Having an opinion is not enough. Voice it. Get political.
Sitting on an easy chair, looking at the television and commenting about the lack of honestly in today's statesmen is certainly not enough. It takes a certain initiative to convert that armchair idealism into true political capital. Most people lack that initiative, and yet comment about the moral aspects of today's politicians.
Public cynicism has reached such a level that getting political is considered to be equal to getting corrupt. A leader is perceived as a corrupt person, a mass deciever out to fleece the gullible of their votes. Perhaps this is indeed true to a certain extent. Disillusionment has set in, scam after scam. Disillusionment has set in on seeing the parliament live on TV. Disillusionment has set in on seeing kilometers of pointless red tape.
However my primary contention is that this disillusionment is just a facade. An excuse for the educated class not to get political. People feel that it is not worth their while - getting political. Being human beings (like most of us are). they refuse to blame themselves - they blame it on the politicians. Why should I become a public figure? I'll have to deal with ruffians such as Laloo Yadhav!
Getting political means taking up issues. It means taking sides in a debate. It means having an ideology - and the requisite passion to defend it. It is not demeaning. It is honourable. Raking up issues in something as benign as a campus magazine gets me angry looks from the other editors. A person who rakes up issues is a nuiscance, they feel. An apolitical person is more honorable, more desirable.
We have only one life. Let's not get bogged down by the inertia of the masses. If you believe that something ought to be done about some issue you feel passionate about fret not. Take it out to the open. Discuss it. Get political.
Me? I've got no time for all that. I've got more important things to do. Like work. And blogging.
Sunday, February 27, 2005
Friday, February 25, 2005
Blogs Get Read!
Perhaps I was wrong. I thought the only person that reads the blog that he or she has written is himself or herself. However, a curt comment on my blog tells me that this is indeed not the case. An entire eco system of people out there survives their otherwise monotonous daily routine by reading, re-reading and commenting on the excretion of stupid bloggers like self on the internet.
This shall act as a form of inspiration for me. Since my blogs shall henceforth be subject to the scrutiny of the ruthless masses, I guess it would do well to mind my manners and offend only those who need to be offended - and not anyone else, which would be somewhat deviant from Trey Parker and Matt Stone's inimitable way of looking at life.
What's the word that I am looking for? Yeah, sober. Sober it is. My blogs shall henceforth be charecterised by a sobriety and a dignity befitting a respectable individual trying to mind his public image.
Not just sobriety. I shall try to make them more intellegent too. Gone are the days when I shall compare auto rickshaws to hybrid automobiles (to the advantage of the former). Also gone are the days when I insist that the General theory of relativity is a con job. I shall back up all assertions with reasons. I shall prove that it is a con job.
You shall hear (or read) only perfectly reasoned out and intellegent insights from my side into various natural phenomena. While I'm at it, I might as well include economics on the list of topics that my profound insights shall attempt illuminate. Shedding light on complex phenomena has always been something that I have been passionate about.
Okay - I'll stop right now, and preempt any comments that might come this way. Yeah, the author of this blog is a pomopous, stupid, sarcastic fool. No, the author does not mean a word of what he says. No, the author shall not adopt an unnatural air of sobriety. The author will still blog with his trademark stupidity - and the commenters can eat cake.
This shall act as a form of inspiration for me. Since my blogs shall henceforth be subject to the scrutiny of the ruthless masses, I guess it would do well to mind my manners and offend only those who need to be offended - and not anyone else, which would be somewhat deviant from Trey Parker and Matt Stone's inimitable way of looking at life.
What's the word that I am looking for? Yeah, sober. Sober it is. My blogs shall henceforth be charecterised by a sobriety and a dignity befitting a respectable individual trying to mind his public image.
Not just sobriety. I shall try to make them more intellegent too. Gone are the days when I shall compare auto rickshaws to hybrid automobiles (to the advantage of the former). Also gone are the days when I insist that the General theory of relativity is a con job. I shall back up all assertions with reasons. I shall prove that it is a con job.
You shall hear (or read) only perfectly reasoned out and intellegent insights from my side into various natural phenomena. While I'm at it, I might as well include economics on the list of topics that my profound insights shall attempt illuminate. Shedding light on complex phenomena has always been something that I have been passionate about.
Okay - I'll stop right now, and preempt any comments that might come this way. Yeah, the author of this blog is a pomopous, stupid, sarcastic fool. No, the author does not mean a word of what he says. No, the author shall not adopt an unnatural air of sobriety. The author will still blog with his trademark stupidity - and the commenters can eat cake.
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Esoterica, my foot!
Humanity has always respected those who claimed to know of things unknown to others. Be it mathematicians, or just plain astrologers. All this attention is good for the person in question. The person's demand goes up. And in this world, demand is everything.
Esoterica is a con job. People build an aura of ununderstandability over apallingly obvious truths. Take for instance high school mathematics. To lots of normal people circles were a terror and complex numbers were like agents of doom. But the brave who actually tackled these little things head on found that circles were round little things which had some really neat properties and complex numbers weren't inexplicable - one just needed a bit of imagination. This unapproachability of such topics by the common man, of course, gives the 'enlightened' a lot of importance. The enlightened (teachers or students) can then circomlocute like God knows how and confuse the living daylights off other innocent people in the guise of giving an explanation.
What of Relativity, we may ask. Essays have been written trying to demystify it. Claims have been made (by none other than Al Einstien) regading the esoteric nature of the same. But when you come down to it - it's neither mysterious nor esoteric. It's so remarkably simple that even a school teacher can understand it!. But no, decades of propaganda have equated the rather ubiquitous E=mc^2 with complexity. It has become that layman symbol of all knowledge beyond possible average human reach.
Take Fourier analysis, yet another example. The nightmare of any student. Why? The expressions look kind of intimidating - with all the integrals and the exponents. You get the feeling as if you're traveling in an airplace (which has just been deprived of one of its wings by a rather erratic bird). It almost makes my heart beat faster. But look seriously! It just uses simple math - elementary facts regarding additions of functions and the product of two numbers close to each other being positive. Intuition lies hidden behind the impassive cloak of mathematics.
Egotripped underachieving scientists, stupid bloggers (such as yours truly, by writing such stupid blogs) and incompetent teachers are responsible for this feeling of esoterica - this feeling of the unapproachablity of simple mathematic truths amongst the general public. Long live the offenders. May our importance increase. May man never realize how he has been conned. But when he does, he shall automatically become a conner.
Esoterica is a con job. People build an aura of ununderstandability over apallingly obvious truths. Take for instance high school mathematics. To lots of normal people circles were a terror and complex numbers were like agents of doom. But the brave who actually tackled these little things head on found that circles were round little things which had some really neat properties and complex numbers weren't inexplicable - one just needed a bit of imagination. This unapproachability of such topics by the common man, of course, gives the 'enlightened' a lot of importance. The enlightened (teachers or students) can then circomlocute like God knows how and confuse the living daylights off other innocent people in the guise of giving an explanation.
What of Relativity, we may ask. Essays have been written trying to demystify it. Claims have been made (by none other than Al Einstien) regading the esoteric nature of the same. But when you come down to it - it's neither mysterious nor esoteric. It's so remarkably simple that even a school teacher can understand it!. But no, decades of propaganda have equated the rather ubiquitous E=mc^2 with complexity. It has become that layman symbol of all knowledge beyond possible average human reach.
Take Fourier analysis, yet another example. The nightmare of any student. Why? The expressions look kind of intimidating - with all the integrals and the exponents. You get the feeling as if you're traveling in an airplace (which has just been deprived of one of its wings by a rather erratic bird). It almost makes my heart beat faster. But look seriously! It just uses simple math - elementary facts regarding additions of functions and the product of two numbers close to each other being positive. Intuition lies hidden behind the impassive cloak of mathematics.
Egotripped underachieving scientists, stupid bloggers (such as yours truly, by writing such stupid blogs) and incompetent teachers are responsible for this feeling of esoterica - this feeling of the unapproachablity of simple mathematic truths amongst the general public. Long live the offenders. May our importance increase. May man never realize how he has been conned. But when he does, he shall automatically become a conner.
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