Amarji asks how can Hindu Fascists can get hold over Hindi film industry. This is an important question. As it happens I have a plan
1. People pimp my blog like TOI pimps Sherlyn Chopra. increasing page views and ranking.
2. With increased visibility my blog-fu becomes more awesome.
3. I take down sec-lib establishment.
You're not supposed to read The Art Of Computer Programming, you're supposed to put it prominently on your bookshelf and pretend you're cleverer than you actually are.
May be that makes me apostate but seriously dude Assembly Language !
This news article cum typical TOI promo bilge is kind of old but nevertheless instructive. On occasion of release of Kurbaan (second movie of Jihadi weep fest trilogy, first being New York and last My Name Is Khan ) Saif Ali Khan claims, “As a Muslim, of being proud of acting in the movie”. Now I am not familiar with him on personal basis, however I think it is safe to say that when one thinks of a devout Muslim, Mr. Saif Ali Khan is not first person to come to the mind. We know enough about him to assume he is the very example of moderate Muslim one hears about, and yet he is proud, “as a Muslim”, to work in this Jihadi apologia. This rather unfortunate situation should alert us to the irresistible pull that Islamic identity exerts on Muslims (moderate and devout likewise). However what riles me more is how our smart set has internalized the whole mythology of Jihadi as wronged anti hero and Jihad as revenge against white imperialists, and now reinforces this lie. Considering the most likely fate of the likes of Karan Johan in Caliphate, it is only with dismay one watches almost complete Dhimmification of Hindi film industry.
One of the favorite past times of minders and do-gooders on the Internet is to bemoan absence of liberal art in IITs ostensibly because it is lack of liberal education which hinders IITians from developing a more well rounded personality. Instead IITians end up with a very narrow and inadequate perspective (i.e. mere engineers). These lamentations should not be taken seriously, for one those saying it doesn’t know much about engineering (this is true even if they are engineer), Engineering is more than advanced calculus and fluid dynamics, but more about engineering later. The main reason why these should not be taken seriously is irrespective of merits of liberal arts in theory (And I do believe it has merits), the way liberal art is taught in
It is one thing for Gen X (or it is Gen Y, or may be it is Gen Me, never mind) types to claim that Savita Bhabhi is some kind of empowerment statement for Aaj Ki Nari; one pays as much attention to them as to a typical emotionally insecure, craving for peer approval, adolescent, with internet access. However when the same rubbish starts appearing in Wall Street Journal then one can not be faulted for being irked. Then allow me to put this stupidity at the rest.
Now as it happens I believe that banning Savita Bhabhi was a terrible idea, least of all by some faceless babu having no accountability to people. Also while if you ask me there are better issues to make a last stand on as far as freedom is concerned, well, to each his own.
What makes trash objectionable is whole thought process of the clique of coolness behind this which goes something like, “Hmm, OMG Savita Bhabhi is having sex because that’s what she wants and she doesn’t give a damn about the social customs, which, let’s face it, are just there to repress women anyway because how dare anyone tell women what to do with the body, DAMMIT I AM SO COOOOL!!!!”
This is problematic because
1. I don’t know how much actual Indian porn (i.e. desi sites of yore or before that Mastram, google it for yourself) these people had the opportunity of ever reading, but slutty housewife (i.e. Savita Bhabhi) is a stock character in it (along with maid, the shy bride etc). It pains me to state the obvious but these characters are intended to fulfill the fantasy of the male readers, of easy sexual gratification without social encumbrances, hence the promiscuous women (because normal males don’t actually fantasize about rape). So people searching for women emancipation in porn should have their heads examined.
2. However what I find most repelling about such thinking is that it actually degrades women. It implies that a woman can only be called truly emancipated if she reduces all of her complex persona to target for male lust. “Now, now”, the cool people will protest, “What we admire about Savita Bhabhi is her defiant attitude towards social mores (Because you know social mores are totally uncool)”.
Granted, there are social norms which are unjust; one is confounded as to what is exactly the problem of “modern” types with social norm in this case i.e. marital fidelity. Suppose if the situation were reversed and it was a husband cheating on his wife, will any one consider it cool for a moment. Of course not! They won’t consider it as cool because it is not cool, and this is why cheating husbands are not a role model in society. Why should it be different for wives then? Clearly such double standards are there only because in a Freudian way, the “hip” crowd can not imagine of women as anything more than automatons not concerned beyond sensual gratification, for them women are nothing more than vagina (hence the vagina monologues).
These people, who are nothing more than libertines, dread conceiving women (and men) as social creatures. So indoctrinated are they by the effluvium of sexual revolution that for them life is nothing more than endless orgy with no obligation for society. Infact society is just obstruction in way of the gratification they seek.
They can give impassioned speeches about freedom, but what they want is slavery to the senses, only they are denied this by presence of a discerning society with a core of morality.
As someone said Civilization goes not with a bang, but with a whimper.
