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.