The ambiguity of tyranny

"The First Amendment does not protect a man who falsely shouts 'Fire' in a crowded theater and causes panic"

- Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
Schenck v. United States
March 3, 1919

Caution: The ambiguity is not immediately apparent.

... Concluded.

The ambiguity of freedom

In short, the American Flag represents this- that I have the right to burn it.


So do I burn it, or protect it?


To be continued...

Tan Tan Tan-Dan-Dan-Dan!

"... and his work on the Declaration of Independence laid the ideals on which America was built. I hope you enjoyed my report on Thomas Jefferson"
"Ok, very nice Stan. You get a B. Now let's see who is next ... hmmm... who is next..."
"No, God please not me... Oh Jesus son of God, Oh Father in Heaven no..."
"... how about you Eric?"
"Aaw! Godd-ddd-dammit..."
"Eric Cartman"
"...Son-of-a-bbb*tch"
"What did you say!"
"Nothing"
"Don't you have the report on your favorite person from History ready?"
"Yes I have"
"Then why don't you come here and present it?"
"I'm gonna"
"Now Eric!"
"Godd-ddammit!... Good Morning. Today I'm going to talk about my favourite person in History, who is ... umm... eh... yeah I know, Adolf Hitler!"
"What?"
"Adolf Hitler was a great leader... umm... he was totally awesome... umm.. he was the leader of Germany and did many good things for the world... "
"This is full of crap! You can't like Adolf Hitler! He just mass-murdered people and started the World War. He din't do anything good!"
"Yes he did! He identified the Joo problem and solved it by killing them..."
"This is outrageous! This is a hate speech!"
"... Mrs. Garrison I'm really having a difficult time with all these interruptions"
"Kyle, let Eric present his report"
"You call this a report? How can you allow this kinda racist crap?"
"That's enough Kyle! Go on Eric"
"... ummm yeah... and so, Hitler killed the Joos and ... ummm, got the world rid of Hippies and Gingers! That was my report on Adolf Hitler which I prepared after extensive study and research. Thank you!"
"It's obvious you just made all that up right now. You get an F Eric, now go back to your seat"
"Aaw! Godd-dammit!"
"Hmm, now let's see... Kyle you are next"
"My favorite person from history is the Indian spiritual and national leader, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi"
"Mrs. Garrison, I seriously object to Kyle using the word 'Indian', its ignorant and racist. The correct term is 'Native Americans' "
"It's 'Indian' as in 'India', retard"
"Yeah, and besides, look who's talking- you are the one who is a racist assh*le, fat-ass!"
"KYLE BROFLOSKI WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE! ERIC CARTMAN STOP INTERRUPTING THE CLASS! STAN MARSH MIND YOUR MANNERS! KENNY MCKORMICK STOP STARING AT BEBE'S CHEST!... whew... Continue Kyle..."
"M. K. Gandhi was also called 'Mahatma' Gandhi or a great soul in India. He helped India get independence through non-violent and peaceful struggle, not by killing... "
"Fags!"
(Laughs)
"ALRIGHT EVERYONE JUST SHUT-THE-HELL-UP! Jesus-tap-dancing-Christ!"
"He was born in an affluent family in India. His family's good standing in the society enabled him to have good education after which, he moved to England to study law. He went to practice in South Africa, where he campaigned for the rights of Indians and the native people who faced racist discrimination at the hands of the administration run by the minority white population. Later he went back to India and started a mass-movement for freedom against the British administration. He also worked hard to bring dignity to the people of low caste in India, who were historically discriminated. His famous methods of peaceful resistance have been used by many leaders all over the world, including Martin Luther King. Thank you."
"Very Good Kyle, you get an A"
"What! Thats bull-crap!"
"Eric, for the love of God..."
"No seriously, Kyle gives this gay-little speech about some p*ssy-ass Joo and you give him an A, while I get an F!"
"Gandhi wasn't a Jew fat-ass, he was a Hindu"
"Hindoo, Joo they are all the same. And did you see the obvious holes in his report Mrs. Garrison? There were people in his own country who were discriminated and this guy goes about accusing government of being racist in South Africa. How is that discrimination any better than racism?"
"No, that's different"
"Different? People in India identify caste based on their parent's caste right? In other words, its their birth which defines the basis of their discrimination. Well, its the same with racism. Except here, you have an obvious indicator of your birth, which is the color of your skin"
"Eric you get an F and that's final"
"Fine, I don't want to sit in a class with people who live in denial. Screw you guys, I'm going home!"

I had intended to post this on Oct 2, but since I was about half-dead then, I decided to postpone it to Jan 30.

Taare Zameen Par

Poetry... using Paintbrush!

A Pilgrimage to Enlightenment

Just finished reading an epoch in popular science books. 'The Ancestor's Tale' by Richard Dawkins. No, this is not a tirade against religion, which by the way is getting a bit stale off late- 'The God Delusion' becomes painfully redundant from the middle through the end, especially if you have read some of his previous books or discourses. No, this is pure Science. And yes, Science in every sense.

The book is a journey in time. We start off from the present and march backward in time through hundreds, thousands and millions of years to the beginning of life on earth. On the way, we meet 'pilgrims'- organisms/group of organisms- who join us at a commonly shared ancestor. At each rendezvous point, selected pilgrims tell a tale of how they came about. The structure is inspired from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. A total of 40 Rendezvous points before we finally reach the Canterbury of life- the primordial replicating machine 4 billion years ago. 614 pages of an epic journey, and not one of them you would want to skip in haste. Dawkins, with his well known wit and clarity, forces the reader to see what he sees. Every distinctive piece of biology and every idea that's worth mentioning is given an thorough analysis that it deserves. And Dawkins does this with a judicious and brilliant use of all the tools of Science available under the sun- from Bio-Chemistry to Anthropology, from Quantum Mechanics to Computer Science. In short, this book is the biology-equivalent of Stephen Hawking's 'A Brief History of Time'. Its a Brief History of Life.

Toward the end of the last chapter, when the pilgrims return back to the present (and even that is not a simple retracing of steps forward in time, but a far more fascinating study of what kind of organisms would statistical reruns of evolution MIGHT produce in 4 billion years time!), Dawkins, in the voice of the host bidding farewell, expresses the exhilaration after having traversed the journey, which every avid reader would share, summarizing the spirit of the book-

If, as returning host, I reflect on the whole pilgrimage of which I have been a grateful part, my overwhelming reaction is one of amazement. Amazement not only at the extravaganza of details that we have seen; amazement, too, at the very fact that there are any such details to be had at all, on any planet. The universe could so easily have remained lifeless and simple- just physics and chemistry, just the scattered dust of the cosmic explosion that gave birth to time and space. The fact that it did not- the fact that life evolved out of nearly nothing, some 10 billion years after the universe evolved out of literally nothing- is a fact so staggering that I would be mad to attempt words to do it justice. And even that is not the end of the matter. Not only did evolution happen: it eventually led to beings capable of comprehending the process, and even of comprehending the process by which they comprehend it. The very fact that we have evolved the brain power to understand our evolutionary genesis redoubles the amazement and compounds the satisfaction.

Of artists and mass-hysteria

"Lord Ram existed"
"Islam is a peaceful religion"
"The world was created in seven days and Jesus is the son of God"

well, why the f*ck would i NEED a Right to Free Speech to say NICE things?

Of conferences and death camps...

(Oct 24th- Nov 1st)

Aim
In ONE week, do the following:
a. Complete a Transactions Paper
b. Complete the presentation for a Conference Paper
c. Write a Midterm exam
d. Finish a looooong Analog assignment
e. Herd a bunch of retard undergrads through a bloody transformer lab

Issues at hand
a. Flu
b. Sore throat
c. Scurvy
d. A trip plan in shambles

Apparatus
a. Peppered tea
b. Nescafe Richie with extra caffeine
c. Asia Garden take-home chinese
d. SSH remote access tool for working during late-cold-hours from home as the Polar Bears go into hibernation

Procedure
Get f*cked. Don't resist.

Results
Plodded through each task, barely finishing any.

Inference
MARS does lead a dog's life. And now he died a little.

One DIRTY post

I had the distinct pleasure of watching Team America: World Police, a marionette movie by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. I must admit it out does SouthPark: Bigger, Longer and Uncut. The film, as expected, is a satire take on the U.S. - its powers that be, and especially its Left Wing. Kim Jong-il, the North Korean dictator wants to take over the world with his diabolical schemes, which Team America, a SWAT like commando force, resists. Film Actors Guild (FAG), a strong liberal political voice made of Hollywood stars including the likes of Michael Moore (described as a 'giant socialist weasel') and led by Alec Baldwin, stands in the way of Team America. A part of the climax is how Team America convinces the representatives of various countries of the reality about Kim Jong-il and the FAG, which supports him. Its a speech by Gary, a Team America member- down right simple, unpleasant to hear may be, but fully loaded with political philosophy (mostly of the SPR kind)- vintage TP&MS at work. It was so good that I decided to jot it down. Lets see if you can see what I saw. I must warn you though, what is about to follow might be too shocking to young children. Metaphors can't get any dirtier than this... ;)

"We[Team America] are D*cks. We are reckless, arrogant, stupid D*cks. And the Film Actors Guild... are P*ssies. And Kim Jong-il... is an Assh*le. P*ssies don't like D*cks. Because P*ssies get f*cked by D*cks. But D*cks also f*ck Assh*les. Assh*les who want to sh*t on everything. P*ssies may think they can deal with Assh*les their way. But the only thing that can f*ck an Assh*le is a D*ck... with some balls. The problem with D*cks is that some times they f*ck too much, or f*ck when it isn't appropriate. And it takes a P*ssy to show him that. But some times P*ssies get so full of sh*t that they become Assh*les themselves, because P*ssies are only an inch and a half away from Assh*les. I don't know much in this crazy, crazy world. But I do know, that if you don't let us f*ck this Assh*le[Kim Jong-il], we are gonna have our D*cks and P*ssies, all covered in sh*t. "

'விடை கொடு எங்கள் நாடே'- ஒரு வருடம்

24th August 2006 - A bemused bloke standing inside Anna International Airport, who was clueless as to what to do with his life.

24th August 2007 - A bemused bloke sitting inside a basement in Ottawa, who is still clueless as to what to do with his life.

One crucial difference...


... he didn't take a bath today.

First debacle in a long time... sheer bad luck... hail entropy!

'Dhamilnaattu' Police!

Puratchi Kalaingar has been finally put to shame- by the real thing!

I'm not a bad man

I'm just dangerously inquisitive.

Hence, I shall add some of my own (may be related to what is already given in the link):

1. With technology doing away with many types of interpersonal dependencies and creating some new kinds, is it possible that most of the present day forms social organization, including marriage, will become obsolete in the not so distant future?

2. Do we all, irrespective of our ethnicity, possess an inherent attraction (however small) toward people of fairer complexion?

3. Is everyone, some what racially prejudiced (both positively and negatively)? And is it some how related to, or gives rise to, skin-color-based sexual preferences?

4. (With respect to the history of modern democracy, including the most progressive of societies) Are women leaders more impulsive and show more unwanted aggressive behaviour than their male counterparts, rendering their reign highly controversial if not unpopular?

5. With the growing awareness and the spread of Gender Equality, as it is currently defined by most proactive agents, will chivalry be lost, as an act of insult to the capabilities of women?

6. Whenever a species becomes very successful, countering forces start to kick in and the exploding population is controlled. Most of these forces have been tamed through non-natural selection means by humans. Given this unchallenged supremacy, the onus is on us to conscioulsy overcome our immediate survival instincts and control our own impact on the environment. So are research and medical procedures dealing with the longevity of human life immoral?

Disclaimer: The above questions do not represent my personal views and are open only for a rational debate.

And I think I have an answer to one of the questions raised by Steven Pinker in this book, about which I'm reasonably confident-

Is morality just a product of the evolution of our brains, with no inherent reality?
Answer: Yes, yes and yes. Otherwise why would it change with times?
(Of course there are one or two unchanging building blocks of morality from which most of our sophisticated moral tenets sprout. But once we isolate them, its very easy to show their irrelevance by not attributing the material benefits incurred as a consequence of practising them)

3 DON'Ts of Libertarian

DON'T tell me what to do AND how to do it.
Because I DON'T give a sh*t.
And DON'T worry, I won't screw up.

All that was near and dear...

Life has sure come a full circle. One by one, everything that I have ever held close to my heart since I started to know the world around me has been decisively disabled and disintegrated. All that in a freaking 8 months, of solitude. This was ample time for me to become honest with my self and suspicious of everyone (and everything) else. I believe that's the first step to understand, well, almost anything.

Skepticism and distrust. You want to know who or what you are? Well, you just can't do without them. I have found them both here and for this reason, I shall forever be indebted to Canada even if I change to something else from now.

One of those many (now sort of getting monotonous ;) ) realizations came last week when the discussion on Canadian economy spread from the room to the lab with Dharmendra. And that was it- my days of carrying the red flag are over. I mean, I have accepted the points fired out by my opponents against state intervention in economy in the past for the argument sake. But it took me to come to that very Utopian dream of mine- Canada, a country with a successful industry regulated heavily by the government for the welfare of the people- to comprehend how fallacious that dream really was.

You could say the grass-is-always-greener-on-the-other-side is coming into play here. But that's exactly my point! It IS but natural for us NOT to be satisfied with what we have. And letting us be is what an economy, in order not to be in conflict with the natural order of things, ought to do.

Started off with Dharmendra telling me about a white guy he met on the road who was swearing at the Ottawa civic authorities when his car ran over a puddle in the road. Well, whats the big deal you would ask... we drive over puddles more that on roads in India. Well you need dig a little deeper to answer that puzzle. Meet Dharmendra's neighbours- a Somalian family who came here as refugees- and are doing better than him. The man drives car on hire for a living and he makes sure he DOES NOT earn beyond a certain amount, so that the government considers him eligible for welfare money- and that's a juicy 400-500 dollars per dependant you have in addition to a few other credits- all tax free (now that's a good reason to get frisky all the time!). And that's not all. You get a house for which you don't need to pay anything. You get all the assistance (read for free) from the government for doing any course or joining any class which you think will get you a job. And after you are done, no matter where you apply for a job, the company is obliged to give you a chance because you have NO job history.

How can the government afford all that? Well, that's the reason why some one like Dharmendra from a Hi Tech background drives a smaller and cheaper car than that Somalian lady. Imagine you are a native white guy and both you and your wife work 8-6 everyday at some reputed Telecom firm. You get your son ready for school every morning and then rush to office skipping the breakfast. Your daughter is only 3 and so you send her to a Day Care which takes enough money from you to adopt 100 orphans in Ethiopia. You get a little time to relax in the weekends after you are done taking your kids to the Ice House for their hockey lessons. You pay off the mortgage for your house, the insurance for your car which just happened to increase last month after you were pulled over for over speeding. After all this work at the end of the month the government is at the door- it takes off its hat and says "May I?", and respectfully bites off a huge chuck of your sweat and blood. And where does that go? Oh yeah to things like building roads and highways, paying for schools and hospitals, running the essential services and er... and to pay for the gas for the Toyota Camry the Somalian-lady-next-door- who-does-nothing-except-sitting-all-day-at-home owns. Swearing at the civic authorities fearing the prospect of paying for a change of tyres is the least that white guy could do.

When I was in the 9th grade(that's when we read about the Russian Revolution), if you had asked me if its ok for a guy who has exemplary skills and a guy who is not so blessed with talent enjoy the same kind of life, my answer would probably have been an emphatic 'YES'. Of course hard work can compensate for our weaknesses. But even that doesn't make sense sense here. The only thing which is common to the white family and the Somalian family I described above is that both would think "Why should I work?" Two days back I received a tax rebate of 425 dollars from Revenue Canada. More than the joy to see that money, I made me feel sorry for all those people of this country who were paying me. Who am I to deserve this tax credit? (Of course I could argue, to be fair to myself, against being subject to sales tax I have paid indirectly in the first place)

There are certain other factors which come into play here- like Canada's open handed welcoming of refugees from all parts of the world who immediately become entitled to all sorts of benefits offered by the state- a dead weight on the economy, if you say. Contrast this with the highly competitive Visas to the US, which has ensured over time, to increase the proportion of highly skilled and productive people in the work force there. But I believe this itself is a result of lesser welfare orientation in America, which causes the corporate self-interest to govern the immigration policies as well.

When the state pampers people, there would be no drive to work toward bettering yourself. Because you know you are not going to lead any better life if you do. Stagnation hurts. Sometimes more than misery.

You are a farmer/a miner/a fisherman/over 60/a scientist who wants to work alone on some fundamental problems without pressure from industry? Canada is the place for you. Else, look for greener pastures, presumably the US.

Monologued Tribute

'Periyar' falls short of expectations that 'Bharathi' created as regards the director, Gnanarajasekaran's capabilities. Though retaining the same autobiographical temperament as its predecessor, its as though the camera wasn't big enough to show more than one person at a time. That one person mostly being Sathyaraj donning the role of his role model- E. V. Ramaswamy, in this TN government-sponsored venture, which seems to be a desperate final attempt at bringing the masses back to romanticizing the glory of the original ideological foundations on which the Tamil political legacy has been built upon.

This movie could have as well been a soliloquy staged at some revolving theatre. No other character was really needed. At different phases of the protagonist's life, new faces just come, read out the dialogues as dictated by the director and leave. So painfully prose-like is its narrative. Yes, Periyar's life was an immensely huge repository of intellectual battles, life changing failures, history defining victories and conflicted relationships to be captured in 2 and a half hours of celluloid. But then, movie makers have time and again demonstrated how this can be done tastefully, while making the point that needs to be made.

The movie has its refreshing moments with vintage Sathyaraj using his well known satire comedy to take on God. Though mostly adult humor, it does well to bring out the skepticism that Periyar encouraged as a means of social reform. But if you ask me, that one dialogue of Prakash Raj in 'Iruvar'-

"Vinyaanaththa paththi ketta tamizhanukku theriyaathu, aana Yamanukku vaaganam yennanu ketta yerumakkeda enbaan"
("If you ask the Tamizhan about science, he wouldn't know, but if you ask him what's the mount of Lord Yama, he will immediately tell you it's the buffalo")

-carried more weight in it than the entire 'Periyar' movie.

Detachment (revisited)

When you are no longer sad or happy for being no longer sad or happy. period.

When government plays Robin Hood

One of those days when the routine complaining about how boring and stupid life is leads to some sort of trivial revelation.

I don't quite know much about how US economy works, so I take caution in making a general observation of the West, although I assume that Canadian economy is some where between the EU (extensive) and the US (limited) based on their respective government control over business.

Today, auntie walked down to get some chicken from the freezer in the store room and she rants about how difficult it is for her to make the ends meet.
"Intha naatula oru veettilla moondru peyar earn pannalum athu seri varaathu... inga kaasu save panna yelathu"
Vimal: "That's so true auntie... naan kooda pona summer co op kedaichchathilaa, appo kaasu save paanaumnu nenachchen anaa athukkapparam Car breakdown aayiduchchu, antha garage kaaran, vantha kaasa appadye pudingittaan"
Me: "Puriyala, neraya earn panna, intha oorla nalla irukkalaamnu nenachchen"
Vimal: "No, I mean you can't SAVE. Like about 50% of your whole goddamn income goes into taxes man. Imagine you pay 15% income tax and then 15% on everything that you purchase- thats easily half your income. You try to invest with the money you tried to save and there are taxes on that too. Better enjoy your life rather than saving... athuthaan inga irukkira vellayargal pannuvaargal."
Auntie: "Om... neraya peru rendu veedu vechchirpinam... anaa yenna pirayosanam... innoru veettulirunthu varura rentu income aayidum, athukku marubadiyum tax. So, oru veedu kaanum enraal athu mattumthaan vechchirkanum. Yevvalavu varumaanamo, avvalavu selavu adichcha, atha kaatti taxa kuraikkalaam"
Vimal: "Yeah, the more you spend on say 'official tours', the more tax deductible your income becomes. I know many people who go on a vacation just for that"
Me: "But where does this all end... I mean, every one spends all that he/she gets... this must end some where- infinite regress- who gains in the end."
Vimal: "Government. They all finally pay taxes to government for all that we get and all that we spend isn't it?"
Me: "But doesn't that mean the government should grow exponentially rich? I mean, the population is growing and more people work and hence more people pay taxes..."
Vimal: "They spend money too... see all this snow ploughing and stuff and not to forget the elephant in the room- the unemployed. Once you claim you have no income, government pays for you and your dependants".
Auntie: "Om... sila peru yenna solluvinam, income a RRSP la invest seithuvittal athulla tax kuraiva varum enru solluvinam. Anaa athulla yenna nedakkum enraal loan edukkumbothellam athulla interest pay pannonum. Apparam retire aana piragu RRSP kaasu tharum, appo government athu oru incomenu sollivittu retirement benefits tharaathu. So kadaisila yaaru santhoshama irukkinamnu sonnaal, yevan velaye illama irukkiraano, avanthaan" (laughs)

... made me wonder at the weird kind of equilibrium a free market economy (coupled with a welfare state) reaches. I mean many features that characterize a well-established developed economy are definitely found in Canada- a low inflation rate for example. Yet, I'm sure many people in India have more to spend at a time of need than Canadians (Seriously, who in Canada would be capable and/or willing to pay dowry for his daughter's marriage!). Of course culture definitely matters. I haven't spoken to any Indian family here which has come here to find a better living unlike the Sri Lankans who come as refugees and over time, become woven into the social fabric here. But I guess Indians who come to work here do save a lot, like their counter parts in the US.

Another lesson for the day- economy of a country is not what we read in books or online sources; at a more grass root level, you get to know how exactly a country functions by looking at what the people, preferably those from the subcontinent, do to survive there.

Detachment

A state when you CAN'T look at ANYTHING from other than a third person's point of view. period.

The Anthropic Principle of the Human Mind

For every issue, there is always

1. an Alarmist
2. an Advocate
3. a Sceptic
4. an indifferent evader
5. and a Conspiracy Theorist

Corollary: By the time one (or more) of the above is proven right, nobody cares anymore.

Happy Birthday Entropy!

An year passes by,

the indefatigable monkey continues to type relentlessly and my struggle against the Second Law of Thermodynamics continues...

Yours truly,
Mars