I write because the world desperately needs enlightenment, problem solvers & rediscover critical thinking & commonsense

I started my life with the biggest mistake I could ever make. My grandfather was an excellent oil and canvas painter and my earliest memories are of him creating his exquisite paintings. I picked up the painting brush when I was a year and a half old. Grandpa lost both his eyes to cataract when I was three and I decided not to learn painting from anyone else and hold the brush again. As years rolled by, I became the most misunderstood person anyone could ever become, in family and in school. I was raised up by my grandmother who was very strict even with me going out and talking to people. Being good in studies and not talkative was a deadly concoction which I realised only a few years back. Schoolmates used to think I wanted to keep myself as unapproachable and distance myself from everyone else. Grandpa was my only friend and companion during those years and when he left the world suddenly, what followed were years of loneliness and emotional upheavels. What I missed through those times and the first 30 odd years of my life was a way to express myself. That’s when the enormity of giving up on painting dawned on me.

Fortunately, I realized that I could write decently after a spell as Business Correspondent and Caption Writer with an advertising company. A busy career kept me pinned down and gave me no time to pursue anything else. Finally, I was in the middle of a one year MBA program when I got the news of the passing of a teacher who was a true inspiration to thousands and whom I will revere forever. The grief was too much to bear and out tumbled all my emotions in the form of my first blog. After that, I used to write about whatever I wanted to for some time. Simply put, writing was my way to think aloud and empty my mind. In between, I started reading a lot as well and it must be the combination of reading and expressing my thoughts through writing that has opened my mind.

I write now because of 3 reasons. 1) The darkness of ignorance in the world is growing and rather than maturing, we are slipping further into it’s depths with time 2) We are not using our logic and commonsense to ask questions and by not doing so we are dumbing ourselves down and becoming less intelligent with time 3) We are all following our natural instinct of getting stuck in and talking on about problems without thinking ahead and talking about solving problems. Let me illustrate with a couple of examples.

Both Ramayan and Mahabharata talk about catastrophic wars and the use of highly destructive weapons such as Brahmastra and Vajrayuda which could supposedly annihilate thousands and even a million people every time it was used. And all these weapons are illustrated as bows and arrows. I have seen people glued to their TV sets watching serialized versions of these epics and these weapons were shown as arrows with dazzling colours. I have never come across anyone till now who has questioned the logic of mere arrows being such catastrophic weapons. It could be possible that the original authors of the epics did not understand the technology behind these weapons. But a reason of far greater significance could also be possible. The objective was to illustrate weapons that caused massive destruction and no one could have understood if they had been explained with technology. These stories were meant to endure and live on through time, so the best way was to do a simple illustration with bows and arrows and write a brief description. But what we need to consider here is, what has been written are about nuclear or even more powerful weapons that were used with hand held devices. Whats more, of all the destructive weapons, only Brahmastra could not be stopped by the user from causing destruction once it was used. This means other weapons could be stopped by the user after they were used. We still have no understanding or knowledge of such advanced technologies. What cannot be explained either rationally or with technology we attribute it to the Gods. As we learn and understand more about technology, our understanding of the Almighty will also become simpler.

India has been rocked by the brutal rape and murder of an 8 year old girl. 8 years old, mind you. Suddenly there is a religious angle to it. The girl was from one community and the crime was executed by people of another community in one of their places of worship. It has become confusing as to what is significant now, the crime or the religions of everyone involved in the incident. If 99% people cannot fathom or digest such horror and if religion has taken center stage here, then clearly the objective of the 1% is to incite violence in the name of religions and tear the fabric of the society. But see how it is getting reported, how news channels are projecting it for boosting their TRP and how people are reacting. No commonsense, no rationale, simply following what they are reading and hearing like robots. What happened to our critical thinking ability? Why can’t we just treat every such incident as what it is and not allow anyone or any perspectives to sway and influence our thoughts? Why is no one talking about stopping such incidents once and for all?

There is a fundamental problem with the law and justice in our society. Law punishes criminals to deter them from committing crimes again. Punishment should rather be given to ensure that those crimes are not committed again by anyone. Question to ask here is, for law and order to prevail, what is more important, the criminals or the crime itself? Punish the criminals and the demon of crime will continue to live among us. Punish the crime and no one will want to become a criminal.

What we need is a cold hard deterrent for rapes especially of children, like either burning rapists alive on stakes the way the Church did to non-believers and free thinkers during the Dark Ages or do it the native American Indian style of burying criminals up to their necks in anthills, pouring molasses over their heads and making the entire country watch what unfolds. Now people will be aghast and say we are a maturing society with police and judiciary and an eye for an eye will have only make everyone blind. Well, I cannot see any maturity in the actions of rapists and murderers. Moreover, criminals are no longer afraid of police, courts and punishment. We no longer need courts to put criminals in jail. We need courts to determine the heinousness of each crime and pronounce the punishment accordingly. So more heinous the crime is more severe the punishment should be.So more heinous the crime more severe the punishment should be.

I am hoping that everything I am writing will help people understand about the superficial lives they are living now and start looking beyond it. We were given intelligence and the ability to speak so that we could be better than the beings in the animal world. Yet we have descended into destruction and cruelty to our own kind and to this world that will put the animals to shame. We have been raping and killing our own kind for thousands of years and as time passes by, we are finding new reasons to continue the atrocities. What we need are not laws, regulations, police and courts but knowledge, enlightenment and a better and higher purpose for our existence. What we need is a world devoid of money, religion, race, caste and skin colour and the collective resolve to agree to disagree and live together. What we need is to feel blessed for getting the privilege for this life as humans in this beautiful world and not try to own anything here because we know we are all going to die and leave some day and we take nothing with us except memories and experiences.

Critical thinking – the worst anti-social activity

Couple of days back, I was watching Prakash Raj, a very well known Indian actor on TV expressing his views in a conclave conducted by a news channel. He was taking on every question, openly criticizing the current political scenario in India and putting the blame squarely on the shoulders of the PM and the President of the political party he belongs to. He is someone who is well entrenched and seasoned in his profession, has contacts wherever it matters and has a prosperous life, so he may have sounded arrogant to many. But then he explained why he is taking such a stand. A well known journalist and a good friend of his was murdered in cold blood last year and supporters of the ruling party were exploding crackers and distributing sweets to celebrate her killing which neither the PM nor any other party leader condemned. He just couldn’t take it and is letting out the rage that has been seething inside him.

The scourge of any establishment and what scares establishments the most is critical thinking. In one of my previous jobs a long time back, my team leader used to constantly tell the team that the work we were doing could be done by someone with just high school level knowledge. It used to feel like he was underwhelming us but he was right. We were just following set procedures and we were not required to wrack our brains to solve problems. We were not required to invent anything new. Simply put, no critical thinking was required. If we look at it closely, the entire corporate, political and religious spectrum works on the same principle. In the corporate, it’s just do the work as you are told to do, take your salary and go home. In politics, vote for one of those people who have been put before you and that’s it. In religion, read, listen and follow what’s written in religious texts.

If we look at all the greatest inventors in history, relatively very little is known about them other than about their inventions and their work. This is because the way they think is a complete mismatch to how the society works. Their behavior and lifestyle has never been considered as normal as per society standards and they were always treated as outcasts during their lifetimes. This is because critical thinking has always been the biggest enemy to the norms of society. Gautam Buddha had to renounce his kingdom and regal life because he understood that only critical thinking can make this world better. But he had to live his life outside the walls of the society. Jesus Christ tried to be a critical thinker within the society and we all know what his fate became. This is how society has always treated critical thinkers. Either keep them out and limit their sphere of influence and if that doesn’t work, eliminate them.

Religious and political establishments have realized long back that critical thinkers are their mortal enemies. When do people start doing critical thinking? When they are content with their profession, earn enough to live a prosperous life and most importantly have access to information and they fully know and understand what is going on around them and in the world. Deny all of these to people and they will struggle to manage their lives and take care of their families which will give them little time to seek out and understand what is happening in the world. First the concept of wealth was introduced, then financial institutions came along and introduced the concept of money. The Renaissance gave rise to industries and jobs and money got linked to jobs as salaries. Thus began our continuous struggle to eke out a living and seek out the elusive prosperity that always seem to be out of our reach. The establishments are also fearful of education which is why rural people in countries like India continue to have less access to schools and colleges and very little practical know how and true knowledge of the world is included in the education curriculum.

The establishments have also ensured that people who can do critical thinking are subjugated to them thereby effectively neutralizing them. A simple example of this is wealthy and distinguished people of the society flocking the establishments of God men. Once they are all brought together under one umbrella, none would dare to go against the establishment. This is also how we find plenty of well educated people being part of and supporting political parties. All of this would explain why the political establishment in India is riled and up in arms against Arvind Kejriwal and his party. He is well educated, had a prominent government job and has a pedigree in social service. That is why when he launched a political party, the entire system went into shock. When the system tried to take him down, he found a way to win elections and become a Chief Minister. What he talks about and the work he has been doing has been clearly highlighting and differentiating what elected representatives have been doing for the people for so long and what elected representatives should be doing. Solving existing problems in society is another huge setback for the establishments. If there are no problems, what is there for the leaders to highlight and talk about? They have no vision for the society and people, they are only concerned about taking care of the needs of the establishments. This problem exists in the corporate world as well.

In his bid to create new and innovative ways of governance, Arvind Kejriwal has been forced to go against the establishments and that is why all of them have ganged up against him. He has made himself a threat to their survival and existence. Similar is the case with Prakash Raj. These people have risen above all influences of the establishments and cannot be subjugated. They cannot be allowed to flourish within the realm of the society. In a Malayalam movie called Red Wine, there is a character who was a students leader in college and fights against the corporate trying to usurp tribal land. The head of the company says he belongs to the firebrand category who will not sway under any influences and can never be subjugated so he has to be eliminated.

Critical thinkers continue to be the bane of the establishments. LinkedIn has introduced a concept called Influencers. These are mostly leaders from the corporate world. Hundreds and even thousands of people follow them. People have to understand that everyone is capable of having their own views and opinions from their experiences in life and do not necessarily have to follow anyone. Until this enlightenment happens, we will all be under the slavery of the establishments and will continue living the miserable lives we have become accustomed to.