November 1st, 2007 at 2:07 pm
(politics, Personal)
Ever since the demise of the Soviet Union a lot is being said in favour of a multipolar world. Many appear to think fallaciously that a multipolar world is intrinsically better than an unipolar world. Having more centres of power cannot solve the problems of the world. The devil is not surprisingly in the details. Proponents of this idea might even argue that we should allow Iran to possess nuclear weapons to teach washington common sense and restraint. But it will take only a Iranian nuclear strike on Israel to blow holes in their theory. We live in a world as complicated as ever if not more complicated than ever. Familiarity breeds contempt and in this case it would seem that it breeds ignorance as well. We seem to have unlearned the dangers nuclear weapons can pose. The possession of nuclear weapons by America is not a reason for allowing every wannabe to aquire that status. Atleast it is not a reason that can be given to America to convince it that it should allow Iran to point a dagger at it throat. So the bottomline line is that while power matters, it also matters who has the power. I would imagine that we are lucky that Russia is playing second fiddle to the United States rather than the other way around. At this point let me pre-empt a straw-man attack. A few who got to reading this far are probably itching to list out the evil acts of the Imperial empire of the United States Of America. But that is really beside the point. America is not perfect, no nation will be. And America should not be compared against our idealistic conceptions of how a super power should behave. You will be sorely disappointed if you do. That is fine. But we should not react to out dis-satisfaction with America by idolizing countries like Russia, China or Venezuela. We should pause for a moment to think how countries like Russia treated their own. That should give us an idea of how they would treat the world if they are in charge. I am not here advocating an unipolar world. I am simply saying that what matters more is the nature of the powers that be. There is such a thing called benovolent power and there is such a thing called evil power. Though no power is entirely benovolent or entirely evil, the proportions differ and they matter a lot. We should remember that the ills of democracy can prove to be fatal in the community of nations.
2 Comments
October 29th, 2007 at 11:54 am
(politics, Morality)
Against the backdrop of the recent lynching of a police officer in Kerala this question assumes an added significance. Nobody worries about students taking part in good activities. The all too prevalent aversion to this particular activity indicates people have a strong distate for politics, having stated the obvious let me go on state the not so obvious. Politics can be a good thing. Politics is like religion, it is very important, very difficult to change and generates strong emotions. The problem is simply how politics is played out in our country. Every ill that affects our society affects politics too. So the solution is not to run away from politics and the solution is expectedly hard to implement. The answer is reform, reform needs reformers, reformers typically fight lonely battles and generally very few people are willing to fight such battles. But there is reason to hope as this article, The lonely righteous tries to demonstrate.
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October 27th, 2007 at 4:21 am
(Personal, Morality)
I must admit that I cannot really stomach the modi sympathizers. He is after all a man who atleast allegedly presided over the killing of thousands of people who really did not have anything to do with the Godhra killings. What do these people think? Must I really explain why Modi was wrong? If the allegations are true, this man is a murderer and should be lucky to not end up in a hang mans noose.
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October 26th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
(Religion, Morality, Christianity)
J K Rowling recently revealed that Dumbledore was gay. Now, I believe that engaging in homosexual acts is wrong just as I believe that engaging in adultery is wrong. I acknowledge that there are many who disagree with my views. But what I really want to discuss in this post is whether we have really thought about the consequences of celebrating the gay life style. Do we really want to our children to grow up thinking that being gay is as natural as being straight? Many liberals worship sexual freedom and we are already seeing the results in much of the developed world. I must concede that I do lack some perspective, having read about the west only in books and seen our elites only on television, but I am inclined to believe that as a result of wests falling sexual mores, the family as an institution is taking a real beating. Now If naive(I do not know of-course whether they are merely naive)liberals like Rowling have their way, the institution of family could end up disfigured beyond recognition. Now I cannot make a case objectively that a Man marrying a Man and adopting child is bad for society and the child. So I guess it all boils down fundamentally to the answer to this question . Is it wrong for a man/woman to indulge in homosexual acts? It is a question which reason does not appear to be able to answer, one can only answer with his conscience and I have to answer that it is wrong.
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October 26th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
(politics)
He is my pick . If I were in the states I would vote for him. I do not know his theology well enough. But I think I am with him on social issues.
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