Friday, August 14, 2015

On this 15 August

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Saturday, August 08, 2015

Ideas whose time is up

Religion: We know now that earth is not flat and the sun doesn’t revolve around the earth and stuff like that. And more, like evolution and natural selection, which explains things like kindness in us. We still have unknowns and we still have unanswered questions, but those questions are more educated. Since our ignorance is not the same anymore, or our idiocy, our Gods and his prophets have to grow up to stay relevant. The morality preached by holy scriptures is grotesque, if not immoral and violent, and the revealed truth is anything but the source of truth. Classic Religion as we know is way too stupid for this era of Internet and cloning. And way too costly in terms of human life!

Organized Religion: Religion is bad enough as it is, but when it’s organized it turns into totalitarian regime, looking quite similar to Communism, Nazism etc. It eats religion hollow leaving no trace of meditation and spirituality, and makes it exact opposite to what it is supposed to be. But that’s not why it must go. Why it must go is the rise of nation-state, and the modern realities of passport, visa etc. Religion as an organizing institution has become obsolete. We are not tribal groups anymore; we are nation states now. Sometimes loyalty to religion creates confusion and conflict. Some of you might leave your country to wage jihad for ISIS. But we would like to keep crackpots out of this discussion. Nuts like you deserve a Caliphate.

Nation-State: Businessmen close down factories in their homeland and outsource jobs to foreign people to make more profit.  Employees seek opportunities in foreign firms at foreign locations and they compete against firms of their own countries. Nobody knows, let alone cares for, his neighbor and whatever happens to him. Love for your culture is out of fashion and considered retrogressive. What do you stand for, if not your cultural identity? State? That who leaves you when you are hungry and sick?  And turns back on you when you have wealth? What do you need state for – to pay tax and to fight against imaginary enemies? Patriotism is stupid, if not hypocritical, in this age of globalization. 

Marriage: Do we need love and companionship? Yes. Do we need approval from phone-and-internet relatives? No! Not in the world shaped by migration in which we live among shadows and noise. Who cares who and how many you are living with? When you don’t give a fuck to society, what do you need their approval for? Sounds bohemian? Well divorce used to sound outlandish few years back. Today it doesn’t even raise eyebrows. Because couples are breaking up all the time! The old system is falling all over the place. It’s not working! The contract between man and woman and their families must be re-written with due respect to woman’s power and other changes that are staring at us. The need for children cannot bail out this creaky system for long.

Family: Who needs family? The characters of Ayn Rand don't. Independent individuals with creative and futuristic minds can live without nonsense perpetuated in the name of tradition that's part and parcel of community life. However, men and women, especially kids, old, weak and sick people, do need family. But with modern fetish like career, success etc. occupying the focal point in our collective consciousness, people are investing less and less in their parents and children in terms of time. With increasing mobility and migration, not to mention inflated cost of living, and myriad temptations lifestyle magazines offer, raising kids is not the most exciting thing for young couples. Besides, modern women don't like their cribbing in-laws hanging around. In case oldies make themselves useful by helping with diapers, a symbiotic relation can be happily thought about. Otherwise, the changes in our attitude have shaken the very foundation of this institution. The joint family system has already collapsed. What is left now needs blood and oxygen.

Wednesday, August 05, 2015

On Porn Ban

Your choice is your prerogative. It's your business and yours alone.

But do understand - if you contribute to the demand, you DO support the supply. That's how the game is played. It's called economics. You cannot jerk that off.

So here it is - if you like to see that type of stuff, you DO support that type of exploitation. In fact, coming to think of it, what you do is more than mere supporting. You sponsor that.

Of course you are free to decide for yourself. Rather you are obliged to. Nobody knows enough to decide for others. At least I don't. I want to make a limited point.

Porn != loveMaking; Porn != careerOption; Porn == trafficking & violence. This is deductive, and is not a function of ignorance, denial or forgetting.

And there is a dying art of seduction.

#YourChoice.