Theorizing a Collapse

Is there something called a Collapse Theory? After all why do we need a theory for collapse?

Now, it looks like there is something called a Collapse Theory and Dmitry Orlov is one who theorizes a collapse. It doesn’t seem to be a very nice job, he himself admits it but his ideas are too interesting to avoid them.

I came across an article written about Orlov a month ago. I was immediately impressed by his ideas and thoughts. Probably the articles could strike a note with the streak of eternal pessimism in me.

It has to be said that it is not all gloom and doom. Orlov’s remark about WSJ is too funny to ignore :

My grandfather had a donkey while he was living in Tashkent in Central Asia during World War II. There was nothing much for the donkey to eat, but, as a member of the Communist Party, my grandfather had a subscription to Pravda, the Communist Party newspaper, and so that’s what the donkey ate. Apparently, donkeys can digest any kind of cellulose, even when it’s loaded with communist propaganda. If I had a donkey, I would feed it the Wall Street Journal.

I have not had time to read up a lot of his entries on his blog yet, but i have bookmarked it and occasionally visits the blog to see if any new entries come up.

The latest of the entries comparing the BP oil spill and Chernobyl is very interesting. His take on best practices for social collapse is further more interesting.

It has to be said that post soviet theorists/philosophers have a charm, they connect to the masses much more easier than the straight jacketed European intelligentsia or that is what i feel. I am not exactly the one to comment on this as my knowledge on this is fairly terrible. Be it Zizek or Orlov, i feel they are less intense in the way they put forth their ideas and draw parallels from the popular culture to explain their ideas, which i find to be very interesting.

Read more of Orlov here : ClubOrlov

Posted via web from tushizap’s posterous

Stupid hacks and India’s bid for 2016 Olympics

I seriously cant weigh up my sense of frustration every other time i watch Sekhar Gupta, Swapandas Gupta, Chandan Mitra and of course maudlin Barkha Dutt and their counterparts appear on screen, giving their opinions on various issues. Off-late, i have felt that these hacks and their visual media counter parts hijack any issue of national interest in their favor and of course a lot people who watch these shows, take them and their opinions for granted.

Mind you, all these buggers have an agenda and they are very committed to their cause.  When i saw Abhinav Bindra, the sole gold medal winner for our country in Olympics and Sekhar Gupta, Chandan Mitra and Abhishek  Singhvi sitting together and debating in NDTV about our supposed Olympics bid for 2016, i was quite interested to see, what these hacks were blathering.  And in no sense they failed to arrest the ever increasing disgust in me towards them. The so called audience for the debate was also pathetic, mostly for all the debates, that is the case of  “audience”.

While Abhinav Bindra , as any other sensible sports person in India made very good sense when he argued that we need to invest those millions which would go in to the construction of  world class stadiums, arenas, fly-overs and airports in to our sports system to better it and create a system which is well-working and raise the standard for our sports from grassroots level.

The sole politician who appeared on the show, went up in arms against him saying that bidding for Olympics and creating a good atmosphere for the promotion of sports is not mutually exclusive.  Yeah, not mutually exclusive! But for the past 60 years or so, the sports policy in the nation has not been inclusive at all. Everyone knows that  and how badly we had to play up our sole gold medal winning performance in Olympics to cater to our inflated egos.

The hacks went a bit further in their arguments, they said we should bid for Olympics, you know why?  Yeah, we will have good roads, fly-overs, airports and stadiums that will come up.  I wonder if Olympics is all about sports or about wonderful stadiums, arenas, over head metro railway lines or an airport.

Sekhar Gupta and Chandan Mitra were very lucid about their opinions. It doesn’t matter, if we will be able to get more than a gold medal or not, but the bid should go ahead because it will make way for good “infrastructure”. Yeah, these hacks will be vying couple of adverts from these construction magnets .

Isn’t “infrastructure” a very fond of word for these kinds who appear on TV? Yes, it is important, but are we looking at making over-head railway lines that are made on war-footing negligence that buckle and kill several or are we looking at infrastructure that is part of some sensible development pattern?

It is very clear these hacks and their hidden agendas prefer the former way.   They prefer it because, contracts are made with their buddies in the industry who will provide these hacks with adverts which will pump up their profits and of course death due to the negligence/corruption is another opportunity to increase their media share, isn’t it?  To an extent these days,  some of these hacks are terribly subservient to contractors and the filthy rich who after all help their survival.

Anyway, it was very interesting and eye opening to see Sekhar Gupta and Chandan Mitra making their priorities very clear by vying for the contractors. They hardly seem to be bothered about the condition of sports in India. They attributed its pathetic state to the inefficient sporting bodies. Yeah, very easy. It is an easy excuse they make in our country and with that argument they can completely forget about sports and  channel their  interest towards bids for Olympics  and sorts, because they know, if at all Olympics come to India, they can make a meal out of it, even if we win medals or not.

Abhinav Bindra is not a very assertive person, he along with another journalist made their point, that we need to pep up our system so that we can have a decent show if at all we are to hold such an event.  ( Or he couldn’t be assertive with the likes of  Sekhar Gupta and Chandan Mitra, who are conditioned “debate masters” around) He looked like, he wanted to scoot from there as soon as possible.

These hacks who continually appear on our prime time television is the biggest hazard to our integrity and sane opinions that we carry around . They are able to form opinions that is being rallied around by idiotic masses who follow them. They are able to neatly spin our sensibilities so that it conform their hidden agenda, as in this case, Sekhar Gupta and Chandan Mitra tried to bat for the contractors and infrastructure industry.

The audience seemed to have completely immersed in the idea of Olympics happening in their city, their dreams of 8-lane roads in which their cars might zoom without incurring dents and scratches, snazzy airports and some even went up to the extent of asking, if we will be making a lion’s den as China made bird’s nest. Ha, i don’t think i need to say anything more.

We sadly forget the plight of innumerable youngsters who take to sports out of their willingness and some out of necessity (It can earn them a govt job!) We as a nation needs more respect towards these youngsters who are trying to cut a career in streams that are not at all lucrative in our nation. If we have that respect, what we should do is to cater to their interest, help them to achieve more, an Olympic bid is not the right way.

Will the drudging help??

What the fuck man?
why do u frown?
wear a loose gown,
dance down the lawn,
move on.

They never understand or decipher,
There is no apogee or perigee,
Its a constant nihilism that they carry,
There are always answers for every mistake,
Or you can claim that you raked it in google.

Down there it is only darkness,
The understanding that they claim,
Is only the outcome of the constant nearness,
It is never the fullest,if it was,
why are everyone different?

Its just the same old dream,
which was never agleam.
Its just the same old scream,
which was supreme.
Its just the same old whisper,
which was never crisper.
its just the same old whimper,
which never dampened.

things….

Things -> sprout out from no where -> it moves good -> you enter dreams -> you live it -> it loses veracity -> it turns balck & white -> it tarnishes -> it collapses -> it crumbles -> you get over it -> you move forward, if you want to -> you enter reality!!

on the other day T met a man , a so called “mad man”. he was shouting “no high hopes and no high expections” .T devoured this philosophical rhetoric,thought over it and was happy in the end.

T read a story about PEDRO SALVADORES: a man who lived in a cellar in his home to escape a army of hooligans of a dictator. a man who was confined to the cellar for 9 long years!! a man who could talk only in a very low voice after he got out of the cellar after 9 years. a man who could hear only ramblings of sounds from the ceiling above him for 9 years. a man who never spoke back to his wife, when she fed him with rumoured stories and plots coined by masses to oust the dictator. a man whose life harboured on this rumoured plots and hypothetical situations.
he lived it, he moved ahead and died coz of poverty because he was unable to anything after 9 years of confinement in the dark cellar. but he lived it because he was on earth for that.
as with so many things, the fate of salvadores strikes me as a symbol of something we are about to understand, but never quite do. (jorge luis borges!!)
things.. crop up.. die…too….

past is always coloful… so these are the links to my best posts:
http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9917907&postID=110492176628809799
http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9917907&postID=110543676638058171