If music be the soul of life... play on!

If approval rating be the essence of work... keep selling, pushing,  manipulating ...
Marketing, selling, merchandising, packaging, advertising are all words that are commonly used. Public relations began with Edward Bernays. PR, innocuous and mild, a neutral phrase, speaking of the stuff of life, relationships, contact and having a good time, entertainment, mingling beyond the circle of known. But the intent behind PR was always seeking an advantage, selling, marketing, breaking down the restraints, defences, storming the citadels ... the hazy but powerful dominos where human beings made decisions. 
The sinister aspect of the phrase, and the subsequent evolution, is that it chose to invalidate whatever a human being was. It chose to tell him / her that he was incomplete, vulnerable, crumbly, fragile.... And to become better, improve, complete, stronger, less fragile, all he / she needed had to do was follow a code... replace the old code of frugality, need based acquisition with dream and desire based purchases. And part of the myth was that this was the road, to daily purchases, daily indoctrination, this was the powerful world that could not be resisted... and this was the only way it can be. For every one person who does not buy, succumb or doubt, there will be hundreds who buy and feel good. The individual who thinks is doomed to be encircled, embattled with own fears and doubts, and finally the fragility will move him and he too will conform... the power of numbers, over individuals, trends over choice, and the conveyor belt of change over serenity of the slow rhythms of life. 
Yes it is about speed, fast better than slow! And speed leaves one breathless, the happiness of getting away... staying still is dull, boring, old fashioned, primitive and certainly not contemporary, modern.
Krishnamurti  says, "Better is the enemy of the good!" The mirage of improvement distracts from the essence, the need for fundamental transformation of the consciousness, The brain has a program of happiness, sorrow, sadness, excitement, anger, fear, hate, envy and and seemingly urges of desire, avoidance of pain .... And what does the market recommend? Betterment, improvement, satisfaction, a move away from this difficult quagmire, a distraction, some shiny lights and eye-catching visuals, ear-catching sound bytes and fringes that speak like ghosts to our unconscious ...
The idiom of the market runs deeper! Discussions are about winning an argument, contesting another's view and pushing, convincing, selling a view, convincing the other of a point of view.... has made its impact felt on educational efforts as well. This process of convincing the other of the superior, competing conclusion, product, idea is in direct contrast to the investigating, questioning, delving deeper approach.
Is is good for me to fill my son's, daughter's head with ideas I have about the world? Or tell them exactly what they have to do to lead their lives with success? Is not education about sharing a worldview? Engaging, finding out, discovering?
Approval of the other has taken over reliance on oneself... be it the colour of clothes, or the beauty of one's work, the other is present, glaring, smirking, smiling or approving, endorsing, patronising! I cant do anything without thinking of what the other would think of it, how it will be received, whether there will be thumbs down! And in this fear filled setting I seek freedom, creativity and self expression... and chase a mirage that simply does not exist. If I cannot listen to the other and myself, I am lost! If the other cannot listen to me, I have no relationship.
Unless there is a pliability that lets me listen to the other, unless there is a robustness stops me from deep invalidation, I cannot walk the road to happiness. The fear of the other or the protection of the self from the assault of other views will knock me down at every turn. Unless, I can see the ways in which the market and people influence me, and others, I cannot be free of it. 
This leads to an interesting question - what is discussion, conversation, engagement with another? Is it that I need to convince people of my position? Express my view and seek approval? Is it that I need to convince others of my view or vice versa? If neither of these is it just a little 'give and take', a compromise, a trade, a negotiation. Give me what I want and I will give you what you need. 
Can there be a conversation where we are not trying to convince another of anything, not selling anything, not talking down or talking up? Can we talk listening to each other as intelligent human beings who have views, all partial, and seek to learn about ourselves and the things being discussed? Without this there will always be an asymmetric relationship and power will hover in the shadows to show one's hand at a suitable moment through rejection, through oppression and ridicule, or just plain co-opting.
Can relationship exist with power, fear, domination or subservience? And how do we relate to each other fully, with non of this, speaking, listening and maybe discover affection....?

Shame, guilt and action

http://avayshukla.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-lock-down-diaries-viii-feel-little.html

I read this piece with a growing sense of the truth that the author speaks. Yes, the middle class well ensconced India does ot see the other India... they could well be children of other gods. And of course the helplessness to be part of justice is embedded in the lore of Karma. I also read the comments, empathetic, acknowledging, lashing out, critical of the author's location. 
The refrain of 'do something' is very interesting... 
Attempting to do something is a humbling experience. stringing words is easier than actually attempting to alleviate the mindless suffering of even a few human beings. Doing something, anything entails being ready for failure, futility encountering the magnitude of the problem. Face to face,, as a responsible citizen, human being, someone who does not justify the historical past, personal or national, but is ready to meet the suffering he sees before his eyes. 
In the face of suffering, a crowded platform in Bangalore or in UP, whose responsibility was it to ensure social distancing. 
Who or what was responsible for the vast multitudes walking, cycling or trying to hitch a ride? Those desperate to get home are expected to maintain distance and not push. Anyone who has travelled in a Mumbai local train, or an unreserved compartment or been at a railway station during the time of a major religious event would know that in a crowd, would know that in a crowd there is no chance of independent action. One does not push because one wants to but because one is pushed along. And for a large number, the vast majority, jostling pushing, being pushed is a daily reality. 
But there are others, who travel in first class on trains, in ac buses, and cars, self driven and driver driven, who cant bear to be pushed or jostled. Our havens allow us the safe havens of isolation, and escape from the contaminating contact with human sweat. We also sweat, but in T shirts when we exercise or run, wearing expensive shoes with foreign music in our ears. Sweat is only acceptable in such circumstances. One eats pizza and burger while the other still eats roti and dal. Can the two ever eat at the same table, speak the same language or will they always be strangers .... 
Today the fear of the other, accentuate the divides in the population. It will drive the markets crazy figuring out the segmentation. If India is one nation, the markets cannot unite us, not the army, nor war, nor religion, nor rituals of bonhomie in designer suits, not expensive clothes or brands. 
Who has created this economy of shortages where space and dignity are available, not as right, but for a price? And how have a large number of us accepted the cooped chicken location of personal space, individual preferences, door delivery of everything? How have we blinded ourselves to the plight of citizens, less privileged than us? Is the sad truth that, insensitively, we have allowed our souls to be purchased in exchange for comfort and blindness, for silence and for cheering when asked.
One has had the privilege of sharing meals, every day, sitting seamlessly with men, women and children, from the city and the village. The tables are round, no head neither tail, only equal positions. 
There is no greater equaliser than the floor. One wonders if we can claim our birthright to the common ground, the common soil, as perishable equal human beings, none more equal than the other, none so important as to need special access, none so unimportant as to not have a voice. Will we have the space then to listen, ask questions and speak our truths. 

With warm regards

Gautama

Musings during lockdown 5 May - travel and plastic

Locked down, meaning some things one did one does not do now.
One does not wander out and walk a street full of people, one does not drive 40 km to go to a restaurant, or 20 km to visit a friend, or go to the 'office' or factory or school or college! Or t a movie theatre or hang out with friends.
But that does not mean that one does not eat, or work or 'meet' friends. While food is real, al lot else is virtual.
I wonder, if all my 'work' can be done with the screen and phone and ear plugs, why have I been travelling so much all these days? Why has human species been doing this high carbon runaround?
In indian villages before vehicles became so easily available, did not people spend a life restricted to wandering as far as the feet could take one? To the river to bathe, to the fields to till, to clear weeds, to run the water, to graze the cows and bulls.
Was that a primitive life? Is our life, one that has been rudely corona interrupted, of physical wandering over 10s of kms to 1000 km in a day a better life? Are really accomplishing more?
In our corona confined life I find plastic creeping into my home, relentlessly, with everything I purchase. Food, medicine, oil! The ocean floor has alarming quantities of micro plastics. And I am contributing my mite. Now, I have been made to compulsorily suspend movement and cosumption of petrol and diesel, dramatically reducing emissions. Fear and legislation, with override powers over freedom to move, have resulted in the oil markets going into a tizzy. But the markets are holding, waiting to return to 'normal', the high consumption mode, to further aggravate global warming.
Will we stop throwing plastic in the environment only when another normalcy rattling event occurs? Is there no way we can embrace a sensible way of life together, as a planet, as humanity?
Will our collective endeavour only be made of an oft heard platitude? "
There is much that people are doing, that is why the world is not worse than it is!"
And we are ready to offer the earth, bruised and battered, to the next generations with this weak disclaimer?

The nearly final solutions... and broad brush strokes

Disclaimer: In this fictional piece resemblance to any character living or dead is purely accidental ! . 

Who does not love broad brush strokes . They provide an overarching story. The world's problems can be easily solved if people listened to such people. They have solutions, the nearly final solutions. 

There are those who talk details, the pixels, that fill the space between broad brush strokes. You would agree that if most points fit a pattern, those that lie outside are aberrations! One tries hard to make the curve fitting exercise inclusive.... But there will always be those who are difficult to accommodate, cannot be included. 

Is that not the nature things? Whatever steps one takes, however compassionately, someone suffers, somethings suffer? Can we not agree on this principle? Yes, it means today you, and tomorrow it will be me! Should one not accept the elegance of the broad brush stroke?And yes, some sacrifice is needed!

Details are like dust that settles, relentlessly, everyday. One wonder why dust does not allow the grand plan of cleanliness and stay out once it has been removed. An emperor tried to carpet the world with leather to eliminate dust that was a nuisance! At least he tried a big solution. 

If a problem is obvious for centuries should we accept that they cannot be solved? Or should we try to solve them? Small solutions are like complicated paintings of pointillists, little dots juxtaposed haphazardly. It is a wonder that a picture emerges at all. Is not the work of the Japanese calligrapher a better option for nations? Elegant, broad, sweeping across the canvas, like a shaft of sunlight across the horizon at dawn or dusk?

Should governments be involved in detail? Or broad policy. Is it not the people who must fill in the details? How can govt decide who  cooks what dish? How can people do unreasonable things like walk hundreds of kilometres? Is that not absurd?

One may wonder, is it fair that policy excludes some? The broad brush stroke fits many data points. Ask any scientist, data will always have a scatter. Some will always be outside the line. Is it humanly possible to fit all? What can anyone do in a large nation such as ours!

One has noticed that while one likes the broad brush stroke, one is impatient with details. If anyone speaks of details, they are obstructing. If someone speaks of exceptions, it is so irritating. If another says let us test out this idea on a small community so we learn, one feels infuriated. How can people not support the well-meaning broad brush stroke? Don't they see that it is only the broad brush strokes that unite us? There will always be some discomfort, some problems to be experienced, some collateral damage. 

Scientists know that data speaks. You have to generate data. Ask people and they will tell you. Get people to respond. But many don't respond so one has to work with data that one gets. One is surprised when people say they are scared to speak and provide data points. This is bothersome. One has no choice but to ignore them, and keep silent? When one is in a responsible position one needs to learn that - 

Let them have their say! The broad brush stroke will surely win the day!

The country will soon be a powerhouse of prosperity, a nation the emperors of the past will be proud of. We all know now the dangers of the final solution! But the nearly final solution, can one avoid it?? All would be soon be co opted! Almost all - through silence, through disease, through hunger - and there will be peace! ... Pl excuse the discomfort.. there will be peace and power.

Excellence in Human behaviour - talk in Mumbai Jan 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuemCCmqz_4&feature=youtu.be

Yuval Noah Harari: "21 Lessons for the 21st Century" | Talks at Google

A profoud articulation of the dilemmas of the present situation - education, technology, values, religion and spirituality

▶ 58:48

Preparing ourselves for a future when the children want one...

PREPARING CHILDREN FOR THE FUTURE

Human beings have always had feelings for their children. Societies and families have had visions of the future for their children. Here is an old American Indian Prayer

Great Spirit , Great spirit my grandfather,
look upon these children with children of their own,
that they may face the north wind
and walk the good road to the day of peace

And this is what ABRAHAM LINCOLN had to say to his son’s headmaster.

He will have to learn, I know, that all men are not just, all men are not true. But teach him also that for every scoundrel there is a hero; that for every selfish politician there is a dedicated leader. Teach him that for every enemy there is a friend. It will take time, I know , but teach him, if you can, that a dollar earned is of far more value than five found. Teach him to learn to lose and also to enjoy winning, steer him away from envy., if you can; teach him the secret of quiet laughter. Let him learn early that the bullies are the easiest to lick; Teach him, if you can, the wonder of books but also give him quiet time to ponder the eternal mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun and flowers on a green hillside. In school, teach him it is far more honourable to fail than to cheat. Teach him to have faith in his own ideas, even if every one tells him they are wrong. Teach him to be gentle with gentle people, and tough with the tough. Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when every one is getting on the band wagon. Teach him to listen to all men, but teach hi m also to filter all he hears on a screen of truth, and take only the good that comes through.

Teach him, if you can, how to laugh when he is sad. Teach him there is no shame in tears. Teach him to scoff at cynics and to beware of too much sweetness. Teach him to to sell his brawn an d brain to the higher bidders, but never to put a price tag on his heart and soul. Teach him to close his ears to a howling mob and to stand and fight if he thinks he’s right.

Treat him gently, but do not cuddle him, because only the test of fire makes fine steel. Let him have the courage to be impatient; let him have the patience to be brave. Teach him always to have sublime faith in himself, because then he will always have sublime faith in mankind.
This is a big order, but see what you can do. He is such a fine little fellow, my son.

In the twentieth century we hear a different flavour of things that an adult may say to a young one.

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
I”ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains,
I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways, I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests,
I”ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans,
I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard, And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.
Bob Dylan

Adults hold the soil of today, and this is the soil from where tomorrow has to spring.. If the adults of tomorrow, the children of today were to ask us, `Tell me O’ adult, what can I look forward to?’

Would we say `My dear, I would like to say that you have rosy tomorrows, in this paradise of hues and colours and creatures. You have golden relationships to look forward to and magical possibilities. But I am afraid this can’t be said. Men have ravaged this planet with their dreams and their toils. They have ravaged each other with their minds. The beauty of songs is drowned by the clatter of man made things. And far more dangerous, men everywhere appear to believe that this is the right way to live. This my child is the world you will inherit.

And the young one could say `Surely you exaggerate O adult. Things can’t be so bad. I see smiles and hear laughter,. Surely you adults and those before you could not have let things come to such a pass.

Would we say, `Yes things are not as bad as that. There is the good and there is the bad. The good things are that there is enough food. The bad is that man does not know how to distribute it. The good news is that there is a splendid diversity of life and beauty on this planet. The bad news is that there are few eyes and fewer hearts to meet this richness. There is a wealth of hope in human hearts but they turn sour in human minds. We say the animals and birds and fishes are important but we use them and their numbers are dying.

So my young friend, Yes there are many fine ideas and many dreams in the minds of adults. But there is also a curious tragedy. Man has learnt to live in two worlds simultaneously, the world of noble ideas and then that of the most corrupt base actions. We talk of progress, but quality of life and relationships have not improved, probably become starker. We speak of need to protect forests and continue to lead ecologically unsustainable lives. And if the young were to say, `why then did you bring me to this earth? Was it to meet this awful situations? Or was it an accident of lust? Is this the best gift to your children and grandchildren?’

What would we say? Would we be silent? We could say some things surely. Of course we would need to get off any pedestals we may be sitting on.

My young friend, we have learnt a few deep lessons for tomorrow. We have struggled, may be not too well to live them. But in the time we have we will join you and share with you these lessons.

We have learnt that more is not better than less. In fact finding out what one needs is the answer. Also we need far less than we think we do. A bigger house or more wealth has not made a happier man.

We have learnt that abundance can be turned into scarcity. Air, water, forests wildlife have all shrunk, thanks to the way we have taken them for granted. Finding a way of life where we do not take things for granted is the answer, but live with respect, if not reverence for the bounties of sunlight, fresh water , air.

We have learnt that human beings know little about love. To most of us love is attachment. There is great boredom born of familiarity and then great emptiness. We need to ask, you and I, what love means. We need to ask also what brings dignity and beauty. The less man knows about these things, louder has been the rhetoric.

We have learnt painfully that we need to rediscover our legs. Cars and other transport leave behind ghostly graveyards, fill the earth with smoke and ruin. Time and speed are things we have chased for the past 200 years. How much do we need to travel and how? Our legs need to find strength again and we need to discover again that small steps can take us far. That small is truly beautiful.

We have learnt that religious beliefs while they are supposed to bring people together, seem to carry seeds of division. That religion is different from religious life. We need to learn to live a religious life.

Our young child may continue. `I feel happy to hear all this and see some direction. But tell me is all this only for me,. for the future? Are you telling me what I need to do? What are you, the adult going to do? Are you only going to tell me to do things which you are not able to do?

What will we say?

Will it be `My child I am tired and quite set in my ways. It is very difficult for me to change. So this is the best I can offer. Advice from the sidelines.’

Or will it be : “My child you have asked a difficult question. I see that we are both in the same boat psychologically. We both have habits and patterns. And I was a child not too long ago.

I am willing to change. I feel afraid as I say this. And I will walk with you. We all have to learn a new way of living. And I might as well begin now.”

G.Gautama
(First published Nov 2002 The Hindu)