by the meltingpot: Delusion,cult and leaders

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Indeed, what is at work in the recent return of realism is the revenge of geography in the most old-fashioned sense. In the 18th and 19th centuries, before the arrival of political science as an academic specialty, geography was an honored, if not always formalized, discipline in which politics, culture, and economics were often conceived of in reference to the relief map. Thus, in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, mountains and the men who grow out of them were the first order of reality; ideas, however uplifting, were only the second.
And yet, to embrace geography is not to accept it as an implacable force against which humankind is powerless. Rather, it serves to qualify human freedom and choice with a modest acceptance of fate. This is all the more important today, because rather than eliminating the relevance of geography, globalization is reinforcing it. Mass communications and economic integration are weakening many states, exposing a Hobbesian world of small, fractious regions. Within them, local, ethnic, and religious sources of identity are reasserting themselves, and because they are anchored to specific terrains, they are best explained by reference to geography. Like the faults that determine earthquakes, the political future will be defined by conflict and instability with a similar geographic logic. The upheaval spawned by the ongoing economic crisis is increasing the relevance of geography even further, by weakening social orders and other creations of humankind, leaving the natural frontiers of the globe as the only restraint.
So we, too, need to return to the map, and particularly to what I call the “shatter zones” of Eurasia. We need to reclaim those thinkers who knew the landscape best. And we need to update their theories for the revenge of geography in our time.
Here is the link for the whole write up.

Now at 2nd place

My view is that relations between countries in the coming decades are most likely to reflect their cultural commitments, their cultural ties and antagonism with other countries rather than other factors. Quite obviously, power will continue to play a central role in global politics, as it always does. But usually there is something else behind conflicts. In the 18th century in Europe, the issues to a large extent involved questions of monarchy versus the emerging republican movements, first in America and then in France. In the 19th century, it involved states identifying themselves through nationalism. In the 20th century, ideology came to the fore, largely, but not exclusively, as a result of the Russian Revolution. We had fascism, communism and liberal democracy competing with each other. Well, that’s pretty much over. Liberal democracy has come to be accepted, in theory at least, around the world, if not always in practice. So the question really is what will be the central focus of global politics in the coming decades? My argument remains that cultural identities, antagonisms and affiliations will not only play a role, but play a major role in relations between states. The full interview is here.

This is the 3rd

Every citizen in the City of Richardson will be able to access 756 Kbps of internet connectivity for free, from anywhere in the city. They will be able to access the internet from their homes, schools, restaurants and parks using standard wi-fi connections which are now installed on almost every notebook computer. That is almost as fast as many so-called high speed broadband connections that one pays dearly for today, and several times faster than the various hotspots at your local coffee shops. And I should note that the tax-payers of the City of Richardson are not paying one penny for this, and in fact are going to see additional revenues as a benefit. ... At the beginning of this letter, I suggested that this would be one of the fastest worldwide rollouts of a technology ever seen. It was just 20 years ago that the first cellular systems were being built. The rollout for mesh wireless systems is going to make that look slow. There are several reasons I make this assertion. But they all center on the facts that installing mesh systems will be cheaper and easier than any previous system and the economics in both the developed and especially the developing world will be so radically compelling. Throw in the fact the any astute politician will want to be at the front of this parade (They will all want to say, "I was the man who helped bring free internet to everyone!") and the groundwork is laid for rapid deployment. In Richardson and elsewhere, MeshLinx is offering the basic infrastructure for free. This avoids all the time consuming, political budget battles in the cities. When a service is offered for free, much of the mandated competitive process is eliminated. Next is the low cost of installation of the system. As noted above, Richardson is a city of roughly 100,000 people living in 27.4 square miles. It will "only" cost about $2,000,000 today to lay the wireless blanket I mentioned above. It will cost a great deal less in the future, as MeshLinx is building the pods at a pace of 100 a month today. The maximum output of the US pilot assembly line is 500 a month. When the demand exceeds this (and it will in a very short time) discussions have been held to move volume production to China. Of course, the world will need tens of millions of pods. The cost for a pod will be a fraction of today's cost, with that installation number for a city like Richardson soon being half (or less) the cost of today. What does that $1 or 2 million get you? The infrastructure to be an internet connection, telephone, security, entertainment provider and a whole lot more company. As noted, it will get cheaper as the number of pods being made each month rises, thus lowering their costs dramatically. This technology does have scale. The cost of physically putting up a pod is not a large part of the equation, as you simply need to run a power line, attach a few bolts to a mount on the side of a building or light pole and then off to the next point. Think about the 40,000 homes and businesses in Richardson. If and (hopefully) over time when 10% decide to pay $50 a month for 10-20 Mbps high speed internet access you could see a revenue of $2.5 million a year just from internet access. Now add in all the other income possibilities (phone, entertainment, security and don't forget advertising revenue on the free service!). Think about your town or country. What would service like this be worth? If you are a small city that does not have high speed connections available, how many businesses that could bring jobs do not come your way because they need reliable communications for their work and their employees? If you are in a developing country, where internet access is difficult and expensive, it will open whole new vistas. Couple that with the various programs which want to give cheap laptops to kids in poor countries, and you could see significant social progress in a generation. Here is the link.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Delusion,cult and leaders

It is with great pain to reconcile myself with the irrefutable signals(which are visible to an ordianary newspaper-reading layman) that most of the Manipur's 'revolutionary' leaders cannot see beyond the tangible.

Coming to an example,it now turns out that they are genuinely incapable of seeing the intangible behind the issue of Nagalim.All that they are capable of is to grapple with the tangible like meeting up the people managing the campaign for Nagalim,talking with them and making friends with them.That's problem solving of political kind(not to mention of 'revolutionary' kind!),according to them.

Leaders('revolutionary' or otherwise)who cannot see beyond the tangible--how we have come to this pass.It breaks my heart.

To my mind,the mess we are in solidly points to a crucial implantation from outside.This implantation is not unique to Manipuri society.Nazism from Gangetic plains have been radiating to all sides by first making such implantations to all the societies surrounding them.

Implantation?It's in the form of a societal playing field,which,in particular,in NE,is oiled by freebies from New Delhi.This playing field,in the main,is characterized by the supremacy of the doctrine of 'relative truths'.For
example,it's a universally accepted truth--"Don't look at the wife of the neighbour".But in the implanted playing field,they would say--"It's good and acceptable but if your neighbour is a Dalit,it is quite ok to eye his wife".This points to multiple truths,which,in effect,implies the existence of multiple realities.Coaxing the whole players of the implanted playing field to come to terms with the existence of multiple realities tantamounts to making them to start quarelling with the reality surrounding them.So,here,we have the whole players of the implanted playing field,in our case,the whole population of Manipuri society,in constant quarrel with the reality surrounding them--in short,they are in the delirium of an overwhelming delusion.

Such deluded population demands the coming up of leaders who can see beyond the tangible aspects of the implanted playing field and show the path to break out of the great delusion.

But,sadly,most of the 'revolutionary'leaders of Manipur turn out to be very keen and very eager players themselves in the implanted playing field,which,I would like to emphasize,is nicely oiled by the freebies from New Delhi.This shows that the 'revolutionary' leaders,like the lay populace,are also in constant quarrel with the reality surrounding them.

To add woes to the already tormented Manipuri society,grey heads in New Delhi do have a fairly correct readings of the status of these deluded leaders of Manipur's 'revolution'.They are in an actively attack mode,cooking up games of tweaks and prods(my last post).Decision on Mountain Strike Force on 16th of July + Appointment of Nagaland Governor as Governor of Manipur on the 29th of July + the announcement of Telengana on the 30th of July is the latest game of tweaks and prods but in a massive scale.They are planning to keep it boiling for several months,possibly upto the announcement of next parliamentary elections.Thus keeping all the things boiling for several months they want to constantly torment the souls of the deluded 'revolutionary' leaders of Manipur with the jarring question--'If Telengana becomes a reality,can Nagalim be far behind?'As the deluded leaders can't see beyond the tangible of Nagalim and being constantly prodded by the immensity of upheavals brought up by this constant boil,their ongoing and constant quarrel with reality will intensify manifold.This might force these deluded leaders to withdraw further into their comfortable shell.As they begin wihtdrawing progressively from the troublesome reality,they are most likely to pronounce this--'Let's go slow on all programs and activities but instead focus on purifying ourselves so as to make us worthy for the challenge ahead'.If they come down to this level,we know that there is the emergence of cult leaders within the ranks of collective leadership of Manipur's 'revolution'.In case the grey heads in New Delhi are able to prod the deluded leaders of Manipur's 'revolution' to finally make the above pronouncement,then they are within reach of extremely tantalizing goal of locking up the collective leadership of Manipur's 'revolution' in permanent dysfunction.(If the majority of the seats in the collective leadership of Manipur's 'revolution' get occupied by these newly-minted cult leaders,then,it's inescapable that the collective leadership would be dysfunctional).

I must admit that this move,in itself,is a very smart move from the grey heads of New Delhi.

Post-scrip: In itself this is a very smart move but did the grey heads in New Delhi pull down the level of the working of the Indian polity just a tad below the organically tolerable limit of the body polity?We are squarely staring at a scenario where they have just pulled down the working level of the Indian polity at par with that of the deluded leaders of Manipur's 'revolution'.That low? Without hurting the body polity? This is totally intriguing to me.I'll keep a close watch on the developments of the coming weeks and I'll like to write a post on this subject.

by the meltingpot

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Now at 2nd place

This is the 3rd