Rational or not?

One thing that I like a lot about my family is that we are all fanatical about books. In an age where being labelled 'bookish' effectively results in expulsion from society, it's heavenly to retreat into my family home and lose myself in print paradise. As a result of this mania, my family home in Bangalore is filled to bursting with books by various people from various places across the world. And often, whenever I come back from Bombay, I go on a rather quaint expedition to find some interesting piece of work that has disappeared from everyone's memory.

My grandfather used to work in India's public sector during its heyday and had travelled through Eastern Europe around the same time. As a result of which, I have discovered a lot of interesting stuff related to the Indian industries in the 1960's and many books that had been purchased from places like the erstwhile Czechoslovakia which was then under the Soviets.

Strangely, these Soviet-era novels and storybooks are not dull, grey and rhetorical as many people would like us to believe. On the contrary, they are colourful, imaginative and really stimulating. The propoganda is there all right but it's presented to the reader in such a way that the reader would hardly notice it unless she looked carefully. For instance, there is this children's novella called The Three Fat Men which is a story about an obese trio who dictatorially ruled a country until they were defeated in a rebellion. A typical cruel-king-who-gets-punished story except for some subtle twists to make the reader admire the cause of the reds.

To be perfectly fair, if someone who has no knowledge of modern history or politics read this book, it will seem like a perfect story with a happy ending where the people end up living in a land of equals. In fact, they will probably conclude that rationally there can no other happy ending. Rationally speaking, the common people were completely justified in overthrowing their oppressive capitalist oligarchs, the The Three Fat Men. Therefore, in a broader sense, capitalism is not as good as communism where class distinctions are done away with.

Which of course, is not really true for communism has as many flaws as capitalism. In fact, every socioeconomic system has its own set of flaws that cause problems. But the book made me think...what do we really mean when we say 'Rational'? Because as I have just pointed out, rationally speaking you can justify something that others can't accept. What is rationality? Mathematically, it's easy to define rationality. But socially, what exactly is 'thinking in a rational way'?

Everyday, I read articles in the papers or the net where the writers beseech some targeted party to be rational. And then those targeted parties claim that they are being rational. For instance, there was this interview which I saw on youtube with an Islamic cleric where the cleric was asked why he supported the building of mosques in western countries while not supporting churches or temples to be built in Islamic republics. Here's what he had to say.

Now, I don't know and at the risk of hurting someone's sentiments, I don't give a f*** what other people thought about that video but as far as I'm concerned, that's the most ridiculous piece of crap logic I've ever heard , even if I ignore the title and the comment at the beginning of the video. But it's quite easy to see how many people can actually consider his statements 'logical'. If you look at his reasoning carefully, he's actually appears quite 'rational' and according to many, he is extremely rational. He'll take eternity to convince me of his statements but the same may not apply to other people.

Which brings me back to my main point. What does rationality mean? Is it subjective or universal? Is there a concrete way to being rational and do people like this dude just twist that path to suit their own needs? If so, then how exactly do you prove that it's your path that's logical and not the other guy's? You may know it's right but what about others?

Thinking about this stuff right now. If you have any ideas, do comment.

My name is mental...fundamental

The recent incident in Baroda where an art student was jailed because of showcasing 'obscenity' in his work is the latest of a number of incidents in the country that are all clearly saying one thing - the fundamentalists are coming back. And they are prepared to come, see and conquer everything in their path in order to achieve what they want. Who are these guys? Why do they act the way they do? I must confess that I have had not much contact with these hardcore enforcers in recent times save some interaction over online political and religious communities. Nevertheless, this virtual contact with these people has brought out some horrifying truths for me which have shaken some of my innermost beliefs.

I often laugh bitterly (as I'm doing now) when I recall what my opinions used to be. I never thought that one day I would read messages by other people whose contents broke the very core of the constitution. I never thought that one day I would interact with Indian citizens who would accuse Mahatma Gandhi of being a selfish pervert who ruined the nation. I would have laughed scornfully if somebody had told me that one day I would talk to people who supported ideas which can actually lead to civil war. I was frightened at first. But gradually I began to try and understand these people, see why they believed what they believed. These people who I'm talking about are not politicians out for votes or goondas out for some trouble-making. They are ordinary people like you and me - students, employees, professionals -people who are educated. Why should they become so conservative? What reason do they have?

The truth, as far as I can see, is that these people support fundamentalism because they are sick and tired of the way things are right now. They grew up studying in schools about the great ideals of our founding fathers and how India is a proud democracy. But when they stepped out of school they realized what a mockery the entire system is. Politicians and bureaucrats are ruining things everywhere. The ideals of our founding fathers exist only on paper. The rhetoric they studied at school was just that - rhetoric.

What do they do? Some of them still believe in what they have learnt. They join social service organisations and awareness groups and try to propogate those same ideals that this country has lost sight of. Others seek comfort in one thing that doesn't seem to have changed - religion. The religion that they followed at home, the religion they grew up with. Confused (maybe even frightened), they seek the comfort of that one timeless institution.

Thus when politicians and ruffians in the name of religion come knocking on their doors, a lot of them get easily convinced. Those hate-spreaders tell them that even their religion and culture is now under attack. There are muslims out there who hate hinduism and its great ideals and want to crush it. There are hindus out there who despise the holiness of the Koran and seek to abolish it for ever. And to make matters more unfortunate, history isn't very kind to them either. Those goddamn netas expand their philosophy and tell them that muslims were always this cruel, Babar had demolished our god's birthplace. Hindus were always this wicked, just look what they did to Babri Masjid. Down with them! Let them rot in hell!

And then the ruffians organise one tiny incident. It's usually not much, just a statue disfigured or a man misquoted. But it's enough to throw a spanner in the works. And thus, when the nation burns, the ordinary middle-class folk find themselves supporting one religion or the other, failing to realize that the truth of the matter is that when people do that, everybody ends up losing.

Encroached!!!

Here's something to chew on. A couple of weeks ago, there were some pretty heavy rains in Bangalore. I was away at that time, so I missed it (pity, I could have done with some rain in 40 Deg C Mumbai). Anyway, when I came back, I heard this totally weird story that has still not made any sense to me. Let's see if you can figure it out.

A woman who had moved to Bangalore a year ago had had a house built in the Halasur (Ulsoor) area quite close to the Ulsoor Lake. During the rains, a part of the bank surrounding the lake had collapsed and water from the lake had rushed into her house as if her abode was the Augean Stables of Greek myth and ruined practically all her belongings. To make matters worse, one wall of her building collapsed and now she's homeless. She's seeking compensation from the government.

All well so far. Nothing seems to be wrong. But beat this - she's seeking government compensation for the loss of a house that had been declared as an illegal construction. The land upon which she had her house built had been left alone by the BDA and other authorities to act as a catchment area whenever the lake overflowed. Constructing any sort of building upon that land is supposedly not allowed.

It came as no big surprise to me that there was an illegal construction in that area in the first place. That sort of thing happens all the time and with the real estate boom in Bangalore, the situation has only gotten worse. But seeking compensation for an illegal construction???? I don't know whether to find it disgusting, ridiculous or just plain funny.

Of course, the woman is probably claiming that the authorities never informed her that the site was illegal. There might be some truth in it but it's not very likely. Can it be true that in a scenario as bureaucratic as land registration, no government employee raised the matter in order to create some more red tape and try and reap some bribes from it? I don't think so, especially since the woman apparently had the house built herself and didn't buy it from some agent - surely somebody would have turned up during the construction to make some comment.

In the end, the woman lost her house. People just don't realize that you can't beat Mother Nature. Oh sure, you can deceive the President but as the old saying goes "You can fool some of the people all the time and all of the people sometimes, but you can't fool Mom!" In this case Mother Nature. She gets her way all the time. If she doesn't like that house of yours, down it comes. If she doesn't like you choking her with smoke, you get no rain for the rest of the year. If you fill up every available space with concrete and don't let water get absorbed into the soil, she'll make sure that that water will only end up bugging you.

Nope, don't try and fool her.

A thought

Sometimes I feel that the purpose of existence in this world of ours is fraught with futility. There are times, such as now, when an extremely morbid flow of thoughts rushes through my head like a devastating flood leaving behind nothing but gloom and despair. These are circumstances when I realize that (as Kurt Cobain put it) it's better to burn out than to fade away. Even as the rain flushes out the heat as I type this, I get the feeling that the sooner the human race is rendered extinct, the better it is for this weary and exhausted planet.

What are we humans if not living examples of the Selfish Giant who appears in that classic fairy tale by Oscar Wilde? Isn't it true? As the Giant shut himself out from the world and lived in his own pathetic grey castle, so do we shut ourselves up in our cities brushing out all that we perceive as alien including those children of hope who only wish to spread happiness in our gloomy courtyards through a symbiotic existence. Oh no, like a virus bent on domination and destruction, we humans seep into every nook and corner that nature has bestowed upon this earth and then root out everything that has made its home there just so that we can slouch indulgently into our own selfish little pool of luxury. We then call it civilization.

As if that is not enough, we strive to satisfy our bloated egos by dividing ourselves into nations, regions, religions, castes, creeds and sects. We take immense pleasure in this and are forever attempting to portray our own choices as the choices of god. Once again like the Selfish Giant, we closet ourselves from other groups and parties. Just as the Giant refused to let the children in even when the storms of winter ravaged his abode, so do we refuse the hand of friendship even when other foul members of our group ravage our lives.

Succumbing to the most base of emotions, we play the game of the Prisoner's Dilemma, each trying to outdo the other in a race that can only end in disaster. We fill up our arsenals with the wildest of weapons on the premise that the other man is doing it too. We abolish, massacre and mutilate on the excuse that everyone else is doing it as well. When will listen to our conscience and remember the line by Tagore "When no one answers your call, learn to walk alone"?

Nuclear war...sometimes I almost wish it would actually happen. The human race is now a groaning dinosaur, a brontosaurus, weighing the world down with its selfishness. It's time that this despicable species either reinvents itself or submits itself to the same fate that befell the ancient saurian rulers of earth. Let us be wiped out or let us be freed, but for the love of god, spare the rest of the world from our misdeeds.