Musings on Social Contract

 Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau got social contract wrong.

1. Social contract is implicit, not explicit. 
2. Social contract is incremental and contingent, instead of planned and structured.
3. Contemporary categories of social contracts
1. Non-aggression principle (Classical Liberal/Libertarian)
2. Common Good (Conservative)
3. Brother's Keeper (Conservative/Liberal)
4. Proper role of state is to guarantee social contract.

DOGA's Talisman

You might have heard of Gandhi's Talisman, here is DOGA's Talisman.

Whenever, you, a Hindu, come across, a leader or a party, you should immediately evaluate if that leader or party aids in survival of Hindu civilization. If they do, they are your allies, if not, they aren't.

How to curb revdi politics

 By now, it should be obvious to everyone that Indian politics has entered spiral of competitive populism.
This not a good news. Here is my proposal to curb it

1. There should be a legal limit for deficit for state budgets (already covered by FRBM act)

2. There should be a nonpartisan agency (like CBO https://cbo.gov) which evaluates manifesto to reconcile with budget. Only approved ones can be announced in polls

Abolish Warm Body Democracy NOW!

 Warm body democracy means universal franchise.

In theory democracy seems a good choice for governance. 

Under democracy, people (or their representative) are supposed to deliberate for common good.

In reality though, things are quite different. 

For a common man common good is at quite low priority, so he is indifferent to democratic process.
He is however motivated by sentiments, most of them quite base, such as resources, so when he actually engages with democracy, it is to extract resources to maximal extent

Therefore, in reality, democracy is transformed to a battle, often bloodless, sometime violent, over resource extraction. 

Instead of common good, object of democracy is spoils of war.

And that's why democracy has failed.

What it means to be conservative

 (My interpretation of conservatism)

1. Preserve the society
2. Survival (of tribe) trumps rights (of individual)
3. Honour your gods, and ancestors
4. Defend customs, traditions and institutions of status quo
5. Man is broken
6. Life is tragic
7. (To redeem) Man must surrender (to higher good)
8. Bend the knee to the reality.
9. Discourage change (ceteris paribus)
10. If change is inevitable, it must be circumscribed by the above dictum

A Man For All Seasons Quote

The following quote is for laws, same logic applies for traditions 

“William Roper: “So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!”

Sir Thomas More: “Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?”

William Roper: “Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!”

Sir Thomas More: “Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!”

Understanding Narendra Modi

(Related post Sangh and Ideology )

Way back in 2018 I started a series on Narendra Modi, which I left incomplete. I will summarise the articles and extend the arguments a little as follows.

1. Modi is a quintessential Swayamsevak of Sangh.
   
2. From Sangh he has imbibed hard work, perseverance, selfless dedication and nationalism
3. From Sangh, unfortunately, he has also inherited a complete disdain for intellectual pursuit and a complete lack of vision.
4. As a consequence of above, his outlook is marred by adhocism and transactionalism
5. He has internalized power as end goal in itself and not means. 
6. He remains indifferent about he civilizational, threats focusing instead completely on short term challenges
7. As his focus is on immediate and short term challenges, he has done nothing about institutional and cultural entrenchment of anti Hindu forces nor has he cultivated a intellectual and institutional Hindu ecosystem
8. Preoccupied with power, he has no loyalty for either party workers, or common Hindus
9. Since he (and Sangh) is devoid of any overarching vision, he chases any prevalent intellectual fad from Ambedkarism to western liberalism.
10. His neglect of civilizational threats, absence of larger vision, leaves Hindus uniquely vulnerable to dangers internal as well as external.