Future of Society

This is an interesting article relating to the changing demographics (link via Instapundit),
The gist of the article is since the tendency of people with liberal affiliations is to either have no child or a single child; the next generation will be overwhelmingly conservative.

Some points

The article discusses role of patriarchy, since I have not thought much about it, I can not comment about it.

The next generation need not be of western conservatives, it will depend upon the amount and nature of immigration. The concern about Europe transforming into Eurabia may not be that exaggerated.

I think that as much as conceiving next generation is important, one factor often overlooked is the atmosphere for upbringing. Unless provided a protective and nourishing atmosphere the child may have “problems”. That is why I think having child out of wedlock is a bad idea, because it often translates into lack of commitment on part of parents, if I remember correctly researches have shown this tendency of insecurity. Similarly divorces cause a lot of stress.
Similarly child growing up in a family with no social interaction or with a single parent will be more vulnerable compared to another child with more social interaction.

The Indian society is changing. While till previous generation, women were primarily homemakers, now they are increasingly participating in various professions. This calls for a rethink of family structure. May be a return to some form of extended family system and increased participation of fathers will help ensure the stability.

This is the reason I am wary of the people who advocate looser moral norms and permissiveness. My suspicion is that they do not realize the importance of society in continuance and development of civilization.

When people advocate new social values, they do not realize that society is a complicated structure, and without carefully analyzing the reason behind existence of social structures, a case can not be made for any change.
This will explain why I remain wary of libertarians.

Assuming presence of society as a given they argue for practices which unravel the social fabric. And yet it is not so many, if not almost all, civilizations have imploded as a result of withering society.

Cross Border Terrorism

Amit Varma in a recent post discussed the nature of cross border terrorism in Indian sub continent and indicted Pakistani Army for that, while that is correct to some extent, this is a simplification of historical reality. While terrorism did start during regimen of Zia- Ul – Haq, subsequent Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif did nothing to curtail it. A argument can be made that they were helpless before Army, but that again will not be complete truth.
The islamization of Pakistan started during regime of Former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, he was responsible for declaring Ahmaddiyas as apostates his successor Zia-Ul-Haq built on that. The problem, I fear is much more deep rooted in Pakistani subconscious, it is about identity. Pakistan was declared an Islamic Republic and as per the wishes of her founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah, she was supposed to be an enlightened nation. This did not happen, what is more troubling that at present there is no role model for Pakistan either. Sure Turkey is there but Turkey is a “Secular Republic” (thanks to Kamal Pasha Ata Turk), Malaysia and Indonesia is there, they have been tolerant so far. It was to do more with how Islam spread there as opposed to how it spread in India. However even these two countries have veered towards fundamentalism since past few decades.
Problem with Pakistan is that of identity which is different from India, and except for being a Muslim majority nation there is not anything. Since the only reason Pakistan was created was its “otherness”, and its educated elites are hardly fond of Islamism, it is causing stress.

I would say that Pakistani Society is becoming schizophrenic.

Since India and Pakistan have come so far down the road, I am not even in favor of any sort of reunification

Here I must mention that my interaction with Pakistanis is very limited.
The only one I met was when I went to US, and they were all nice people.
However what I said above is still valid.

Where do I stand

http://politicalcompass.org/ has a questionnaire to evaluate political tilt.

I am ,

Economic Left/Right: 2.13
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 0.21

Budget 2006: 2007

This article by Bibek Debroy is one I agree with.

The gist is,

This budget is status quoist.
Economy is on Auto-Pilot.
As long as private sector does well, India can afford all the foolish "Tax and Spend" schemes.
If it trips, well then it will one bad nightmare.

On the other hand, this editorial by Shekhar Gupta shows how he is a shill of Congress.

Dwarves flinging dung

This is a particularly distasteful post on Netaji;
Traitorji Subhash Chandra Bose, the premise of the post is that since Netaji supported the axis power, he betrayed country. Although it is fashionable nowadays to disparage the famous, this diatribe lacks any sense.
First a little perspective, during second world war there were broadly (and when I say this, I really do mean it) two camps, one which adhered enemy-of-enemy-is- my-friend school of real politics and favored aligning with Nazis and Fascists, Netaji belonged to this, so did a lots of educated Indians. There was another school which supported allied war efforts for many reasons, Guru Aurobindo belonged to this, he saw Nazism for the monster it was and decided that even at its worst English imperialism was better than German Reich. There was promise of independence, but considering the English habit to break promises, it wasn’ worth anything.
Here I don’t have anything to say about Congress or Communists. Congress at usual was at its bungling best, but I will admit that they had a reason for being distrustful of English. It is hard to believe that English will grant independence when someone as imperialist and racist as Winston Churchill was at helms.
Communists were, not for the first time and not for the last time either, doing bidding for their fatherland, i.e. USSR.
Here a thing about Nazism and fascism. System wise fascism was not that different from communism. Today we may find it hard to believe, and yet it is true that early part of 20th century lots of people most of them intellectuals believed in totalitarian state as a valid form of governance. Communists believed in it, so did nationalists, even socialists were not above state control. Nazism was another fish of course, it did espouse totalitarian state, but what made much more virulent was idea of master race.
I know we in present times consider it a ridiculous idea (which it is), but in those times intellectuals believed in eugenics. The idea that Europeans have superior genes to “savages” was principle of this “pseudo-science”. Nietzsche, as all 19th century philosophers misappropriated Indian symbols to propound an “Aryan Race”, Hitler in turn like other cunning demagogues perverted further for his invidious ideology. The point of this is to show that for whatever reasons leaders and elites in west did not realize the horror of this monster.
What is more the horror of holocaust was not realized until end of war (This is not completely true, west knew of atrocities against Jews before war, but decided to look other way, when the war commenced, the Jews who survived the horror told the story, but disinformation are not uncommon in war, so there was no agreement on how much credibility to put at this)

No wonder than Netaji decided that alliance with Hitler was “useful”for purpose of Indian independence.

My views on this, I respect and admire Netaji for his selfless love for India. However I do not agree with his ideology, just as I do not agree with ideology of Veer Savarkar or Bhagat Singh. I admire Guru Aurobindo for his clear belief that Nazi Germany posed a greater threat to world than Imperial English. Only a true patriot and courageous man could do that.

As an aside I was going to comment on Desipundit on this, but desisted from this.
(I have tendency to lose my marbles). But this comment left a bitter taste in my mouth. As disgusting as the post was, it was not “Anti-Bengali” in my view,
First I like to think Netaji is an icon for India not just Bengal, I hope my coming generations are inspired from his sacrifice.
Second I am aghast at such tendencies of few misguided Bengalis to take every issue as an offense against Bengal. I think this is just an indicator of the sorry present state of what was once a fertile ground for intellectual giants.
Last I amused comparing Sourav Ganguly to Netaji. As much as I admire Dada square cuts, I consider a sign of idiocy to compare Netaji to him, even as “Bengali Icons”.

Mark

Kilroy was not here.....

What ?

Mr Mittal takes over Arcelor

This was supposed to be a second part of this post.

Now Mittal bid to takeover Arcelor has raised a furor in Europe and there is a resulting reaction from India also.

First the reason for Europeans reaction, Mr Mittal has a reputation for turning around sick steel mills by restructuring and cost cutting, now the Europeans have since the turn of the last decade or probably even before taken a turn towards left. All the member states of EU have some form of welfare state. As such any downsizing is anathema; the governments in Europe are against it for the fear of downsizing. It shouldn’t be foreign ownership as “Ispat” owned by Mr Mittal is registered in UK very much a part of EU.

One of the charges against EU is of racism, I agree with it but it is subtle and only of marginal importance. The important issue here is that French and other politicians are afraid of any downsizing, which Mr Mittal might be doing.
In other words business wise Mr Mittal is a different texture than Europeans.
In my opinion Europeans idea of “Economic patriotism” is foolish and God’s way of eliminating the ignoramus.

However I don’t understand how Indian government comes into the picture.
I appreciate Mr Mittal acumen and entrepreneur skill. But the fact remains that he is a British citizen and as such it should be their responsibility. Moreover, I do not see any tangible or even intangible benefit to Indian government from this.

The only beneficiaries are stockholders of Ispat and Arcelor, while I do not grudge them their profit, I do not see why Indian government should sweat for him. Just because Mr Mittal was born in India, it doesn’t amount to anything.

He started business for sake of self interest (a fact I approve of) and so far in his business transactions he has pursued his interest only and not India’s interest. Certainly India doesn't owe anything to him.Why should Indian state work overtime for him?