Values laid by phonies and iPhone as canvas

Happy Birthday Friedrich Nietzsche from Centre Right India by Krishna Rao

Nietzsche has seen Nihilism as a necessity and not just a statement to endorse ‘Transvaluation of all values’, he believed in Nihilism as a pure form of re-birth of thought and its existence and relevance in the contemporary world. For me, Nietzsche is ‘The Renaissance’, the thoughts, the aphorisms and he didn't mince words to express them with alacrity…

Western Civilization: Nietzsche questioned the Western Civilization, its validity and perspective towards society. The conventional western thought process was in danger, at least academically. The dogma set up by the western civilization was critically exposed by Nietzsche. Nietzsche is one of the most earliest and important figures who challenged the western civilization, who predicted the future of society under western civilization, how Europe might sulk and importantly as I comprehend – he predicted the desperate need for a new civilization which departs from the dogma of western civilization and which recognizes the spirit of a man.

Relevance: Nietzsche is more relevant today than any other period in the history. When Liberalism has prostituted itself to the left, when Marxism is being shown as an alternative to the current failures of nations, when the western code of belief takes higher moral ground and when righteousness gets escaped without any questioning. It’s the Nietzschean thought which confronts the above theologies which has the ability smother the individual with morality and dogmatic values.

“I Am Not a Man, I Am Dynamite!” he said in his last work ‘Ecce Homo‘. Yes, Nietzsche is dynamite, the dynamite which can destroy the values laid by phonies, the dynamite which forces us to ask questions, which in turn demands answers, the dynamite – whose aim is to destroy the sanctity of invalidated ideas, to create a foe when ideologies shamelessly celebrate for having no enemies. The self righteousness of this dynamite is the hope for future.

How Capitalism Can Save Art Camille Paglia on why a new generation has chosen iPhones and other glittering gadgets as its canvas October 5, 2012, 7:58 p.m. ET By CAMILLE PAGLIA

Does art have a future? Performance genres like opera, theater, music and dance are thriving all over the world, but the visual arts have been in slow decline for nearly 40 years. No major figure of profound influence has emerged in painting or sculpture since the waning of Pop Art and the birth of Minimalism in the early 1970s. Yet work of bold originality and stunning beauty continues to be done in architecture, a frankly commercial field…

Thus we live in a strange and contradictory culture, where the most talented college students are ideologically indoctrinated with contempt for the economic system that made their freedom, comforts and privileges possible. In the realm of arts and letters, religion is dismissed as reactionary and unhip. The spiritual language even of major abstract artists like Piet Mondrian, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko is ignored or suppressed. Thus young artists have been betrayed and stunted by their elders before their careers have even begun. Is it any wonder that our fine arts have become a wasteland?

RJ October 15, 2012 at 10:44 pm

By “American brands of spirituality” I’m referring to things like Westernized Buddhism, “integralism” in the sense of Ken Wilber, the New Age movement, and so on. These movements lip service to the physical and emotional dangers of sexual activity while maintaining the Western/American notion that “sex life” and “sexual expression” are essential parts of life and ignoring the spiritual effects of sexual activity. At the same time, this dialogue can’t, and shouldn't, go back to these repressive and puritanical notions.

New Materialism: Interviews & Cartographies Rick Dolphijn and Iris van der Tuin ii. cartographies > 6. pushing dualism to an extreme

Feminist theory has to push sexual difference as an ordinary dualism to an extreme precisely so as to push sexual difference to the limit. A sexual difference according to which women are worth-less-than men, to speak with Braidotti, has to be pushed to an extreme so as to release sexual difference as that which is virtual. This is precisely how we should read Simone de Beauvoir’s conclusion to The Second Sex, which indeed thinks through the emancipation of humanity in its most radical form. After a full description of the dialectic of sex (a dualism structured by a negative relationality), she concludes that: “new carnal and affective relations of which we cannot conceive will be born between the sexes” (de Beauvoir [1949] 2010, 765). It is precisely by thinking through sexual difference to its remotest aspirations, thus alluding to difference structured by an affirmative relationality, that de Beauvoir came to produce the revolution in thought that has made her famous (and infamous), for constituting feminism as a rewriting of modernity—that is, feminism-as-differing. de Beauvoir exemplifies a new materialist take on difference, since by traversing the (sexual) dualism structuring modernist thought, modernity comes to be rewritten and difference is shown differing. Contents Next Section Previous Section

Marriage is not like a public transport system

Tweet 1h - MediaCrooks ‏@mediacrooks Here are real remarks by Sriprakash Jaiswal (Hindi) clear as crystal... श्रीप्रकाश का भद्दा बयान- औरत पुरानी होने पर मजा कम हो जाता है Updated: Tuesday, October 2, 2012, Posted by: Ajay कानपुर। "नई नई जीत और नई नई पत्‍नी का जश्‍न सब मनाते हैं। जैसे जैसे समय बीतेगा, जीत पुरानी होती जाती है, जैसे जैसे समय बीतता है पत्‍नी पुरानी होती जाती है, वो मजा नहीं रहता है।"

Shriprakash Jaiswal slammed for sexist comment Deccan Herald- Lucknow, Oct 2, 2012, (IANS): Women groups reacted strongly Tuesday to union Coal Minister Shriprakash Jaiswal's comment that "once a wife gets old, she loses her charm" ...  Jaiswal, also a Congress Lok Sabha member, made the unsavoury comment at a poetry meet at K.K. Girls College in Kidwai Nagar in Kanpur Sunday night… Referring to the T20 match between India and Pakistan that India won, Jaiswal had said: "Fresh victory and a fresh marriage is something different." He went on to say that as a marriage grows old with time, it loses its charm as the wife also gets old.

Obey wife and be happy, reiterates Supreme Court judge ... 22 May 2009 – New Delhi, May 22 (IANS) An irrepressible Justice Markandey Katju of the Supreme Court, known for his lighthearted remarks, Friday ended up reiterating himself when he said obeying one’s wife was the way to a happy life!

Obey your wife and rule the world: Supreme Court ...‎ - 20 May 2009 New Delhi, May 19 (IANS) The Supreme Court has a recipe for a successful marriage, more so for men: Obey your wife and rule the world!
“Bibi joh boltee hai woh sunno (Listen to whatever your wife says). We all listen,” a vacation bench of Justice Markandeya Katju and Justice Deepak Verma observed while hearing a lawsuit by Indian Air Force officer Deepak Kumar, who had complained that his estranged wife Manisha had ruined him and his family by implicating them in false criminal cases including sodomy.

“Hum sab bhuktbhogi hai (We all have undergone that experience),” the bench observed. “If your wife wants you to see this side, see this side. If she wants you to see the other side, do obey her,” said Katju, adding: “One who obeys his wife rules the world.”

Why Justice Bhaktavatsala's homilies are no better than ... - Firstpost 5 Sep 2012 – Justice Bhaktavatsala, a Karnataka High Court judge, has just spoken aloud what Indian television feeds the country slyly everyday… Bhaktavatsala in the past couple of days has managed to amuse, outrage and shock people with his courtroom oratory. An example:

“Women suffer in all marriages. You are married with two children, and know what it means to suffer as a woman. Yesterday, there was a techie couple who reconciled for the sake of their child. Your husband is doing good business, he will take care of you.” 

If that wasn’t enough fodder for ridicule, one has to hear what he has to say about unmarried lawyers arguing marriage-related cases.

“Family matters should be argued only by married people, not spinsters. You should only watch. Bachelors and spinsters watching family court proceedings will start thinking if there is any need to marry at all. Marriage is not like a public transport system. You better get married and you will get very good experience to argue such cases,” he advised her.

Sibal slams Wardha VC for calling women writers 'prostitutes ... 2 Aug 2010 – NEW DELHI: But Rai, who was an IPS officer, was unperturbed and felt it was no more than literary discussion. Speaking from Wardha, he said, "The word chhinal does not mean prostitute. Even Premchand has used it more than a hundred times." According to him, "I only said for many women writers, discourse on women has become discourse of the body. I said women should include others like tribals and dalits to make their battle more effective."

VC Rai apologizes for sexist remark - Times Of India 4 Aug 2010 – NEW DELHI: Vibhuti Narayan Rai, vice-chancellor, Mahatma Gandhi Antarashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Wardha, … However, on Sunday, the same Rai had justified the use of the term `chhinal' (loose character) for women writers. He had said even Munshi Premchand, the foremost Hindi writer, had used the word`chhinal' more than a hundred times. In his interview, he had said there was a competition among women writers to prove who was a bigger loose character. Later, Rai said he was merely talking about the need for change in women's discourse. Asked about possible action by HRD ministry, he had said his comments were as a writer. 

Finding a genuinely encompassing compassionate truth

Oldtimer • 16 days ago There are more secularisms in India than religions, so you better disclose right upfront which secularism you belong to… European secularism is not secular (don't ask me according to which definition of secular). It is a Christian concept. 

jasonbourne • 16 days ago People like Ambedkar make this wrong assumption that Hindus have to follow Manu Smriti which never was the case. Manu like Kamasutra became famous because of the British. So we should stop obsessing over Manu smriti which was never meant to be infallible in the first place.

Vijay Kumar • 14 days ago • parent Hinduism is brought into the discussion because Hindutva is offering a resistance to move towards secular/liberal position (which would be in line with the first amendment, as supported by Mr. Harsh Gupta).

Susheel Mehta • 16 days ago Dear Harsha, Thanks for a wonderful write-up. As always your arguments are marvels of clarity. But I would like to register specific issues of disagreement: 1. You confuse Dharma with Dharmashastras. That is akin to confusing Physics the subject with Physics the book written by Aristotle. While the former is more of a meta-framework, the latter a seminal and important contribution, but not the last word…

7. I may be wrong about my contentions. But the point is that social theorists have not examined with clarity the strength and challenges of our society and its internal dynamics. Rather the idea is always to look it through western experience.

Live: Kejriwal party launch looks a bit like a cultural show Firstpost

Nizken September 24, 2012 at 12:38 am Sandeep, just curious…..where and how do you find the time to post all this information from?

Sandeep September 24, 2012 at 1:35 pm The pedestrian explanation is that it is the work of several years. The modern yogi has to know western philosophy, other religions, linguistics, physics, biology, psychology, neuroscience, sociology because they are all investigating, albeit partially, the same realm of consciousness. The spiritual explanation is that other burdens are decreased with progress on the spiritual path… Sandeep December 29, 2011 at 11:35 am Some people might call us loony as well for believing in the existence of occult spirits

Karl Popper, the enemy of certainty, part 4: Lakatos, Kuhn and Feyerabend The Guardian (blog) - ‎Oct 1, 2012‎ Liz Williams This diverse trio drove the philosophy of science forwards with their responses to Popper's theory of falsification

Lakatos's views form a halfway house between Kuhn and Popper (he was a student of the latter), and his approach is often considered to be a more nuanced form of falsificationism.

A more anarchic approach – literally – is offered by Feyerabend. Auxiliary hypotheses are critical, he argues, but may be irrational. In fact, it's impossible to develop any set of methodological rules by which scientists work: ad hoc, rule-breaking postulates are the order of the day. We seem to be heading at full speed towards epistemological relativism here, and indeed, according to Feyerabend, this is the case: not only does science fail to proceed according to fixed principles, but it doesn't deserve its epistemic privileges, either. Far out! So if your preference is for Feyerabend over Popper, astrologers might be on to something, after all.

Occam’s Razor and the Theory of Rebirth from Sri Aurobindo Studies 

Occam’s razor, which essentially is the concept that when all other things are equal, the simplest explanation will tend to be the best, is a useful conceptual tool in many fields of life, and helps us avoid bogging down in needless complexity,–thereby helping us sort out theories that have “too many moving parts” to sustain serious scrutiny. This is especially helpful when it comes to practical matters in the material world, but it is not always the answer! Sri Aurobindo uses the example of the simple explanation of the “theory of the spheres” as an explanation of astronomical events. Today we have a much more detailed and complex understanding, as well as the ability to observe many more facts that need to be covered by any solution.

This becomes a question because the theory of rebirth and the corollary law of karma actually is a quite good example of “Occam’s razor”. Sri Aurobindo explains: “The theory of rebirth coupled with that of Karma gives us a simple, symmetrical, beautiful explanation of things…”

If we accepted Occam’s razor as a determining factor, we would have to admit that rebirth and karma are the best explanation we have for the facts of our existence. Sri Aurobindo cautions however, that while this may provide us “moral certitude”, it does not yet constitute certainty or absolute proof and thus, much more examination of the question is warranted. Rebirth and Karma, Section I, Chapter 1, Rebirth, pp. 6-7

Précis of “Beyond enacted experiences” from Love of All Wisdom by Amod Lele - Oct 1, 2012

Wilber can take this approach because he claims repeatedly that the “core” or “essentials” of these traditions are constituted by replicable mystical experiences: one follows certain practices, such as prayer or meditation, and will then reliably achieve certain states of consciousness as a result. Wilber’s philosophy is then above all an attempt to integrate the knowledge of science with the knowledge derived from these states of consciousness. The problem with this approach is simple: these replicable mystical experiences simply are not the core of the vast majority of traditions out there…

The point of this criticism is to establish that replicable mystical experience is simply not the “core” or “essentials” of the premodern traditions. The view that it is, is a construct of the 19th-century quest for a “perennial philosophy” with perennial answers to the great questions. But while I have long agreed that there are perennial questions, I do not buy the claim that they have perennial answers, and certainly not that mystical experience supplies those answers universally. The perennial questions are perennially disputed, with answers going in multiple directions. In my view, a synthesis between different views needs to be found dialectically. One cannot put the traditions together by assuming that they are the same at their heart, whether in terms of mystical experience or anything else — for they aren’t. Instead, one must start with their differences as given, and take those differences as a starting point from which a mature and complex synthesis can be worked out. That’s harder, but as far as I can tell, it’s the only way to find a genuinely encompassing truth. And no empiricist method will get you there, not even one that incorporates mystical experiences alongside scientific ones.

Value Experience from The Pinocchio Theory by Steven Shaviro

Following Stengers, I'd like to consider what it might really mean to refrain from defacing value experiences. I take it that this largely applies to the "value experiences" of others than ourselves. And respecting the value experiences of others is not always an easy thing to do. I certainly don't want religious fundamentalists who deny the theory of evolution and claim that the Earth is only 6,000 years old to be teaching my children. But living as an atheist in a common world with religious believers, I also reject defacing the value experience of those believers, in the way that "New Atheists" like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and the late Christopher Hitchens have done. I also want to work through the implications of Whitehead's claim that such "value experience… is the very essence of the universe." But doing this demands that we pass beyond the human. 

Notes on Muriel Combes’ book on Simondon from The Pinocchio Theory by Steven Shaviro

Both Stiegler and Simondon are problematic from a Marxist point of view. One might criticize Stiegler for turning a particular historical situation (that of alienation under capitalism) into an originary characteristic of the human species in general. While much in Stiegler's critique of capitalism is spot-on, he turns cultural symptoms into to basic existential situations, while omitting to consider capital accumulation & exploitation as the motors of capitalism.

नई शुरुआत फिर से दैनिक जागरण Mon, 01 Oct 2012

महात्मा गांधी और महर्षि अरविन्द के जीवन इसके जीवंत उदाहरण हैं। गांधी जी कोई दक्षिण अफ्रीका में क्रांति करने नहीं गए थे। वे वहां वकालत करने गए थे, लेकिन परिस्थितियों ने उन्हें इसके लिए मजबूर कर दिया कि वे स्वतंत्रता के लिए संघर्ष शुरू करें और दक्षिण अफ्रीका से शुरू हुआ संघर्ष ही उन्हें भारत तक ले आया। ठीक इसी तरह महर्षि अरविंद ने योग-अध्यात्म की दिशा में सोचा भी नहीं था। उन्होंने भारत को अंगे्रजी शासन से स्वतंत्र कराने का स्वप्न देखा था और इसके लिए क्रांति का मार्ग अपनाया। उन्होंने लंबे समय तक संघर्ष भी किया, लेकिन इसके बाद राजनीति या किसी अन्य रास्ते पर जाने के बजाय उन्होंने अध्यात्म का मार्ग चुना। बाद में इन दोनों ही विभूतियों को जिन कारणों से दुनिया भर में जाना गया, वे परिस्थितियों के चलते उनके जीवन में आए बदलाव के परिणाम थे। परिस्थितियों ने ही उनके सामने उनके उद्देश्य को स्पष्ट किया और उन्होंने अपने वास्तविक लक्ष्य की दिशा में प्रयास शुरू किए।

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