paperback activists considered harmful : ramjee swaminathan

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Foreword:

This is a rant about the seemingly unbridgeable dichotomy between "doers" and 'talkers.'

Lately, I am becoming sick of having to patiently listen to the talkers who seem to have all the great ideas and appropriate solutions to address and solve ALL problems of the world; they wail in high decibel shrill tones that nobody is acknowledging their contributions and initiatives... :-( there are other kinds of people who keep complaining, COMPLAINING, COMPlainING, compLAINing ad nauseam... Driven to desperation, I have been forced to pen this, not that I am complaining ;-) but... I hope this write up may help you folks to recognize these talkers (and complainers) and take appropriate remedial steps.

Er, by the way, as you may have realized by now, my humble solution to this earth shaking problem of doer-talker dichotomy, is to offer a third set of people called 'ranters;' but then, my rant against ranters and ranting in general will have to wait for some more time…

Claimer:

Most of these characters are indeed true (and are also reflective of _my_ attitudes at various points of time) and spring from incidents that actually happened - wherein I have played the role of either the protagonist or an antagonist.

I would actually say that any resemblance to anyone - of the character trait sketches - is NOT at all accidental. In fact, I have asked (or at least tried) the kind of questions that I have raised in this rant, but then most of these target individuals are so self centered, self absorbed and so full of self pity that, they just didn't get it...

For example, when I asked a very climate conscious individual (who was going on and on and on... about environmental degradation, atmospheric pollution, CFC, the way the ozone 'hole' is becoming bigger - the works - liberally borrowing from Rachel Carson, Winin Periera et al) - as to whether his car is air conditioned - he said YES! and added 'Why are you asking? How on earth can one drive on a hot summer day?' - righteous indignation, am sure... But then, in my sincere opinion, the complainers NEVER look inwards to see whether, they are themselves contributing to the problems! (probably this is the reason why they can think about solving the issues, the evil twin of me thinks... )

Ahem!
< ... and of course, as the editor of this write-up I have usurped the privileges of sitting on _the_ moral high ground and pontificating ad naseam, whereas in reality, I have, at least the minimum common denominator of the attributes of the characters described in various scenarios…

Scenario #1

Lately, Shreemali has registered a keen interest in the farming of the excel spreadsheet kind. Apparently he has read that illustrious tome 'One straw revolution' and the other - 'Permaculture primer' by Bill Mollison. Obviously he has instantly become a repository of all knowledge regarding those dreaded 'development' phrases - 'sustainable agriculture,' 'biodiversity,' 'organic farming' etc… He has become a diehard activist of the swivel chair kind - and converts any and every discussion into sustainable vs unsustainable harangues!

Well, I told him one day about a settlement/commune of an 'alt' type near Bangalore, and apparently his highhandedness had paid a visit to that place afterwards. When we met after a few days, he told me with a disdainful face that 'they are using a TRACTOR to till the land! How can the agriculture there be sustainable?' - An outburst of righteous indignation from a very concerned, ecologically aware citizen, I am sure.

Questions:

Where from this enlightened individual get the idea that sustainable agriculture (hic!) can actually be undertaken from the comfort of an armed (oops, swivel) chair?
How does he assume that the cases of 'One straw revolution' are replicable word for word all over the world? Does not this approach negate the very concepts of biodiversity and localization of solutions?
Does he know that gurus of the likes of Masanabu Fukoka are very much available here? What about that venerable and unassuming Cherkadi Ramachandra Rao, who in my opinion offers better localized solutions... Of course, unfortunately, he has not published any book nor has chronickled anything...
If Bill and Masanabu were Indians, would Shreemali even bother to read up on them?
How can a person who has not even actually dug a pit of one cubic foot assume that he has solutions to offer to the agronomic scene?
Did he bother to (at least) check on what the intentions and objectives of the commune were? May be their agenda was not to make the land use sustainable as much as making their mental strengths and thought patterns sustainable…

(of course it transpired later that, 'actually' he had mistaken a neighbouring farm to that of alt commune that he had visited! So much for Shreemali's powers of 'observation!')

Scenario #2

These days, there is a lot of press for RWH (for the uninitiated and non-un-in-disenfranchised folks out there, it is - rain water harvesting, the techniques that have been practised for thousands of years all over the world, wherever it had/has been possible) and our Amul Panigrahi has been reading a lot about it (Well, um, he actually read a textbook); being a socially aware person that he is, he tries to describe in detail how RWH can indeed save the world, create jobs, make the blind see, deaf hear etc - whenever he can corner a person; my eyes become moist when I hear Amul's missionary zeal... He keeps saying that in India, we waste a lot of water... Really sad, we need to do something about this... India definitely needs these kinds of dedicated youngsters, I tell myself. But then...

Questions:

Well, what kind of water harvesting has Mr. Panigrahi been doing at his home, leave alone elsewhere?
He lives in the city of Bangalore(South India), whose water requirements are mainly pumped out from the river Cauvery... Has Amul tried to reduce his dependance on the Cauvery water?
How can one justify the pumping of each liter of water from Cauvery, some 150 KMs off - to Bangalore? Is he aware that, this creates a lot of problems (electrical power requirement, distribution and what not...) and after having promptly been used to washup the butts at his end (what pun!) once again creates the problem of disposal of sewerage?
How can RWH be seen in isolation as a messianic cure, where as there are lots of other factors that need to be taken into consideration too?
Hasn't Mr.Panigrahi heard of the 'surangams' of Kerala, Rajastani 'beris' and 'kundis' and Ladakhi 'zings' ?
Is he even aware of the average annual rainfall in Bangalore - and whether it is measured in kilometers or lightyears or kilotonnes?

Essentially if there is a 'technology' or a buzzword from overseas, then it has to be swallowed hook, line and sinker - is it not? And if that could be abbreviated or better still - acronymized , the better it is... I get the idea - it is important to facetitiously utter development jargon, to be interpreted as a 'socially aware' person.

Scenario #3

Dick McLament never tires of sadly recounting those harrowing days as a hosteller at his grad school, even after the lapse of a full decade after 'those' days... "As my father did not approve of my activities at my grad school, he suddenly stopped sending money to me…" In a very pitiful tone, he would add that, subsequently (and consequently) he had to go without his morning breakfast most of the days… even if he were to have a breakfast, he could just manage to eat only a bun in place of a hearty meal because of this reason, he would add with a choking voice! Tch tch…

Questions:

What makes Dick McLament think that his father has to support him, even after he has gone well beyond the age of 'majority?'
Does Dick acknowledge that, he had been educated in one of the 'best' public schools - leaving a big hole in the pocket of his father - and that as per the rules of the game, if one takes money from someone he/she has to do the bidding of the benefactor?
What really prevented Dick from actually taking a part time job - at the library / mess / nearby teashop? Is it because of a false sense of 'indignity' of labor or a plain inability to think of a solution? (I fully agree that 'perceived martyrdom of an idealist' at an young age makes many variants of interesting and heart wrenching - 'in those days, I was…' - kind of anecdotes, in later life)
What makes Dick assume that these kinds of sob stories are pretty gripping and that the listeners are even remotely interested?
Does clinging on to the past glories (hic) and adamant refusal to look ahead can take anyone anywhere? Anyway, can't he see that if he had continued to eat one bun only for breakfast, at least he would not have developed a pot belly and instead, be at least reasonably healthy?

Scenario #4

Samaaj Newsreaderwallah is fuming. He has read in a newspaper (this is his only source of wisdom, after all, who has time to do research these days, in spite of the fact that we have much better access to information compared to yester years... and any way, if one has to do elaborate research how can one mouth instant solutions and erudite opinions) that Narendra Modi is targetting the minorities and has a plan for 'ethnic cleansing!' - When asked for proof, he said it is obvious from the 'fact' that Narendra Modi did not have ONE friend from minorities... and not even a SINGLE magazine supports Narendra Modi...

Questions:

Does Samaaj know what is meant by 'ethnic cleansing?'
Does anyone know of any plan to this effect?
He seems to have read that famous rant against the way the mass media operate - 'Manufacturing consent' by Noam Chomsky - wouldn't he apply the same theory of filters to the news he reads?
How many friends from 'minority' that Samaaj has? Does this mean that Samaaj has a major issue with the minorities? Or better still, does Samaaj want to subject them to 'genocide?'
Has he at least been to Gujarat to study what is happening there? Sure there are genuine problems, but they cannot be addressed from the confines of a swivel chair! It it is not important enough for him to go there and check facts, is it important to be talking (in vain) about?

Am not holding a brief for Narendra Modi - but is it not unfair to brand a person based on a few pieces of newspaper reportage, reports from 'foreign funded' NGOs and the like? Is a life 'belonging' to one sect superior to that of another? On the other hand, how does one learn to differentiate between news, analysis, opinion, propaganda (with appropriate overloading of left or right spins) and good ol' venom?

Scenario #5

Selfanointed Geeko Rao knows that he has quite a good set of ideas; lately he has been reading 'tabloid' business journals and is forever talking about 'providing value to customers!' Yikes!! Geeko says that, he has come up with very eminent product 'ideas' - of course he feels that they were all capable of 'providing value to customers' - but then, they weren't pursued by the sales people in his company at all! Horror of all horrors! :-( 'One very seriously wants to contribute to the company - and look what they are doing to me' - all that lament again!

Questions:

Has Geeko ever in his life been successful in selling at least a safety pin?
Does he know that value is a perception? And that if an offering from X is perceived to be useful to Y then, Y would like to acquire it - no matter what Geeko thinks about the offering/X?
Does he still believe that a merely whipped up idea can solve business problems?
What does he know about positioning, packaging and market segmentation?

It is all very easy to talk derogatorily about the marketing/sales folks. In my opinion, if one is convinced about an idea, then he/she should be willing to defend it - from all perspectives. And, what about branching off on ones own, if one is so very convinced about the business proposition stemming from a technology idea?

Scenario #6

A few years' back I met with David Goliath, who I thought was a normal, next door guy - all along. But suddenly, during the course of a pleasant evening, he stormed out of his room saying that 'It is only after the Brettonwoods agreement of 1944 that the seeds were sown for MNCs! These bloody MNCs are responsible for all the ills of the world!'

Though I was instantly blinded by this dazzling flash of original insight, later I found that he had lately been going through Dave Korten's 'When corporations rule the world.' It would not be out of place to mention that he was working as a programmer with a big MNC, of course. But probably, he was there to get some 'insider' perspective! ;-)

Questions:

If he were so sure that MNCs are the bane of humanity, why did he continue to work for them?
Assuming that David worked there to get some 'insider' perspective, did he try to do any whistle blowing there?
The fact is that this particular MNC routinely manages to evade income tax - wrt its employees... In this context, did Dave at least pay his income taxes, without fudging figures.... (I know, I know... 'they didn't want me to do that!' - will be the refrain... I also agree that, it is easy to squeal like a mortally wounded pig rather than to be honest...)
Has he ever participated in that lowest level activity of participating in any rally against MNCs at all?
Does David see MNCs as the only problem - or looking at them as symptoms of some deeper malaise with ourselves?
Assuming that we all do it for money - did he at least refrain from consuming goods produced by MNCs when comparable swadeshi offerings were/are available...

Questions, questions...

If these kinds of guys with absolutely no ability to do research or debug, become programmers, what kind of software or hardlyware or whatever - would they be writing/designing? If my life were to depend on these kinds of programmers, I would rather getaway and take to living in caves, whatever...
<chuckle>

Scenario #7

One evening when I met with Rumouraj Monger, his whole body was feverish with excitement; apparently his mother-in-law had visited him and found sufficient time to gossip about the alleged sexcapades (many decades back) of the current prime minister of India. Rumouraj is for righteous behaviour as long as he was lecturing to someone else and just like any of us, is also for purity in public life.

Questions:

Leave alone the mother-in-law twist to the whole thing - It is obvious that when one is in public life - whether it be the PM or a civil servant - it is the honourable thing for citizens to talk derogatorily of them. Isn't this correct?
Okay. Assuming that the current PM actually did 'those' things - what did the mother-in-law do about them? Is Rumouraj willing to go public over these things so that there can be a public debate on 'honesty and integrity' in public life?
Do we constantly mangle the latest header of all input-rumours we hear of, and recreate the payload/contents so that it becomes more saucy/juicy/slimey to make output-rumour better for onward consumption?
Do we have nothing good to say at all about anyone?
Since we seem to be doing so much for the furtherance of the cause of rumours, don't we have any contribution to make the world a 'little better?' Don't we have any time or energy to spare for the betterment of ourselves, leave alone humanity?

In one of the most beautiful books that I have read (Jones, Mark and Patricia Collette - Realizing Our Dreams. Relevant context for this discussion available at http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0304spiritpsych/030402jones/03040203.html; thanks to that remarkable individual Steve Solomon, the whole book is available online) there are a few things that are made clear. For example, we create elaborate facades about/on ourselves (like: I am a highly principled person) and we conscioulsy believe them. But our basic characteristics, from which our vibrations (that I am a highly ... etc) stem, are programmed in our subconscious minds. Some of these, may be limiting beliefs - such as "I am devious, unprincipled person" - in this frame of mind, we systematically attribute all kinds of vices to others, whereas in reality, we suffer from the same...

Scenario #8

Crass Pollinator feels that for any development to take place, external intervention is necessary. He is one of those who feel that India is a staid and stagnant civilization and has been lumbering along in delirium for the past 5000 years. He ardently feels that - but for the advent of the civilizing mission of the Christian missionaries and the great contributing factors of the British imperialism - India would still continue to be a 'backward' nation.

During the course of a conversation a few months back, Crass suddenly came up with a data point in that Rukmini (Arundale) would not have made contributions for the bringing in of respectability to 'Bharathanatyam' - but for the intervention of a white (an 'external' force) as in Arundale (a theosophist associated with the movement based in Madras)! He followed up the same with an assertion that, civilizations like India are so old and rocksolid that they refuse to change or correct themselves. And therefore, external influence is the only one that can save countries like India.
QED.

Questions:

On what basis, has he managed to arrive at this stupendous theory of external intervention?
Taking this particular case of Rukmini - does he even know that there was a remarkable individual from Tiruchi called Kuppuswamy Iyer, who slogged it out against all odds to move the Bharathanatyam culture from a primarily temple centric and - a perniciously deviant practice of association with prostitution to a mode of respectability. Does he know that Rukmini was associated with him? However, I understand the urge that must have made Crass Pollinator to come up with his theory... His inexorable logic must have flowed like this:
It is obvious that all the above so called logical steps are broken - but for Mr. Pollinator, does that matter?
Has Crass read that cute and seminal article 'generalizations based on one case or less?'

Scenario #9

Naveen Kiranagharan is a person driven by an urge to learn musical things - both western and Indian... He had a zest to learn various things, but then unfortunately, he never developed a tendency to persevere - it may be blamed on his short attention span... So he invariably copped out of all these endeavors on one pretext ot the other.

For example when he tried to learn Karnatic music (the traditional 'big culture' codified music of south India) - it had to be from one teacher who incidentally had to be a 'Brahmin.' And at a later point of time, when he had to cop out from this endeavor for some reason, then he rather conveniently blamed it on the 'brahmin arrogance' of the teacher - he said that it was because of this reason that he had to discontinue the learning of the karnatic music...
Questions:

What is of importance to one - the net learning or the teacher, even assuming that 'brahmin arrogance' was present in the teacher in significant quantities.
How can consistent lack of enthusiasm for everything and anything under the sun be blamed on extraneous reasons, even assuming that the allegations are true?
I've had a horribly twisted (and a very difficult to deal with) landlord from whom I had rented my residential premises a few months back - does this mean that I can blame the whole thing on Christian meanness or whatever - just because he happened to be a Christian? IMO, if I were to exhibit this kind of a tendency, that would be very mean!
I agree that stereotyping individuals and straightjacketing them into some generalized patterns of behaviour is reasoanbly alright - that is, till you get a first fuzzy picture, and establish a reasonable platform for discourse and discussion; but subsequently, in closer interactions these assumptions must be reinspected in the light of new evidence... However, merely imposing our view point on others without any +ve feedback mechanism is a proper case to be handled by lobotomy, IMO! ;-)

Scenario #10

Norman L Programmer is moving around in a major frenzy these days... His latest discovery is Neuro Linguistic Programming (unfortunately, he had gone through one of the NLP evangelization programs; this is my complaint against these kinds of selfhelp courses - they just don't follow carefully laid down entry criteria, with the result that non-serious individuals (like our Norman) get in just because they can afford the fee quantum!) and just like any other neo_convert any new concept - he feels that all ills of the world can be solved using NLP. He is thoroughly convinced that he can convince his brain to convince his body that - it is capable of miracles. He practices his new fangled NLP factoids on anyone and anything that he comes across. He even told me that, in just a 2 hour session, he made his (one of his) relative's chronic arthritis ailment vanish! I hope he has gone thru that nice and succinct article "Will the real NLP come forward?" by Sue Knight available at: http://www.uandinfinity.com/realnlp.htm

Questions:

How can Norman be sure that his relative did not lie to him? Probably his relative was sick of the incessant NLP carpet_bombing and in desperation, lied that he was cured of arthritis.
Having reached, say 35 years of age one can be expected to have become worldlywise - coming to terms with reality, accepting some of our capabilities and the lack of some others. Don't consistently twisted (am reminded of a writing from PG Wodehouse to this effect: 'He is so twisted that he can comfortably hide behind a spiral staircase')persons with a megalomaniacal attitude - behave like Mr. Knowalls? Don't they ever graduate from the levels of juvenile delinquents?
In my opinion, only deep seated cancer needs to be treated with a scalpel; and pimples can be treated with some cream or the other. Scalpel wielding skills and cosmetological provess are appropriate in different settings and each approach has its +ve and -ve sides... Since when there has been an overarching solution in the world, seeking to solve all issues, including the current US-Iraq conflagration?
Is the saying - 'empty vessels make more noise' - the appropriate thing to say here? :-)

Scenario #11

Karate_Sans_Sense San is full of verve and vigour these days. It is because KSS San has been learning Aikido, Tai chi, Karate (accredited to one of the jap sounding schools like Nikkuma Nikkada Dojo), Kalari payattu and what not... And, a few months back KSS and I were walking along a rather busy sidewalk of Infantry Road, Bangalore - when we were accosted by a rather tame looking beggar who wanted some money. We could have simply said sorry and could have walked away - but then my illustrious comrade was so annoyed with the beggar that he was talking in terms of giving him a swift karate kick on his solar plexus! I was aghast and suggested that probably the beggar (a mussalman) interpreted us as devout muslims (both of us had flowing beards sans skull cap, and it was the month of ramadaan) and therefore badgered us for alms... But then sadly, KSS continued to spit fire and brimstone for some more time, till his hot blood cooled down! Why am I even surprised?

Questions:

Martial arts are supposed to bring in some humility and basic balance in life; is this a wrong assumption?
How come there are no acceptance criteria for training individuals in martial arts? However, just like the NRA's take on guns, I would say that the fault does not lie with the technic, but rather with the individuals who are abusing the technic.
Is there a need for a central lesson in these kinds of martial arts - clearly specifying under what circumstances that they can be used?
Is 'martial_arts discipline' an oxymoron?

Scenario #12

Dejavu Renigunta has too good a memory! He will certainly remember what he heard or read or saw - but then he would systematically twist them so that, ('First get the facts; you can distort them at your leisure' -- Mark Twain) at a later point of time they all become his 'own' facts and his 'logically reasoned_out view points!' I did not understand the philosophy behind that feeling of dejavu, but then, when I heard him passing off my opinion (uttered by me sometime earlier) as his own, I saw the light as in a typical zen story.

Questions:

What makes the folks like Dejavu think that 'others' have short memories?
How come it is difficult to even come up with original view points? I understand that for people with fat posteriors, it is very difficult to physical work. ;-) But then, typically people of the ilk of Mr. Renigunta are comfortably placed in life (read $$$S) and devour books and magazines like nobody's business - and hence have access to all the raw materials for charting out their own discourses. So forming and finehoning viewpoints should be rather easy!
I hate to use the dreaded AynRandism called 'second-rate' individuals who are essentially copycats or copyrats - whatever... Don't Reniguntas fall into this type?

Afterword:

As I have been repeatedly saying elsewhere in my rants:

It is easy to read newspapers, books by Chomskys and Choussudovskys and wax eloquently about MNCs and world domination. When I look closely at persons doing this, the massive disconnect between what they profess to preach and what they practice is really rankling. However, as long as this ranting 'against' something is a preparatory ground for an individual to actually do something about it, it is fine; but alas, it is NEVER so with most of these people!
It is very easy and convenient to be anti-something. But it is nontrivial to actually 'do' something.
It is very easy to take some half-hearted measures to do something and then at the very first sign of trouble - run away from the scene. This mode can also make the 'doer' feel happily martyred and he can complain the rest of his life that he 'tried do something, but... '

Over a period of many years, I find that I have also enacted the above described kinds of scenarios with much panache and aplomb... But then I have realized the following:

There should not be any right to freespeech (for the leisure class of urban elite), with its added freebie of unlimited irresponsibility; it should always be taxed. This measure would reduce the noise pollution at least, among others. And, individuals who want to be responsible for what they say would only have the courage to speak out. (well this point is actually a flame_bait, FYI!)
Probably human beings have a right to be heard - as it sometimes helps a few individuals, when a shoulder is unconditionally offered to them to cry on... But then, when the shoulder is mistaken for a soak pit, then it would be better to avoid offering them the shoulder.
It may be that human beings have a right to be heard (may be occasionally, at best) - but I will not mistake this right for something else. Nobody has a 'right to be taken seriously.'

Please send me ([email protected]) your comments
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all rites reversed 2003ramjee (ramjee swaminathan)
18:09 4/14/2003