Islamic/ Christian or other religious fundamentalism is the embodiment of the things we loathe the most – a kind of nadir of the worst inequities of religious belief and an ideology that is basically fascist.
It seems like a fight unto death, but the good news is that it’s impossible for these fundamentalists to win. It is not blasphemy to say that the world seriously needs help from atheists and a rational person like me, there is so much misery out there and not enough love.
As Swami Vivekananda once said” Life is good or evil according to the state of mind in which we look at it”. Like fire which by itself is not bad as it keeps us warm, but if we fan the fires of religious fundamentalism and intolerance it will burn us all.
If we can understand humanity and be selfless we can work without attachment to any religion. The world is like a dog’s tail that wags it at its master and cannot be straightened. Fanaticism cannot make progress for mankind; it is an element that retards progress by creating anger and hate in its wake of followers- causing them to fight each other in a holier than thou holy war where there can be no victor.
You don’t need religion for sympathy or love in this world. In the end ,empathy , helping each other irrespective of religion, caste, color and creed is the true path to progress. -Vinay-
Sunday, February 5, 2012
The good is interred with the bones but evil remains!
A whiff of revolution last year led to an unprecedented state crackdown on protestors in Saudi Arabia, one of the most conservative countries in the region, where the focus was on women not being allowed to drive cars.
The house of Saudi’s ultra conservation has been their ace up their sleeve always, playing the religious card is a way of holding on to power. A country’s style of governance can effectively cause the same damage. A handful of daft adherents who interpret their religious scriptures in a distorted way can have dire consequences.
The siege of Mecca, storming of the great mosque in November 1979 by Saudi orthodox Wahhabi followers was quelled by the state with the help of French commandos. Speculation was rife that it was sponsored by Shiite Iran, but it left even Washington guessing.
The incident is a watershed in the history of modern Islam, as Trofimov states, that the siege was the genesis of al Qaeda – which later morphed into a full fledged Islamic terror outfit, enjoying constitutional protection in some Islamic states. The point that we have completely misunderstood the Islamic terrorist and bunch of lunatics is not the point. The moot point is more disturbing, that a bunch of fanatics who make a travesty of religious beliefs, can get the sanction of states even in progressive countries and function with its blessings is the real danger.
We may have eliminated Osama Bin Laden, but we ignored the ideology – and in doing so have let the cancer spread through the Middle East and other Islamic regions like the deadly Aids virus. If the spiritual leadership is founded by terrorists, who believe that killing has a higher purpose in itself, then the whole equation changes.
The house of Saudi’s ultra conservation has been their ace up their sleeve always, playing the religious card is a way of holding on to power. A country’s style of governance can effectively cause the same damage. A handful of daft adherents who interpret their religious scriptures in a distorted way can have dire consequences.
The siege of Mecca, storming of the great mosque in November 1979 by Saudi orthodox Wahhabi followers was quelled by the state with the help of French commandos. Speculation was rife that it was sponsored by Shiite Iran, but it left even Washington guessing.
The incident is a watershed in the history of modern Islam, as Trofimov states, that the siege was the genesis of al Qaeda – which later morphed into a full fledged Islamic terror outfit, enjoying constitutional protection in some Islamic states. The point that we have completely misunderstood the Islamic terrorist and bunch of lunatics is not the point. The moot point is more disturbing, that a bunch of fanatics who make a travesty of religious beliefs, can get the sanction of states even in progressive countries and function with its blessings is the real danger.
We may have eliminated Osama Bin Laden, but we ignored the ideology – and in doing so have let the cancer spread through the Middle East and other Islamic regions like the deadly Aids virus. If the spiritual leadership is founded by terrorists, who believe that killing has a higher purpose in itself, then the whole equation changes.
THE PAST IS ALWAYS GLORIOUS.
There were these songs on all the juke boxes, the radio cackling all day and night. Love ballads belted out by the Carpenters, Andy Williams, Stevie Wonder, Beatles, Elvis Jim Reeves, , Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel.. et alii.
These songs kept everyone awake late at night, alongside ravishing photographs of mysterious girls, barefoot or straddling a balustrade, wearing elegant silk dresses, were the emotional dreams that played in our minds. The days when boys and girls spent a lot of time on campuses, clubs, smoked too many cigarettes with an undergraduate’s angst of the expenditure.
Some of them were shy to the point aggravation while some were bold and brash. The stunningly sangfroid of falling in love, the mesmerizing romance that ends in heartbreaking failure, the exquisite sadness at the end of a love affair- between two complementary narcissistic people with a shared beautiful personality disorders. To be blown over by the smell of jasmine and French perfume and secret letters is one of the mixed blessings of being twenty one and twenty four.
It was a sort of Hollywood childhood of the seventies with the usual mess and a conviction that nothing like these events will ever happen to anyone hereafter. To feel things and hang on to the freshness and pain of adolescence, to be wounded in the never ending process. Exploring like no one else ever did the crippling – social anxiety disorder and the emotional complexities that attended that era.
The women dream of marriage, and honeymoon rewarded with trips to exciting locales, better climates and romantic candle light dinners with their husbands. Sometimes a dream goes sour….. - full of hurts, recriminations, and sad stories which end up by closing the door and crying until dinner.
As we lose our youth, the growing disenchantment of living in this world creeps over all of us. The survivors are all over, and we run into them all the time, and there’s hardly a handful except some nerds that didn’t get badly into drugs or booze or some damn thing. The frayed curtains of memory slowly disintegrate, and we see them for what they were--an youthful encounter with adventure.
Slowly we sign off, we are getting old and it’s about the physical indignities that go along with aging. They include being unable to shoehorn your girth into that pair of jeans or wear your favorite shoes / slippers, spending to many hours in the waiting room of medical specialists, - having friends recommend yoga and meditation as fun things do-Oh it’s a sorry state of affairs, I never wanted to post this!
These songs kept everyone awake late at night, alongside ravishing photographs of mysterious girls, barefoot or straddling a balustrade, wearing elegant silk dresses, were the emotional dreams that played in our minds. The days when boys and girls spent a lot of time on campuses, clubs, smoked too many cigarettes with an undergraduate’s angst of the expenditure.
Some of them were shy to the point aggravation while some were bold and brash. The stunningly sangfroid of falling in love, the mesmerizing romance that ends in heartbreaking failure, the exquisite sadness at the end of a love affair- between two complementary narcissistic people with a shared beautiful personality disorders. To be blown over by the smell of jasmine and French perfume and secret letters is one of the mixed blessings of being twenty one and twenty four.
It was a sort of Hollywood childhood of the seventies with the usual mess and a conviction that nothing like these events will ever happen to anyone hereafter. To feel things and hang on to the freshness and pain of adolescence, to be wounded in the never ending process. Exploring like no one else ever did the crippling – social anxiety disorder and the emotional complexities that attended that era.
The women dream of marriage, and honeymoon rewarded with trips to exciting locales, better climates and romantic candle light dinners with their husbands. Sometimes a dream goes sour….. - full of hurts, recriminations, and sad stories which end up by closing the door and crying until dinner.
As we lose our youth, the growing disenchantment of living in this world creeps over all of us. The survivors are all over, and we run into them all the time, and there’s hardly a handful except some nerds that didn’t get badly into drugs or booze or some damn thing. The frayed curtains of memory slowly disintegrate, and we see them for what they were--an youthful encounter with adventure.
Slowly we sign off, we are getting old and it’s about the physical indignities that go along with aging. They include being unable to shoehorn your girth into that pair of jeans or wear your favorite shoes / slippers, spending to many hours in the waiting room of medical specialists, - having friends recommend yoga and meditation as fun things do-Oh it’s a sorry state of affairs, I never wanted to post this!
Grasshopper green is a farcical chap and lives on the best of fare!
The parable of the ant and the grasshopper is an interesting analogy that has parallels in our life. Happiness seems to have become elusive for most of us. The constant chase for success by ignoring family, friends and relations has made us miserable. We seem to be obsessed with success and are always on the run – chasing deadlines targets, goals and money, failure is anathema to us.
In my younger days I was a failure at almost everything – mainly due to my lack of self knowledge, insensitivity and downright stupidity. I think there are many of us out there who had the experience of failure in their lives. But recalling all my failures has been the most fascinating experience of my life.
Many study or have passion for one discipline but take up an entirely different vocation, in the quest for success. We always overlook what we excel in and imagine we can be proficient in some other skill. Sports men try to be actors, engineers want to be MBA’s, dancers want to be sportsmen and teachers/consultants want to be entrepreneurs. Instead of improving what we intrinsically possess, we copy a skill which we do not have. Indeed there is an arduous labor of truth – construction embodied in the notion of success. One conducted with all sorts of rhetorical, theatrical and visual mechanisms.
If we are thinking of only success and run in the rat race we will miss out all beauty and happiness in life. Bliss is concerned with everyday emotions of love, pain, and passions of hate and sex, real permanent happiness is beyond everyone’s reach. In one sense or another all of us are failures in life, since strong emotions and obsessions cannot be experimentally controlled. If the portrait of success is your ultimate purpose, then you will never understand the meaning nor can you enjoy your life.
In the tropical islands the citrus and bananas hang from the trees. Low hanging literal fruit which one can enjoy, yet we ignore it, and reach out for something that is beyond our reach. A bit of soul searching can empower you to take stock of your life.
If you look inward for the truth you can smell the fragrance of success, it lies dormant within you and you can transcend all misery psychological and physical. Retreat within to experience true bliss, real harmony and real success. So live like the grasshopper in the “now” for tomorrow is another day and don’t get stressed out like the ant and crushed and trampled by the world’s huge problems.
In my younger days I was a failure at almost everything – mainly due to my lack of self knowledge, insensitivity and downright stupidity. I think there are many of us out there who had the experience of failure in their lives. But recalling all my failures has been the most fascinating experience of my life.
Many study or have passion for one discipline but take up an entirely different vocation, in the quest for success. We always overlook what we excel in and imagine we can be proficient in some other skill. Sports men try to be actors, engineers want to be MBA’s, dancers want to be sportsmen and teachers/consultants want to be entrepreneurs. Instead of improving what we intrinsically possess, we copy a skill which we do not have. Indeed there is an arduous labor of truth – construction embodied in the notion of success. One conducted with all sorts of rhetorical, theatrical and visual mechanisms.
If we are thinking of only success and run in the rat race we will miss out all beauty and happiness in life. Bliss is concerned with everyday emotions of love, pain, and passions of hate and sex, real permanent happiness is beyond everyone’s reach. In one sense or another all of us are failures in life, since strong emotions and obsessions cannot be experimentally controlled. If the portrait of success is your ultimate purpose, then you will never understand the meaning nor can you enjoy your life.
In the tropical islands the citrus and bananas hang from the trees. Low hanging literal fruit which one can enjoy, yet we ignore it, and reach out for something that is beyond our reach. A bit of soul searching can empower you to take stock of your life.
If you look inward for the truth you can smell the fragrance of success, it lies dormant within you and you can transcend all misery psychological and physical. Retreat within to experience true bliss, real harmony and real success. So live like the grasshopper in the “now” for tomorrow is another day and don’t get stressed out like the ant and crushed and trampled by the world’s huge problems.
Fools rush in where angel investors fear to tread!
A.I.G. Bear Stearn's, Ci ti-group and Lehman brothers are the fools who never understood this adage and the lure of the lucre made them shift focus from financial firms that took calculated limited risk to one that paid hefty bonuses to employee in the pursuit of profit. This made them oblivious of risk and operations became gambling “The wages of sin are death” so they all imploded under their own interest hubris.
We live in an age of bounty or plenty in the Sixties our parents would save to build a house or buy their apartments when they retire. Today before even being confirmed in your job, you buy a house, a car and furniture all on easy credit, EMI, plastic cards…. all on the never, never. Youngsters play with cell phones, I-pads and laptops. It’s a fool’s game to succumb to the temptation of easy credit, cheap goods and equated monthly installments. Rapid debt fueled spending invariably ends in tears of sorrow. History is replete with the pendulum swings of feast and famine in this world.
The tectonic financial plates have shifted due to collective pressures brought down on them by greedy bankers, corrupt govt. officials and home owners – causing the tremors of the economic meltdown. This is more about allowing self interest and being out of sync with public interest.
These rational responses, to a flawed financial order, – where the incentive to take on risk far outweighs the dangers that lurk in the shadows. Overly dependence on the American consumer to power progress and global economic growth has its fall outs.
Loose monetary policy triggers massive stock market and real estate bubbles which are prone to burst. America’s growing inequality, gulf wars, and thin social safety nets are part of a deepening fault line. All these create tremendous political pressure to encourage easy credit and keep job creation robust. Like the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, this process has put the rest of the world in spiraling financial crisis. Financial pornography cannot forever stimulate economic growth. –Vinay-
We live in an age of bounty or plenty in the Sixties our parents would save to build a house or buy their apartments when they retire. Today before even being confirmed in your job, you buy a house, a car and furniture all on easy credit, EMI, plastic cards…. all on the never, never. Youngsters play with cell phones, I-pads and laptops. It’s a fool’s game to succumb to the temptation of easy credit, cheap goods and equated monthly installments. Rapid debt fueled spending invariably ends in tears of sorrow. History is replete with the pendulum swings of feast and famine in this world.
The tectonic financial plates have shifted due to collective pressures brought down on them by greedy bankers, corrupt govt. officials and home owners – causing the tremors of the economic meltdown. This is more about allowing self interest and being out of sync with public interest.
These rational responses, to a flawed financial order, – where the incentive to take on risk far outweighs the dangers that lurk in the shadows. Overly dependence on the American consumer to power progress and global economic growth has its fall outs.
Loose monetary policy triggers massive stock market and real estate bubbles which are prone to burst. America’s growing inequality, gulf wars, and thin social safety nets are part of a deepening fault line. All these create tremendous political pressure to encourage easy credit and keep job creation robust. Like the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, this process has put the rest of the world in spiraling financial crisis. Financial pornography cannot forever stimulate economic growth. –Vinay-
Can the empire strike back?
As you land in to China’s shiny new Airport and drive into town you are immediately stuck with the modern highways steel and glass city infrastructure that china has managed to put in place in just under two decades. China was technologically one of the most powerful nations for centuries having invented even gunpowder in the 15th century. But till now and even up to the 19th century it was considered a poor country, mainly as it had put in severe restrictions on trade in the middle kingdom.
Argentina was also another country that well endowed like the USA in the 19th century but went bankrupt three times, while the US has enjoyed an uninterrupted run of more than 100 years of prosperity. The implication is that sudden shifts are relatively rare in history. But consider continental Europe over the past 70 years - until recently a normal human lifetime. Unless they were Swedish or Swiss, an ordinary European man or woman lived during that period under several quite different systems of government. But all nations and civilizations decline; is it time for US Empire to down the drain like Egypt, Greece, Britain, and India like China in the past? However the Silicon Valley’s overwhelming bias towards optimism remains one of America’s enduring assets.
America with its great wealth, depth of learning, advanced technologies and solid democratic institutions should be able to weather all storms. However the recent economic crisis is not a short term business debacle but a deeper malaise and ongoing deterioration of politics and the culture of power. The abject failure of financial regulation, 9/11 terrorism senseless war on Iraq, massive military budgets, war in Afghanistan, bailout of investment banks and corporations shows that the rot runs a lot deeper. The road ahead is strewn with many other obstacles like the bowing down to lobbyists and a government that chases the fat cats for power and wealth at the cost of the rest of the world is a disquieting aspect of a government that is becoming shamefully inept. Politics splintered into extremist parties with Wall Street owning the Democrats and big oil corporations / Industry owning the Republicans it’s a catch 22 situation. America’s elite, super rich and industry and government is only offering lip service to CSR( corporate social responsibity) has been abandoned as more and more policies are anti-people.
Unless there is a return to civic virtue and the incentives to Corporations to corrupt the Government are removed the economic slide will continue till like other nations us will also be another nation that was once a superpower. We seem to be approaching one of those periods of discontinuity that have happened so often in the past. It may seem unthinkable that the European banking system could implode, or that a global currency like the euro could dissolve into nothing. Surely we would be better off if we put an end to our obsession with endings. Humans are sturdy creatures built to withstand regular disruption. Conflict never ceases, but neither does human resourcefulness, adaptability or courage.
Argentina was also another country that well endowed like the USA in the 19th century but went bankrupt three times, while the US has enjoyed an uninterrupted run of more than 100 years of prosperity. The implication is that sudden shifts are relatively rare in history. But consider continental Europe over the past 70 years - until recently a normal human lifetime. Unless they were Swedish or Swiss, an ordinary European man or woman lived during that period under several quite different systems of government. But all nations and civilizations decline; is it time for US Empire to down the drain like Egypt, Greece, Britain, and India like China in the past? However the Silicon Valley’s overwhelming bias towards optimism remains one of America’s enduring assets.
America with its great wealth, depth of learning, advanced technologies and solid democratic institutions should be able to weather all storms. However the recent economic crisis is not a short term business debacle but a deeper malaise and ongoing deterioration of politics and the culture of power. The abject failure of financial regulation, 9/11 terrorism senseless war on Iraq, massive military budgets, war in Afghanistan, bailout of investment banks and corporations shows that the rot runs a lot deeper. The road ahead is strewn with many other obstacles like the bowing down to lobbyists and a government that chases the fat cats for power and wealth at the cost of the rest of the world is a disquieting aspect of a government that is becoming shamefully inept. Politics splintered into extremist parties with Wall Street owning the Democrats and big oil corporations / Industry owning the Republicans it’s a catch 22 situation. America’s elite, super rich and industry and government is only offering lip service to CSR( corporate social responsibity) has been abandoned as more and more policies are anti-people.
Unless there is a return to civic virtue and the incentives to Corporations to corrupt the Government are removed the economic slide will continue till like other nations us will also be another nation that was once a superpower. We seem to be approaching one of those periods of discontinuity that have happened so often in the past. It may seem unthinkable that the European banking system could implode, or that a global currency like the euro could dissolve into nothing. Surely we would be better off if we put an end to our obsession with endings. Humans are sturdy creatures built to withstand regular disruption. Conflict never ceases, but neither does human resourcefulness, adaptability or courage.
Heaven and hell above – Fire and Brimstone on earth.
...
I am amazed at the zest and persistence of the gospelers, who use every opportunity to try and convert you to their faith, as if they had marketing targets to achieve. I am deeply puzzled when these proselytizers want to prove to me that God exists. There may be comfort in collective emotions no denying, but spiritual succor in groups cannot lead one to salvation. People tend to get carried away when their emotions like fear, joy, and sorrow are shared by a community or faith, something like a flash mob that grows bigger as more and more people join.
In the olden days we dealt with our conflicts and trauma by ourselves, or with parents or close friends. Today there are a host of clinics, psychologists, and networking sites where you wash and dry out your innermost fears and emotions. Religion offers a vast network of people working in unison and who are focused on salvation or nirvana. They tell you what you like to hear, like how a miracle will happen and take away your suffering through prayer. You fall neatly into the trap because you are leading an unconscious life and do not want to confront life’s problems. Religious books are like fiction, made up of fantasy, miracles and other stories, escapism from the reality of life. It makes you voluntarily surrender your consciousness to the beliefs of others.
Like meditation you can momentarily shut off the real facts of life. But you need to shift laterally to your own consciousness to break the mirage of miracles happening. Only family or few close friends will tell you the real “bone marrow’ truths that life’s’ stories are about failures. You don’t need the crutch of religion to get up and dust yourself, be yourself and work relentlessly for the actual transformation to happen. Push out the boundaries of religious scriptures & explore the uncharted territory of your consciousness.
Real ecstasy is in discovery ourselves in the book of life as you experience it chapter by chapter and the curiosity and expectation that many pages are left; then knowing that another great chapter will open out as you expand your consciousness.
What amazed me is the passion audiences bring to play when they congregate in church or a house of worship, and all of them bond on the same page. This obsessive community outpouring is a symbol of regression. They allow conscious minds to get synchronized with their own religious faith to experience joy in their brotherhood.
When someone does not share their beliefs the “joy” instantly turns to hate and is the beginning of religious intolerance!
I am amazed at the zest and persistence of the gospelers, who use every opportunity to try and convert you to their faith, as if they had marketing targets to achieve. I am deeply puzzled when these proselytizers want to prove to me that God exists. There may be comfort in collective emotions no denying, but spiritual succor in groups cannot lead one to salvation. People tend to get carried away when their emotions like fear, joy, and sorrow are shared by a community or faith, something like a flash mob that grows bigger as more and more people join.
In the olden days we dealt with our conflicts and trauma by ourselves, or with parents or close friends. Today there are a host of clinics, psychologists, and networking sites where you wash and dry out your innermost fears and emotions. Religion offers a vast network of people working in unison and who are focused on salvation or nirvana. They tell you what you like to hear, like how a miracle will happen and take away your suffering through prayer. You fall neatly into the trap because you are leading an unconscious life and do not want to confront life’s problems. Religious books are like fiction, made up of fantasy, miracles and other stories, escapism from the reality of life. It makes you voluntarily surrender your consciousness to the beliefs of others.
Like meditation you can momentarily shut off the real facts of life. But you need to shift laterally to your own consciousness to break the mirage of miracles happening. Only family or few close friends will tell you the real “bone marrow’ truths that life’s’ stories are about failures. You don’t need the crutch of religion to get up and dust yourself, be yourself and work relentlessly for the actual transformation to happen. Push out the boundaries of religious scriptures & explore the uncharted territory of your consciousness.
Real ecstasy is in discovery ourselves in the book of life as you experience it chapter by chapter and the curiosity and expectation that many pages are left; then knowing that another great chapter will open out as you expand your consciousness.
What amazed me is the passion audiences bring to play when they congregate in church or a house of worship, and all of them bond on the same page. This obsessive community outpouring is a symbol of regression. They allow conscious minds to get synchronized with their own religious faith to experience joy in their brotherhood.
When someone does not share their beliefs the “joy” instantly turns to hate and is the beginning of religious intolerance!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)