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?