Life on Autopilot

I wake up… undertake my daily chores… have my breakfast( not always coz I’m too lazy to wake up in time)… go to office… do my job… come back… frolic around for some time… and then I go to sleep. Ok I’ve missed a lot of details, but then they are not too consequential with regard to the matter at hand. Life has been too kind to me with all the people around me who love me, care for my well being. Often I get bogged down in scrutinizing the meaning & significance of my life. I find a kind of satisfaction in ascribing an epistemological implication to my existence.

Today I just want to express the most beautiful things I’ve discovered in my life without any grand philosophical justifications. We’ve been attuned to live our lives on autopilot…without paying much attention to the small things that make the fabric of our lives. Well in our pursuit of glory (relative to your aspirations) we often miss the most important moments of our lives. These subtle things, like the words of your Mom & Dad, talks with your brothers & sisters, those long strolls with your friends, and those inane charming talks with your beloved one (or ones), at the end of the day( or life) will be most remembered & cherished. So start collecting them or you’ll be left bankrupt at the dusk of your life. Express gratitude to all the people around you. Don’t carry such a huge ego that a simple smile feels like costing a fortune. Spend quality time with all the people who matter. Don’t economize your relationships.

Live Every Moment, I know it sounds like a cliché
Life just goes on & then you’re part of this cliché.
So what do I do to be one with me?
Just be yourself & love the ones who matter….

So what are you waiting for, just start filling the album of your life….with snaps that you can cherish forever & ever.

The Corporation: A pathological pursuit of profit & power.

“The earth is not dying, it is being killed. And those that are killing it have names and addresses.” --- Utah Phillips.

I’ve just finished a 3 hour documentary on the Corporations by Michael Moore. It’s based on the book by Joel Bakan named “The Corporation: A pathological pursuit of profit & power”. And this documentary has truly stirred me deep inside to re-question some of my beliefs in Laizze-Faire capitalism, of which I’ve been a strong votary. This blog shall be slightly longer for it deals with a topic of utmost gravity and so I elicit your preparedness and patience for going through it.

There have been numerous cases put forth by this documentary exhibiting blind pursuit of power & profit by big corporations throughout the world weighing over their moral duties & responsibilities towards the society of which they are a part. Having seen this, I feel there should be a sense of moral responsibility for the corporations to place ethics & accountability towards our planet and humanity above profitability. Law has often been used as an aide with sophist measures employed by some of the best lawyers of the world immolating their conscience for monetary gains. We all, along with these organizations, owe an immense civic responsibility towards this planet Earth. The issue of sustainable industry appeals the most from this discussion but is it just a chimera or can we really bring it to reality? Well that’s a question which we all need to ponder upon. Alike me, most of you either are already a part of one such large corporate or aspire to be very soon. Let’s re-question our capacity to be an agent of change. Let’s not just remain oblivious about these issues. We’re all accountable to our planet Earth.

There are so many take-homes from this documentary that it’s hard for me to recollect all of them & put for you in the right perspective. So I’ll try to narrate a few more touching issues. The one that I find really disturbing is the concept of “Perception Management” being employed by these corporations to mask themselves with the help of popular media. Some of the most creative minds in the world with a whopping budget of around $12bn are slogging day in & out to make us a dormant member of this popular culture. Small children are being targeted as potential consumers & so are being worked upon during their infantile age to become a subscriber of such corporate culture. Is there a way we can filter the quality & intent of advertising and marketing targeting our children? Will they be bereft of an environment wherein they could think freely without any hidden propaganda?

Another crucial incident that it narrates is the case wherein Bechtel Corporation buys the right to Water, even rain water, in Bolivia & how the Bolivian government crushed the people movement against this corporatization of life’s essential element. In an another example the concept of sweatshops being employed by some of the most prestigious brands like Nike, GAP, Adidas, VanHeusen, Jockey etc has been manifested in its starkest form. Children are being left devoid of more essential elements like schooling for the need of working at such sweatshops at abysmal pays. Another fact for you--- US patent office decrees that you can patent any living organism except a full human being. It’s like giving the fabric of your life to someone else who may at some stage charge you for curing your own body because it owns patents for those organisms. Within less than 10 years a handful of global companies will own directly or through license the actual genes that make up the evolution of our species & have now begun to patent genomes of every other species on this planet.

By minding their core businesses, organizations often create a lot of “externalities”. That is they leave a lot of non-core operations to other organizations. This helps the organization to be lean & mean and minding just their business and outsourcing the rest. India and other developing nations stand to gain a lot from this proposition. But then this leads us to another epistemological question - “Why shall I leave my garbage to someone else to clean?” Some may say its helps others to grow. It gives them bread and butter to survive. After all you can't talk sense to a hungry man. So it kinda obviates the responsibilities from the big corporations. They can be completely negligent of the way these things are run managed and can save their skin.

The documentary names some of the greatest organizations like Exxon, GE, Chevron, Mitsubishi, IBM, Pfizer, Kodak, Sears, and on and on and on being fined in millions for breaking regulations. Fine, sometimes these bureaucratic red-tapisms may seem too silly to follow but then some cases the documentary shows are too gross. For example IBM machines were being used to maintain databases for the Nazi Concentration camps. IBM was not only aware of their products' utilization, but even after knowing the Nazi intentions; they helped them in maintaining these devices for facilitating their cause. For these organization and some of the people driving them “Devastation is an opportunity” and wars to them are profit centers.

Corporation with pan-global presence are beyond any nation state's aegis of control & therefore are far more powerful. Problem is that people working for an organization don't fell such strong fealty for their organizations. And so there is a complete apathy between these new “Imperial emperors” and their subjects. And now these corporations are expanding to new horizons ranging from outer space to our innermost body cells.

Another disturbing trend that is growing is existence & growth of many unproductive industries, like Public Relations, Undercover Marketing, Corporate Spies, Consultancies implementing regulations & standards. They don't add any direct value but just help them to adhere to some or other governmental statutes which again were constituted due to some malevolence from one such corporation. It's a vicious cycle.

I feel now that some of the very tenets of Economics are flawed. It measures certain things while leaves others. Every time a tree falls, the GNP (Gross national product) goes up. With every oil spill, GNP goes up. Every time a cancer patient is diagnosed, GNP goes up. Economics must learn to subtract. If we feel pride in challenging the frontiers of natural sciences, why are we so conceited to challenge the frontiers of man-made sciences?

Commerce & Government are not the primary but secondary institutions and they are derivative of the primary institution which is the culture where people live their lives. We can begin to reestablish our civilization with culture as the epicenter, where people's power is, and then there is a role for government and corporations and these roles should be attended to and not dominated over by these corporations.

Why am I writing this blog, well to put forth something that we shall all be aware of. I am a romanticist at heart and have full belief in the resurgence of an Utopian world. Its mostly a blind pursuit of bottom-line that leaves these corporations oblivious to other competing interests with regard to the society. I am an objectivist & place human endeavor above societal interests but then to me “Means are the ends”. And therefore I feel all organizations shall be sustainable in the end, both with respect to ecological & human environment as ecology provides an enterprise with the bare raw materials & humans a market.

So I'll leave you with these musings....hope you'll give them a consideration and perhaps will help our race to exist in harmony with other species & our planet Earth. Start making decisions else someone else will on your behalf.

Good luck for living an informed life....

Still waiting for you....

Well this time I’ve been left bereft of any topic worth writing and so I’m putting up a song of mine. Actually I’m too lazy to grope for a fitting topic but I sincerely hope all of you will like this composition equally well. After all it’s just another means to an end, the end being expression.

Still waiting for you…

How can I, just deny,
In my heart it’s still your love gal;
I can ne’er forget your face,
It’s still fresh as ever;
I thought I would my life all alone,
But your memories never quit my soul,
And I’m still waiting, still waiting,
Still waiting for you.

Those days are gone & time is lost,
But why do memories still haunt us;
You’ve always needed me as I’ve needed you,
But why are we still so away gal;
Why are you trying to hide what’s inside,
I can see it all through your eyes.
And I’m still waiting, still waiting
Still waiting for you.

I can ne’er ever leave
You’re the way I see this world,
I will ne’er ever lie
That without you I’ll die gal,
Come to me, hold me,
Baby it’s now or never
You & me. Me & you,
We’re made for each other.
And I’m still waiting, still waiting
Still waiting for you.
And I’m still waiting, still waiting
Still waiting for you.