QOTD

 Condescension, after all, is the mother of socialism. * 

Friday Gyan

Alright I forgot earlier but read Economic Calculation problem to understand why Socialism is failure (courtesy Pramodji

Now having realized why socialism can't work does anyone have any solution for natural monopoly .

Discuss

Which book(s) you will like to see on screen.

My preferences

1. Starship Troopers [1].
2. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress .
3. 1984 [2].
4. Chandrakanta  & Chandrakanta Santati [3]
5. Gora.[4]

[1] Yes Paul Verhoeven made one , without reading the novel and gave movie a fascists bent. I want Indian characters to be included  with Shahid Kapoor playing Rico .

[2] Adapted to India, the background being that Indira Gandhi never lifted emergency. Now most of you kids might not know, but Indira Gandhi lifted emergency because she was convinced she will win the elections, and not because of any pressure. Or so I have read somewhere.

[3] I know the serial  sucked big time, but trust me, the novel is better.

[4] Captures history of early 20th century Bengal much better Devdas or Parineeta.

Not to sound like a grouch ... (Updated)

... but why exactly are Indians celebrating for SDM ?

Update: Look, I haven't seen the movie so I have no idea that it is in fact poverty porn, but in case of westerners depicting India, I always assume guilty until proven innocent, not very enlightened I agree, but I can not forget Temple of Doom or City of Joy , so easily. Also please don't praise this film for realism and at the same time excuse over the top portrayal (Jamal running through excreta, what is this Trainspotting !) by saying "but it is just a film"

Update 1 : Arghhh, I don't want to comment on it anymore, but gross stupidity like this compel me otherwise. It is as if there is some guideline to cram as much triteness as possible (real India, spirit of Mumbai). All right here is the thing, I am not a big fan of realistic or art cinema, watching the trials and tribulations of  life is too taxing for me to enjoy as cinema especially after working for a week, Govinda is good enough for me, thank you very much. Now if someone does enjoy realistic cinema, I have no problem. What I have problem reducing reality to cliche of authenticity. Dharavi is real, so is Nariman Point, or Malabar Hills, or Dadar, or Ghatkopar, just because someone doesn't live in slums doesn't make him or her phony, inauthentic, a ghost, there is more to India or Mumbai than what the clique of compulsive compassion imagines.Still, poverty and slums are parts of reality and I don't object to the portrayal per se. Problem arises when this kind of cinema becomes launching pad for a thousand sanctimonious sermons on Indians should be doing more for poverty alleviation, often delivered by glib morons who have hardly ever done anything in life for poor. This in effect trivializes serious issue of poverty to a object to massage bloated egos of self righteous conceited class and derive visceral pleasure by shaming the public at large. While this gratifies the chattering class, this kind of preening pontification does nothing to further objective of poverty alleviation, in fact these kind of tactics just alienate people by breeding resentment.

Update 2: Prasannaji  is miffed that Congress is claiming credit for Oscars . With due respect to him, I don't see what the big fuss is all about. Without Congress rule for 50 years we won't be having any slums and therefore no Slumdog, so yes Congress does deserve the credit for Oscars. After all without poverty where will pimps of poverty be.

QOTD

In the post modern era victimhood can be monetized.

From the brown blog.

Even Sriram has his uses ...

I second, and third, and fourth this.

LISTEN YOU SECULAR MORONS. STOP PROPPING KAMASUTRA AND KHAJURAHO. All right I am sorry, let me rephrase it. Listen you secular morons. Stop propping Kamasutra and Khajuraho as a representative of Indian culture. Firstly, Kamasutra and Khajuraho are not just porn, there is much more than sex there. Secondly, they were never supposed to represent daily life of public of that era. Thirdly culture is dynamic, therefore rather than debate authenticity, debate desirability.

When the worlds collide : The Mangalore Incident

Some thoughts, mostly disjointed, provoked by Mangalore incident.

Playing fast and loose: Now I realize as a Hindutva Fascist, I should be loathing "pink chaddi campaign" as nonsensical, frivolous, and indicative of moral turpitude. Well, I don't. To be clear, I do not completely endorse the campaign, and I am not enthused by the idea that this campaign just ratchet ups the hysteria of the chattering classes or that it feeds the  narcissism (people must be getting bored of this by now -ed, who cares, they don't pay me, screw them) of self righteous class.

Nevertheless, I reluctantly find my self on the same side of fast, forward and loose womyn for the simple reason that a line must be drawn somewhere. And the simple condition is this, it is absolutely unacceptable  to inflict physical injury on a woman*, no matter how earnest or sincere perpetrators are about their objectives.

Beyond this there is not much that I have to say on the merits of this campaign. Sending underwear may be ridiculous, but often ridicule is a effective weapon. Nor do I really fault whoever behind this campaign for diverting the attention from whatever great debate that India is supposed to be engaged at presently (If anything Messrs Pramod Muthalik and Raj Thackeray are more worthy of this distinction), or enthusiastically aligning with liberal-secular establishment to caricature the debate between traditionalism and modernity  ("traditionalists" usually seem to be hell bent on discrediting tradition ) to continue to undermine and stigmatize traditionalism.

The end of illusion (of civil society): Now our secular liberal establishment is utilizing this to the hilt in order to  "secularize" terrorism, however the issue is more troublesome. Yes what Pramod Muthalik and his sena did was indeed outrageous, but before people start ringing alarm bells for "Hindoo peril", it should be pointed out that in tactics what Sri Ram Sene did is no different from what Dravidians frequently do in TamilNadu , or what Gujjars did in Rajasthan or Marathas did in Maharashtra or what MNS is doing in Mumbai or what Kannadigas have done in Karnataka, Sri Ram Sene is guilty of nothing more than employing the tactics guaranteed to be most effective in our political system of mobocracy (or extreme democracy ).

Now comes the tricky part, I concede Indian experience of democracy has never been one of dispassionate deliberations by epistemological modest intellectuals but an uneasy concoction of multitude of identities jostling for material and social rewards, a million mutinies if you will, but even then there was a tradition of arguments, a willingness to talk and listen. I am afraid that tradition is being lost, we are not willing to talk or listen. 

How it came to pass. Even accounting for demagoguery there still remain agents who have aided in this degradation, one is the culture of grievance that has been encouraged by our secular-liberal establishment, where the claims to victimhood has become not only the standard modus operandi for political patronage, but also an ideal for society organized on secularism, second, which pertains specifically to simmering cultural tensions, is the incessant demonization of Indian tradition so as to achieve a state of social tabula rasa for purpose of secular indoctrination.

Our intellectual, all of them dyed in wool secularists liberals stress the importance of a civil society, where it is possible to hold conversation for common welfare. However it is impossible if one side is always denigrated and slandered, if it is declared to be out of bounds.

* Or for that matter on a man, or property. I will confess however, the very idea of anyone hurting woman makes my blood boil, I am MCP that way.

After all, if one cries wolf long enough, wolf obliges. (To be continued ...)