Fear

Since Indian Express has decided not to run profiles of the dead, and since Ravikiran has decided to cover the human angle, here is my short (second-hand) story as told by my jijaji (sister's husband)

 His company had booked few rooms at Taj for some conference. On the fateful night, everyone except for one of his colleague, who decided that it was too late and it would be better to stay in the hotel itself, left the hotel. When the attacks started he locked himself up in the room.
After considerable period, he heard a knock, which he mistook for commandos, he looked outside with the chain locked. The terrorists outside shot him in the hand. Shortly they broke the chain, and entered. They asked him to call his near or dear, he called his brother who lives abroad. They informed the brother that they are going to kill his brother and shot while the phone connection was still on.

And this is what was different about the attacks, getting blown off by some anonymous bomber is one thing, but being shot in the cold blood, it is so animal, brute, animal dominance without its usual civilizational euphemism. It just offends our impotent middle class dignity. We, the respectable people, are confronted by our emasculation, and we are humiliated.

I really don't think that the terrorists should have mocked our fragile honour. This is so mean.

Thoughts for the day

Contra Respected Ma'am , In India Enough is never enough. We are just like that only.

Also never agree to spend a night in an uninhabited island.

Also I demand, US send Jack Bauer . Now.

Terror must be politicized

One of the dictum by Rapid Information Management And Containment Task Force of UPA Government (Commonly known as English Media/Spin meisters) is that terror must not politicized.

Now of course for Indians politicization is a vulgarity too horrible to contemplate. To be more precise when a issue is said to be politicized it becomes an instrument or rather becomes exploited by politicians for political advantage.

Well too bad, but you see, this is a feature and not a bug as far as politics is concerned. One of the objectives of politicians is to succeed in politics*. From this it follows that politicians would like to focus upon any given issue in a manner which will benefits them politically.This is almost by definition (or as currently unemployed Ritwik will say tautological)

However only way to decide a policy on a issue in a political framework is to present the issue within legislative/executive or other electoral institutions and expect for a solution after a process of discussion, and criticism. Our main concern should not be that politicians derive political benefit but that while doing they are able to provide solutions. For that it is necessary that other socio-intellectual institutions (media foremost) keep the vigilance and ensure that the process does not veer off the course. This of course doesn't happen here. For our secular liberal establishment there is a more grave threat than terrorism, it's BJP.

Anyway the only alternative to this is to repeal democracy, handover power to a politburo headed by Rajdeep Surdesai and other worthies from English Media, and wait while the politburo, in accordance with the will of masses, completes the inevitable march of the history.

* I said one of the objectives. This of course makes one ask why succeed in politics. The common answer is to make money, which of course is a possible reason, more so in case of India, but a more important answer might be that we are genetically hardwired to seek alpha status or lead the tribe. There is one more objective to serve the society (not the public).This too is genetically hardwired. The exact range of motivation will depend upon the power structures and cultural values. Anyway related post here .

FYI

Individuals are my bitches.

Moving Over

I don't find Acorn worth reading anymore.

Problem with the fallen one is

1. He is intellectually incurious, never mind the tag line.
2. He is so seduced by secular-liberal dogma that he would rather be a contortionist and perform rhetorical jugglery than face the reality or examine the truth.
3. Beholden to the secular ido, no awareness or regards to History.

Few samples.

1. To tackle terrorism we must vote.
2. We must feed milk to Pakistan.
3. Military establishment in Pakistan is what is preventing normalization between India and Pakistan.
    Once democracy is 'functional' in Pakistan, eveything will be A-Ok.
4. Individuals are free.

Balls are not udders

Despite the most superficial similarity. And therefore you are not advised to suck balls if you want to drink milk
.
Now that you are thoroughly repulsed by the idea, please accept my apologies. However I too have been repulsed, and to my great chagrin have noticed that none of you (and by you I mean means thousands of my loyal minions) seem to share the revulsion. To just clue you in. What happened in Mumbai was not, I repeat  ,in all caps, NOT, 911 .

Now when journalists and idiots (but I repeat myself), mindlessly spout this utter garbage believing it to be some clever insight, what they mean is that what happened on those few days was such a momentous event that it will alter the future course of history. This is certainly true as far as 911 and US is concerned. While the attack was spectacular and audacious (apology for the poor choice of words),  911 marked the first time since WW II , any foreign force was able to attack US, and since 1812 , when she was attacked on the main land. To call it shock would be understatement, it was so unimaginable to Americans that this marked the end of one era (End Of History) however short, and beginning of other (Global War On Terror).

This clearly is not the case here, this is hardly the first attack that has been carried out in Indian soil, or even the first by Islamists. Since it is not the first should be hardly shocking to Indians and in fact it is not. The high decibel noise emanating from screeching journalists (Enough is enough) and Generation X types (Politicians bad, slogans good ) notwithstanding, we are perfectly inured to any outrage. We are incapable of 'feeling' any shame, or pain, or anger, or humiliation.

People of dead civilization feel nothing.

PS. Ravikiran has drawn a distinction between this and prior attacks in that it exposes Indian military weakness. I am afraid I don't understand this. The attack exposes many things. Intelligence failure, lack of co-ordination, absence of mechanism and organization for effective and immediate counter terror. What it has to do with the military I don't know. I don't claim to be an expert in matters of military, but from what I have read urban guerrilla warfare is not core military responsibility per se.

Further we have examples of this kind of attacks. Golden temple comes foremost to the mind. I am sure examples close enough could be found with Naxals as well as North Eastern terrorism.

Gratification

Here is my theory, terrorism will not stop against India, because we want it that way. Oh, I don't suggest some sinister cabal of Indians plotting demise of this nation for whatever nefarious design. Instead it is something which floats in our collective subconscious (if there is such a thing). To give an analogy.Consider any common, unremarkable school. Further in that school, consider a child who is unremarkable, even loserish. Now this child craves attention, unfortunately he possess no skill or talent with which he can attract attention on his own. This leaves him depressed and discontented, a state he would definitely like to change. One day this happens, in a rather twisted way. Some bully in his school takes a fancy to his face and decides that it makes for a good punching bag. So, he gets down to the task and gives a nice thrashing to the loser kid. This is very inconvenient to the loser kid. He is hurt physically, and emotionally. Normally this rather humiliating incident that would have led to the loser kid to find ways to avoid any further re-occurrence. This might have either meant developing physical strength or (most likely) finding ways to blend better with the background. Instead something interesting happens suppose after the kid returns from school he is coddled by a group of sympathetic adults, who instead of ignoring his presence (as they always do), shower him with pity, kindness, affection, and perhaps most importantly launch the worst encomiums at the bully. This (being focus of attention) is a novelty to the kid and he finds that he likes this, his craving for attention satiated for the times. With the time however the euphoria wears off and he needs the fix. At this point it is possible that he decides (subconsciously) to place himself in a position of harm in order to once again gain the focus. Result is a repeat of unfortunate incidences. Of course there is a limiting factor in that the beatings may become so unbearable that kid decides being center of attraction is not worth it, or the attention span may follow the rule of diminishing returns. Unfortunately for India, it is too big to be seriously harmed by one terrorist attack, or even a series of attacks, and, let's face it we are the most loserish nation for our size and potential. Hence our craving for attraction is insatiable, and since we are culturally indoctrinated by our secular overlords to view triumph and victory as not only undesirable and immoral, but positively evil, we can only achieve what we crave by being a victim. We, the slaves of post eschaton secularism, will rather not be feared, but we will not be respected either. Instead we will be repeatedly humiliated and pitied upon. But our act of self abnegation is not entirely wasted, perhaps centuries later, the way we meticulously planned our destruction under the siren song of liberal order will be a case study.