30 Jun 2006

Bestselling Ideas

Posted by Oblivion in General | 9:46pm


Ideas have a significant role in shaping the world. World runs on ideas. Great ideas helped mankind, insane ideas killed millions, mediocre ideas preserved mediocrity, and dumb ideas made for good experiments. There's another category of ideas - bestsellers. These can be either one or a combination of insane, mediocre and dumb ideas (of course, there are some bestselling ideas that are great too, but they are very very few). They are effective in their appeal and can be presented in attractive packages. They gratify various needs of a population and foist a semblance of harmony, thus helping the ideas to sustain.

I'm sure there are many such ideas, but four of them, to my mind, stand out (not necessarily in the following order):
1.Government
2.Religion
3.Marriage
4.Income tax

These have been on the bestsellers list for centuries. Each of these is associated with shallow, but loaded, words - responsibility, morality, duty, salvation, etc. If you don't vote, you are an irresponsible citizen. Pay your taxes and file your returns and you are an 'honest' gentleman, an example for others. Question the logic of customs and virtues and you are damned. Dump God and you are banished in heaven. Marriage and morality - well, there's at least one book and a hundred articles published on this crap every week.

I find it tough to understand how these ideas have prevailed. These have worked for centuries, acorss cultures, across generations. It has worked for billions of people. But I fail to fathom the secret. It confounds me. The way I look at them, they are not good for anything except to make people neurotic. And the state of the world reflects this very obviously. However, bestsellers are amazingly shrewd - they lay the trap, they kill you slowly and they rarely fail. You feel it's a pleasant sail, because they hypnotize you to feel so. This is made easier by your preference for security. When you wake up, if at all, it's time for the grave.  

Fueled by these ideas, the world seems to have only one message for you - "be responsible, be moral, be morally responsible, be responsibly moral, get screwed for a lifetime, and be a repudiated martyr".

I wish there were a separate country for people who give up on the bestselling ideas!



Current Mood: Happy
Current Music: ---

29 Jun 2006

Hands Up

Posted by Oblivion in General | 8:48pm


Outlook goes a step further. Someone else's letter, my name, wrong format. Well!

Current Mood: Happy
Current Music: ---

20 Jun 2006

Yet Again!

Posted by Oblivion in General | 12:44am


I've gotten used to seeing my name spelt wrong or in a skewed format. I thought the university chaps tried all the formats in my marksheets. Thankfully, the chaps weren't smart to mess up the formats further with some guesswork. Outlook chaps are not as dumb (if guesswork implies being smart, that is). Names are definite data, not vague. There are no right names and wrong names. Names are names, just one of the many attributes that define an identity. And I fail to understand the tendency to twist these data. This has happened 16 times out of 19! This time, I tried the shortest version possible of my name. Yet, they messed it up! If they mess up with names so much, I doubt how careful they are with their stories.

On the other hand, maybe they really are careful with stories. Maybe there are some names that are prone to 'mindhandling'. And maybe my name is among those. Whatever be, it appeals to curiosity.



Current Mood: Happy
Current Music: ---

15 Jun 2006

Innova and Me

Posted by Oblivion in General | 7:07pm


India-hater. Reader.
Loving brother. Lazy man.
Late-starter. Human.
Non-seer. Regular son.
Stroller. Crank.

So what role are you playing today?

Everyday. Many roles. No car.



Current Mood: Happy
Current Music: ---

10 Jun 2006

Solitary Bird

Posted by Oblivion in General | 4:30pm


The conditions of a solitary bird are five:
The first, that it flies to the highest point;
the second, that it does not suffer for company,
not even of its own kind;
the third, that it aims its beak to the skies;
the fourth, that it does not have a definite color
the fifth, that it sings very softly.

- San Juan de la Cruz



Current Mood: Happy
Current Music: Ilaiyaraja hits
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