Two sides of a coin

With great power lies great responsibility. Unlike nature that has very efficient methods of balancing power centers, man’s power centers are haphazard and self-regulated. Man is the only creature who can simultaneously live in two worlds: one on the inside and other on the outside.

And both can be diametrically opposite.

Besides, man can use borrowed powers: the powers developed by peaceful intelligent people can be used by destructive, unintelligent people. Creative growth solutions meant for peace and development can be used for destruction, genocide and terror. This combination of delusion and acquired potency brings forth counterfeit leaders and politicians and a hollow or forced governing system.

Every governing system no matter how beneficently conceived eventually tends to exploit the weaker segments of society. History shows us many examples of the worst implementations of benign ideologies. Communism conceived for equality and sanity has been applied by most insane dictators. Equal powers for all is used as all powers for one. Karl Marx and Lenin could never have imagined communism the way it was applied by Stalin.

Albert Einstein considered the theory of relativity that resulted in atom bomb, as his single greatest mistake in life. On the other hand, Harry Truman celebrated the night Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed.

Money that was invented as an excellent solution for relative worth has become the root of all evil among humans. A solution designed for active easy flow became an excellent method for passive, concealed hoardings.

Any creative idea comes as a coin: with both positive and negative sides. The owner is free to encash any of its sides. He is free to buy bread or poison from it. Ironically nature has no substitutes for wisdom. And it has no shortcuts to acquiring it either. Hard earned knowledge always carries wisdom within itself whereas book-acquired knowledge doesn’t. A life lived honestly and fearlessly produces knowledgeable and wise men: men with empathy, righteousness and intelligence.

Contrarily, pseudo knowledge earned in degrees, skills and techniques results in egotistical, destructive and rigid men. Men who do not know the worth or effect of power never hesitate to use it for wrong reasons.

It is a paradox that the more knowledgeable a person becomes the less he yearns for power. It seems as if in some warped way, power attracts the corruptible. A wise person will always hesitate to lead masses whereas an immature person will always rush towards it. So much so that he wouldn’t object to crushing others to succeed in his ambitions. Men love to reap where they never sowed.

Acquiring power helps a person ignore or hide his inferiorities or complexes.

But the fact remains that the big shots are only little shots that keep on shooting. Contemporary society which confuses power with greatness, has encouraged this mutation to flourish. Our social system has a tendency to respect the wrong attributes in subtle ways. The human power pyramid is working upside down. Rather than respecting individuals we respect possessions. This is one of the greatest tragedies of life as we know it to be.

Without a doubt….the right power in right hands blended with knowledge, wisdom, love and respect for life is humanity’s most urgent need at this time.

Recession-Another opportunity for profiting employers

Recession has turned the job market upside down, and employers are making most of it. Be it in the name of cost cutting or organization restructuring, employees are being sacked and sent on forced leave recklessly, rendering them clueless. And the system appears more to be a human juicer squeezing all fitness from the dependents. In such a case government's concern for the unemployed is questionable.

In a system where every person has hands in other's pocket and eyes on others assets, companies have planned a virtual circle of a collective pocket so they extract more from employees separate pockets. You sack and I hire the same employee at much less salary. Where on one side the companies are hastily sacking its employees, on the other side the same companies are posting newer vacancies for the same profiles. Too many fish in the job sea and it is a perfect catch. Baffled employee is left with no option but to accept whatever is offered.

Convincing and gold polished empty words work no more. When the time has come system is a butcher shop with absolutely no place for values and emotions. And the worst part is that all of it seems to go so smooth. Another silk cover on bleeding wounds and we wait until it turns into gangrene. There is no time for little sins, for desired attention there has to be huge downfall. We wait for mass suicides and increased crimes. Then authorities come in picture cutting rotten parts from the system.

One of my friends, who was a part of the bunch of 130 employees that was sacked without even a day's notice, checked all options but resorting to legal advice. What is the use of such protective system where the ones for whom it is established themselves are afraid of it?

This article is yet to complete as we wait for a brighter sun to shine: Wait for ethics to revive and, systems to become responsible enough not only for themselves but also for the masses surrounding them.

Exclusive

EXCLUSIVE:A term used by tabloid media to denote a story that is in all of them.

An era of Mass hypnosis

Adolf Hitler once said "By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a person see even heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise. Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it. "Public ignorance is certainly bliss for politicians and businessmen. Media adds fire to this fuel. From highly publicized unnecessary products to hyped frivolous political issues, propaganda is the flu that spares only a few.

Where on one hand media has been a catalyst to development and awareness, on the other it has given birth to a mad race; a race that leads to nowhere. People run because others are running. More is less here. Consumers are becoming less and less consumers and more and more buyers. Necessity is no more the mother of invention but, promotion and consumer manipulation have become the pastors of need.

An ignorant consumer wouldn't even realize the effect of repetitive threatening statements made by the advertisers of life insurance policy.LIC cash on people's fear. It is one of the most successful business models because it exploits the biggest inherent fear in an individual: The fear of death or of physical in capabilities. Many other advertisers manipulate consumers by displaying certain products as status symbol. Because the followed icon on tv uses a particular commodity, having that commodity gives consumer an inferential link to that celebrity. All that glitters is essentially gold in the new definition.

Human Subconscious brain keeps collecting both necessary and unnecessary information for future, irrespective of their utility. When a person comes across a brand ten times in a day it settles in his subconscious mind. Brain works like a thesaurus, automatically suggesting all related events and names in need. So, the next time this person goes to grocery store that brand will automatically pop out.

A collective rut planned to trap common man's pocket. The other day I read an article that says "imagine the plight of a man who has to drop his son to school every day in the same car" and "imagine the plight of a mother who does not earn much to give for her son to attend a disco party". These plights are really hard to imagine. Are we so well settled that our plights have become limited to extended luxuries?

Housewives and children being the softest target are easily caught. Maximum commodities are planned to influence women. Recently I saw a research report on the differing behavioral learning capacities of men and monkeys. The results shown were astonishing. Similar set of tasks were given to a group of 10 to 13 year old children and 1-2 year old monkeys. In the first stage a painted box filled with chocolates was given to each of them. To open it, a front seal had to be torn off and then chocolates could be pulled out by using a small scale. This process was shown to monkeys and children and, each one of them were asked to take the chocolates from that box. All repeated the tasks as shown. In the next stage the box was kept open from one side and chocolates could be taken out without taking the seal and using the scale. But this was not shown to any of them. Each child repeated all three steps shown to him earlier whereas none of the monkeys used those unnecessary steps. They simply took those chocolates out. One year old monkey exceeds in reasoning to a 13 year old child.

Following a mob simply gives most people a sense of surety of purpose. A feeling of belonging to the right aim; because so many people are running in one direction, the destination must be correct. Each person is unique here. And each has separate aspirations, visions and need. In such a case only the ones who know their goal while running will achieve it. Following peers without reasoning can certainly leave others astray.

Thought of the day

Thought of the day!!!

Do not wait for leaders; do it alone:person to person.

Mother Teresa

Homo sapiens-the most violent species on earth

Of all the living creatures in the world, man is the most violent species.It is the only species that takes pleasure in killing its own set.And,unlike animals the conduct of violence is not always for survival.Violence is imbibed even in our subtle thoughts.Our society treasures and breeds enmity and revenge.We hate to lose.Winners are always praised:in a small class, in games and in wars.We cherish our differences in name of religion,community,colour, sects and nations.The greatest unanimity is seen during wars.People and nations become one.Never in history were people united even once for peace.We unite only for wars and revolutions.On an average 5 wars are fought every year in the world .This race is bound to finish itself.No other species or natural calamity is needed to stop us.

A prayer for my country

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up
into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason
has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action---
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Rabindranath tagore