Thursday, October 18, 2007

PDS, democracy and atheism

The amount of grain stolen from our beloved PDS last year was worth Rs. 31,500 crores. The FM will put another tax liability on us, the PM would jitterly chirp on conspicuous consumption; but this blatant looting will be silently ignored.

Has the government become redundant now? Do we really need "elected" representatives to rape our nation? When will we finally turn our heads in disgust as politicians in UP and Karnataka hit the nadir of nadir to bury their vile gnawing teeth into the state coffers and the rich fat flesh of infrastructure development funds? When will we just start killing these m********?

Coming to another point, the masses. Why do we make so much out of the masses? Give me one work of genius that has come out of the masses? (If violence was an art - then perhaps - they have created geinus works like the butchery of partition, the gory segregation in South US, lynching, genocides, et al.) All genius has emanated from the elite; even the very idea of fundamental rights. Remove exploitation, assure equal opportunities; but giving the rule to the mob without educating them, liberating their petty closed minds is killing everything what democracy purorts to stand for.

I see all the religions advertising themselves on their numbers - fine. But aren't the masses inherently foolish? Isn't the mainstream merely the mediocre? Hence, isn't the strength of your numbers proof to the fraudulent simplistification you stand for thriving on the intrinsic fear and superstition of the masses?

Interestingly, in all the major religions, the atheist is held even more in sin than the kaafir. Believing in a false God is more extenuating than not believing at all since the former is a proof that you are willing to kneel down and get buggered from behind to the very depths of your thought, language, opinions, tints: you are merely getting buggered from the wrong guy. But kill the bastard who refuses to even kneel down.

Waking up to no god is like waking up from the Matrix. It rends your heart at the secure make-belive escapist closure-driven fantasy you're leaving behind; but, believe me, you feel more alive, aware and sentient.

Try it. Get out of your SantaClausian fantasises of frothing mad, insanely egoistic, choleric and narcissistic old fathers up above.

Become your own God.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

some exhortation that was!!! talking about the masses...i put the exact same question to Chomsky....he gave a good answer.....(hail Chomsky) (i love it when he buggers me from behind) read my most recent post..u don't have to read the whole damn thing....scroll right down to the bottom of that post

Alam said...

Gullu almost all genius has come out of the masses ...from beethovan to latest Nobel prize winner.

There is a beauty in the randomness of masses, its the chaos that churns out seemingly impossible. (though some help is needed. prosperity and education are great enablers)

Another view - If the elite were the sole custodians of smarts then all nobels would go to Harvard proff's sons, Anil kapoor's "ankhiyaan milaayen" brother would be starring in mega-chart-busters, Che's daughter would have been the greatest revolutionaries of them all

Third view - Who are the elite ??? the IIT kinds? ... The IIM kinds? ... The rich kinds? ... the gifted kinds? .. the hardworking kinds?..

there are many views popping up in my mind ....

and many unanswered questions coming back
what is truth?
what is good and what is bad?
what is right and what is wrong ??

..
.
.

Anonymous said...

those who prefer to associate themselves with the intellectual heritage of the world...irrespective of the land of origin...the achievements of REASON...rather than associate themselves with creeds of religion, nationality, political inclination, ethnicity, race....are not the masses?

Bland Spice said...

isee the idealistic sense, but emperically the masses have failed.

elite would be the intellectuals - those who simplt try to reconstruct everything for themselves from the fundamentals; instead of giving into dogmas, prejudices and exisitng beliefs.

Nothing Spectacular said...

Ayn Rand thought the same re. the elite vs the mass, though I dont agree with her at all. It is tough to go wrong when a massive number of individual opinions come together, cancel each other out, interplay, and average out to form what is called "conventional wisdom". This is the research that I think Alam was referring to. The masses are always right!! But that doesn't mean that the individual is wrong. Both can, and do, coexist.

vinayak said...

I don't really see how PDS, democracy and atheism are related, and your piece doesn't help me either. So I would rather read it as three posts, written on the same day in the same article because you frustrations in diverse spheres of life amalgamated.

On PDS, you figures seem a little on the higher side, the entire food subsidy in 2000 was just north of Rs. 25000 crore, even if the entire amount leaks out that doesn't match your numbers, and the entire amount can of course not leak out.

On elected representatives raping the nation, you are as wrong as you can be. The real rape happens at the hands of ration shop owners and it continues because the "elite" you talk about like to blog about this stuff rather than do something. The elected representatives (even the few who do want to do something) have a choice between getting reelected or doing the bidding of the elite, and they are smart enough to know which choice to make.

The word Kaafir means atheist. None of the religions makes a distinction between those who do not believe in their favourite gods and those who do not believe in any gods. The practice of religion of course is different from the preachings, and in practice you may be right, but not for the reason you think you are right. The greater persecution of the true atheist is not a matter of ideology but one of convenience. It is far harder for a fundamentalist to attack members of another religion, who probably will be organised and strong, than to attack atheist who are few and hardly organised.

On your rants of all the ideas about equality coming from the elite I suggest you read the history of the revolution in England. And by that I mean what happened for 100 years before the revolution happened. Practically no idea in the world has ever come out of a vaccum, including even Einstein's relativity. Masses have played huge role in social change all through the history.

As for the proof of stupidity of the masses in their failure to be adventurous (writers, artists, inventors are all adventurous people in that they set to change the status quo) I would actually conclude to the contrary. On cold analysis of logic aspiring to be an adventurer is a really stupid act and most people don't commit such acts. A very tiny minority of the tiny minority who do commit such acts succeed, and they are revered without any thought given to those who failed. The masses inherently know the dangers or creativity and so, smartly enough, don't indulge. The creatives are a little stupid. Obviously a little stupidity of a few individuals is good for the society (which is pretty smart).

Finally regarding religion, I am an agnostic. I don't care much on whether there is a God or not. I just do my duty. But frankly an atheist preaching others to not believe in god and attacking the beliefs of others fits a pattern very well: that of a fundamentalist believer. A fundamentalist believer would try to convert other to his beliefs. And that is what you are doing in the last few paragraphs in your piece. Makes me wonder whether you really are against the very concept of religion or just against the religions not called atheism.

vinayak said...

In my previous post I gave the food subsidy number for 2005, and not 2000. Sorry for that.