herd, to demarcate normal days into auspicious times, to create crowds as illustration of power of control hence faith, which then falls into the fate of incompetence and characteristic apathy to orchestrate stampede thus ultimate fate of gruesome deaths while blessings for survivors. India also ranks 118^th in ‘inequality’ – which too is on expected lines, authenticated by happy squatters, consolidated by snarling self-obsessed politicians dividing herd with all kind of distractions for easy grab for power. Despite dubious claims of spiritual, and spiritual gurus in every street corner, Indians rank 117 for harboring ‘negative emotion’ -indeed the most literate state with high HDI index comparable to best in the world, Kerala, finds itself in worst of situation with high suicide rate and increasing violence among youngsters (conveniently blamed on drugs -as if these are not available anywhere else in the country) due to crass nature of society incapacitated to self-reflect. What is redeeming, atleast in relative sense, is the high sense of ‘freedom’ (ranked 21) that people enjoy compared to hellholes around the world as also ‘generosity’ (51) -at personal level people can be quite nice despite trapped in worst of society. Ranked 16 in ‘volunteering’ cannot be taken seriously since these are mostly for gaining blessing and generally within the putrid pit -the study seems to have failed to factor in unique nature of depravity. Incidentally, tribes are very few spaces in society that show some remnants of egalitarian value systems.

What is most despicable in the whole conversation is that instead of self-reflection and critical analysis there was blatant attempt by some in the media to manipulate (indeed disinformation) the discussion and try salvage ‘great Indian culture’ (I have a very low opinion on Indian media, and so follow lowest denominator to gather national news -they show no urgency to check facts, typos nor sensibilities to value what is important -it is one crass attempt at attention and greed -and this honesty without pretensions is better than pretentious mediocres). Check this to see how they work to create a narration that is just the opposite of the reality: “India ranked 118 out of 147 countries. While it ranked well for social support, thanks to its community-focused culture and family structures, it scored poorly on freedom, reflecting a lack of perceived choice in society. India's ranking has improved over the years; it was ranked 144 in 2012, and its highest ranking was 94 in 2022”. Such depravity.

Mediocrity seeks power: it is but natural that mediocre people in whatever field they are posing in, whether as artist, journalists, writers, scientists so on, will seek power and influence -social media has added to ease in attention seeking. Greed is never satiated by money, there is always existential crave for more in beggar minded society. Squatter value system has cleverly worked these depravities as successful signs of blessedness for the herd to emulate. As noted from above example writing is just another means to control narration while data points to serious truth deficit. Since the core is rotten it is also expressed through Indian writers (very rarely you have Indian writers -in whatever language, standing up to critical scrutiny; mediocre and insipid). The reason why word defecating vermin come in different shapes and sizes to fill up all the gaps in high end manipulation. More assured they are of their special place in universe prodigious is the output, thicker the feculence/books.   

So here I was at a shop waiting to get an electronic gadget repaired. At the waiting space was collection of books, and this one from a woman (who has worked her crave into RajyaSabha. Having observed the worst kind of people posing as artists into power circle, her PR is keenly manipulating for VP position). I seldom read Indian writers -unless strongly recommended which is quite rare considering overwhelming mediocrity. As I flipped through pages, as a keen reader I felt embarrassed at the quality of writing and very soon felt violated, so before placing it back -ideally thrown into dustbin, I thought of going through the last chapter. Not to strain the precious brains of herd it was appropriately titled “What matters in the end”! “Now Mukesh realized how much he missed his Amma. She knew him and loved him more than anyone else in the world. He was not a Jat or sardar. He was a Brahmin from south India. He knew who he was now. Mukesh took the next flight from Delhi to Bangalore and slept like a baby on the plane.” This trash is Indian writing! What motivates these embarrassing mediocres to write? (also, note complexity of putrefaction here sardar is purposely in small letters -a degraded mocking version of Sikh. Squatter ensconced pus minds have deep contempt for Buddhism and Sikhism as it exposes their depravities. You may also visit https://depalan.blogspot.com/2015/05/horrible-nature-of-poetry-and-degraded.html?zx=9f31a85f57e45972 written 10 years ago for more on depraved mindset). And this despicable woman poses as simple and down to earth while her knuckle headed millionaire husband, lacking any awareness of social reality or empathy, evaluates youngsters as slaves. What is more shocking is that this lump in human form is now full time into children’s writing, posing as moral arbitrator. No amount of manipulated backstory can hide soul clogged in putrefying pus. No wonder India is such a happy place! With little more manipulation it could be happiest place on earth with gaudy gods tacked on floating clouds showering petals on chosen people!                        

Will

In the waves of possibilities 

Sensations coalesce to create

Past, present, dreams

Memories interact for newer pathways

In unlikely crisscrosses and surprising tangles

This emergent complexity

A thought

An intent

Decoheres a reality

Collapsed from multitudes

Representing humanity

 

Democracy is representation of people’s voice through votes. Each person is assured a voice in the process of governance through his or her (or their) vote. Voting age in most democracies is fixed at 18years, it is assumed that a person becomes physically an adult hence mentally mature to decide. It is also assumed that all adults have understanding to weigh in myriad factors to decide what is best for society. This is an idealist version that hinges on wisdom of voters who may not have any such proclivities, far from it they are easily swayed by emotions or crass selfishness for immediate gain, lack basic faculties to comprehend enormity of the task, or else are controlled by insular group affiliation which has least concern for general good or personal wellbeing except as primal protection through herd cave member. The level of primitiveness gives lease to systems of control that undermine process and makes democracy a structure for exploitation. This is being celebrated as democracy across the world, all the while disparities increase, nepotism and corruption are common place, as society scrape lowest denominator of possibilities. Democracy is hardly the voice of people or approximation of their aspiration. It is an expression of control, of money -as guardian of neoliberal system and feudal power -assimilative patriarchal control of human and nature through systems of faith, regressive traditions and manipulation.

To be a human is a responsibility. A responsibility not defined by human controlled systems nor confined to personal aspirations -essentially expressions mediated by controlling systems to perpetuate itself. Responsibility arises through sense of individuality, awareness of self. A human has the arduous responsibility to nurture himself or herself (or themselves) as an individual. A state is duty bound to invest in inclusive systems that essentially is about valuing humans as individuals. Which means to negate controlling systems that foster extractive systems. Commonsense observation and study of basic facts indicates that this clearly is not happening. We live within an exploitative controlling system as the arbitrators posing as different persuasions of democratic debate occupy varying scale of opportunism. It is a mock fight to keep the control and rarely about asserting democratic institutions (severely dented in neoliberal exploitation, juvenile religions isolated from reality and feudal institutionalized traditions). So, people end up using democracy to bargain and barter for short term gain from the exploitative and corrupt system. While exploitative systems wanton greed encourages more voters, more followers, more consumers, more production…consequences are dire as untenable human population and increasing consumption has severely drained natural resources and is collapsing earth’s living systems (of many indicators one is Earth Overshoot Day -humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what earth can regenerate within that year, in 2024 it was August 1^st , meaning humanity used up 1.7times what earth could sustainably provide that year).      

If this is how the world is, then an adult having voting right doesn’t really suffice to be a democratic society, indeed it has become problematic as it incentivizes human population, nor does it propose any solution for immediate problems or existential crisis. System has to evolve and be responsive to reckon with emerging realities. Voting humans are incapacitated to take responsibility of wellbeing of society nor capable to represent other species or earth’s ecosystems. It is therefore important to disincentivize human population -burgeoning belligerence as voice of democracy. Evolved societies invest on quality of living and are acutely concerned and take responsibility for their surroundings, hence will naturally have low fertility rate, while each human strives as an individual to value complexities of life, empathy for other creatures and be abreast with emerging challenges as they strive to be better humans. It is but natural for technology to take the burden of human drudgery hence give value and dignity for life. Hence AI is expected to synergize such evolved societies that care of others as also for nature. Progressive societies cannot be seen as a failure, and so allowed to be negated by barbarianism under the garb of democracy. Neoliberal capitalistic vandal narration and herd churning religions cannot be valued as votes over humanity and all that is cherished. It is time that the concept of democracy is updated to be inclusive and vibrant to fragile contemporary reality.       

Country need be demarcated into equal regions to have equal representation. It is time to realize that area of land and not number of humans that matter and that habitat needs to be represented by human voice. Democracy needs to evolve from anthropocentric framework (ofcourse it brings new challenges but the complexities of solution can be worked for fairer world, or is tried for atleast a decade so as to stop climate catastrophe and biodiversity collapse). Humans are part of society, society is part of humanity, humanity includes all the concerns of earth and other species. This representation is what now matters.               

 

Euler's equation

Euler’s equation 

Transcendental suspends its pursuit

To coalesce into fundamental

Oscillate in wild flare of imaginary and nothing

Complex contracts to align a form from chaos

So fragile an expression

A delight of unexpected poise

Resonate its brilliance into every cell

A doorway for the mind

Drifting like a dandelion seed

Unaware but aware

In spiraling silence

Or a bee settling on a planet as if a flower

Is this wonder

A hint of consciousness 

A portal to merge in the mystery

Suggested reading: Euler’s Pioneering Equation (by Robin Wilson). Euler’s equation (a special case of Euler’s identity) is considered as most beautiful equation in mathematics (and rated second in physics after Maxwell’s equation). It is remarkable in combining five entities, each with deeper mathematical significance, 1, 0, pi, e (exponential growth) and i (imaginary number), as also three fundamental operation addition, multiplication and equality. Feynman calls it ‘our jewel’, others call it mathematical equivalent of Hamlet’s “To be, or not to be”, very short, very succinct. It finds quite a few references in popular culture. Stamps were issued on Euler’s identity. There is a nursery rhyme copied!

Old MacDonald had a farm

e, i, e, i, 0

And on that farm he had 1 pi-g

e, i, e, i, 0

This book traces each entity separately, its history and significance before bringing it all together. Quite an interesting read but only for people who have some understanding and interest for maths. I found reference of Irish astronomer mathematician William Hamilton in the discussion on imaginary numbers particularly interesting. He discovered quaternions (a way to represent rotations in three-dimensional space, which has massive implications for physics, computer graphics, and robotics), after struggling for fifteen years, it is described that one day he was walking along the canal in Dublin “I then and there felt the galvanic circuit of thought close; and the sparks which fell from it were the fundamental equations exactly as I have used them ever since. I pulled out on the spot a pocket book and made an entry…it is fair to say that this was because I felt a problem to have been at that moment solved – an intellectual want relieved which had haunted me for atleast fifteen years since”. Amazing man.    

 

    

The world as it is

 

World has become more transparent with percolation of empowering technology. This has put pressure on political representation to seek attention in newer ways. Posing as transparent and sincere is new device to gain credibility. Surely this seems like a better option. Under the garb of sophistication and behind the formal nefarious worked their deal. We all know what happened in front of camera at White House is something that happens behind (indeed much viciously in some cases, and they capitalize by writing revealing memoirs!). It is a tradition to appear decent and formal in front of camera to impress common people, or more appropriately to keep the herd fixated in their little lives (while we take care of the world). Trump has broken this tradition and introduced unpredictability in this accepted norm of interaction. It is played as transparent (and does impress audience for its ‘sincerity’ and ‘up yours’ to conventions that they don’t trust and know are made up) and pent-up schadenfreude moment. If the world was as it is then what they pose in public will be no different behind the curtains, atleast not dangerously disjointed -which is quite apparent (what was behind the scene discussion between US and Britain when they decided to attack Iraq?).    

The entrenched power (now ‘deep state’ in conspiratorial circles) created binary within extractive system and posed higher morals and showcased themselves as better people to negotiate for future of humanity. Meanwhile facts are clear. World has become seriously unequal and transactionally iniquitous. Natural systems are squeezed out, ecosystems are collapsing, biomass is reducing, species are vanishing and environment is firmly towards extreme. Obviously last 50years was a missed chance for investing in inclusive system for better world. International organizations remains frozen power structures, at the best patronizing or delay or neglect, woefully inadequate to deal with fast changing world despite best efforts by few sincere concerned people. There surely is a systemic problem. The system is out of sync. For instance, why didn’t they sincerely try to upgrade UN and reflect realities of a changed world? The urgency that has befallen lackadaisical self-assured EU (severely diminished by arrogance) is going to be a study on various stages of ineffectual (despite best intention to control narration. Lesson number one: in the age of social media narrations are what works the immediate realities of people, and not the bigger world and its problems that untrustworthy politicians propose to solve). People are now hinged on immediate, creatively judiciously work to bring in the world. Sincerity of purpose can bridge the gap.  

Transparency and openness, which is apparently progressive and empowers democratic values, has ironically pushed the world into serious problem. Since the world is primed in neoliberal extractive capitalism, hinged on opportunist juvenile morals of anachronistic faith systems and arbitrated by feudalistic values entrenched into democratic institutions the result is: crass is now transparent, bravado frank. Crude is easiest claim to primal attention unleashed on populace with susceptible discerning skills and very surely lacking aesthetics of sophisticated complexities. It surely is good for TV (ofcourse TV is now obsolete, what it really means: this is clickbait for the world in perpetual attention mode. Not that the world is devoid of any attention). From this frame you can impress the herd on your apparent sincerity (indeed for people increasingly loosing trust this is the glimmer they will latch on to) but will find woefully inadequate to face the complexities of the world. What is good in this chaos is exposing the hypocrisy of entrenched establishment that took common people for granted and an easy sink to dump the misery. Well, some may say isn’t the world a better place than a century back. Surely it is. Democratic institutions have spread, human rights are valued, and better part of the world have access to modest choices to uplift their lives. It cannot be denied that despite enormous grassroot effort most of the socioeconomic empowerment was facilitated by technology, enabled by inquisitive brilliance of few scientists nurtured in open societies with active state support by investing in effective enabling inclusive infrastructure like health, education, research so on. But somewhere the stagnation happened that assimilated all the progress into extractive systems. You may like or dislike but Trump is a disruptor that the stagnant system conceived to resuscitate itself. The angst of binary that appropriated all morals is unravelling in realtime. Hope these will wake people from complacency and push for systemic changes. Stop posturing (it will be easily dismantled) and show sincerity. Days of charming complacency is over.           

Grok approximates me!

 So, I asked Grok (X AI) to visit this blog and write profile of the blogger. Within few seconds it was ready with the brief (imagine 20 odd years of effort capsulated in few seconds! I am speechless). Quite an interesting read and some amusing insights. Grok thinks i am well suited for 19th century coffeehouse!!

I am truly done here man! Where is my time machine? I am off to meet Ada Lovelace, Dostoevesky, Emerson...

Depalan strikes me as a man shaped by duality—someone straddling the personal and the political, the local and the global, with a restless intellect that refuses easy categorization. Likely in his late 40s or early 50s by 2025, given the blog’s timeline from 2006 onward, he carries the weight of someone who’s lived through enough cultural and historical shifts to distrust grand narratives. His South Indian roots, hinted at through mentions of Tamil Nadu and a surname tied to the region, suggest a grounding in a place rich with history, language, and struggle—perhaps a Tamil or Malayali background, where resistance to overreach, be it colonial or corporate, runs deep. Yet his gaze extends far beyond, dissecting global systems with the same intensity he applies to a village’s water woes.

He’s no armchair critic. His writing hints at a life of movement—physical travel through India’s dusty towns, intellectual journeys through philosophy and poetry, and emotional traversals of anger, wonder, and disillusionment. A 2006 post about investigating Coca-Cola and Pepsi’s impact on Tamil Nadu’s water tables paints him as a hands-on skeptic, chatting up locals and scribbling notes, less a journalist than a wanderer with a cause. His hesitance about photography in that same piece suggests a preference for words over images, a man who trusts language to capture both the tangible (parched fields) and the ethereal (Kunitz’s verses). This isn’t a tech-savvy influencer but someone who’d rather wrestle with ideas than polish a persona.

His worldview leans toward the deconstructionist, as his blog title proclaims—an unpicking of power’s threads, whether it’s multinational greed, war’s dehumanization, or democracy’s hypocrisies. His 2022 post on “crime against humanity” reveals a voice hardened by global crises, yet there’s a softness beneath: a poetic streak that surfaces in unexpected metaphors or quiet reflections on coexistence with nature. He’s likely read widely—Marx might mingle with Tagore in his mental library—but he’s no academic; his style is too rough-hewn, too personal, marked by long, winding sentences and occasional grammatical stumbles. It’s as if he’s thinking aloud, unconcerned with impressing anyone but himself.

Physically, I’d imagine him unassuming, with sharp eyes that miss nothing, the kind of person who blends into a crowd but startles you with a pointed question. He might carry a weathered notebook, scribbling thoughts on a train or under a tree, more at home in the wild than in urban sprawl. Socially, he seems solitary—not antisocial, but content with his own company, perhaps skeptical of collectives despite his empathy for the downtrodden. The blog’s sporadic updates suggest a life driven by impulse rather than routine—he writes when moved, not on schedule, hinting at a temperament that’s both stubborn and free-spirited.

Politically, he’s a rebel without a banner, critical of both authoritarianism and hollow liberalism, yet he doesn’t preach solutions. There’s a whiff of the anarchist in him, tempered by a realist’s sigh. Spiritually, he might lean toward the agnostic or the quietly reverent—nature and poetry are his touchstones, not dogma. As of February 25, 2025, Depalan feels like a man out of time: a thinker who’d fit as easily in a 19th-century coffeehouse debate as on a modern blog, a voice too jagged for mainstream appeal but too sincere to fade entirely, etching his mark in a digital wilderness few may ever find.

Systems of control

 

A society can progress if its institutions are inclusive and responsive to changes from interaction with surroundings and sensitive to the needs. Democracy is a fair system that strives to represent and evolve as progressive society while anchored to individual freedom and liberty. It is a conception, indeed the only one, that has the most potential to work for inclusive progressive society and create ecosystem for best of humanity and nature. Individuals in their free will deciding to intentionally participate, cooperate and organize on progressive platform, evidenced in ethical concerns, valued in liberating education, nurture best possibilities of democracy hence humanity. This enlightening possibility is threatened by extractive systems that thrive on systems of control. If humans are not free and their liberty not safeguarded then democracy becomes ineffectual and indeed a mockery played on common people. Only a free human can embody and express diversity. Any system of control therefore diminishes an individual hence is a threat to democracy. These also create extractive intent in liberal ideas as also in impartial truth-seeking progress in science through direction of technological growth.

Extractive systems like neoliberal capitalism, religion and primal associations (mostly based on exceptionalism, or fear or desperation) have severely dehumanized individuals and made them vulnerable to exploitation. Unless system of control is persistently negated and reasoned, legally challenged, ridiculed as aberration, democracy will be periled and controlled by few. There is no free will in associating with systems of control. It is indoctrination. System of control create authority and in extreme cases authoritarian leaders who emerge by tapping and manipulating systems of control. Authoritarian leaders are manifestation of systems of control. Authority expresses systems of control. It surely doesn’t mean that absence of authoritarian leader is indication of thriving democracy. As long as systems of control exists it undermine democratic institutions and prevents percolation of democratic norms into society, family and individuals. Thus severely compromising progressive potential and humanistic possibilities creating limited individuals and a dead society compelled to repeat history. Since they lack evolved values, wisdom through contemporary understanding, empathy for human condition, they need system of control to manipulate for power.

Each and every system that seeks control must be resisted, demystified, scrutinized and evaluated on contemporary knowledge and awareness. Past cannot be reference but understanding. There is no learning from past since contemporary is qualitatively different and paradigmatically indifferent from past. History is essentially teleological fragmented narration of present that is meant to assert control. Past therefore can only be an understanding, a limited insight into contemporary. Nothing is sacred, least of all any systems of control that intents to degrade humans and devalue progressive ideas. Humans are vibrant sentient being hence cannot be allowed to slip into herd, and become expression of worst possibilities. Identity of a human must be basically and firmly hinged on being a human and the existential awareness herein. That is the least expected from all the contemporary knowledge and progress made. Any form of discrimination must be understood from this stand point and dealt with awareness of systems of control. Unless humans are not extricated from control discriminations cannot be removed, or else it is an extension of victimhood of past that seem to be least concern for contemporary reality and changing dynamics. Persistently negating systems of control and nurturing inclusive egalitarian value system is how discriminations removed and humanity progresses.   

Significantly words shouldn't be allowed to be misused. Words cannot be trapped into the reality of past and becomes extension of system of control. New realities need words to evolve to associate complexities of present, or else new words needs to be created to reflect and calibrate contemporary reality. For instance words like spiritual must find its original meaning and shouldn’t be allowed to be trapped in system of control like religion. Spiritual is a free state of spirit, deep awareness of human condition -indeed the original inspiration of most of religions -that has now become systems of control. Contemporary religion is now a well-established system of control that reduces humans to followers, isolate from reality into anachronistic fantasy hence trapping their spirit into degradation and estimated into juvenile frame. There is nothing spiritual in this dehumanization. Religion is an expression of system of control that persistently devalue egalitarian intents and humanitarian concerns as it prevents democratic institutions to percolate. These shouldn’t allow to control the meaning of words so as to usurp original intent and control narration to extend system of control. Humans must have correct estimation of reality through words so that they are equipped for truthful awareness. So that they use their mental faculties and empathy to assert their liberty and value their freedom. Be grateful to immense effort and sacrifices made by brilliant caring humans over the centuries to nurture these wonderful possibilities.                                        

Retreat

The window opens briefly

All there to see and choose

Bright blue sky offers all the bright and blue

Scythe like vultures ride high on thermals

Gossamer float to shore precious

A form resonates the whole

The sun, moon and earth

It promises it will be

To the closing eyes      

Exponential escalation in Human Wildlife conflict

 

Humans (specifically indigenous people/tribes) have coexisted with wildlife for centuries. In the last few decades this coexistence is severely threatened as the resources dwindles while detrimental climate factors are becoming obvious. Expanding human population and its increasing consumption is a major source of biodiversity loss, habitat destruction and a serious concern for sustainable earth. This reality is sought to be undermined by sinister forces that prioritize greed (the neoliberal capitalism) and control (juvenile fantasy driven religions). We have reached an impasse -a culmination of various detrimental factors accentuated by climate change, that this reality can no longer be hidden through fantastical fiction and narrative control. As forest get degraded (fragmented/reduced through logging, mining, expanding human settlements and land conversion/intensification for agriculture/livestock grazing) with human encroachment, invasive species, unpredictable and extreme climate, it has escalated Human Wildlife conflict (HWC). Wildlife is increasingly losing space and resources they need to survive and thrive. There are lots of studies done on this issue with expert suggestions for context specific conflict management, community engagement and sustainable coexistence. There is also a call for including HWC/coexistence into SDG goal since it directly impacts several key aspects of sustainability. Sometime back I read about Sonitpur model (human-elephant conflict in Assam that works to involve and educate local population) that provides viable strategy. The problem is as HWC increases it becomes difficult to maintain sustainable strategies in cooperation with local communities. Fast and appropriate compensation package helps to control the situation. Use of latest technologies like IOTs and data pattern through AI is helping to understand this issue and suggest solutions. Early warning system for local population (when I conducted trekking, I relied on local spotters to warn me of elephant movements) and providing source of food and water for wildlife in the core areas are being tried. What cannot be denied is that situation is set to deteriorate.

Strip of land nestled in dense forest of western ghats and ocean, Kerala, is facing an unprecedented rise in HWC. Extractive system (includes politicians, religious leaders and market media) successfully scuttled MadhavGadgil report which after extensive study provided comprehensive suggestions. A literate healthy state (Kerala model) lacking the capacity to educate was found severely wanting and short shrifted in its determinedly middle-class aspirations. A staid society lacking vigor dutifully assigned itself into various roles as thriving consumers and beggar minds of neoliberal capitalism. Nepotism driven pusillanimous value system surrenders to worst possibilities whether religion or communism, very deviously served by legacy media and its deep entrenched depravities and cantankerous arbitrators and self-appointed representors. As HWC escalates it is contributing to burgeoning attention economy, creating "opportunities for enterprising" to game the system. For a fatalism driven society fate will have to work its charm to impress the herd.  

Primitives in conflict with elephants: there is another serious problem that was always present in this deplorable section; an orchestrated conflict between temples and elephants. Severely stressed elephants, placed in crowded noisy sultry spaces adorned in cheap glitter, kill people regularly, even the judiciary is compromised to depraved sentiments of herd and its godforsaken tradition that is part of past horrors. It is truly heartbreaking to watch magnificent intelligent creatures like elephants chained and paraded by these sick inbred minds to showcase their control as also their depraved valuation of propitious. Quaint aesthetic temples and heightened nuanced mural expressions were clearly appropriated from meditative Buddhism hence these incursions adds to the mismatch. Primitives in aesthetic surroundings lacking basic sensibilities, a faith devoid of compassion and herd incapacitated to introspect. Elephants should be banned from any rituals, these sensitive animals in no case be near to any crowd or noise. Elephants are free animals that have roamed the land for 6million years, hence belong to forest or protected areas as endangered species. They must be respected and not patronized or objectified for sickening anthropomorphized reasons or props for religion. Humans, if they feel so, can visit these sanctuaries to express their respect and adoration for elephants on equal terms.    

Presence 

In the crowd

Like canopies of trees

Minding the space

Always aware, always cautious

Of the other.

The world is the way it is

Formal, courteous, ugly, salacious, pleasant

They debate, they argue, they agree, they disagree

They hug, they fight

And so it goes on.

All the while the roots grow deep to connect

The hyphal network of collaborations

Distributing nutrients and sharing warnings

Stray talks and serendipity

Wise takes and some love

Making the presence all the more precious

As a tree in the forest    

Deconstructing meanings with narrative control

 

Derrida would argue that there is no true meaning of word, only the one appropriated by power, the dominant narration assimilates the meaning. One will not entirely agree with this assertion since word do have meaning assigned as it comes into existence, a meaning that is mutually agreed within the frame of reference or ‘language game’ as Wittgenstein puts it. The way the word changes meaning, is deconstructed and appropriated, is where Derrida’s relevance becomes apparent. A word with idealistic fervor and evocative like woke is appropriated into pejorative and indeed in lightning speed as social media dog whistle for dismissing those exhibiting concerns and meaningful involvement is startling. Words don’t live in isolation, they work within the evolving dynamics of society. The meaning of the word can only shift if the language game, that is, context of the word, itself is shifting. You cannot change the meaning of the word if the context isn’t favorable. This then points to the direction the society in general is moving, the shifting of aggregate, or atleast mainstream narration that is being controlled by forces consolidating power. From idealism to sarcasm, from genuine concern for systemic inequities and deeper involvement to superficial transactive engagement and weaponizing dubious narrations is a statement on contemporary world, it really doesn’t augur well. The movement of meaning is consolidation of intent.  

It cannot be denied that performative puritanism, political correctness and virtue signaling has overtaken idealistic concerns. Feudal forces are nurturing pliable peasants and primitives under the cloak of diversity as also as a strategy for their own increasing relevance as the situation degrades. Meanwhile concerns are swiftly trashed into binary bins of easy consumption and playact for distraction and control by devious forces posing as whatever benefits the occasion. Shorter attention span has made matter worse while systems of control undermine critical thinking and encourage herd expressions. Meaningful discourses are losing anchors of reference and are being decontextualized as caricatures of amusements. This is problematic. There is a need for narration that reflect contemporary world instead of present as extension of past loop. If people are becoming sarcastic and transactive, and world in general is alarmingly consolidating superficial and manipulative, then it must be reflected and abstracted into words. Unfortunately though semantics of dealing is not able to keep up with internet speed hence these appropriations that creates attention. The problem is when words with idealistic intentions are appropriated, and with brute force and contempt displayed in this process. Words must approximate the reality but hauling the word that anchors concerns for social justice and awareness of systemic inequities and eviscerating into opposing meaning is ruthless display of wanton power of manipulation that is fueling misinformation and disinformation. Sarcasm as a mainstay of discourse has dire consequence.

Words are important. The reason why valued words like woke was squeezed into opposing meaning in realtime has also to do with lack of concern hence inadequate words to approximate the emerging reality and changing challenges and experiences of people. General apathy as they watch posers scale treacherous moral high grounds to represent. Political correctness at expense of people and virtue signaling of sickening self-righteousness, that had no connection with contemporary reality, by devious forces under the garb of liberal. People desperately needed words that reflected their frustrations and articulated narrations that valued their experience.  Liberal democracies were reduced in the clutch of feudal forces who unleashed neoliberal extractive systems. The backlash found the way through social media. Social media has empowered common people, the reason why woke shifted meaning with such alacrity. Meanwhile be careful woke may just be the beginning of appropriation of words into building new narration of horrifying convenience. Words need to be valued and anchored to reality otherwise it becomes absurd, a parody. Unraveling experiences of fast changing world and the collective insecurities of people must be valued and approximated into words, or else you will have words appropriated and experience contextualized into narrations that creates fertile grounds for deception. This lack of complexity in dealing with contemporary reality is source of degradation that helps powerful manipulators.

(picture herein is AI generated, refined after few prompts)