How does one arrive at a decision on any contentious issue? This is the process I follow –
Suppose I have to decide on say whether homosexuality is an ok thing. What I do is call in my motley army of lipid laden little grey cells. Unused to deep thought, they agree grudgingly to help me out. They divide themselves in to two groups and initiate the debate on the pros and cons of the issue at hand. One group thinks that homosexuality is a personal choice between two consenting adults and should be no one else’s business while the other thinks that this affects the society at large and should be discouraged. This is how the arguments go while I just sit back and relax:
Pro homosexuality Group (PH): We think homosexuality is a matter of choice between two consenting adults and we fail to see how the judiciary figures into the scheme of things here.
Anti homosexuality Group (AH): But homo sexuality is essentially wrong. Nature created sex for the only purpose of procreation – as a means to propagate, preserve and prolong the species. Homosexuality defies this basic edict and hence cannot be correct.
PH: You must be joking. How many people go in for sex purely for the purpose of procreation? Its more recreation and people will use all kinds of contraceptives just to avoid sex resulting in child birth. Then do you guys feel that contraception too is wrong – for it too leads to sex without genesis of new life?
AH: We all know animals are basically lazy. If nature had not thrown in the pleasure principle in to activities that are essential for preservation and propagation of life, we would all have long been extinct. Hence all activities that are crucial for our survival are pleasurable. Whether it be eating, drinking, breathing or sex. Hence any of these activities done just for the pleasure without considering the basic purpose for which this activity was meant will lead to moral degradation and disease. Eating just for deriving pleasure leads to obesity and cardiac arrests, drinking just to get a high leads to liver damage and so on. Hence all activities should be carried out keeping its ultimate purpose in mind. Homosexuality does not have any ultimate purpose. It is carried out just for physical pleasure and hence is immoral.
PH: But any activity that gives pleasure to the doer without causing harm to others cannot be wrong. If a couple of consenting adults decide to carry out this activity and are prepared to bear the consequences, how does this affect others?
AH: Then are you guys all for incest. If a brother and a sister or a mother and a son decide to do it with mutual consent, then does it make all right?
PH: No. Because this activity would cause pain to the relatives and friends of this amorous siblings.
AH: And how do you feel the mother of a homosexual feels when she comes to know that her son has decided to marry his football mate? And what about the health risks that homo sexuals face?
PH: But if you are talking about AIDS or other venereal diseases, then practitioners of normal sex too face the risk of falling prey to the same. It’s like being left handed. It’s just how some people are. Being Left handed was considered wrong till the recent past and mothers would go to any extent to force their child to become right handed. But now all that is changing.
AH: Just because something exists does not mean that it should be accepted as being right. In a life expectancy study during the 1990s, psychologist Paul Cameron of the Family Research Institute compared 6,516 obituaries from 16 U.S. homosexual journals to obituaries from regular newspapers. Over an 11-year period, the median age of death was only 39 for gay men and only 44 for lesbians. During the same 11-year time frame, heterosexual men lived to an average age of 75, while heterosexual women lived to age of 79. Heterosexuals lived, on average, 30 years longer than their gay counterparts. Isn’t the short lifespan of homosexuals shocking? If we knew that certain behaviors such as smoking and drug abuse significantly shortened the lifespan of men and women, would we not demand immediate action by the government to prohibit and help individuals overcome those destructive behaviors? Of course we would. Then why do we close our eyes to homosexual behaviour?
And this continues on and on till like many other discussions, reaches nowhere. As it is I am blessed with less than the usual quota of brain cells. Half of my allotted quota have already given up and gone in to permanent hibernation. The ones that are denser have survived but are loath to think. Hence on most issues they just keep going in circles till my eyes glaze over and I revert back to my usual confused and clueless state.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
Taming the Thackerays
The likes of Balasaheb and Raj Thackeray are here to stay. There are no two ways about it. Recently Bal Thackeray took on a persona no less than Sachin Tendulkar – the most modest, uncontroversial, one of the best cricketers to have wielded the willow of all times (only next to Sir Bradman and Viv Richards maybe). Most people do not agree with the views stated by Balashaeb and his cronies. Then why do these guys keep coming up with these atrocious statements on a regular basis and how come these guys win assembly seats based on their track record of spreading hate. Not only do they get away with this, they seem to thrive on it.
Shiv Sena and MNS have done nothing for the State or its denizens. So what do they tell the people that gather to hear their speeches? Everyone talks of Garibi Hatao, Roti, Kapda, Makaan and s**t like that. No dice there. The haves are not bothered about triflings like these and the have nots are anyways busy dying of starvation. The percentages of have nots that vote on election day far out number the percentage of haves who prefer staying at home and completing their weekend chores like fixing defective plumbing and so on. Moreover the denominator in the former group is humongous compared to the later. And one thing in common among the poor is a simmering anger. They have been let down so many time by the established parties that any party which feeds their anger, their insecurity and gives them a target to vent their anger would be welcome. This involves smart thinking actually on the part of the politicians as long as one is not too much concerned about the collateral damage caused.
Now when one tries to analyze this the answer that comes to my mind is simple…. It’s the media which is responsible. A nation such as ours, with a vibrant press and a very tolerant and over burdened judiciary is actually an ideal breeding place for vermin like these. The media – perpetually hungry in the eyeball grabbing race – reports every tiny thing that that is said or done by these politicians. So the more muck they can rake, the more footage they are guaranteed. Now no one will report it if Balasaheb says that Dawood Ibrahim is a goon. But take the names of Sachin or a Bacchhan and they just lap it up knowing very well that it is nothing but garbage. This is not a new phenomena… the likes of Rakhi Sawant have perfected this into an art form.
Just imagine a scenario where all the media wallahs come together and agree that they would not report on anything Raj Thackeray says or does for a year - neither the good nor the bad and definitely not the ugly. One year of media silence would be enough to enduringly devastate the MNS. Raj Thackeray would be permanently wiped off the collective public memory, which is deceptively short lived anyways.
But would our media houses actually come together and do this? Not by a long shot. And hence be prepared to hear of increasing atrocities by these politicians and their cronies. In a country where the murderers of a Prime Minister took more than a decade to be hung, where terrorists caught on live video footage blowing up people and buildings are made to go through trials till they will probably die of old age or boredom, where the Liberhan Committee report on the Babri demolition took 17 years and nine crore rupees (and counting) just to be tabled… the Thackerays are small fry.
Shiv Sena and MNS have done nothing for the State or its denizens. So what do they tell the people that gather to hear their speeches? Everyone talks of Garibi Hatao, Roti, Kapda, Makaan and s**t like that. No dice there. The haves are not bothered about triflings like these and the have nots are anyways busy dying of starvation. The percentages of have nots that vote on election day far out number the percentage of haves who prefer staying at home and completing their weekend chores like fixing defective plumbing and so on. Moreover the denominator in the former group is humongous compared to the later. And one thing in common among the poor is a simmering anger. They have been let down so many time by the established parties that any party which feeds their anger, their insecurity and gives them a target to vent their anger would be welcome. This involves smart thinking actually on the part of the politicians as long as one is not too much concerned about the collateral damage caused.
Now when one tries to analyze this the answer that comes to my mind is simple…. It’s the media which is responsible. A nation such as ours, with a vibrant press and a very tolerant and over burdened judiciary is actually an ideal breeding place for vermin like these. The media – perpetually hungry in the eyeball grabbing race – reports every tiny thing that that is said or done by these politicians. So the more muck they can rake, the more footage they are guaranteed. Now no one will report it if Balasaheb says that Dawood Ibrahim is a goon. But take the names of Sachin or a Bacchhan and they just lap it up knowing very well that it is nothing but garbage. This is not a new phenomena… the likes of Rakhi Sawant have perfected this into an art form.
Just imagine a scenario where all the media wallahs come together and agree that they would not report on anything Raj Thackeray says or does for a year - neither the good nor the bad and definitely not the ugly. One year of media silence would be enough to enduringly devastate the MNS. Raj Thackeray would be permanently wiped off the collective public memory, which is deceptively short lived anyways.
But would our media houses actually come together and do this? Not by a long shot. And hence be prepared to hear of increasing atrocities by these politicians and their cronies. In a country where the murderers of a Prime Minister took more than a decade to be hung, where terrorists caught on live video footage blowing up people and buildings are made to go through trials till they will probably die of old age or boredom, where the Liberhan Committee report on the Babri demolition took 17 years and nine crore rupees (and counting) just to be tabled… the Thackerays are small fry.
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