Fahrenheit 911 openeed to packed cinema houses all over the country this last friday..and to the surprise of some, even Salt Lake's theaters saw endless queues. Me and Sachin managed to get 2nd row seats at the 5:30 matinee at Broadway. Wow, it almost felt like ole days in India when standing in a Q to enter a cinema was the norm. only this time the people were relatively quiet almost as if we were in Q to enter a morgue or something like that.
Ok, so I am not at all a big fan of GW Bush, no doubt about that, atleast in the current circumstances. so with all my exposure and readings and past leanings, i was pretty much ready to accept what Michael Moore (MM) was going to offer in the 2 hr film. my curiosity was more with regards to the way he was going to go about making his case, the cinematic effects and his editing skills ( Bowling for Columbine struck a chord and i could never resist another film by MM).
The movie is essentially a cut and paste job with MM's narration all along the way. there are also one on one interviews with certain individuals ( democratic lawmakers, obviously none GOP) and then there's Mrs Lipscomb's experience. But the remarkable aspect is the slick editing. never did it feel like a scratchy job. Amazing footage, well chosen for this film and some can do more damage than the other. If you already have the no-no's for GW, you wont find anything sparklingly new here. I guess i had already assumed that GW was of doubtable character, particularly when it came to his BIg Oil connections and Cheney running the show.
It was entertainment value for me, nothing shocking, nothing out of the blue.
Its like this for me: once i had already decided that Bush was no good, all such anti-bush information was just making me say 'i told u so'.
But apart from the take-home message from tht film, I am curious about the effects the film can have on public opinion given that it is an election year and a tight one at that. The whole place is so drastically skewed at for or anti Bush. Kerry doesnt get that kind of ardent hatred that Bush manages to generate at the twitch of his nose. One thing I feel , in a kind of a sad way, is that today our capacity for memory is getting to be more and more short term. In that, we are so ready for today's headlines that we easily forget or atleast tend to forget most of the past days' top news. So MM's film may just be that , at its worst. It is sure to create more than just a buzz for the next few weeks ( its already the top grossing film of this weekend, inspite of its limited release). Ok say it will do so for a month maybe two. that still leaves a couple of months before people exercise their votes in November.
So, am i scared that F911 will hardly matter? hell no. it sure will, but the 'phenomenon' that it is today will be reduced to a whimper come October. And that is a sad commentary on our crazily fast paced lives of today. Maybe I didnt get too turned on by the film, but i hope there is an audience that was not as cynical about Bush (before viewing F911) as me. Maybe the film moved them from their pro-Bush stances. the very stance that MM also talks about in his film, pointing to things like ' they want us to live in fear, so that they can go to war...'
The bombardment of news (or their version of it) on today's US 24-hr channels has made me always seeking the next big thing. news items that would have been considered sacrilege a few years ago, hardly itches anybody today. I (or shall i say we) have become hard hearted and hard to please. the media channels keep trying their best to impress me that they have the latest breaking news, this that, so many killed, this scandal that scandal, but alas i am not satisfied. i wont stop short of anything but spectacularly out of this world. i am an insatiable consumer and its just become a part of my personality: i want more of everything, better of the most: better income, cleaner air, wider airline seats, longer holidays, unlimited TV, endless miles of roads etc etc and now also endless 'breaking (or path breaking) news.
a case in point is in the movie: the first part is totally devoted to presenting MM's research on the Bushes' particularly cordial relations with the oily saudis, even the Bin Ladens. But this was already out in the news media in bits earlier. so those startling scenes and evidence that MM presented were hardly head-turning for me. it was like" oh, i must have heard about it on MSNBC or something like that earlier....c,mon MM, i wont be satisfied unless u actually show me footage of father Bush literally shaking hands with the father of all terrorists - Osama. "
yea, its come to that. i am in constant search for the next best thing, in news just as in online deals for an iPod.
so that is what is painful, at the end of it all. I think MM should have released his movie in bits , like an episode each month until November and then the last one should have had something outstanding: maybe Osama's (or Saddam's) pic with Jr. Bush himself. Ok now that is wishful thinking and i know i am being too demanding as a simple 5 $ paying memeber of the audience. But, this is where we are leading to. we as a society have hardened up to simple assasinations and terror attacks. it takes atleast 100 plus lives lost to shake us up and mind you, that too for just the period it keeps flashing on the news channels. the moment the next J Lo wedding gets annouced, in one stroke of the camera, we tune outr brains to that, so many of us in that process conveniently forget those killed a few minutes ago. there is too much going on with us , too much going on Tv, the news papers ,here there, too much for us to have the luxury to ponder , take a step back , think , assess, rethink, opinionate, address, follow-up or even research it. The assumption is that somebody wouyld have done a good job of checking on the facts before it was presented to us. and somebody actually might have been doing so too. of ocurse there are the black sheep, but that is a small %.
again , the agony of this post is due to the suspicion i have that MM's F911 will not get Bush out of the office as easily as i would have liked it to be. But then i am told that it doesnt need only MM to do his job at revealing some shady past info about the Bushes. there will be numerous other reasons as to why the people of this country may not vote for GW anymore. Afterll, its an election of many issues. MM did his part on convincing many that the war was a Bush conspiracy irrespective of whther 911 happened or not. 911 just emboldened GWs white house to push the case, successfully.
oh how i wish, MM would have released this film later in the year and slam dunked the election for the democrats. alas, i guess he too was eager to strut his stuff to the world as soon as he finished the film. cannot blame him. it definitely is not on him to make or break the election, although the radical somewhere in me would like it that way. knock knock, Amit, the world is not made or broken in hollywood or any other film city. it is much more complicated that this. i may be convinced (more than before) that Bush created reasons to go to war with Iraq, but everybody is not me, and i do not want everybody to be me, that diversity of thought is what makes democracy what it is today. MM can only make a film, it is you and me who go to the polls to cast our choices to decide if his GWB or JFK is the next president of the US. FOX tries to convince us that all is hunky dory with the US's invasion of iraq, CNN is ambivalent, so is MSNBC, the NY times doesnt like the govt, the WSJ adores the GOP, Utah is 80% republican, MM is 100% anti-Bush. variety, my dear is the spice of life. live it love it, but when it come to the polls, think about it.
Saturday, June 26, 2004
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Sunday, June 20, 2004
flawed like all of us (Hum-Tum)
so me and piyush agreed to shell out 6 bucks apiece to watch the new bollywood flick - Hum Tum being screened just for a single show at Tower on 9th and 9th. the concept of watching a regular hindi movie on the big screen has always enchanted me and many a time i have caught myself falling in love with that concept rather than the actual movie itself. i even tend to praise the movie, just based on the experience i would have had being among 100s others all sitting with our focus trained towards the rectangular screen ahead of us, yet each of us in our own world and thoughts interpreting the scenes in our own personal sense. but inspite of that individulaity, all of us share that common social 'event' feeling, all of us gathered to watch something surreal, hoping for it to educate us, charm us, hypnotise us or even put us off maybe.
and then the happenings at such a gathering of people from the subcontinent is always an experience in culture studies for me. it indeed stands apart from the experiences i have had when watching hollywood movies at the common megaplexes. it is the culture - the stuff that comes with it - language, beahviors, mannerisms, food habits, dressing habits ( altho tht keeps varying with the median age of the audience on a given day), skin tones, body structures, hair color, eye color, car brands ( yea!) , movie tastes etc etc that i can relate to more. the more i attend such events while being in a foreign land ( ive been in salt lake city for the past 4 yrs now) , the more i learn about myself. i dont want to make an effort at classifying peoples based on race or nationality or any other such point. i just want to observe and get amazed each time. it is intriguing when sometimes i end up being able to predict certain mannerisms or actions of such a crowd, but i still would never generalise. and i have seen instances that have always surpirsed me ,pleasantly. thank god for that. else my social behavior classes would have come to a boring end long time ago. it is such an evolving process, this observation routine of mine. it is not judgement, mind you. i am in no position to do that, for that matter none of us are. yes, many of us do so for our personal database, so to say, but it very much ends at that for me. nobody cares for wht i think and i am no fool to go about announcing what would be on my mind either. so why spend valuable time and energy doing something so futile? might as well revel in the rare ocassion of being with so many people from your native land rather than try and stand away and keep smirking at their little traits. afterall, i am there to havea good time. period.
ok, digressing from the title or what i intended to say is a very simple folly i committ each time. by now i guess you would have percieved the randomness of my thinking. ok ok back to the movie.
simple story line with just a handful of characters, each of whom is beautifully potrayed by the alloted actor/actress. essentially a romance, a love story and a sentimental one at that. but before i get into more detials, im itching to give away the most striking ( for me) aspect of the film: rani mukherjee's ( the central heroine) character. i am dead sure the director and the writer( im afraid its kunal kohli who did both jobs) had a clear and precise character in mind. and reassuringly, the beauty of the final product is that the essence of that lady has been potrayed just about perfect, a combination of excellent acting my rani and good screenplay aka translation of ideas onto screen.
i wont go about narrating the story here but for me there were a few take home messages: some production notes, some emotinal ones, a few lessons in understanding women ( pheww, the list is long and i have more to go), movie moments that strike a chord and so on
to me rhea ( rani's character) comes across as a level headed indian woman, leaning on the conservative ( ok, now this is on my personal scale and i may be wrong but its such a subjective topic that its easy to get bogegd down in that). she comes from a well to do family and also has in the course of the movie a seemingly stable and auccessful career. and ya, she also seems to have found the perfect match for her: a decent loving educated and well to do man. she apparently chose him to be her beau. which means that he fit into her idea of a husband and vice versa. rhea is weaker than most would like her to be. she doesnt take unwanted risks and treads on a cautious path with her principles guiding ehr along. she would never digress too much , all in all she would always give herself a realty check. also she is slightly old world in the sense that although she is highly opinionated and can get her work done as well as protect herself, she expects the man to make the moves, atleast 7 out of 10 times, if not always. she doesnt seem to be the one who picks up from her past and moves along quite soon. no need to i would say. yet, when she starts building trust in the otherwise casanova karan (saif) , it is her slow moves towards him that are striking. ya she isnt that broad minded and is searching for a very particular breed of men, but then im confident there are millions out there who are like her. when it comes to choosing her life partner, she is like a testing center. she, internally, has observed and judged karan under so many circumstances ( many of which the bloke isnt even aware of) that after a while she places him up there and even goes as far as dreaming or visualising him as her life partner. although in this movie the karan character is not sure of his feelings towards her ( atleast in the life partner sense) , she having put so much into it ( in her head) , has become fragile and gets easily shattered at the first hint of a rejection from her love object. she isnt sure, she is cautious, she cannot find herself to live happily again, she expects the guy to make the move, she runs away the moment she sees rejection, she is nervous when the truth is right in front, she likes self pity, and ya she cries too. these apsects of her character make her just more humane.
wow, i myself am wondering as to the details im going into about just another movie. but then seldom do such movies happen where-in the roles played are of the more perceptible human kinds. saif's character is another story ( or blog) altogether, but i wont get into that.
just as a note, i am tempted to add that many of the ideas i put in the earlier paragraphs of as to why rhea was like that, what rhea did, what was her thinking etc etc are simply outpourings from a personal view point as well. lets just say i have had certain people in my life who in some way showed traits that rhea did. so in a way it was a perfect potrayal of certain aspects of certain individuals and the near perfect potrayal just drove some hitherto unsorted points home.
maybe the next time i get into something serious , i shall be in a better position to appreciate where the woman is coming from, why she is saying the things she does say.
alrite, i worte a lot here. so much for a 3 hour bollywood masala. but some moments and roles played on the silver screen are worht so much more than just being there. Rhea is definitely up there for me - among shahrukh in kabhi ha kabhi na, amitabh in namak haraam, rajesh khanna in safar, manisha koirala in 'bombay', madhuri in HAHK, the list can go on....
and then the happenings at such a gathering of people from the subcontinent is always an experience in culture studies for me. it indeed stands apart from the experiences i have had when watching hollywood movies at the common megaplexes. it is the culture - the stuff that comes with it - language, beahviors, mannerisms, food habits, dressing habits ( altho tht keeps varying with the median age of the audience on a given day), skin tones, body structures, hair color, eye color, car brands ( yea!) , movie tastes etc etc that i can relate to more. the more i attend such events while being in a foreign land ( ive been in salt lake city for the past 4 yrs now) , the more i learn about myself. i dont want to make an effort at classifying peoples based on race or nationality or any other such point. i just want to observe and get amazed each time. it is intriguing when sometimes i end up being able to predict certain mannerisms or actions of such a crowd, but i still would never generalise. and i have seen instances that have always surpirsed me ,pleasantly. thank god for that. else my social behavior classes would have come to a boring end long time ago. it is such an evolving process, this observation routine of mine. it is not judgement, mind you. i am in no position to do that, for that matter none of us are. yes, many of us do so for our personal database, so to say, but it very much ends at that for me. nobody cares for wht i think and i am no fool to go about announcing what would be on my mind either. so why spend valuable time and energy doing something so futile? might as well revel in the rare ocassion of being with so many people from your native land rather than try and stand away and keep smirking at their little traits. afterall, i am there to havea good time. period.
ok, digressing from the title or what i intended to say is a very simple folly i committ each time. by now i guess you would have percieved the randomness of my thinking. ok ok back to the movie.
simple story line with just a handful of characters, each of whom is beautifully potrayed by the alloted actor/actress. essentially a romance, a love story and a sentimental one at that. but before i get into more detials, im itching to give away the most striking ( for me) aspect of the film: rani mukherjee's ( the central heroine) character. i am dead sure the director and the writer( im afraid its kunal kohli who did both jobs) had a clear and precise character in mind. and reassuringly, the beauty of the final product is that the essence of that lady has been potrayed just about perfect, a combination of excellent acting my rani and good screenplay aka translation of ideas onto screen.
i wont go about narrating the story here but for me there were a few take home messages: some production notes, some emotinal ones, a few lessons in understanding women ( pheww, the list is long and i have more to go), movie moments that strike a chord and so on
to me rhea ( rani's character) comes across as a level headed indian woman, leaning on the conservative ( ok, now this is on my personal scale and i may be wrong but its such a subjective topic that its easy to get bogegd down in that). she comes from a well to do family and also has in the course of the movie a seemingly stable and auccessful career. and ya, she also seems to have found the perfect match for her: a decent loving educated and well to do man. she apparently chose him to be her beau. which means that he fit into her idea of a husband and vice versa. rhea is weaker than most would like her to be. she doesnt take unwanted risks and treads on a cautious path with her principles guiding ehr along. she would never digress too much , all in all she would always give herself a realty check. also she is slightly old world in the sense that although she is highly opinionated and can get her work done as well as protect herself, she expects the man to make the moves, atleast 7 out of 10 times, if not always. she doesnt seem to be the one who picks up from her past and moves along quite soon. no need to i would say. yet, when she starts building trust in the otherwise casanova karan (saif) , it is her slow moves towards him that are striking. ya she isnt that broad minded and is searching for a very particular breed of men, but then im confident there are millions out there who are like her. when it comes to choosing her life partner, she is like a testing center. she, internally, has observed and judged karan under so many circumstances ( many of which the bloke isnt even aware of) that after a while she places him up there and even goes as far as dreaming or visualising him as her life partner. although in this movie the karan character is not sure of his feelings towards her ( atleast in the life partner sense) , she having put so much into it ( in her head) , has become fragile and gets easily shattered at the first hint of a rejection from her love object. she isnt sure, she is cautious, she cannot find herself to live happily again, she expects the guy to make the move, she runs away the moment she sees rejection, she is nervous when the truth is right in front, she likes self pity, and ya she cries too. these apsects of her character make her just more humane.
wow, i myself am wondering as to the details im going into about just another movie. but then seldom do such movies happen where-in the roles played are of the more perceptible human kinds. saif's character is another story ( or blog) altogether, but i wont get into that.
just as a note, i am tempted to add that many of the ideas i put in the earlier paragraphs of as to why rhea was like that, what rhea did, what was her thinking etc etc are simply outpourings from a personal view point as well. lets just say i have had certain people in my life who in some way showed traits that rhea did. so in a way it was a perfect potrayal of certain aspects of certain individuals and the near perfect potrayal just drove some hitherto unsorted points home.
maybe the next time i get into something serious , i shall be in a better position to appreciate where the woman is coming from, why she is saying the things she does say.
alrite, i worte a lot here. so much for a 3 hour bollywood masala. but some moments and roles played on the silver screen are worht so much more than just being there. Rhea is definitely up there for me - among shahrukh in kabhi ha kabhi na, amitabh in namak haraam, rajesh khanna in safar, manisha koirala in 'bombay', madhuri in HAHK, the list can go on....
Friday, June 11, 2004
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
Mile 0: Extreme left - the ADJ
random as they are, i decided to put some ideas ( the ones hovering in my brain lately) down in words and what better place than here. at this very point in time im updating my CV. to get myself employed :the non-academic kind of jobs.
but a lot of recent reading and conversing has thrown up mutliple issues with respect to my socio-political leanings (w.r.t current economic/environmental systems). and i swear..they change by the season. the constant factor has been my liberal attitude in thoughts and even some action.
the basis for this effort of course is disappointment or shall we say disgust at what is out there right now. i dont have enough knowledge to take on or fathom each and every veiwpoint or ideology prevalant today. as of now i am no expert in socialism, capitalism or any other 'ism'. all i know is that neither of them in their entireity is getting us any better .
i have never (yet) given myself completely to any single group or ideology..simply because im the eternal sceptic in search of that utopian state where there are more like me (god save this planet before that happens ;) ). well, let me not digress or delve into my Aquarian traits in this blog :)
let me start at what i call : the left end of my spectrum: 'the anti-development junkie' or easier : The ADJ
...now thats a curious term, but i confess that i do lean towards that during certain debates and thought processes. ok, so the basis for that position, as i see, is a linear cause and effect thing, somewhat like this:
Development, in the manner as we use it today, is more often economic in character than otherwise. the way systems have been set up today, it is obvious that economic development means more money, means more buying power, means more production to satisfy that buying power(demand), means more consumption of natural resources for that increased production, means faster depletion of those resources(many resources we use today are non-renewable), means larger probabilities of calamities (global warming is an example), means quicker destruction of balanced ecosystems (pollution of air water soil is expected with any industrial process), means faster extinction of species , means wider gaps between the haves and have nots (the richer will always ensure uninterrupted supply of resources for themselves, even if it means going to war) and so on. ok , so it is a bad outlook. alarming, dangerous, etc etc. it doesnt need too much of a creative thinker to script out the multiple possibilities of such a future. but hang on. i stil feel that is the extreme point of view. it is a position taken by me only when im highly emotional about the issue.
so a typical ADJ would argue that one has to limit if not totally avoid development. it translates into lesser production. that means lesser consumption, that means even lesser demand. if ther is no demand why would anybody invest in 'production' ? the resources would not be depleted as rapidly as they would have if we had contiued the 'production' rate as earlier. lesser pollution would result, lesser ill effects and hence lesser calamities.
ok, i know i have missed chunks of stages in between. im sounding romantic, but the harsh truth is that lesser production means lesser jobs. lesser need for innovation, lesser need for science, lesser jobs means more people not having work to do. it misses the whole point on which todays systems are built on.i dont get it. maybe imnot that gifted to think of what would happen instead of the present 'i pay for goods, u make a profit' system. the extremes among the ADJs need to convince me that they have an alternative.
if i sit down (like right now) and try and rationalise the thoughts, im overwhelmed with the sight of boons of the very same 'development' my earlier arguements so meticulously tried to make a villian of. simple things in life are at our beck and call today because they were 'produced'. the keyboard keys my fingers are tapping on right now came from some synthetic plastic that was mass produced in a factory somewhere in asia using resources like crude extracts, stabilisers and other chemicals, each of which eventually , in being produced, consumed 'irreversibly' a small part of our earth's depleting resources. and then to look at the economics of it all, the 'production' generated a job for a worker or two, he or she earned a wage, that wage paid for purchasing other goods in addition to basics like food clothing shelter. wow, how intricate the system is. it also shows how deep we are into it. getting in came easy, will getting out be as simple?
for one, i agree that the world as it is today is neck deep into a capitalist economy mode. money is the ultimate answer to 99 out of 100 questions for most of us . production is development, development is wealth, wealth is happiness (ya, unfortunately it is). Admittedly, the CV i am constructing is to get me into a higher paying job so that i could travel to places i always wanted to and maybe buy my first car, a laptop, eat out more often, and what not. 'production' is inevitable if i have to be able to do all that i want.
i still havent come to terms ( atleast havent explained completely) with my position on the extremity : " the ADJ" . it is an extreme point of view, and i have never been able to relate myself to anything extreme . but wait, it is crucial that we have among us persons who are ONLY of that extreme opinion. i say that simply because in the madly paced world we live today, it is easy to ignore little things, little ideas, lesser known movements. we have gotten used to being fed information via sources who afterall are run and managed by humans just like us.
an extreme left leaning liberal typically is 'green' in character and he/she doesnt shy away from protesting (sometimes, violently) the managers of 'development'. case in point is the hordes of protestors outside every 'world economic forum'/ G8/ 'WTO' summit.maybe i am scared to go out and mingle with them, maybe my social and financial standing today holds me abck from throwing myself into that crusade. but when i actually consider doing so, i feel its not simply those 'standings' of the earlier sentence that are holding me from participating with the ADJs. apart from my abhorrence for extremities, i believe that pragmatism is required along with sincere communication. that just translates into being open to talk to the ADJs rather than shunning them altogether.
talk to them, read their literature, argue with them, maybe i may get some to rationaise, maybe they might convince me otherwise., who knows? i doint know becuase i havent done that yet, but i have every little intention of doing that. dont ask me when. who knows, all that i said about ADJs and the positions ( i think ) they assume may not be factual. im an outsider still, so theres a bright chance that my take on their view points may be flawed. anyways, in all these words i think ive tried to distance myself from the extreme "ADJ" position.
and i stand by that.
but they shouldnt be ignored. we may just not know what we are heading for unless few among them keep setting off alarms time and again. they do it peacefully, sometimes clumsily, at times violently ( burning a lot full of SUVS), but in all they are trying to communicate. and i for one, will listen to what they have to say. bright ideas are never short in every human. going back to that romantic thought of a 'saner' world ( in the environmental sense), ideally, i would want an ADJ to come up with an offshoot, if not a complete alternate, to the way out lives are lived today. keep those brains working and please please do not resort to violence, say what you want where you want but peace first!
moving rightward along my imaginary spectrum of views, i shall discuss, confess, emote, argue about the less radical views in my next blog. so long.
but a lot of recent reading and conversing has thrown up mutliple issues with respect to my socio-political leanings (w.r.t current economic/environmental systems). and i swear..they change by the season. the constant factor has been my liberal attitude in thoughts and even some action.
the basis for this effort of course is disappointment or shall we say disgust at what is out there right now. i dont have enough knowledge to take on or fathom each and every veiwpoint or ideology prevalant today. as of now i am no expert in socialism, capitalism or any other 'ism'. all i know is that neither of them in their entireity is getting us any better .
i have never (yet) given myself completely to any single group or ideology..simply because im the eternal sceptic in search of that utopian state where there are more like me (god save this planet before that happens ;) ). well, let me not digress or delve into my Aquarian traits in this blog :)
let me start at what i call : the left end of my spectrum: 'the anti-development junkie' or easier : The ADJ
...now thats a curious term, but i confess that i do lean towards that during certain debates and thought processes. ok, so the basis for that position, as i see, is a linear cause and effect thing, somewhat like this:
Development, in the manner as we use it today, is more often economic in character than otherwise. the way systems have been set up today, it is obvious that economic development means more money, means more buying power, means more production to satisfy that buying power(demand), means more consumption of natural resources for that increased production, means faster depletion of those resources(many resources we use today are non-renewable), means larger probabilities of calamities (global warming is an example), means quicker destruction of balanced ecosystems (pollution of air water soil is expected with any industrial process), means faster extinction of species , means wider gaps between the haves and have nots (the richer will always ensure uninterrupted supply of resources for themselves, even if it means going to war) and so on. ok , so it is a bad outlook. alarming, dangerous, etc etc. it doesnt need too much of a creative thinker to script out the multiple possibilities of such a future. but hang on. i stil feel that is the extreme point of view. it is a position taken by me only when im highly emotional about the issue.
so a typical ADJ would argue that one has to limit if not totally avoid development. it translates into lesser production. that means lesser consumption, that means even lesser demand. if ther is no demand why would anybody invest in 'production' ? the resources would not be depleted as rapidly as they would have if we had contiued the 'production' rate as earlier. lesser pollution would result, lesser ill effects and hence lesser calamities.
ok, i know i have missed chunks of stages in between. im sounding romantic, but the harsh truth is that lesser production means lesser jobs. lesser need for innovation, lesser need for science, lesser jobs means more people not having work to do. it misses the whole point on which todays systems are built on.i dont get it. maybe imnot that gifted to think of what would happen instead of the present 'i pay for goods, u make a profit' system. the extremes among the ADJs need to convince me that they have an alternative.
if i sit down (like right now) and try and rationalise the thoughts, im overwhelmed with the sight of boons of the very same 'development' my earlier arguements so meticulously tried to make a villian of. simple things in life are at our beck and call today because they were 'produced'. the keyboard keys my fingers are tapping on right now came from some synthetic plastic that was mass produced in a factory somewhere in asia using resources like crude extracts, stabilisers and other chemicals, each of which eventually , in being produced, consumed 'irreversibly' a small part of our earth's depleting resources. and then to look at the economics of it all, the 'production' generated a job for a worker or two, he or she earned a wage, that wage paid for purchasing other goods in addition to basics like food clothing shelter. wow, how intricate the system is. it also shows how deep we are into it. getting in came easy, will getting out be as simple?
for one, i agree that the world as it is today is neck deep into a capitalist economy mode. money is the ultimate answer to 99 out of 100 questions for most of us . production is development, development is wealth, wealth is happiness (ya, unfortunately it is). Admittedly, the CV i am constructing is to get me into a higher paying job so that i could travel to places i always wanted to and maybe buy my first car, a laptop, eat out more often, and what not. 'production' is inevitable if i have to be able to do all that i want.
i still havent come to terms ( atleast havent explained completely) with my position on the extremity : " the ADJ" . it is an extreme point of view, and i have never been able to relate myself to anything extreme . but wait, it is crucial that we have among us persons who are ONLY of that extreme opinion. i say that simply because in the madly paced world we live today, it is easy to ignore little things, little ideas, lesser known movements. we have gotten used to being fed information via sources who afterall are run and managed by humans just like us.
an extreme left leaning liberal typically is 'green' in character and he/she doesnt shy away from protesting (sometimes, violently) the managers of 'development'. case in point is the hordes of protestors outside every 'world economic forum'/ G8/ 'WTO' summit.maybe i am scared to go out and mingle with them, maybe my social and financial standing today holds me abck from throwing myself into that crusade. but when i actually consider doing so, i feel its not simply those 'standings' of the earlier sentence that are holding me from participating with the ADJs. apart from my abhorrence for extremities, i believe that pragmatism is required along with sincere communication. that just translates into being open to talk to the ADJs rather than shunning them altogether.
talk to them, read their literature, argue with them, maybe i may get some to rationaise, maybe they might convince me otherwise., who knows? i doint know becuase i havent done that yet, but i have every little intention of doing that. dont ask me when. who knows, all that i said about ADJs and the positions ( i think ) they assume may not be factual. im an outsider still, so theres a bright chance that my take on their view points may be flawed. anyways, in all these words i think ive tried to distance myself from the extreme "ADJ" position.
and i stand by that.
but they shouldnt be ignored. we may just not know what we are heading for unless few among them keep setting off alarms time and again. they do it peacefully, sometimes clumsily, at times violently ( burning a lot full of SUVS), but in all they are trying to communicate. and i for one, will listen to what they have to say. bright ideas are never short in every human. going back to that romantic thought of a 'saner' world ( in the environmental sense), ideally, i would want an ADJ to come up with an offshoot, if not a complete alternate, to the way out lives are lived today. keep those brains working and please please do not resort to violence, say what you want where you want but peace first!
moving rightward along my imaginary spectrum of views, i shall discuss, confess, emote, argue about the less radical views in my next blog. so long.
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
