Angry Rant On Facebook

September, 2014

I've been quite busy on FB over the past two weeks pouring out my anger and frustration on FB wall. Even though I decided to keep all this to myself and transform the sick things people do into my strength seeking help only from the relevant people to no benefit, it struck me I should warn people when the number of years of direct torture became more than 2 or 3.  

I dedicate this post to commemorate the passage of more than1 year since some good and bad things started happening in my life in a much more direct way. I thought we live in a democratic and b'coz of that I need to deal this problem through institutions and society instead of taking things in to my own hand. I was in for a great surprise. Nobody cares about democracy or anything except for a small fraction of people.. Can't blame them either..they are just busy earning their bread, dealing with their own problems, having fun and doing all other life stuff. So I've decided to own the sick things some psychotic criminals (some with political power, no surprise here) do and transform it into my strengths again. But to make things easier for FB people, I've collected all my angry rants on this post...Want to clear up the clutter on FB too...


1) India needs to admit to world bodies like the UN and other countries that they are a crimo-cracy and not a democracy. They call themselves democratic just b'coz somebody told them democracy is the best form of government. Being slaves and slave drivers they don't know what it means. They just liked the label b'coz it had best in it as one of its descriptions. They believe despite evidence to the contrary that they are the best. There is nothing wrong in admitting when one is sick. Only when you admit to yourself that you are sick, you can seek treatment. When some people framed me as a paranoic, deluded person, I admitted it (due to several other reasons too) to explore it and verify the validity of it. B'coz of honest explorations, I discovered I never had any such condition. Only that sick people have a lot of political and techno power in society. Just like that India needs to admit it is a crimo-cracy and seek outside help to heal...Even if they don't have the mental capacities to form a democracy, they can at least form a pseudo democracy. If you want the journey from crimocracy to a pseudo-democracy , you need to admit India is a sick, retarded and psychotic country with desperate despotic criminals in power.


2) You might have noticed that the distribution of power in a democracy has led to the evolution of deceptive, powerful politicians and media..The ancients ruled with the might of scepter and swords, in the industrial ages it was guns and explosives, and now your netas want to rule with the help of sleeping pills and video cameras in addition to all of that...It is also sad to know that some of your leaders are part manifestations of the spirit of Vibrio cholerae spreading diarrhoea everywhere they go...Please don't vote for Cholera folks anymore....Let us take a united stand against Cholera's human manifestations....




3) It looks like some people want me to acknowledge all the time that I'm from Madurai..Yeah, I don't mind printing on a t-shirt and wearing it all the time : "Yes, I've spent 20 years of my early life in Madurai, an overgrown tribal village with a population of more than 1M and an area of 250 sq.km. It used to be a center of learning, literature,debate and high arts in the BCs and early ADs. Now it is on the verge of going through a mild Pol Pot". I hope these guys leave at least some money to print my t-shirt. Always remember, these people have been a hyper-proud culture. Now they are hyper-competitive and hyper-proud. They ventured in to criminal oppressive politics long time back and have perfected the technique too. So they are now hyper-competitive, hyper-proud, hyper-exploitative and hyper-oppressive. In essence, the hyper-ones....


4) Our existential condition is to stand in long queues and vote for the better slave owner and rotate them once in a while right...You got to try harder and imagine other better ways of living...All they do is play with people's stomachs directly and indirectly to show off their power...Much worse their long hands stretches across the globe...These are not exactly the best products of human civilization either....As long as you don't stop, I'll keep doing this small thing...This is just a very restrained show of anger that never got expressed beyond the FB wall... 


5) Huh...how many times? Naughty netas...always desperate...When I said earth is like a human body, i did not mean you can dig the belly for gas...it doesn't fuel anything besides your megalomania....

6) Some people raised concerns about my recent FB updates...My idea was to see the response of people to the desperate and sick nature of some of their leaders by telling the truth about them...It looks like I need much better ways...May this is going to take away their power one at a time..You know that there are millions and billions...The reason could be that people already know their sick nature and have chosen to live with it...There is nothing new here...So have decided not to bother people on FB...I mean can't even have a good time on FB B ' coz of some angry guy...Along with that, I've decided to return their show of power with due respect...Let's see how that goes...


7) Oh my...It looks like I may suffer for a long time...I forgot one of the most important words in Indian culture...In fact for several decades now, I never bothered much about it. It is 'Prestige'. That makes you less Indian in many ways...It looks like it is one of the many driving factors behind why they got so many things like democracy, courts of justice, educational institutions and even cops who supposedly implement that...It affects their prestige but nothing much...Recently remembered two kids playing, you know my daddy got thiiissss big a car and the other one responds no my daddy got thhhhhhissssssss big a car, he is the greatest...I mean you got it right..India got the biggest democracy as it is the second most populated country in the world..Oops another mistake, what the hell happened to me...Never ever say anything that affects the prestige of an Indian... You'll be shown your right place on earth, beneath their feet possibly...But I can't help it something happened to me, 99.99% of the times I can only say true things...Let me suffer for truth than for any false notion of prestige...


8) Did you ever wonder why Indian.gov is still holding on to the old motto "Satyameva Jayate"? Any one with eyes and hears can sense it seldom does. If it does it is indeed a cause for celebration. What they are being truthful about it is their genuine hypocritism. To be truthful about one's own faults and showing off their genuine hypocritism does take a bit of courage...I was worried that yound India might get misled by such false claims..But the kids surprised me with their smartness...They learn quite early being truthful doesn't earn you much besides beatings...Infact what they mean is "Let the fabricated lies triumph"....


9) Ok...not many people understand this...but understanding other's experience has always been difficult especially if it is deceptive...long story short...There is this power to liberate and also the power to show who Is the big jerk in any place..liberating power acts at the right time with a great intensity...The other one seems to go on and on with out a point...


10) Why am I being so pessimistic when India and Indians are making history? May be b'coz I don't want that big place to become history...I can guarantee that In this world and human world nothing is going to last sans ethics...Most of them have lost it...

11) Do you know Indian Army, US Army and several other Armies have technology to make you super humans....They stimulate this and that and you get super powers... I wonder why many people are not opting for it... You guys should personally contact military leaders (as it is said in TN) and buy super powers...They will be more than glad to sell it.. You know money runs the world right... All the best... Some work through injections, in that case you need to inject yourself until you die.. Some with electrical stimulation you see...


12) People desperate for power,money and fame exploiting people desperate for money and food is not new or uncommon in this world...What a pity to see such desperation in people who could have been the harbingers of prosperity and growth, given their enormous wealth and power...All the great opportunities were lost in pointless egotistical battles and they have fallen...Certainly betrays the lack of good intentions and intelligence...


13)  How do media people start their day? Feel free to blabber.. The more you blabber, the more confused people are... The more confusion you create, the more money and conflicts you make...Just keep those people (morons) occupied with falshy things...Do they hire glib liars? Is it their ability to blabber, fabricate and spread confusion...Media deals with information not with people...If the information is false and fabricated, it is just corruption in the field of media...Just like the corruption they supposedly fight....That is another sure way to create indifferent citizens...



14) Always good to be cautious about people spreading conflicts. Remember Hitler , when he was young he wanted Germany to be all about him. One day he pasted his image in a huge map of the world (initially just the Germany part i guess). But his ego grew in a drastic pace..He had to expand his country's boundaries to accommodate his growing ego....I'm pretty sure he wasn't just looking for resources to feed his people as there are many ways to grow trade with out expanding territories...Hope the world conflict doesn't grow any worse...I see even previously local trouble makers (even presumably calmer folks like some Tamils) talking about spreading world wide conflicts...One of the most important factors in any conflict is business.... People like you and me have always been like sacrificial goats in the hands of these forces... Your identity counts the least...Those are just tools for implementing their will to power...

15) It looks like the Mayandi civilization is progressing really well in establishing a strong techno base and has already established an excellent consumerist culture...I hope it comes out of its socio - political and cultural paralysis too...Best wishes to all those who are working tirelessly to improve...Remember that the growth of a criminal economy is just like a cancerous growth and not a healthy development of a country....Thanks for your patience with my recent updates....Good luck....

The Peace Keeper's Dilemma -The Musings of a Devil's Advocate to Non-Violence

                  

Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love. (1958)    

                                                                                  -      Martin Luther King

In the Post-Gandhian and Post-King era, the commonly recited mantra in political circles and in civilized society at large is that every problem in the world can be resolved and dealt with a non-violent approach. However, looking at the violence all around us we are driven towards cynicism regarding any peace-loving mantra propounded by many people in the society. This makes me question the premise that non-violence is the best possible way to deal with any sort of  situation. Are there any limits to such a non-violent way of life? What sort of conflicts can be dealt through a non-violent approach and what justifies the use of violent force if the need arises? Is it reasonable to conclude that peace is largely a fantasy of humans and can exist on earth only when people are dead?

A well known sign of the destructive power of 20th century people

The intentions of people involved in a conflict seem to decide its nature and its outcome. A revolution that is meant to improve the living conditions of people can't start as a violent one regardless of the nature of change desired. The whole point of avoiding violence is placing value on human lives and at times life itself. Hence any organized protest that is meant for ameliorating the condition of people has to at least start in a non-violent fashion. It doesn't make sense within any system to kill a bunch of people in the name of progress. How that specific protest is maintained and how it evolves is much more complex and it depends on the nature of response from the other people involved and the protester's tenacity to their principle of non-violence.

Most systems of justice consider a defensive use of violence as not an act of aggression and hence pardonable. However, some religious philosophers would debate about this as it means we are placing a higher value on one life over the other. For example, spiritual practitioners in some traditions would go to the extent of sacrificing their lives even if they know the attacking party is at wrong. The underlying idea is equanimity and compassion towards those beings. I believe that equanimity can be understood in two contexts. One within the framework of duty and the other within the framework of compassion. In the former, we do our duty regardless of who the action is targeted towards. In the latter, equanimity is considering all beings equal regardless of their moral actions or their value to societies and treating them with compassion in a non-self interested manner.

In a small scale, sacrificing the lives of non-aggressive people for repeated aggressors and exploiters doesn't affect the system. However, after a point of time, the majority in the system may become repeated offenders as those practices and way of life spreads widely in the system. In a social milieu of violence, it becomes increasingly difficult to practice compassion as distrust rapidly spreads in such a system and fear predominates. Genuine compassion is one of the strongest cohesive factors among human societies. When that is replaced by distrust and paranoia, the society eventually fragments and may lead to various social ills. Then in light of the current and future health of the system, it is important to practice equanimity in both the contexts. As participants in a conflict we've to make some judgement regarding the situation and act accordingly. Sacrificing my life with out a fight with someone who is a repeated aggressor in such a case is not good and may even be considered inaction and immoral. As king pointed out "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." The basis for that argument comes from the inter-dependent and inter-connected nature of condition. King captured this notion really well here: "In a real sense, all life is interrelated. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

The nature of the people and the forces we are fighting against also determine to a large extent, the nature of the struggle we need to undertake. It is possible to protest non-violently against an organized system for change, but it is mostly not possible to do that with aggressive criminal regimes. Even the fathers of non-violent movements in our modern society didn't stand a chance against criminals. Gandhi successfully led a non-violent protest against a whole empire at the peak of its power. However, he didn't stand a chance against one criminal with a serious intention to kill him. Obviously it is not possible to "protest" non-violently against criminals.

                                                                         
Acts of Violence and Defense: 

Even though, with every act of violence we reduce the chances of leading a peaceful and joyous life, some situations arise in life that calls us to look beyond our own joy and even peace. Only when we deal with those situations can we ever taste the sweetness of peace. There are two aspects to dealing with such situations from an individual's point of view. One is the inner response to the situation which mostly has to do with our conviction, will and skill to maintain certain mental states. Several people have shown extreme levels of tolerance and endurance to adversity and still have remained non-violent towards actively harmful people. The other is the external situation over which we have limited control. There are situations where when we don't stop the harmful activities of some people, it may cause greater harm to the society at large and to immediate relations of all kind. When the offenders are doing this in a very systematic way, it becomes important to stop their harmful activities sometimes using force.
                                                                         
Whether we deal those situations in a non-violent way or use force to overcome destructive forces is a matter of discrimination and wisdom. Such acts of wisdom require courage, strong will and a sense of non-attachment to their own interests and pleasures. It is also important to remember such acts of courage is not for a display of strength or even for pride, it is for ensuring that peaceful conditions exist for people in the community where they can flourish. Given the possibility of getting carried away by so many other confounding motives that can lead to even more destruction, it is crucial that we are constantly aware of our motives that can prevent such a disaster. 

Acts of Forgiving: 

Forgiving is another crucial aspect in dealing with people committing harmful acts that needs wisdom. It is important to know when to forgive a person committing harmful acts. It is based on the premise that compassion needs to be for the person and not for the wrong and harmful actions they perpetrate. Sometimes forgiving people when they are indulging in wrongs actions may allow them to grow in their destructive power and cause further harm. Ideally, we should try our best to stop their destructive ways with out harming them. But given the nature of weapons  that are widely used for attacking and defending people, it is becoming increasingly difficult to stop a violent act with out harming people. 

Even if people are imprisoned for acts of violence, physical or otherwise, the way they are punished needs to be done with caution with out losing sight of our intentions. When the compassion principle warrants only a restriction of freedom and less physical punishment, some people do seem to respond only to fear and pain. These are difficult questions that needs to be examined repeatedly taking multiple perspectives to find a balanced approach in dealing with this. 


Acts of Terrorism: 

Wars are no longer being fought in battle fields. Most act of violence happens in places with civilian populations. What are considered codes of war are largely forgotten in this age of terrorism. Extreme inequalities in the distribution of wealth and military power among world nations have led some to dominate the weaker and smaller nations. As it has been observed several times over history, such repression and exploitation inevitably leads to rebellion and conflicts. Even some big governments who try to maintain stable order with in their regions have supported terrorist organizations backdoor and have paid exorbitant prices in human lives and economic prosperity. It is quite common to underestimate the will to power inherent to such organizations initially and support such groups for short term benefits. When these grow in power, they inevitably try to take over the initial supporters. Dealing with such terrorist groups seems to be the focus of defense departments of major countries. The evolution of fighting methods and war strategies sans war codes almost makes us yearn for some kind of warrior ethos. Some how ignoring the ethos of war and extreme inequality in military power has led to a situation where anything, anywhere is fine as long as the enemy suffers damage. But it is not possible to re-establish such ethos in our conflicts with organizations that have committed themselves to devious and deceptive means of propagating fear and hatred for reaching their political goals.


Glimpses of Peace: 

All these acts of violence done with an intention for greater order and peace, the acts of forgiving and the actions done out of a sincere yearning for peaceful existence of freedom and human flourishing are in fact an expression of the love instinct widely called as eros. Where as those acts meant to take humanity in a regressive, self-destructive way that leads to greater human suffering are indeed an expression of the death instinct thanatos. With the constant play of eros and thanatos going on in the universe, peace becomes possible largely when eros dominates. A predominant expression of eros is manifested in the larger world when both our hearts and minds are cultivated and as a result there is stability for human flourishing. Despite the recent increase in violent conflicts in some parts of the world, several opportunities for establishing peaceful conditions have arisen. There are great changes going on in the world at several levels. There has been remarkable technological and material progress over the past several centuries and there are signs of awakening to a larger and deeper dimension of our existence. The prospects for peaceful times of abundance are only strengthened by the glimpses of the light of love. What we need now is eros in full bloom that can transform or subdue the hatred and destructive instincts we have imbibed from a largely repressive and violent first half of the 20th century and a highly unequal pattern of economic and human development during the second half of the 20th century. As we go along the 21st century, it is important to recommit ourselves to some of the timeless principles at work in human societies and always base our actions on compassion and wisdom, sometimes even forsaking our own short term interests. 






              

The Leader I See In His Holiness The Dalai Lama

                  

 I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. 

I do not judge the universe. 

- Dalai Lama

 
 My recent visit to Dharamshala made me wonder about several things that are wrong in several places around the world and it also made me appreciate the good qualities in people and leaders that can positively change that. I do see beautiful people everywhere, who do whatever they want to do with sincerity and are kind to people to a large extent. I also see people who are so hypocritical and cunning, that you just want to run away from there. I also see leaders being elevated to the level of Gods, sometimes by sycophants or by their loyal followers, and rarely by the general populace. However, when I look at the reverence Tibetan people hold for Dalai Lama, it is often imbued with such sincerity and ingenuity that is so rare now. I could easily spot some of those reasons as being rooted in great human values.I It was easy for me as I've experienced the pain of dealing with people lacking those values.  

 A large component of Tibet's current blessing is in its enlightened leadership. Such leadership evokes respect in anyone who cares to see beyond the surface. My respect for Tibet and its leader comes from something deeper and obviously not from their current economic, technological and material flourishing. This aspect of human flourishing is certainly important to a large extent, but it doesn't even fill half of human potential. The people in any region of the world may choose any way of life they deem fit. They may choose to lead a life of material luxury or may simply be happy with a spiritual life sans material comforts. But the role of a leader calls for devoted service to the welfare of people and the environment regardless of all that. That is where the character of leadership at a time of such conflicts is so crucial to the future of its people. The leadership in Tibet seems to me to be the pinnacle of responsible leadership in this regard given such grave conditions.

His Holiness The Dalai Lama

The way the system works at large around the world now is exactly the opposite of what is required for people. It is as if every person who is willing to serve will be exploited for the benefit of the powerful. In such a case, you are almost driven to wonder whether they got confused between business and politics. Nope, they are really clever to acquire power, where they can control everything from money flow, who gets what, justice and get what ever they want with just a phone call.The intention behind acquiring and exercising such control is a completely different question.


I recently encountered some local politicians from India and elsewhere, who take offence at very simple acts such as raising or moving your hands while speaking. Some of them even threaten with life long acts of revenge for a show of your autonomy and being yourself even in a respectful way. Nothing matters to them until their thirst for revenge is quenched. Ideally speaking, you are the one who should be going around taking revenge for all the destruction they have done to you. Yes, it works exactly the other way around. Most of these leaders have got used to the politics of fear and exploitation that you can't even talk any sense to them.

The leader in Dalai Lama in contrast is not into exploiting a single citizen in his country for his own benefit. In fact, through his peaceful means he has avoided huge destruction that might have come to the people of his country, had he even indulged a notion of violent movement for freedom against the giant power China. When some citizens were angry at him for not letting them involve in a more aggressive stance, he made the wise decision to be patient.

The greed for money, fame (sound bytes/ poster space) and power amongst current leadership across the world is well known. If someone, if ever possible, even takes away their dog's kennel, you are doomed to experience hell on earth. I mean there is no going to hell. These leaders make sure they bring hell to your very own place. It borders to the point that they can even campaign "Vote for us, we'll bring hell to your own bath tub". Such is the emotional maturity and intentions of these people.

Potala Palace at Lhasa,Tibet

When the Dalai Lama was forced to leave his heavenly palace at Lhasa and take residence at a much humble dwelling, he decided to spread the message of patience, tolerance of hardships and compassion around the world. Such is the inspiring leadership Tibet is blessed with.

When I arrived at Dharamshala, I was pretty much filled with anger at the rotten way things are done in the society and the harm it brings to me, my family and millions of people in the society. When ever I see people being exploited and made fools, I just get so angry. Three years back, when I visited the museum after a meditation retreat, I cried for a couple of minutes looking at the atrocities that have happened there. I've probably outwardly cried in my adult years may be less than 10 times or so. So I've some clue as to the kind of suffering people there are going through. And here where ever I looked, there were these people with a kind countenance calmly going about their lives. Some of them were even filled with infectious happiness.

There was a participant in the course from the west,who mentioned to us that just being in his presence brings some kind of inexplicable joy. It is not easy to imagine the wisdom and level of emotional balance that it takes for a leader like Dalai Lama to spread joy where ever he goes. I mean think of you waking up everyday to the fact some citizen who adores you like anything and would even give his/her life for you is undergoing such torture in a distant place and as a leader you are pretty much helpless in preventing that from happening. In such a scenario, I might have gone, with my current mental state, in to a pattern of destructive rage. It is easy to fall into a state of apathy and anger in such a state of helplessness or even drop in to avarice and hatred. Being a responsible and empathetic leader he is, I could imagine the great wisdom and tremendous patience that is required to be like what he is now.

Even though, a huge component of such enlightened leadership comes from the knowledge of a deeper reality, he always emphasizes that all these qualities can be achieved with the cultivation of some basic human values. With such leadership, given other supportive conditions and the will of people, it is possible to elevate ourselves to a period of flourishing that is unparalleled in recent history.






















Disclaimer:  With the world caught in comparison sickness, it is possible to project their intentions on me. The purpose of this article is not to offend any one or any nation specifically or even to compare one nation with the other which is essentially lame.  It is to portray the qualities in a leader I respect and the benefit it brings to people and contrast that with some people who I'd to deal with recently. 

Indian Citizenship: A Fictional And Realistic Account

A short information pamphlet to prepare you for Indian citizenship eligibility. This is a self-evaluation  task that you are advised to take, before you undertake the actual  test of living there.


1)  Do you like Indian food? (FYI: It is of the spicy category). If you can eat Indian food continuously for 2 months three times a day (especially idli,dosa ,paratha and rajma), you pretty much qualify to be an Indian. That is all it means to be an Indian;To eat Indian food and use Indian utensils.

You are an Indian too!

                         

2) If you are worried about psychological fit and cultural make up, don't worry! We've a force feeding program on the one and only great Indian culture. We feed it so forcefully that you will vomit out everything. That includes your mind and soul. Since you won't have your mind at the end of training, there is no point worrying about your mind set.


3) Once you attain a particular age, the society with the help of government agents can find you a suitable partner for marriage. Regardless of your gender, your family's way of doing marriage and your attractions, it is advisable to get married once the clock ticks 20 to 25. This is advised to avoid heavy penalty and negative grading on your life progress report that is published everyday by local authorities. You don't have to panic, several search parties are available to get you a partner according to the specifications you give. You just have to focus on your job and earnings. Earnings will do these days.


4) Besides that, you need to be comfortable with crowds, power cuts, noise pollution and intrusive local politicians. Indian Government has this great program to habituate all foreigners to all these items.


5) Last but not the least, you need to suck up big time. I mean to government officials, politicians, cops, rickshaw walah and almost everybody else. To facilitate this, we monitor your thoughts, actions, interests and ideas to see if it fits the Indian way of thinking. This monitoring process goes on for 5 years after initial training. If you cross the line in this Indian way of thinking, you will stripped off your citizenship, property ,money and probably thrown out of the country. "You are not an Indian anymore!". If  you think it is harsh, it is based on the rationale that if you can't live in the greatest culture in the world, you probably can't live anywhere. At the best, you can bribe your way to a neighboring country. But no guarantee on the amount of bribe, as it grows 300% every year. For meeting such exorbitant costs, we can arrange the donation of your kidney, liver and other organs that are worth a lot of money.


To prepare you for all these tasks, we have several coaching centers around the country run by several private institutes. They train you so well, you can pass all these tests with '"first mark" (You will probably meet several million "first marks" there).


Please contact any Indian to know more about this. You don't have to search hard as they are everywhere. Good luck on your preparation.

                                                      Satyameva Jayate !!!

The Social Cave - Lifting The Veil of Social Reality

                                  Turn your face to the Sun, the shadows fall behind you 

                                                                                                      - Maori Proverb  


When minds and bodies are tied to see the shadows, from where comes the chance to see the light? When the heads are bent down in slavery, from where comes the force to lift the head to kiss the light? When minds are buried under its own oppressive shadows, from where comes the will to break the veil?  Who is to be blamed for such a state? Your own shadows, my own shadows. The shadows at work to hide the light.

The shadows hiding the light create a darkness that is hard to perceive and fathom. People are made to believe that glowing incandescent lights are enough to destroy the darkness of our times. Societies and organizational structures are built out of this darkness sometimes with a riotous colorful display of the mind's own shadows. The shadows still persist and seep in to every aspect of reality spreading its wings of darkness in all directions. Oh, do I see it?


       

                                                                  
Almost everyone agrees that humans have never lived at times with such technological and material abundance. People can even burn the earth and light it up for centuries in a second. People talking about darkness got to be blind or much worse their hearts got to be filled with such darkness that they can cover the sun with their gloom.There I was, dismissing every hint of ignorance with a tinge of pride and a hyper-emotional reaction to any perceived insult to the abilities and proud knowledge of humans.

The play of shadows and light have haunted and exalted people for thousands of years. Do we understand it well yet?  What is it that works to make us believe the shadows as the ultimate and what is the force that helps to hide the light and live in darkness as if we are creatures of the dark. The light bearers and searchers have returned several times in the past and present with rays of light offering a glimpse of our own existential condition. Even with the knowledge of the way, we live in ignorance blocked by the shadows of our mind,

Plato used the metaphor of light for the knowledge of reality itself. This knowledge could also be about the social reality we experience and know. It is the aspect of reality we define that is filtered through our traditions, life experience, local culture, individual personality and motivations. It is our knowledge of reality along with our imagination that defines the possibilities in our lives. Defining our reality and possibilities based on just one limited notion of reality is indeed depriving our lives of the grand human potential and imposing on ourselves a prison of the mind.


Societies in Plato's Cave:  

The world was fragmented until only a few decades ago. The globalized world is a relatively young one with people holding ideas and deeply conditioned ways of living that may be several millenia old. With the advent of new technologies like the internet, satellite communication and other such technologies, the world is certainly inter-connected in a dramatic way and the distance has shrunk too. People have established great communication channels and are open to trade and exchange goods in a very efficient manner. However, at this point most of it is utilitarian in the sense people are willing to exchange resources and do business in a open way, and there are several global organizations that claim to have an impartial global interest.

It is important to keep in mind that such a radical change in the world situation has not been accompanied by changes in the mind structures of people. The utilitarian globalization that has happened now is only the foundation for a higher stage of globalization, it is certainly not the end of it. It provides us a great opportunity to move to other stages of globalization, where the motivation for all our efforts is to bring benefit to all of humanity. Whether we seize this opportunity or let it slip away lies to some extent in our hands.

Social Reality and Culture: 

The word culture is used in widely different contexts and in all contexts it has something to do with the way we lead our lives. In a narrow sense, it only refers to food, costumes, the way social gatherings are organized and rituals are performed, and the way in which relationships are made and broken. There is also this common belief that culture is only relevant to people with people with enough money and leisure time, while the rest of humanity somehow lives under the dictates of currency and the need for basic necessities. That seems to be the case when we look at culture in a narrow sense.

At a deeper level, a specific culture evolves around certain deeper truths, shared realities and a way of life that allows people to access that truth and lead meaningful lives. These truths certainly affect the value system and the specific values that organize any society or culture. Unless we have access to these deep truths and beliefs around which a culture has evolved and thrived, we will be wallowing in shallow waters thinking that is all there is to it. In the narrow sense, there seems to be a lot of diversity, as those are contingent on several local context and history dependent factors. It is in the deep waters we find a common ground as it generally deals with the human existential condition and sometimes the nature of the universe itself.

People in different cultures to some extent grow up in different social universes with some communication between them. It almost feels we live in different parallel universes with regards to our culture. It naturally results in cognitive dissonance and discord when cultures meet. With great strides being made in creating communication channels across the world, such phenomena is occurring in a never to be seen before manner. People with a strong sense of cultural identity do seem have trouble resolving all this discord in a peaceful manner. That results in selective letting in of ideas and values from other social-verses while completely shutting off in other spheres. This appears to be a reasonable way to approach this problem for people who want to preserve their identity and think of those as pure and impure.

Such an approach seems to be fine, if not for the play of shadows. The shadows of power, violent enforcement and deceptive tactical enforcement of chosen values of some powerful people seem to hinder and repress any deeper level of dialogue between cultures. Such people provoke sentimental notions of cultural supremacy and look down on some unhealthy aspects of other cultures. This leads to specific stereotyping of cultures into narrow definitions and reinforcement of the negative aspects of any culture in people's minds. A mis-perception of something is often a greater hindrance to learning the truth compared to complete ignorance.

Can Multi-Culturalism Help? 

Philosophers and Psychologists like Ken Wilber, Jean piaget, Erik Erikson, Kohlberg and several others have identified stages in ego development An ego self is the one constructed through our own life experience and other dispositions. It is the malleable aspect of our self that changes with our life experience and help us navigate this inter-subjective world. The ego developmental stages are based on the identity of the ego self and the motivation for their actions. The ego developmental stages that have been identified includes egocentric, ethnocentric, global-centric, higher trans-personal and stages that consider the self as one with the whole cosmos. In the ego-centric stage, the person is only considered about the welfare of his/her own self. Their actions are motivated by a desire to bring benefit to themselves, sometimes in obvious ways and at other times in twisted ways As these are ego developmental stages, in most people there is a progression from egocentricity to ethno-centricity and from ethno-centricity to global-centric stage and further up.

Some observational studies point that most of humanity live in ego-centric and ethno-centric stages and only around 30% live in a global-centauric stage. It sounds like a reasonable fraction for a world that is ravaged by poverty, corruption and the thriving of criminal-political mafia. We can only hope that this seed population holds the potential to help others move to the next stage in ego developmental stage.

Multi-culturalism seems to be a great way to experience and know the ways of lives of others. People do vary widely in their openness towards other cultures even when living in cultural melting pots. It is certainly a great way to understand the common ground in different social realities and live together in harmony. The superficial aspect of this is the risk of treating such a phenomena as a passing fad and people indulging in to reinforce a negative pride with out genuine respect for any culture. Some people may just think of it is as just a hip movement to include various cultures in their world view and everyday lives, while still holding on to pre-globalization patterns of behavior and value systems. The shadows are again our minds' shadows at play that can turn this wonderful experience into something that is meaningless and even make it a vanity project. Hence it becomes important to understand the deeper reality in this great experiment of a multi-cultural way of life, that is increasingly important in such a globalized world.

The Deeper Reality: 

Our existential reality can be analyzed at three levels. The gross (what is generally considered as the physical level), subtle ( mind and all its other productions) and very subtle levels of reality (the level of reality. Realizing our shared evolutionary history in the journey of humans at the gross level, our mutual influence on each other during the cultural evolution of our species at the subtle level and the cosmic nature of our eternal being at the very subtle level leads to a much deeper appreciation of the whole of humanity and all other beings.

If we can our attention to the light of truth at each of these levels, the shadows do fall behind. In that light lies the hope for a globalized world with genuine contact between cultures and a peaceful co-existence between people on earth.